Are you the type of manager that wants their employees to suffer for non-productive work hours. Ethically, such managers have every right to make non-productive employees accountable. However, there are many different ways to keep everyone at top of their game.
This is where flexible working hours kick in. If someone is having a hard time coping with strict work hours, offer him/her the luxury of flexible working hours. Meanwhile, keep a close eye on employees’ work performance. This will keep workflow stable and on a steady path for years to come.
In this article, we are going to highlight the importance of employees keeping their hours flexible so that they can super productive. Hopefully, these tips will assist you in reforming the entire workflow. Sometimes, a little bit of organizational prowess renders a lot of yield for managers and employees altogether.
In 2020, we are surrounded by different project management applications, like nTask, Trello, Asana, and JIRA. These tools take care of your work-related requirements in a matter of seconds. Meanwhile, other communication applications, such as; Slack or Zoom, can help to take care of your communication needs at any point in the day.
The question, however, is; why do you want your employees to be present at their workstations at all times when they can easily do their job, and much more, in the flexible hours, they set for themselves? Bear in mind that not every company offers flexible time constraints. If that’s the case in your company, it might be a good idea to add an extra clause about ‘can my employer change my flexible working hours?’ in your contract!
Anyhow, let’s look at 7 of the most amazing benefits that your company is missing out on if you haven’t even considered giving your employees the ability to choose their hours to work. So, let’s dive right in and look at the benefits that have benefitted millions of businesses all over the world.
7 Benefits of Flexible Working Hours that Your Business Needs
1. Cost Reduction
It’s the year of the pandemic, and businesses all over the world are going into quarantine per se. Because the traditional office model simply can’t function due to social distancing, managers have to improvise. These improvisations come along in the form of businesses transitioning to virtual offices to reduce overhead expenses. Other examples could be specific to your company’s mode of operation and the overall industry.
So how is it somewhat beneficial that the employees are not in the office? Because when businesses are not required to provide office equipment and rent for the properties, they are using to house their employees, there is a tremendous reduction in office budget spending.
That means that the businesses can finally plan that expansion that they had been putting off just because their office expenses were too much and can accept more applications, and hire more people without worrying about getting a larger office space.
2. Profound Increase in Productivity
Another major benefit that flexible hours for the employees gives your business is that there will a profound increase in the productivity level of every employee that is associated with your company. And I’m not talking about the cleaning staff, the development team that works on your projects.
How? Well, when the team has the choice to work as they please and complete their working hours in one sitting or 20, firstly you will have their respect and their gratitude that you trust them enough to be this welcoming to change (which is quite “Trending” with millennials).
Secondly, when they will work for shorter sprints throughout the day, they will never be bored with doing their work and give their 100% whenever they open their computer. This will drastically increase the productivity of your team and bring more value to the company like never before.
All of this is because you trusted them and boosted their morale so much that the only thing that they have left to do is win.
3. Dramatic Increase in Creativity
We have established the fact that by giving flexible hours to the employees for work, they will be more energetic and more productive every single minute they work. But how much productivity are we talking about?
Even in the most perfect world (which seems impossible for a couple of years due to the pandemic), a traditional office environment always rewards those employees that are productive AND they bring a sense of creativity to the story.
And when will they be at their highest level of creativity? When they will the most relaxed and happy to work with the all-time highest productivity levels raging in their working bones.
This is why flexible hours are so important for the workforce right now because when they add more spices and do multiple things other than just sticking to the office work they are assigned and not flex their brains to think something creative, they bring more value to themselves, bring value to your guidance as a manager and ultimately bring more value to the company.
4. Ease of Management
We often saw in the traditional office culture that not all of the employees are a blessing to work with or manage. They cause problems all over the office whether it is causing disruption in the working process or torturing their colleagues.
All of these issues may sound little in a big workplace, but they can fester into critical issues that can blow up the whole office culture into smithereens. But thanks to remote workplaces and flexible hours, these issues will be a thing of the past.
People are mostly annoying or just bad employees because they seek the manager’s remarks or approvals about their work. But that is hard when you must physically manage a couple of thousand employees.
Thanks to flexible hours, not all of the employees will be at the manager’s throat at the same time, and when they will have increased levels of productivity, it will automatically decrease their need to be “properly managed otherwise they will cause problems”.
In many cases of true professionals, this is never the case and they stick to their work without any outside opinions as they can. But for some managers and some of their employees, flexible hours work wonders because it establishes relative ease in management.
5. Improved Well-Being of the Employees
In an ideal world, employee well-being should be the most important thing on a manager’s agenda every day. And to be fair to everyone, that is the case when we look at the major portion of managers leading their teams all over the world.
And this love for their employees only grows, with the help of, you guessed it, flexible working hours.
When a manager offers flexible working conditions to their employees, they are basically saying that they are not like the traditional dinosaurs that manage a large portion of the workforce in the organizational paradigm, and they care about the physical and mental health of the employees.
In today’s world where everyone is encouraged to spend more time in their home than the office, it’s being reported that the work aspect is quite freeing because people who are bored all day, love to work.
And when you add flexible working hours in the equation, then any positive results that are being reported, increase immensely.
6. Employee Retention
This clause in the whole argument is quite redundant, but hey, you clicked for a detailed article.
Whenever managers are showing this much sympathy that compassion towards their employees that they are letting them choose their own working hours, remote working options, and an overall decrease in strictness regarding oversight, the workforce is bound to be pleased.
This compassion and kindness shown by the managers to their employees create a bond that is full of respect and admiration for the manager and the company.
How? Because the employees value this attention and notice all of this as a sign that they are regarded for their services, and not ignored by the people that they respect and admire. When they know this, how can they leave such a comfortable working environment for anything else?
These flexible hours also have a benefit for those employees that have other businesses or interests than their work. They can divide their valuable time into chunks and be the master of their working process regarding their work and other interests.
This level of freedom is necessary for every employee so that they can grow as a person and make their lives better for themselves, within the company and outside the company.
7. Attracting Talent
In many cases all over the world, we see that the true professionals that love to work and can bring more value to the company, actively look for career opportunities that will let them have them freedom while choosing their work process.
Why? Well, every person has their own issues and responsibilities that they have to monitor before they choose a workplace that will bring a better work-life balance in their lives. And they must do so because work should never be a burden, and if it is, then you’re in the wrong business.
This is why, whenever managers offer more flexible working conditions to their employees, they would surely share their experiences with their work connections inside and outside the company, which can help you recruit more hard-working talent that wants a comfortable and exciting workplace.
Why is this information transfer necessary for your business? Well, it’s the year 2020, and millennials choose their workplaces just they choose their restaurants, Online Reviews.
If your office has good reviews, written by the employees that are currently in the company or those who have left but still have a good vibe with you, you’re a successful business in the market that can easily attract a new workforce.
But if your company has bad reviews, then rest assured that a decrease in Resume submission to your human resource department by college grads or professionals working in the market, is going to be the very least of your worries.
To Put It All Together…
So, how should we conclude this?
There are many different benefits of flexible working hours, as you saw in the article, including an immense increase in the autonomy aspect of the whole working process for the employees, an improved work-life balance that helps their personal and professional life, and also improved morale.
But one thing that the businesses and the managers need to realize is that there is no downside to this. In the case of flexible hours, all of those involved, the company, the manager, and the employees, all win.
That’s because, when the employees are happy, they are generating more revenue that helps the company, they are being produced which is helpful to the managers who manage them, and also they are being more healthy and happy both physically and mentally that is beneficial to their personal and professional lives.
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