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young ideas1Flexible workplaces are becoming increasingly sought-after, especially for employees who are busy at work and after hours.

Unknown to many companies is the fact that a flexible workplace benefits both the company and its employees, making everyone happy.

It is ultimately in everyone's best interest to offer flexible workspaces.

Here are five options that could help you easily reap the benefits of flexible work.

 

Ever thought that flexibility is much too hard? You might be surprised to learn you can transform your business into a great place to work without needing to move heaven and earth.

Altering a person's hours of work is one of the major ways to offer flexibility and for most businesses it is readily achievable.

With time spent on the road on the rise in cities such as Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland, employees would give anything to miss the most hectic hours of peak traffic. Starting work later or finishing earlier can be easy and effective because most staff will still overlap with their peers.

 

Flexitime is approved overtime hours that are compensated by time off - a simple option most businesses are already familiar with. At a time when one-in-three employees would change employers if it meant being offered more workplace flexibility, offering any flexibility is a good way to help keep retention rates high. 

Flexible seating, often referred to as hotel-style seating, is also worth looking into. Employees sign up for, or reserve desks as needed, rather than having the same desk day in and day out. Giving employees the freedom of coming and going in different areas of the building, even using cafes and libraries as they choose, can be appealing.

 

Organisations do need to design a few spaces meant for team meetings, together with some spaces meant for quiet, individual work.

Collaborative workspaces complement flexible seating, but they focus on facilitating collaboration by creating a comfortable environment for sharing ideas and resources.

One of the latest ways to offer flexible workplaces is through coworking centres or 'hubs', where employees work alongside people from other businesses.

Coworking hubs are on the rise across the world, no doubt in part because employees love the combination of a great working environment with a larger social network.

Research shows 89% of millennial workers would prefer to work when and where they want, rather than spending their time in the corporate 9-5 grind.

 

TIP: You may want to allocate a timeframe of core hours during the day when your staff will be available 'no matter what', with flexible hours beyond this.

With these options up your sleeve it is easy to see why creating a flexible workplace doesn't have to be hard.

Certainly, the 'harder' options tend to be the ones that are more attractive to employees, such as remote working, job-sharing and compressed work weeks, to name a few.

On the other hand, sometimes even a small amount of flexibility will give back enough control that an employee can achieve the work-life balance they need.

 

About Nina Sochon
Nina Sochon is the CEO of Transformed Teams - a training, coaching and consulting firm creating incredibly successful professional teams. Receive your free Team Health Check for Conventional and Virtual Teams.