5 ideas to help promote flexible work culture within your company

Are you looking for more ways to incorporate flexibility into your company culture? If not, then you should be. Flexibility is crucial because it promotes balances across our personal and professional lives.

The concept of flexibility has become very common nowadays. Many companies offer flexible working hours and work-from-anywhere. So you can not only choose the number of hours you want to work each week, but also where you work.

Flexible work arrangements can benefit both employers and employees. For example, companies can save money on office rental contractions and increase employee retention rates by giving them more autonomy, which in turn boosts happiness. Did you know, a happier workforce is up to 12% more productive?

So if you haven't already jumped on the flexibility bandwagon, here are 5 small changes you can make to your company to help get the most out of your staff.

Flexible work can mean an abundance of things. From telecommuting, remote working, job-sharing, working-from-anywhere, hybrid working and working part-time roles. But the common thread in all of these is that they give workers an element of agency in their working lives.

And there are many (many) benefits to such a model too. Here are just a few, but you can check out a comprehensive list here.

Flexible working has become a hot topic in recent years thanks to the pandemic. As a result, many companies are now offering their staff the opportunity to work from home or remotely, allowing them to balance their personal life with their career.

And we're not just saying this either - we've got the stats to prove it.

According to a 2022 research study of 1,000 Brits in full-time employment, over half said that they preferred a hybrid work model. This would mean going into the office a few times a week, as well as working-from-home or another site. This could mean a coffee shop, or more likely, a suitable flexible workspace like the ones we provide here at NearU. In fact, 76% of workers want a 'third workspace', according to Accenture.

Flexible working arrangements can improve employee morale and reduce stress levels. And not to mention boost productivity. So how can you implement flexibility at work?

As mentioned above, there are lots of different options to choose from when creating a flexible work policy. At the moment, we're seeing a surge in the popularity of hybrid working. This model allows employees to choose when they come into the main office, while staff might choose to WFH or another location near home for the rest of the week.

But flexitime, part-time hours and job-sharing all help to create more flexibility within employee work schedules. These can be especially useful for parents and carers who might have other, more pressing commitments during the rest of the day.

At the centre of every good flexible work policy should be your employees. And the best way to cater for their needs is by asking them what they want. You might want to send round a feedback form or perhaps host a focus group to assess what kind of flexible policies would benefit them most, rather than just arbitrarily imposing sanctions that might do more harm than good.

For most workers, Tuesday through Thursday appears to be the best time to come into the office - at least according to NearU data. Our research shows that over a third of users are booking a workspace near them on Thursday, with around 20% choosing to do the same on Tuesday and Wednesday. With the mid-week being such a productive time to get in-person collaboration done, you might find more of your employees asking to WFH on Mondays and Fridays (or they might even suggest a four-day week).

But you aren't going to undo a century's worth of office traditions just by giving your staff more choice. As an employer, it's also important to un-learn presentee-ism (a.k.a. a bias held towards employees who come into the office more).

This long-held notion is based around the incorrect principle that the workers you can see are being more productivity. But in actuality, we all know that not everyone who stays in the office 9-5 is working solidly 9-5 (and in fact, many might be sneaking a peak at Facebook when their boss isn't watching).

Now that the world we live in has moved online, you might want to reconsider the kind of networking and bonding events you're holding internally. It's not as simple as just going 'down the pub' after work with your colleagues, especially if some flexible workers are WFH or another location on different days.

Consider holding virtual social events for your staff to encourage non-work related chat. Take a leaf out of our book here at NearU. We like to hold regular digital socials for our distributed team; from coffee roulettes to online bingo! And they're always tons of fun.

Beyond allowing your employees to renegotiate their schedules, you might also want to offer a "third workspace" outside of the home or traditional office.

Although many workers have enjoyed the freedoms of WFH for the past few years, we can all acknowledge that it's not for everyone. From increasing levels of loneliness to being impractical for those without home offices or with too many home distractions, WFH just isn't a viable solution.

Offering that "third workspace" that the majority of employees are craving can solve such issues (and make you a more attractive company in the process). And now is the time to hop on the bandwagon. New research found that more than 1 in 10 jobs are being advertised as fully remote as of January 2022, a marked increase from pre-pandemic figures.

And the best news? Offering this third workspace doesn't even have to be hard, because NearU does all the work for you.
At NearU, we put flexible working at your fingertips. Our award-winning app gives you immediate access to a network of on-demand workspaces, so you can simply search, book, and work wherever (and whenever) you need to. Whether you’re looking for a meeting room equidistant between remote colleagues, or a hot desk if working from your kitchen just isn’t cutting it, we've got you covered.