Flexible Working

I work with many employers, in all sectors. When I talk externally to their target audiences, they want to know: “What do people want from us as an employer?” and “What puts them off working here?”

I see that Flexible Working/Work-life Balance answers both. Employees increasingly expect it, and would be deterred if they don’t think they’ll get the right balance. You can see the need from recent reports like this one or slightly older ones.

This has quickly developed and become more sophisticated. It used to be structured working patterns (typically to fit round family life) and taking the odd afternoon at home for a delivery. Now it’s a greater breadth of need, more ad-hoc, and with far lower levels of permission. 

But there’s another aspect that comes up in research like this: people with high flex are more satisfied, but perhaps work harder. Is that because they are more engaged, or because flexing like this is new and they lack the skill/experience/role-models to have control?

In my last blog I talked about a connection between tech and flexible working. We can let tech dominate our lives. (And if we don’t take control, then we are in danger of not having moments of reflection, even boredom. And that can mean we don’t think and innovate.)

I think the secret to flexible working is to take control. Often I conduct an internal focus group and hear: “My boss won’t allow that” or “We can’t do that in my team”. Sometimes that’s about not having tech, or having a customer-facing need. But more often I think it’s about perception. It’s not my place in a focus group to say: “Are you sure?”, let alone “That’s not true, is it?” But I don’t think that the controlling manager that they fear really exists much anymore. A lot of managers have got a long way to go, but I don’t think they count the hours people are at desks. I don’t think they have time.

And that’s part of the problem. If they haven’t got time, perhaps they themselves are visibly doing long hours. That becomes the culture. Maybe too they haven’t got the time to spell out what they expect, and their attitude to flexibility. I haven’t heard many managers say “That can’t work here” – and not because they believe it but can’t say it. They want the results and outcomes – but from where or when, I don’t think they couldn’t give all that much of a hoot. So, I think employees need to demonstrate what they can do, in the way that best suits them and their work (which may be Mon-Fri 9-5).

But the question remains, can employees take control? Or do they lack that – very new - skill, and end up taking on more?