Flexible Work Option

Many organizations are looking forward to implement flexible work option for certain functions of their operation, according to Forbes ‘5 Rising Industries Offering Jobs With Flexible Work Options’, following are few of them.

Engineering & IT – they have introduced flexible working options for some roles such as design engineer and architect. (Guppta, 2016)

Project Management (Guppta, 2016) – roles such as project coordinator can be done remotely.

Marketing & Communication (Guppta, 2016) – roles such as customer care assistant, online marketing officer, cold call assistant are most suitable to be done remotely and the companies are willing to hire most suitable talent (Guppta, 2016) from all over the world.

Travel & Hospitality – name itself says the flexibility travel and work, roles such as travel guide is highly recommended to work from anywhere. (Guppta, 2016)

How successful is flexible work option?

According to a report of Employers group on Workplace Flexibility (EWF), following are some of the key benefits that they could achieve by flexible work option.

Increased Employee Productivity (Future of Work Institute, n.d.) – This happens due to the job satisfaction, employees feel free to give their maximum to complete the work.

Improved Customer Service (Future of Work Institute, n.d.) – When an employee can work from anywhere, he/she can respond to a customer anytime from anywhere. 

Reduced Infrastructure Cost – cost of providing an attractive office space will be minimalized. (Future of Work Institute, n.d.)

Reduced Employee Turnover – it easy to retain an employee when they have the flexible work option (Future of Work Institute, n.d.), thus an organization can assure the retention of their talents.

Culture & Flexible Work Option

Even though flexible work option reduces the employee turnover and absenteeism, it has a correlation with the national culture and the organizational trend, some employees who are recruited with flexible work option are less likely to abide by the organizational values and the culture. (Peretz, et al., 2017)

So it is recommended to consider the cultural fit before considering the flexible work option (Peretz, et al., 2017), people who are conscientious will be most appropriate for implementing flexible work option.

References

Future of Work Institute, n.d. The Benefits of Flexible Working Arrangements, London: Hot Spots Movement.

Guppta, K., 2016. 5 Rising Industries Offering Jobs With Flexible Work Options. [Online]
Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kaviguppta/2016/08/04/5-rising-industries-offering-jobs-with-flexible-work-options/#31aeb8c7d904
[Accessed 16 May 2019].

Peretz, H., Fried, Y. & Levi, A., 2017. Flexible work arrangements, national culture, organisational characteristics, and organisational outcomes: A study across 21 countries. Human Resource Management Journal, 28(1), pp. 182-200.