Today we are delving into how flexible work arrangements are changing and how its impacting HR professionals. We will share our top tips to make sure you are compliant and managing numerous flexible arrangements at once.
So what is flexible work?
There has been a real buzz lately with flexible work. Post covid life has made people start questioning work life balances. This has created a flow on effect of employees looking for more options outside of the standard work week we have all come to know. Things such as start/finish times, hours worked, work from home, 4 day work weeks are all examples of flexible work arrangements that are becoming very common.
Top Tips For Flexible Work
As employees, we all have a vision of what our ‘ideal’ work arrangement would be. This also varies from person to person. Someone with kids, someone living alone in their 20s and someone 5 years off retirement are more than likely going to want to work different hours.
As a HR professional, we understand the implications and additional protections we need to consider when we start to have multiple staff members all on different agreements.
Some tips for dealing with this:
- Start with a trial period. If you have been 9-5 employer for a long time and want to start offering more flexible arrangements it can be quite daunting. Offer a trial period to work out all of the considerations and logistics. From there, seek feedback and put new procedures in place.
- Before even thinking about offering flexible work, you should assess whether your technology and communication channels are effective. Without implementing a digital strategy into your operations, this is likely going to fail.
- Be objective. Avoid people finding loopholes, making unrealistic demands and then blaming your business for not being flexible enough.
- Understand the requirements of the job before saying yes. While we do want to keep our employees satisfied, there is a balance. Staff on probation needing supervision are not going to be able to work with the same perks as others. Are they client facing? If yes, can they still provide the highest quality service to the client?
- Work together to make it work. Higher level management setting the ‘rules’ with no feedback is not going to work. Letting the staff decide their own terms will also have implications. Work together to decide on objectives to be met and how the arrangement will work for both parties.
- Don’t be afraid to say no. Sometimes certain roles and staff members just won’t work either remote, part time or a combination of both. Be fair, but also don’t be afraid to knock back requests if you think it will negatively impact the business.
- Ensure the contracts, policies and procedures accurately reflect the arrangement and protect the staff, the business and the clients best interests.
With Simon, you can create multiple contract templates and deliver new offers at the touch of a button. If you are looking at offering flexible working arrangements to your staff, but shudder at the extra paperwork and contracts, give Simon a call. We make experiences personalised and simple.