O2 believe that with today's communications and the right tools you can literally work anywhere and not be confined to the office. The benefits of this approach to organisations of any size and their employees may be substantial.
O2 put that theory to the test on February 29 with the creation of a mid-air, outdoor office and suspending a willing volunteer and his desk on the side of a building.
Our work and personal lives are blurring. For growing numbers of people, work is something they do rather than a place they go. The proportion of people working flexibly is set to reach 35% of the total global workforce by 2013. Innovations in consumer technology also mean a quarter of the workforce will be using their own devices by 2013.
Many companies already offer some kind of flexibility about when people work – over half the respondents to a recent survey* said there was potential to choose the hours they work.
Organisations are also looking at flexibility about where people work. Of companies that have flexible working policies, half allowed for remote working, either at home or at satellite facilities.
Being flexible about location – such as helping your people do more at clients' sites, enabling them to use time between meetings effectively, or letting them work from home some or all of the time – can bring really worthwhile benefits to both employers and employees.
In one study† of small and medium businesses, employers said the following were the main benefits: increased productivity (78%), improved customer service (71%), savings in fuel (76%) and reduced business travel (70%). On top of that, 84% of employees participating in the same study said that flexible working helps them improve their work/life balance. They also revealed that the availability of flexible working has a significant influence on their loyalty, with a large majority (81%) of respondents saying that it would make them more likely to stay with their employer.
What do you need to make it work? You need the right business communication tools and the right culture. With the use of smartphones, car kits, wifi, and mobile broadband dongles, your people can work from home or on the move. The principal challenge is to create the culture suitable for flexible working. Employees trust and value a manager who empowers them to work to their own initiative.
Additional new research from O2 highlights how current economic conditions are undercutting flexible working practices, with 41% of office workers feeling pressure to be present in the office as a result of the economic climate. More than a quarter (27%) of employees also feel they're prevented from working more flexibly by their line manager.
Do you think your company is ready for flexible working? To find out visit www.o2.co.uk/workanywhere.
References: * Future Poll, the research division of The Future Laboratory 2011 † 'Business Anytime Anywhere: The impact of flexible working on small and medium sized businesses', actnow flex project, 2009
Content on this page was provided by O2.
