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What does it mean to be a flexible employer, and how important is it?
Flexible working is on the rise. LinkedIn recently revealed that just under half of the jobs listed on LinkedIn in August were hybrid, a figure that has increased by more than a third compared to August 2022.
Even though flexibility is slowly becoming the new normal, it seems like the conversation surrounding it is being pulled in two different directions. On the one hand, proponents of the traditional model insist on its benefits for productivity and business success. Meanwhile, advocates for flexible working are trying to stress that employee well-being and work-life balance are the main priorities.
These opposing sides have been neatly demonstrated by two very different opinions from two very different CEOs, coming to light within the past month.
The first, a leaked internal memo to Amazon’s managerial staff, shows that the CEO Andy Jassy has mandated that employees need to return to the office three days a week, or face redundancy. As reported by Business Insider, the memo allegedly said:
“Return to office 3+ days a week is a requirement of their job … continued non-compliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your employment."
Tech giant that they are, Amazon is not alone on this side of the debate. Disney, Apple, Google, Roblox, and Uber are just a few of the companies who have mandated a permanent return to office. Meanwhile in India, top tech leaders are even calling for 70 hour work-weeks.
Representing the other side of the argument, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston was interviewed in Fortune Magazine with the striking headline: Dropbox’s CEO has a message for bosses who want workers to return to office: ‘They’re not resources to control’
In the interview, Houston explains the company’s remote-first model and stresses the importance of trust and flexibility when it comes to managing employees remotely.
“You need a different social contract, and to let go of control. But if you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.”
As a proudly flexible employer who offers a range of benefits including shorter Fridays, flexible hours, a “Work from Anywhere” scheme and unlimited paid time off, it should surprise nobody that we at Thrive are on Houston’s side.
And to the naysayers: The proof is in the pudding. This year alone we’ve launched an entirely new website and brand, had our CEO profiled in the Times, and expanded our workforce with industry big-hitters Mark Aberdour, Leanne Ainsworth and Ian Bromwich.
So, for those of you who are still digging your heels in: Let’s take a look at the benefits we’re seeing.
As we’ve stressed a few times already, work-life balance is the top priority when it comes to flexible working. We’ll move on to productivity and business benefits in just a moment - but it might be the case that CEOs are looking at this from the wrong angle. If your employees are happy and healthy, it’s likely that everything else will fall into place - rather than focusing on business success first, and employee well being second.
The fact is, if you don’t offer flexibility, you could be missing out on a huge pool of potential talent. A 2023 survey conducted by CIPD found that 71% of respondents said having a flexible working pattern is important to them when choosing a new role.
It goes without saying that flexible working arrangements contribute to a better work-life balance. The ability to work remotely if needed cuts down on the dreaded commute, freeing up more time to do other things. In fact recent research from Airtasker found that remote employees were, on average, healthier than office employees, exercising for 25 more minutes per week than their in-person counterparts.
But when it comes to health, we shouldn’t merely be focusing on exercise. Employees of flexible workplaces are generally able to take better care of their physical and mental wellbeing thanks to the autonomy provided by their roles. And, believe it or not, employee wellbeing can be a financial issue. According to Gallup’s data (specifically focused on the US), an eye-watering 15 - 20% of total payroll accounts for voluntary turnover costs. That statistic is hard to ignore, and it just goes to show that the personal and financial factors of this conversation inform and overlap each other.
Another important thing to consider is how the flexibility (or lack thereof) impacts candidates with disabilities. Bupa’s 2023 Disability in the Workplace Report revealed that only 18% of respondents said they had access to flexible working, and 51% agreed that their disability was a barrier to career progression. There’s obviously a dearth of flexibility here, and a gap to be filled by employers who are willing to do the right thing.
Put simply, flexible working arrangements make it easier and less stressful for employees with disabilities to do their best work.
Not only are you then widening your potential talent pool, but you’re nurturing the needs of those who already work for you.
Speaking of working…
Despite what the traditionalists insist, there’s no evidence that flexible arrangements negatively affect productivity. Going back to the CIPD Report, 38% of surveyed organisations said that home/hybrid working has increased their organisation’s productivity and efficiency.
