Because whether flexible working is in response to an employee’s care obligation, or simply a change in personal circumstances or preferences, it turns out that giving employees some choice over their working arrangements can pay dividends. However, with the government firmly behind facilitating flexible working for all, it is to be hoped that more employers will embrace flexibility for staff. PART-TIME JOBS Part-time jobs are the most traditional of flexible scheduling options. For example, one clever Tweet can reach millions of people, while thousands of mediocre Tweets can fail to ever be read. Flexible work arrangement is alternate schedules or arrangements which are flexible or adjustable from the traditional working patterns. It can be a challenge for some workers to stay productive in the office when everyone is working a different schedule. All of these strategies were about extracting more value from what was already being produced. According to a recent AIM VT survey, 57 per cent of workers said flexible work arrangements kept them at organisations and 54 per cent said inflexible work arrangements stopped women from taking on senior management positions. It is simply agreed between the employee and his or her line manager that they will work remotely a day or two a week, or will arrive at work a little bit later, or leave slightly earlier to accommodate non‑work commitments. Before rolling out a new flexibility initiative, the company participated in an Australian documentary following six men, including two Mirvac employees, as they attempted to adopt flexible work arrangements. To be your most creative and valuable you need to invest in decompressing. Telecommuting refers to a job that’s performed remotely only part of the time. Flexible working arrangements allow companies to meet present and future challenges by creating choice, accommodating generations, enabling complexity, and creating agility. However, in the long-run who do you want working at your company? Register for one of our FREE Business Growth Briefings. “Anything outside of work is dedicated to them,” she says. Again, anecdotally, flexible working may make employees more vulnerable to redundancy in certain organisations. Consequently, the burden of making this flexible working actually work often falls mainly on the employee. If your typical employees needs to call customer support if they forget or need to reset their password, they probably won’t be able to setup a VPN on their laptop. First, part‑time working is often a more difficult form of flexible working to achieve than some other forms of flexible working, such as remote working and flexitime. But in reality, many employees work in teams—teams which may potentially include other flexible workers—where it is important for team members to be able to collectively co‑ordinate their work, relying on interactions with others to help them complete their tasks. The ATO did, however, have a lever to entice people who wanted a better work … But even if the benefits of flexibility are widely known, an understanding of how best to implement flexible working arrangements is crucial in avoiding difficulties. BYOD typically requires firms to hirer more technical people and provide more training and documentation. ... 57 per cent of workers said flexible work arrangements kept them at organisations and 54 per cent said inflexible … Flexible work arrangements can create quite a bit of spouse and family stress, especially if your spouse works at a more traditional company. By Leon Gettler. ... Also Read The Top 15 Common Challenges Faced by Entrepreneurs. She classified the various options into six categories, including: 1. Having a transparent assessment system so any employee can apply to work flexibly is important. If anything, it’s gaining speed and employers who consider how remote work and increased flexibility fit into their organization and how they can meet the challenges of managing a more complex, hybrid workforce position themselves for success. We have created a flexible work environment at CAN and here are several of the challenges we have experienced. Since you are judged not by who sees you sitting at your desk when, the only measure becomes the quality of your work. Increased productivity. In short, despite flexible working becoming more widespread, its upsides may be counter-balanced by some unanticipated downsides. Today the value is in creativity — efficiency and even automation are just prerequisites. An understanding that child care, elder care, and other significant responsibilities cannot be performed while working off-site. It may become a huge problem when the employees who happen to thrive in... 2. This could include considering the operational requirements of the job, the need to attend meetings in person, how those with direct reports would manage staff and the role of an individual’s performance history in making a decision to grant a flexible work request. Research that we have conducted here at Cranfield School of Management, for instance, highlights that employees with flexible working arrangements often deliver better performance than those employees who work in more traditional ways. Regular communication is vital to the success of … Not least, of course, because flexible working can be  a rare ‘win-win’: something that benefits both sides, and at minimal cost. Companies need to create an environment were users are encouraged to understand and explore technology and how it can be used. The Challenges of Flexible Work Trends 