Four methods to increase the effectiveness of

Flexible work environments are in great demanded. Indeed an report from Apollo Technical found that 72% of employees would prefer working in flexible environments rather than a full return to office.

Organizations are also seeing tangible positive effects. Improved productivity of 47%, higher employee performance ( 40% lower risk of a defect in the quality of work) as well as increased profitability (with the average of $11K saved per halftime remote worker), make flexible work seem more like a necessity rather than a perk for employees.

If you're looking to create flexible working options or how you can improve the ways your employees can collaborate remotely, you're in correct spot.

The discussion will focus on the important components of flexible working, the changing employee expectations, and some suggestions on how to ensure your business is ready for the future with video powered tools.

What is flexible work?

A flexible work arrangement allows employees to choose which locations and hours they will work. Research from SHRM suggests that increased flexibility for employees has numerous benefits like higher engagement and retention as well as lower overhead and better work-life balance.
There are two types of work flexibility:

Flexible location

The flexibility of location allows employees to work without an office, or a specific working location. Some common types of location flexibility are remote work, telecommuting and hybrid work. A 2021 survey by SHRM reported that 30% of employed Americans would like the possibility of working from home or doing something remotely or hybrid work, and if the current employer doesn't have that alternative, they'd look for a company that offers it.

Flexible scheduling

Schedule flexibility is based on the ability of employees to arrange their work hours outside of the traditional five days a week 9-5 work schedule. Some of the most popular types of schedule flexibility include:

• Compressed Workweek
• Shift work
• Flextime
• Job sharing
• Part-time schedules

The way we do business is shifting

According to the US Labor Department reported over 47 million Americans left their jobs in 2021 in an unprecedented massive worker migration.

From dental clinics to gas stations, shortages of workers are making employers rethink how we view the traditional job. 64% of workers from an earlier Pew survey said they felt uncomfortable coming back to their workplaces and 57% chose to work from the comfort of their homes due to concerns about COVID. The Harvard Business Review reported that 36 percent of those who were surveyed said they would look for an alternative to work if given a hybrid or remote option while 6% of respondents were willing to quit outright in the absence of a job secured.

Uncertainty in the economic climate, a shifts in the labor market and changing expectations from employees is forcing employers to consider what and where employees work.

Recent research shows that flexibility at working hours boost employee recruitment, retention, satisfaction, as well as efficiency. Gartner found 43% of respondents in their Digital Worker Experience Survey said that flexible work hours have made them more productive. 30 percent of respondents said saving time from commuting boosted productivity.

4 ways to create an environment that is flexible

With the changing workplace, onboarding, training, facilitation, and the leadership team require virtual communication, training and engagement technologies to support their organization.

Below are some tips that will help you establish an effective flexible workplace for your employees . These tips will set your team up to be successful.

1. Engage employees

As your workers don't gather more frequently than within a typical 9-5 workplace, you have to come up with other strategies to increase employee engagement. 74% of employees believe that they're more productive working when they feel heard. 88% of the employees working at top companies in their industry feel heard however only 62% of employees in financially struggling companies have a sense of being heard.

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Town halls that are boring can be bad, but glitchy live streams are even worse. A decision to invest in video of high quality can yield enormous benefits in team alignment and productivity, engagement of employees and connectivity to build a cohesive and flexible workplace.

"We aren't going back to how it was. Video isn't a COVID-19 solution It's a more modern approach to meet the demands of the modern work place."  
 Peter Strella, Director, Communications & Creative Media Services at Rite Aid

2. Create a virtual onboarding process and training process

When work shifts from offices, training and education is also changing with it. In spite of remote work and perhaps due to it - onboarding and training have grown increasingly important. 97% of employees are now onboarded via virtual sessions, and it's up to the organization to design efficient and efficient programmes.

"Technicians do not always wish to travel to our training centres, and it's not a "one-size fits all" approach for our diverse class of learners...What we began to think about was take the same great class material and made it accessible on the internet."   Steve Hamaday, Virtual Training Manager at Axalta

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3. Communication both external and internal

"With  our platform, we created a bi-weekly live show for global clients, in the midst of a pandemic, in just weeks, not months. The entire process was managed on the platform, collaborating remotely with our team and our agency. The show went live multiple times a week, in several different languages."   Alvin Mudun, Senior Web Product Manager for Zendesk in EMEA

4. Make investments in remote collaboration

In the event that your team members are scattered across multiple regions and time zones your tools could determine the team's productivity and motivation.

Offering more options for using video could have an measurable influence on the team. 's State of Workplace Communication report discovered that video-oriented employees benefit from a 75% greater percentage of employees reporting high engagement and are better at working together as a team. Collaboration is the ability to communicate with colleagues, and using video makes communication better and more inclusive through:

• Better employee engagement
• Productivity increases
• Accessible content anywhere, anytime
• Greater Transparency
• Easy-to-use training libraries and resources

  The was originally created by Clara Wang and updated by Bianca Galvez on July 26, 2022.