As businesses change and demands shift, it’s important to stay up to date with new developments, to avoid being left behind.
One development which has certainly made huge waves over the last few years is the introduction of many flexible working practices.
The idea of flexible working is that employee can achieve a greater home and work life balance, but the advantages go far beyond that. Check out this useful video by O2, which explains in a bit more detail.
As you can see, flexible working is the way forward! The office of the future certainly looks to be more flexible overall.
As with most office desking systems and changes in policy, there are a few challenges to be expected. With flexible working, it’s ensuring that there are enough employees at their office desks throughout the day, and that everyone isn’t being flexible at the same time! Controlling this often means the implementation of something called ‘core hours’, as well as ensuring that employees meet their set number of working hours per week.
Core hours are times during the working day when everyone must be present, and beyond those hours, flexible working practices are possible. It depends upon the business and its needs as to the exact core hours chosen, but they normally cover the busy lunch period, and the busiest hours of the day in general. An example could be set core hours of 11am until 2pm.
Implementing a flexible working arrangement which works for your business means planning and careful monitoring in the early stages. Without this, you may end up with nobody sat at their modular office desks when you need them!
Does your office have core working hours?