We often ask employees what benefits they want; the answer has been resounding and clear for years. But this year, employees all around the world got their wish. Flexible working became the norm.
Working from home is no longer a just another name for chucking a sickie.
All of a sudden, there are policies around remote working. Some organisations have closed their offices, and implemented remote working full time. Some have introduced a hybrid structure – recognising that there are benefits to having the best of all worlds.
It seems that even the most strident of anti flexible working employers seem to have a grudging acknowledgment that flexible working can indeed work. And that it can be a good thing.
So where to from here?
For organisations that have a quieter period coming up, now might be the time to reflect on how remote working or flexible working worked for your organisation. What went well? What didn’t? And what processes need to be put in place to make remote or flexible working more achievable?
It might be a good time to speak to industry peers too. Where have organisations really made it work for them? What things need to be in place?
And what else?
This article from RMIT has some great ideas about other employee benefits.
What always amazes me is that we put so much effort into thinking about wages, when it’s often the other things that matter to employees. Now that we seem to have cracked (or at least are moving towards cracking) flexible working being more of an accepted thing, progressive employers are looking to what else they can offer.
Ideas such as a great professional development programme can be very inexpensive to implement and win win to employees and the employer. More on that another post.
THE TAKEAWAY
The big takeaway from 2020 is that what was thought to be too hard to do, ended up being very easy when push came to shove.
The trick now will be to consolidate that, and then see what other benefits are relatively easily available.
WANT SOME MORE RESOURCES?
- Why does flexible working not feel that flexible?
- 4dayweek.com
- This page is a treasure trove of articles and guides on remote working and resilience available here.
- Working from home during COVID-19
- https://studyonline.rmit.edu.au/blog/employee-benefits-australia
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