How Flexible Working Can Boost Your Business

Several decades ago, going to work involved turning up at a set place at a set time and staying there for most of the day. Then the internet happened. Nowadays, employees can work from anywhere in the world. All they need to do is to log in to their email or online portal and then they can be just as productive from a resort in Mexico as they could be from your office.

Some businesses are reluctant to allow their staff to work flexibly. They might be concerned that their staff will log-on bright and early before sleeping in to ensure that they are well rested for a day of streaming their favourite television series and films.

There is one enormous problem with this view: a complete lack of trust in your team. If employees are going to drive your commercial growth over the coming decades, they need to have a genuine passion for the projects that they are working on.

That means that employers need to trust them to enjoy their lives but still get the work done. When motivated, employees are given the ability to manage their own schedules and the results for businesses are often incredible.

Would you really want these employees to be languishing at a desk in your office, increasing your running costs in the most demotivated manner possible?

Here we’ll explain how embracing flexible working can help your business to embrace larger revenues.

Some Of The World’s Most Profitable Companies Have The Least Traditional Office Spaces

Most businesses mention Google at least once every day – usually in the context of research or SEO. Google’s culture and approach to flexible working are rarely spoken of, but should be getting much more attention from business owners of all sizes.

The search engine’s team are free to go skiing, use the company gym, go scuba diving and participate in a number of other sports and leisure activities, all paid for by the company.

What impact do these policies have on Google’s turnover? In the last quarter of 2019, the company’s brought in over $45 billion USD in revenue.

Giving their staff the freedom to work their way, while trusting them to fully dedicate themselves do their work has allowed Google to become one of the world’s most valuable companies.

Inspiring your staff to create innovation through their ideas, and then creating a workplace where they enjoy transforming those ideas into results is key to boosting productivity. We don’t all have space to put a gym or a private swimming pool in our offices.

However, we can all talk to our teams and see what changes we could make that would make their working lives easier. After all, people can’t be productive if they’re not happy.

Could Your Team Be Happier? 

Everyone has to make a compromise between spending time working and spending time with their families. Many people do so on a daily basis.

If work is that annoying thing that they have to go to get paid, and they feel bad that they have to spend so much time in the office and away from their family; your employees will start looking for other opportunities.

However, if you allow them to spend as much time as they want to with their family, while still relying on them to do excellent work, then you’ll give them a very big reason to stay in their current role for a very long time.

Investing in your people is about far more than just the salary that you pay them. It’s about facilitating their long-term happiness and well-being. If you care about your people, then they’ll care about delivering you results.

Making It Less Expensive To Get To Work

A huge frustration for employees around the world is the cost of actually getting to work. Countless employees find themselves out of pocket before they’ve even received their first month’s pay in a new role.

Ultimately, if your people are struggling to afford getting to their place of work, then they will be thinking about money issues whenever they come into the office. The last thing you want before a big meeting is for key members of your staff to be distracted because they’ve had to pay for a taxi to get to work on time after the train that they’d already paid for was cancelled.

If you allow your staff to work from home, or pay for them to get to work quickly and conveniently, then the cost of trains, buses and alternative transport to work will be the last thing on their minds. As a result, they will arrive relaxed and ready to hit the ground running each day.

Be More Relaxed On Timings

Your employees can still be productive if they don’t start work at 08.30am sharp. What if they want to have breakfast with their kids before starting work for the day? What if they then need to take them to school? These things will have no impact on their ability to do great work for you.

However, if you demand that your employees dedicate their entire morning – every morning – to you, you may well end up alienating them.

If you allow people to set their own schedule, then they will repay your trust in spades by achieving amazing results for your business.

By making adjustments that allow your people to fit their work around their lives, rather than the other way around, you will have a happy, inspired and productive workforce.

For advice on how to create working cultures that will really resonate with your team, why not contact our team today? 

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Look forward to hearing from you

Kate