1. Co–workers, managers and especially clients will expect that they can reach you, and that you will provide a timely response, i.e. In her presentation, Annie explained that flexible work doesn’t have to be all-or-nothing. Driven by both legislation and evolving employer attitudes, flexible working has come a long way over the past decade. She says there are ways to combat this, however. Supervisors may experience challenges overseeing and evaluating off-site employees. Flexible work can mean many things. Growing profitability with data in the field. Being vulnerable in a downturn. Cultural change takes time and is happening slowly. November 20, 2013. by Dana Kennedy. BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) and other popular tech trends are typically practiced by technology firms, or at least companies that expect workers to be fairly technologically savvy. What does the Post COVID-19 Landscape in business look like? Employers are increasingly offering flexible working arrangements to all employees, not just those who fall into the categories specified in the fair work legislation, caused by a greater desire for work/life balance, advances in technology which make it possible for more employees to work from remote locations, and a desire to retain valued staff. Cons or Disadvantages of Flexibility in the Workplace: 1. Many employees have flexible work arrangements in place and routinely work in this manner. Set your voice mail, auto–responders and your calendar to let people know that you are unavailable because you are working on a project, family time, or just getting away from it all. Not all tasks are performed easily off-site. If you are able to work all the time, then that becomes the expectation. Are there barriers/challenges to offering flexible working in your business? Sometimes these have been foreseen, but other times not. The Management Challenges of Flexible Working. Barrier: Not having the right technology. Trends such as BYOD, MOOC’s, results-only workplace, and Holocracies such as Valve and Spotify emphasis the importance of creative, well executed ideas developed by self-motivated employees. Trust and self–motivation become the key. It can come in many different shapes to fit your company’s needs. Stakeholders noted that flexible work arrangements may be especially challenging to implement in sectors with 24/7 or continuous operations, such as aviation, rail and trucking, and in small and medium-sized enterprises, where resources to accommodate flexibility are often very limited. Successful teleworking requires: An employee who is willing to work independently and alone and has the appropriate traits and characteristics for a successful long distance relationship, An employee who can compartmentalize his life. Disadvantages of Flexible Work Schedules for Employees: 1. There are also provisions for the right to request flexible work arrangements in workplace legislation. Nor should this be surprising: when people change the way in which they work, invariably other things have to change too. While, today’s trends and technology place a premium on quality and cleverness over efficiency: typically by creating flexible work environments. First, part‑time working is often a more difficult form of flexible working to achieve than some other forms of flexible working, such as remote working and flexitime. Challenges that African countries faced in implementing flexible work arrangements during COVID-19. About 44% of business leaders say that one of the top socio-economic drivers of change in business is the “changing nature of work, flexible work”. If the employer extends the benefits of full-time … However, as with so many aspects of people management, the devil is in the detail, and some organisations have found that implementing flexible working policies presents them with a number of challenges. Does the company have the culture to support flexible work arrangements? It is important to talk with your employees about how to talk with their spouse and families about what having a flexible work schedule means. “One of the most common objections is the loss of ‘water cooler’ conversations,” Schneiderman explains. Despite its extensive use in certain environments, shift work poses some practical challenges for some employers. Microsoft’s #GetItDone Campaign. Unless you make money from creativity and innovation, having a flexible work environment is probably not for your company. Each person’s performance has to be more accurately measured. Traditional Enterprise IT assumes that users don’t understand technology, what tools they need, and will break the system if allowed. Employees need to know their tasks: the what by when. How can you tell whether an employee is really working when you can’t see them? Flexible work arrangements may not work for every employee. 1. Common Challenges of Remote Work To start, managers need to understand factors that can make remote work especially demanding. Flexible work arrangements offer a potential win-win for both job-seekers and employers, but making them run well needs trust and good management of several key issues, say the experts. Teleworking is the most challenging of the flexible work schedules. They usually do not take the initiative or take the decision to do work based on their work schedule. Flexible work requires a completely different style of management. Co–workers, managers and... 2. Today’s flexible work trends favor the clever, well educated and self–motivated. 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