How to Manage Flexible Work Arrangements
80% of organizations are embracing flexible work. However, flexible work means different things to different organizations. Some dictate what schedules will be. While other companies let employees choose their own adventures. All of which can be difficult to manage.
To manage flexible work, organizations of all sizes must “stop duplicating office-centric practices and shift to a human-centric model” to be successful.
Here are some tips for managing your organization’s flexible work arrangements.
1. Encourage and Support Flexibility at the Individual and Team Levels
When creating flexible work policies, trust both individual employees and teams with the creativity and autonomy to select their own schedules. Flexibility is not something that can be—or should be—micromanaged. It differs across companies, jobs, and workers.
For example, a flexible work schedule may mean one thing to a working parent employee and another to a Gen Z employee. Alternatively, for teams, let both team leaders and the members themselves collectively choose what works best for them. A team, for instance, might decide only to have meetings on Monday and Wednesday mornings. Or they may choose to work through lunch, allowing them to leave an hour earlier.
Allowing both individual employees and teams to build flexibility into their workdays builds trust while encouraging creativity. However, defining flexibility is not a one-and-done practice. It would be best if you encouraged workers and teams to frequently revisit their flexible work arrangements, looking for places to tweak or change.
2. Train Leaders and Managers on Flexible Work Arrangements
While supporting and encouraging flexibility at the individual and team level is crucial to getting your new work schedules off on the right foot, don’t forget to train your leaders and managers on flexible work arrangements.
For many leaders, managing flexible work is a new skill. As such, organizations need to support leaders and managers with clear, objective expectations and goals associated with flexible work, expectations, and outcomes. According to Forbes, flexible work schedules “flourish when there is consistency in application and clear expectations are met.”
Additionally, empathy will be critical to leading these new flexible workforces. Recent Gartner research indicates that 89 percent of HR leaders must “lead with empathy in the hybrid environment.” However, companies aren’t investing in empathy-based leadership training, creating a skills shortage. To overcome this deficit, organizations must train managers to focus on performance outcomes, not inputs, while increasing soft skills training in empathy, listening, and collaboration.
3. Model Flexibility from the Top Down
As with most corporate initiatives, buy-in to flexible work arrangements from top leaders is critical to your organization’s success. Be sure to communicate expectations around what success looks like in this new work model. Define and communicate key performance metrics around productivity and review them regularly.
Also, model how flexibility looks at the most senior levels of the company. Consistently demonstrate to employees “how to successfully integrate performance with a flexible lifestyle.” However, be sure that senior leadership holds itself accountable for demonstrating both flexibility and successful outputs. Don’t create an environment of “do what I say, but not what I do.”
As organizations shift from “managing the employee experience to managing the life experience of their employees,” employers, leaders, and managers have much work ahead of them. However, by implementing the above tips for managing flexible work arrangements, companies can build a foundation of success.
As you shift to a more flexible work environment, you’ll likely be hiring employees to fill these positions in a remote or hybrid work environment. Learn how Cangrade can find the right fit for your open role.