Gary Ng | Awakening Entrepreneur

Can Flexibility Guarantee Productivity?

Organisations with a high staff turnover need to take a long, hard look at how they operate. If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I am a major advocate of introducing fun, happiness and positivity to the workplace. Companies that don’t offer flexibility to their employees will quickly lose staff as the modern team member wants to contribute to the business but also seek freedom and flexibility in their work arrangements.

Flex For Success

Businesses that have inflexible work arrangements are losing quality staff and have difficulty attracting talented new team members, especially in a competitive industry such as I.T. But why is flexibility so important? When a company’s staff gets the freedom to choose the hours they work and where they complete projects, they automatically feel a lower stress level because they are in control. Team members often become stressed out because they feel a certain level of pressure as they are forced to stick to certain deadlines and hours where they must get the work done. Flexibility completely removes this barrier and helps staff to relax. Additionally, having the chance to work from home means less travel time which equals a greater level of productivity. With extra hours to play with, staff can choose to work at their usual speed and have more time off or work at a more relaxed pace to get the job done.

One of the reasons why E-Web Marketing is successful is because we show our commitment to making staff happier. We offer a number of flexible arrangements including working from home and flexible hours. We are also aware that staff can simply become tired at work and an exhausted team member is not a productive one. This is why we have a designated ‘sleeping room’ where staff can take a quick power nap and get right back to work when they are refreshed.

Instead of focusing on the ‘clock in, clock out’ timesheet method, we are more concerned with the final outcome. E-Web Marketing also allows the flexibility to outsource repetitive tasks such as data entry so that our team members can focus solely on the project aspects they are passionate about.  There have even been occasions where our team members have carried out work while they are sipping pina colada on a nice beach in Thailand! A valued team member is a happy one and someone that brings this positive spirit into the workplace.

Flexibility Equals Productivity

At the end of the day, your company’s goal is to meet certain targets. Provide flexibility to your team and watch as your team members comfortably achieve these goals. I.B.M conducted an experiment where staff members were allowed to take as much time off as they wanted without having to provide lengthy notice as long as their assigned work was done. This was an incredibly popular decision and I.B.M benefited from heightened productivity and very low staff turnover.

While you don’t have to go down the road of ultra-freedom paved by I.B.M, you do need to take better care of your staff. Offering better payment will only succeed to a point because eventually, money ceases to be a motivating factor. What your team really values is freedom and the ability to live a chosen lifestyle. Inflexible organisations find that staff phone in sick regularly without necessarily being ill. It doesn’t take long for such individuals to say ‘enough is enough’ and leave altogether.

It has been proven that flexibility equals staff happiness which eventually leads to improved productivity. Rather than take advantage of the freedom you give them in a negative way, your team will actually use it as a motivating factor and work harder than ever before because they know a reward is waiting for them later on. When your team has something to look forward to, there is nothing stopping them, or you!

Have you heard of other interesting ways to create flexibility for workers?

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