Since the pandemic has taken over, we all have learned a lot about productivity, flexibility, resilience, and compassion. Not only in private life but also in our workplace. Corona forced us to work in ways we never even thought to be possible. No matter if it’s managing necessary safety precautions, learning to connect with small or large teams while being on a video call, taking care of family and friends while being in the next room on calls, adjusting hours to address new demands and so much more.
Not to mention that this adds to the mental/emotional toll that our current daily lives are taking on us.
Because, at the same time, Covid19 brought questions about what to expect in the future. Have you considered providing some guidance to your employees on your thinking about work flexibility? Well, we did. Following up, it is our goal to offer as much flexibility as possible to support our employees’ work styles, while balancing business needs and private life.
Flexibility in different shades and shapes
Flexibility looks different to everybody so do their definitions. Like in life, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to handle the variety of roles, work requirements, and business needs. To approach this, companies might guide employees to make informed decisions around scenarios that could include changes to their workplace, work location, and/or work hours once offices are open without any COVID-19 restrictions. Make sure to provide a prescient work lifestyle with considerations like office space, salary and benefits, local law, personal taxes, expenses, and more.
Guidance for more flexibility at your workplace:
- Workplace (the physical space where you work: office, center, home, mobile, etc.)
Time to recognize that some employees are required to be onsite, and some industries, works, and businesses are better suited for working away from the workplace than others. However, the pandemic has proven that working from home part of the time (< 50%) works and might be the new standard in the future – assuming manager and team alignment. - Workhours (the hours and days when employees work: start and end times, full- or part-time, etc.)
Planned flexibility in work-life is already considered standard for most positions and jobs. - Work location (the geographic location where you work: city, country, etc.)
Similarly, the guidance is for managers and employees to discuss and address considerations such as role requirements, personal tax, salary, expenses, etc.
Think of this kind of guidance as a help for your employees to plan for the future. For now, returning to offices is still optional for employees, except for essential onsite roles. Challenge long-held assumptions and try to be at the forefront of what is possible leveraging technology; your employees will automatically understand that you don’t want every employee to work from anywhere. Some people believe in the value of employees being together in the workplace.
We at CONNAMIX will continue to evolve our approach to flexibility over time as we learn more. Thanks to digital transformation, the options are endless.