Boosting Productivity and Attracting Talent: Flexi-Working, Remote, and Hybrid Working, What’s it All About?

There has been a huge rise in the adoption of hybrid working, working from home and flexi- working since the pandemic.

For example, in 2019 just 4.7% of UK employees worked from home*, with it rising to 25% in 2022. *

Adaptable working styles are great for attracting new talent but also retaining existing employees by adapting to their lifestyle needs.

When considering flexible working policies within a company, it’s important to know the difference between them:

• Flexible Hours – Flexible hours give an employee more control over how, where and when they work to suit their individual needs, for example having flexible start and finish times. Flexible working can also allow people to share a job.
• Hybrid Working – Hybrid working allows an employee to split their time between the workplace and remote working, with the latter usually meaning working from home (WFH).  A combination of in-office and remote work, allowing employees to split their time between a physical workplace and remote locations.
• Remote work – Remote work is where employees perform work from their own setups, including a home office or a shared workspace such as work care. Remote workers don’t typically come into an office and connect with colleagues and clients through virtual platforms and online communication tools.

Research has consistently found that employees value and desire flexible work, including opportunities to work in a hybrid way. Whilst these working types may not suit all firms, it is worth considering them in more detail as the option to work flexibly is a great attraction.

When looking to implement flexible working policies into your firm, you should consider the following.

• Is my company set up to allow employees to work flexibly?
• Do we have policies to place to assist?
• How will I communicate this to employees?
• Can we create clear guidelines to provide to employees on our flexible working conditions.

At Jersey Finance, we have a blend of working styles mentioned above and each case is looked at individually to ensure that it is the correct strategic fit for the organisation and for the employee. We have a flexible working policy which allows for part-time workers, and our overseas staff to predominately work remotely.

However, working from home may not be suitable for all roles or at all times. Teams have different deliverables and ways of working; collaboration will be more important to deliver in some teams than in others.

Equally, we would stress that there is no pressure on any employee to work from home if they prefer to work in the office.

There are many advantages of flexible working, such as:

• Improved work-life balance
• Increased productivity
• Improved employee wellbeing
• Diversity of applicants

Flexible working has been shown to increase productivity and boost morale in employees.

Flexible working can help create autonomy, giving employees more control over their work, allowing them to set their working schedule to ensure that they get the most out of a day’s work. This in turn positively impacts on their performance, job satisfaction and overall motivation to deliver quality outputs.

Employees can better deal with their mental and physical health, reducing time off work, sickness and burn out.

Flexibility also allows for a more diverse and inclusive workforce. Flexible roles appeal to those who can’t work the traditional nine-to-five and increase the talent pool for firms when they look to recruit.

*Felstead_Reuschke_2020_Homeworking-in-the-UK_Report_Final.pdf (wiserd.ac.uk) 
*Home and hybrid working, Great Britain – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)