Historically, flexible working has been seen as something that is demanded by employees from companies to suit the needs of the employees. All too often flexible working would be seen as a perk and advertised as a benefit of a particular job.
Forward thinking employers look for flexible working on an entirely different perspective. They understand that their marketplace can be volatile and prone to peaks and troughs in demand, or just subject to basic seasonality. Flexible working should be something that is seen as a requirement by employers, and the fact that it is usually welcomed by staff is a bonus for the employer.
However, it is not playing sailing. Flexibility for employers may not align to the flexibility their staff want. This is where sensible compromises must be achieved. Imbalanced working arrangements that favour too heavily the staff or the employer are doomed to failure in the long term.
Let’s take as an example the much maligned ‘zero-hours’ contract. Many employees have resorted to allocating such contracts to their staff particularly in low paid in lower skilled environments. These contracts provide the employer absolute flexibility to dictate precisely to their staff when they are required. These arrangements will not be sustainable long-term, as staff will require some form of greater commitment from the company. The imbalance is too heavy on the side of the employer.
On the flip side, there can be working arrangements too heavily in favour of the employee. In some working environments, staff have negotiated very flexible working arrangements including totally flexible start and finish times each day, along with the ability to build up hours in lieu for working self appointed overtime and subsequently taking additional days out of the business. Arrangement like this are also unsustainable. They add to the employer’s cost base and also create uncertainty for management around the availability of the team.
Employers should approach flexible working with a very open mind. As seen during the Covid crisis, home working for a significant proportion of office-based staff is perfectly feasible. In this seismic event, the move to flexible working was unstructured and un-planned. By applying sensible management planning approaches, the shift can be achieved in a very cost effective way that provides great balance for the employer to help them reduce the overhead costs whilst giving their staff the greater flexibility they desire to help them achieve a greater work life balance.
One area that is nearly always overlooked it comes to flexible working is that of management. Rarely will you come across managers working part time or on flexible working arrangements. Proactive companies will recognise that managers have work life balance challenges just the same as the general staff, and will look to provide flexible working solutions that work for both the employer and the manager.
For SME businesses, the challenge can be greater. Global organisations have the available resources to help them obtain the best management expertise available. For smaller organisations, a more light touch flexible approach could help them to secure subject matter functional expertise at a lower cost by offering the kind of flexibility that some of those experts will require.
Tapping into that flexible labour is a key constituent of any flexible working strategy, and one that we advise all SME businesses to consider.
So what approaches can companies take?
Going out as a single company trying to find flexible managers and staff can be a real minefield. Traditionally qualified for less skilled workers, agencies have been a stock solution. For management and more senior or skilled workers that you may need to help your business grow, the types of solutions available have not readily fitted with the objectives of SME businesses.
Service offerings like our GreenLight Planning offer task specific solutions for companies that may otherwise not be able to growA good website to check out is flexibility.co.uk. They have great resources to help organisations find ways to be flexible in how they approach their tasks. Companies like GreenLight offer flexible solutions for management challenges. . The important thing to do is to ask the advice of those who can help. You may be surprised how easy it can be to find simple solutions to complex resourcing challenges. Even those challenges you didn’t know you had.