No two humans are created equal, and different people’s productivity peaks at different times throughout the day. If you strictly limit your workforce’s output to the fixed hours of 9 - 5, you deny those with different schedules the freedom to be productive on their own terms.
To reiterate the emphasis on trust that the Drew Houston quote demonstrated at the start of this blog, a flexible working environment goes a long way towards creating a mutual sense of trust between employee and employer. And when an employee feels that trust, they are far more likely to remain engaged and productive.
And that’s to say nothing of the fact that not everyone feels their most productive in a traditional office setting. A lot of people find that the outside stimuli of lights, noise, phones, distractions and just - well - other people can distract them from their work.
We can practically hear the eye-rolls of dinosaur CEOs, whose main objective is the bottom line and who believe that the new workforce has gotten ‘soft.’ To them we say: You can leave these people out of the equation if you want to, but just watch as the pool of talent from which you can hire shrinks and shrinks.
It’s our view that the above factors contribute to overall business success, but if you’re still not convinced, let’s count up some of the ways in which being flexible can be a boon to your business - starting with cost efficiency. This is a fairly obvious one: If you don’t have to ‘keep the lights on’ in the
office, so to speak, you have far fewer overheads which will then save you money in the long run.
The next benefit for business success is increased agility and continuity. When your workplace is already flexible, you can easily adapt to changes in the market - or even the wider world (take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example.)
We’re going to keep banging on and on about that talent pool: if you adhere to the ‘remote-first’ element of flexible work culture, you widen your geographical reach when it comes to attracting new talent.
We happen to think that the factors we’ve listed in this blog contribute true value to a workplace - but the sad fact remains: Despite candidates prioritising flexibility in their job search and the culture slowly moving towards a more flexible future, there are still a lot of big organisations who are steadfastly ignoring the facts in favour of the rigid routine they know and love.
While we understand that the traditional approach benefits some organisations, we’ve found that flexibility has had a profoundly positive impact on our culture here at Thrive. If you think you could fit into that culture, why not browse our Careers Page?
Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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What does it mean to be a flexible employer, and how important is it?
Flexible working is on the rise. LinkedIn recently revealed that just under half of the jobs listed on LinkedIn in August were hybrid, a figure that has increased by more than a third compared to August 2022.
Even though flexibility is slowly becoming the new normal, it seems like the conversation surrounding it is being pulled in two different directions. On the one hand, proponents of the traditional model insist on its benefits for productivity and business success. Meanwhile, advocates for flexible working are trying to stress that employee well-being and work-life balance are the main priorities.
These opposing sides have been neatly demonstrated by two very different opinions from two very different CEOs, coming to light within the past month.
The first, a leaked internal memo to Amazon’s managerial staff, shows that the CEO Andy Jassy has mandated that employees need to return to the office three days a week, or face redundancy. As reported by Business Insider, the memo allegedly said:
“Return to office 3+ days a week is a requirement of their job … continued non-compliance without a legitimate reason may lead to disciplinary action, up to and including termination of your employment."
Tech giant that they are, Amazon is not alone on this side of the debate. Disney, Apple, Google, Roblox, and Uber are just a few of the companies who have mandated a permanent return to office. Meanwhile in India, top tech leaders are even calling for 70 hour work-weeks.
Representing the other side of the argument, Dropbox CEO Drew Houston was interviewed in Fortune Magazine with the striking headline: Dropbox’s CEO has a message for bosses who want workers to return to office: ‘They’re not resources to control’
In the interview, Houston explains the company’s remote-first model and stresses the importance of trust and flexibility when it comes to managing employees remotely.
“You need a different social contract, and to let go of control. But if you trust people and treat them like adults, they’ll behave like adults. Trust over surveillance.”
As a proudly flexible employer who offers a range of benefits including shorter Fridays, flexible hours, a “Work from Anywhere” scheme and unlimited paid time off, it should surprise nobody that we at Thrive are on Houston’s side.
And to the naysayers: The proof is in the pudding. This year alone we’ve launched an entirely new website and brand, had our CEO profiled in the Times, and expanded our workforce with industry big-hitters Mark Aberdour, Leanne Ainsworth and Ian Bromwich.
So, for those of you who are still digging your heels in: Let’s take a look at the benefits we’re seeing.
