Teleworking, flexible work and working from home: how do you offer your employees flexibility?

More and more companies are being confronted with requests for flexible working, working from home or teleworking. You’ll hear arguments detailing how this new way of working saves time, makes employees more responsible and is good for productivity and creativity. But is this correct?

A healthy balance

Working from home often leads to a better work/life balance for your employees. They waste less time in traffic and this removes a great deal of frustration. As for picking the kids up from school? This is perfectly okay. And there’s no problem answering emails while the washing machine is running.

Employees who are free to decide how to use their time often feel more involved. And making them more responsible leads to better performances for your company. A happy, engaged employee is a great representative for your company, as a source of motivation to all your other employees and of course, it’s exactly what your clients want to see.

Modern offices reduce costs

For you as an employer, there are benefits to be enjoyed in the long term. Thanks to teleworking and flexible working, you’ll save on office space, maintenance costs, commuting and parking costs. But for this to happen, the workplace must be completely appropriate.

This evolution is an opportunity: you can use this transformation to improve the company culture and the underlying dynamic, or at the very least, to ensure that it is maintained.

A different approach

To a large extent, employees in a flexible work environment decide for themselves when and how they work, on the condition that goals and deadlines are respected. This approach demands new and clear agreements and appropriate infrastructure.

You don’t need to change to the New Way of Working all at once. A step-by-step approach gives everyone time to become used to the new methods and allows adjustments to be made wherever necessary. A good place to start? Have a Workplace Strategy study (WPS) performed to ascertain the extent to which your company is prepared for the New Way of Working. It also highlights any steps you may still need to take.

CAPTIF guides companies in their WPS and with any infrastructural steps that may be necessary. They can range from a redesign or a reshaping of the available room, all the way through to a ‘stay or leave’ scenario.