What is flexible working?
The benefits of flexible work spaces are becoming increasingly clear with companies such as Twitter, Apple, HSBC and many more. Flexible working benefits UK firms massively, small or large, people are people and keeping them happy keeps them productive.
Flexible working means you choosing your hours, where you work and how you work. To give an idea, businesses combining remote working with days in a dedicated office, allowing them to reap the benefits of both work arrangements.
What makes flexible working so popular is because it’s exactly what it says. Flexible. There is no right or wrong way of working, employee’s may find working half the week at home and half the week in office is when they are at their most productive. The most common means of flexible working is Hot Desking, Meeting room usage on an ad hoc basis and what’s becoming increasingly popular is flexible office space.
This means coming into an office space two to three times a month. If you are looking to get the team together for a meeting or a training day? then Flexi office space could be for you. This helps to maintain that base of communication but still having the freedom to let your team//employees manage their time in an effective way. Some team members may need more time in the office and others may not need a space at all.
(dependant on industry)
Why flexible working works
The primary benefit of flexible coworking is that it allows businesses to connect and build relationships with others outside their regular work circles. Part of this may come from simple conversations with people, but you’ll also find that a sense of community emerges in these environments. Many coworking spaces host networking events to allow members to get acquainted.
A downside of working remotely is that it can get lonely. This can be even more problematic in the case of freelancers. Coworking and flexible office spaces provide an opportunity to immerse yourself into a network of professionals, which helps reduce the feeling of isolation, something we have all felt during the lockdown. Seemingly minor interactions such as a brief greeting from the postman or making a co-worker a cup of tea, serve to increase our sense of belonging. Coworking spaces allow people to take things a step further through the creation of a dynamic work community. A recent study showed that 35% of employees would prefer flexible working to a pay rise, keeping costs down whilst keeping employees engaged.
Not to forget the affordability of flexible working spaces compared to traditional office space. Pay for what your business needs. A great example of this would be flexible office space… only need to use the office 3 times a month? Great! only book the room for 3 days in the month.
Implementing flexible solutions
Flexible working benefits for business tend to be easy to implement a few tips might help you get started. Communication is key to finding the right fit for your business. A great way to implement flexible working is to find out what it is your employees need and create a policy to be shared. This establishes a clear process of how flexible working is accessible and what the options are, which is dependant on your businesses guidelines and preferred means of working. The benefits of flexible working spaces // co-working space are they are accommodating of the unique needs of a business and will help work to help find the best solution to make the transition to flexible working as smooth as possible.
Things to think about when adopting a flexible working arrangement is defining the roles and responsibilities of all employees/ management and HR . Do you need to log core hours? Are there any adaptions that need to be made or extra support is given? Setting firm goals from the start will promote flexible working benefits successfully, therefore trying out flexible working patterns before committing to them accordingly, giving everyone a chance to try them out for size.
Flexible working is at its best when employees are measured on output instead of hours. It’s proven having regular performance reviews ensures stability in your organisation consequently helping assess what’s needed and what’s working well. You can then review and adapt according to what you learn. Remember that what works for one department may not work in another.
Flexible working near you…?
With companies changing the way they are looking to work, Sussex based Coworking and flexible office operator, Freedom Works Ltd, have consequently reacted to the changing needs of the market and have launched a brand new product to cater for the new way companies want to work.
Off the back of this demand, Freedom Works have launched the ‘Flexi Office Space’, which is a service whereby companies who are currently remote working can hire an office for an ad-hoc day or you can series link a day or two a month to get teams together.
On our website www.freedomworks.space you will be able to see our sites in Worthing, Hove, Chichester, Southampton and Gatwick.
Freedom Works is a Co-Working Flexible Office space where businesses, freelancers and local networking groups can work in a shared environment. There are no term lengths offering full flexibility.
You can also find some of the benefits of flexible workspaces at [email protected]
For more information please contact or give us a ring
Hove: 01273977220
Worthing: 01903681100
Chichester: 01243924100
Gatwick: 01293368100
