Happy New Year! How excited are you to be doing the compulsory 40%, 60% or 80% of time in the office in 2024? If you are like many office based workers, it is less than appealing to have this mandated. However, there are other ways to find flexibility in your work. Compressed work weeks, reduced hours, purchased leave, hybrid flexibility, collaboration days are all helpful approaches that might suit your team. Most importantly being flexible is about making the most of the hours you and your team put into work and if they can achieve the same outcomes by working less hours more productively this is a flexible option worth considering. Pre-CoVid, many companies rolled out flexible working arrangements across the organisation with little consideration as to how it would affect the individual teams and the employee engagement. The organisations knew that it was important to offer workplace flexibility in order to attract and retain the best employees but lacked attention on the effect that the policy would have on employee connection. It often became a “free for all” with employees requesting all manner of flexible arrangements which were approved without regard as to how it would practically work. The engagement of some teams significantly suffered especially when the work fell on one person because other team members were working from home, part time or flexible hours and were difficult to contact. Not only did the productivity of the team suffer but the connection and feeling of support within the team diminished as well.
Roll forward to post pandemic and the concept of flexibility has been supercharged. According to the 2023 Australian Talent Trends report, 57% of talent ranked work-life balance as the most important factor in job satisfaction and 36% hybrid and flexible working. They were both in the top 5 rankings along with competitive, salary relationship with manager and relationship with coworkers. It is a sought after factor that employers need to keep front of mind when considering their employee attraction and retention.
According to Robert Walters Salary Survey 19, 67% of the professionals in Australia are motivated by a good work-life balance. This has become even more apparent now that a lot more people have learned the benefits of working from home. It must be noted however that what flexibility means for one person, their definition of work-life balance and their motivation for wanting it, is different from another. Multiple approaches to flexibility are available and can be achieved within a team if there is consideration given to the impact on the overall team. Flexibility must not ever be given precedence above connection within the team, which is an essential component of any culture, as humans we must feel connected to each other in order to feel engaged and a valued part of the organisation. The tightrope between offering flexibility and ensuring employee engagement can be navigated if we are clear on what the needs and the expectations of the business, the team and the employee are.
As a resilient and adaptive species, it is possible for a human to balance on the tightrope even if it is shifting beneath them. When we have little choice, we can be thrust upon the rope and to survive, we will do whatever it takes to stay on it. As time goes on, however, the lack of stability underfoot begins to take its toll and we crave solid ground. It could be argued that we are now at this point of navigating the tightrope, although some of the team may want flexibility in the true sense of the word, others are looking for some stability to know what the future holds.
Is flexibility doing a lunchtime run around the park, Yoga Nidra at 2pm instead of a chocolate bar, going to the hairdresser during work hours and not having to lie about where you are at? Is the organisation offering flexibility or just the ability to work from home? When you are a leader or have a leader who values workplace flexibility in line with team connection, you will be able to lead a team across the flexibility tightrope, and provide stability to those who need it. Offering true flexibility is understanding that you will not get the greatest productivity from your people by expecting 80-100% effort between the hours of 8.30-5.00pm with a 30 minute break. It is supporting them holistically, offering breathwork practice to some and a few drinks at the end of a hard week to others and some people might want both.
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