Benefits of Flexible Working

In an era where quality time is at a premium. Many people when they reach the age of retirement state as one of their biggest regrets is not spending enough time with their children and missing those key moments in their children’s lives, like the nativity play , sports days as well as the daily school pick up. These are times we can never get back are key to our relationships. In a recent study by Investors in People it was found that 31% of employees polled would rather have the opportunity for flexible working than have a raise. Proving how valuable time and family is to them.

The main benefits to the employees are increased job satisfaction, increased morale, motivation and improved work life balance leading to less stress and increase productivity. It gives employees a sense of control of their day. For instance, I work better in the morning and am an early riser so I can play to my strength by organising parts of my work to working mainly in the morning, allowing me to pick up my children from school and attend any school events.

 Varying types of flexible working that can be utilised are, job sharing, home working or remote working. One or a combination of these means you can recruit and retain skilled and experienced employees. Especially mothers returning to the workplace.                                 

 If you are able to get everyone working at their optimum with a degree of freedom. It can lead to increased output due to less sick and absenteeism.

Technology and the use of technology today provide an easy way to allow and implement flexible working across most industries and sectors. Order management software, for instance, gives everyone in an organisation a unified view at real time of orders being placed and the history of those orders. Allowing customer service employees to work remotely or from home as they can see when orders were dispatched, track orders on the customer’s behalf if they are unable to, manage refunds and returned items.

In these covid19 times we have seen evidence that working from home has increased productivity and saved both employees and employers time, lost commuting and money by reducing overheads and a happier less stressed workforce.

By Andrew Smith

e-MPS.co.uk eCommerce Marketplace Specialists