As we’ve stressed a few times already, work-life balance is the top priority when it comes to flexible working. We’ll move on to productivity and business benefits in just a moment - but it might be the case that CEOs are looking at this from the wrong angle. If your employees are happy and healthy, it’s likely that everything else will fall into place - rather than focusing on business success first, and employee well being second.
The fact is, if you don’t offer flexibility, you could be missing out on a huge pool of potential talent. A 2023 survey conducted by CIPD found that 71% of respondents said having a flexible working pattern is important to them when choosing a new role.
It goes without saying that flexible working arrangements contribute to a better work-life balance. The ability to work remotely if needed cuts down on the dreaded commute, freeing up more time to do other things. In fact recent research from Airtasker found that remote employees were, on average, healthier than office employees, exercising for 25 more minutes per week than their in-person counterparts.
But when it comes to health, we shouldn’t merely be focusing on exercise. Employees of flexible workplaces are generally able to take better care of their physical and mental wellbeing thanks to the autonomy provided by their roles. And, believe it or not, employee wellbeing can be a financial issue. According to Gallup’s data (specifically focused on the US), an eye-watering 15 - 20% of total payroll accounts for voluntary turnover costs. That statistic is hard to ignore, and it just goes to show that the personal and financial factors of this conversation inform and overlap each other.
Another important thing to consider is how the flexibility (or lack thereof) impacts candidates with disabilities. Bupa’s 2023 Disability in the Workplace Report revealed that only 18% of respondents said they had access to flexible working, and 51% agreed that their disability was a barrier to career progression. There’s obviously a dearth of flexibility here, and a gap to be filled by employers who are willing to do the right thing.
Put simply, flexible working arrangements make it easier and less stressful for employees with disabilities to do their best work.
Not only are you then widening your potential talent pool, but you’re nurturing the needs of those who already work for you.
Speaking of working…
Despite what the traditionalists insist, there’s no evidence that flexible arrangements negatively affect productivity. Going back to the CIPD Report, 38% of surveyed organisations said that home/hybrid working has increased their organisation’s productivity and efficiency.
No two humans are created equal, and different people’s productivity peaks at different times throughout the day. If you strictly limit your workforce’s output to the fixed hours of 9 - 5, you deny those with different schedules the freedom to be productive on their own terms.
To reiterate the emphasis on trust that the Drew Houston quote demonstrated at the start of this blog, a flexible working environment goes a long way towards creating a mutual sense of trust between employee and employer. And when an employee feels that trust, they are far more likely to remain engaged and productive.
And that’s to say nothing of the fact that not everyone feels their most productive in a traditional office setting. A lot of people find that the outside stimuli of lights, noise, phones, distractions and just - well - other people can distract them from their work.
We can practically hear the eye-rolls of dinosaur CEOs, whose main objective is the bottom line and who believe that the new workforce has gotten ‘soft.’ To them we say: You can leave these people out of the equation if you want to, but just watch as the pool of talent from which you can hire shrinks and shrinks.
It’s our view that the above factors contribute to overall business success, but if you’re still not convinced, let’s count up some of the ways in which being flexible can be a boon to your business - starting with cost efficiency. This is a fairly obvious one: If you don’t have to ‘keep the lights on’ in the
office, so to speak, you have far fewer overheads which will then save you money in the long run.
The next benefit for business success is increased agility and continuity. When your workplace is already flexible, you can easily adapt to changes in the market - or even the wider world (take the COVID-19 pandemic as an example.)
We’re going to keep banging on and on about that talent pool: if you adhere to the ‘remote-first’ element of flexible work culture, you widen your geographical reach when it comes to attracting new talent.
We happen to think that the factors we’ve listed in this blog contribute true value to a workplace - but the sad fact remains: Despite candidates prioritising flexibility in their job search and the culture slowly moving towards a more flexible future, there are still a lot of big organisations who are steadfastly ignoring the facts in favour of the rigid routine they know and love.
While we understand that the traditional approach benefits some organisations, we’ve found that flexibility has had a profoundly positive impact on our culture here at Thrive. If you think you could fit into that culture, why not browse our Careers Page?
Explore what impact Thrive could make for your team and your learners today.
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