Coronavirus & beyond: reinvigorating the case for real workplace flexibility

With continued advancements in technology, many leaders should be thinking about ways to incorporate workplace flexibility into their business model to cut costs and make employees happy. The coronavirus outbreak should be your wake up call to make workplace flexibility a top priority; it's not only disrupting business across the globe, the longer it remains the more it will continue to impact the bottom lines in a multitude of industries and sectors.

The not so good news: there are many more “coronavirus” type illness outbreaks coming. 

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), by the year 2050 there will be 10 million deaths annually from antibiotic resistant bacteria (ARB). With the rise of “superbug” illnesses and reemergence of illnesses such as coronavirus, we are in store for many other global outbreaks like this in the future.  This is when creating an agile and flexible work culture and environment becomes critical.

Combine that with the fact that employees are demanding more; flexibility is now viewed as one of the top benefits employees are looking for in an employer. Recently Society of Human Resource Management (SHRM) states that nearly a third of U.S. workers consider work-life balance and flexibility to be the #1 factor in considering job offers.

According to a Better Balance report, workplace flexibility saves businesses money during emergencies and weather-related disruptions. For example, the U.S. federal government’s telecommuting policies resulted in savings of more than $30 million a day during snow-related closures in 2009 and 2010.

It is not only be the right thing to do if you want to retain top talent, it’s become an imperative business decision to minimize business disruption in the future of work.   

While workplace flexibility isn’t a new concept, organizations that have not created a strategy around it should seriously reconsider. 

What does workplace flexibility really mean? 

Flexibility means more than having certain employees being able to work from home - see table below as an example (not exhaustive):

5 steps towards a successful workplace flexibility implementation 

Define what flexibility would mean to your company, your people, & culture. For some companies, flexibility means creating a framework for employees to work from home on certain days of the week (or certain shifts); for other companies it can mean creating a completely digital work environment. For another company, only certain functions or teams might be able to self-select how they choose to co-locate (or not). And yet for another company, activating workplace flexibility during circumstances like the coronavirus outbreak is the best method.  There is no one size fits all approach. The primary goal in aligning on a definition is to ensure there is minimum disruption to the operations of the company regardless of your structure. 

Develop a workplace flexibility strategy. Working with your leadership team and key stakeholders, create a threshold criteria for how flexibility will work across your organization. It is critical to include the voice of your employees at all levels in your company into this process.  

Take inventory of your core & non core business processes and functions. “Core” in this instance is defined as the parts of your business that your company is good at (the activities that generate revenue for you). This will help in how you prioritize and then sequence any flexible workplace arrangements. 

Create and execute a change management strategy to workplace flexibility. It’s important that you take into account how you will communicate changes and the benefits of those changes to your workforce. Help your employees understand the business case - the best case scenario is that your employees were involved throughout the workplace strategy planning. Make sure you have a rigorous approach to training and equipping your organization’s leaders, managers, and front line supervisors with talking points on the changes. It is critical to also train your management and leadership teams on how to build and manage a blended workforce. 

Phase in your workplace flexibility rollout.  Real change takes time; do not try to change everything at once. Prioritize changes and then phase it in as appropriate for your culture. Ensure executive leadership sponsor and support these changes (or else you run the risk of rolling something out that will not stick). Also obtain feedback from managers and leaders on ways to refine your approach. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

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Christie Lindor is a Momprenuer and CEO of Tessi Consulting, a management consulting firm focused on helping companies create high performing, inclusive work environments.  

Christie is a seasoned management consultant with 20+ years experience advising clients for firms such as IBM, Deloitte, & EY. In her corporate career, Christie has led 92+ engagements within 23 industries/sectors in 10 countries across 4 continents at the intersection of IT, strategy, M&A, business operations, and human capital.  

She advises small business owners in partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Economic Development for the City of Boston. Christie is also an author, TEDx speaker, and podcaster.