In May, top Apple AI executive Ian Goodfellow quit the iPhone maker citing its return to office policy. With his decision, Goodfellow ignited the brewing debate over flexible work models while revealing how companies like Apple with huge campuses are underprepared for finding a balance.
If the onset of the pandemic forced us to work from home, its continued impact made us warm up to the future of the hybrid work model. Remote work or hybrid work is not a new concept and some people have been working remotely for decades. However, the pandemic revealed that a large number of professionals can actually work from home.
Even employers who were once staunch opponents of remote work had to cave in. The pandemic has laid bare that the traditional way of work is not the only way. We have now seen new forms of work including experiments like a four day work week. All of this aims to advance the idea of flexible work and it is not the future of work, but the present.
What is flexible work?
“We are the last generation to work five days a week,” says Ronni Zehavi, CEO of Global HR Tech disruptor HiBob. “Our children will have a three day weekend and a four day work week,” he adds.
Zehavi has a front row seat to the radical changes happening in the way we work. His company HiBob, serving 2,500 modern businesses with over 500K employees, with HiBob’s HR platform “Bob”, has a front row seat to changes happening at the workplace and is also helping many mid-size companies with between 100 and 5,000 employees make a successful transition to a flexible work model.
Flexible work is similar to hybrid work but much more broad. Where employees combine working from home with working from office, and the decision when to WFH and when to WFO is in the hands of the direct managers and the team members themselves. Before the COVID pandemic, hybrid work was always the employer making decisions on which employee can work from home, when and where..
In the case of flexible work models, many employees can make decisions for themselves. They can also break days into parts where the employee can work part of the day from home and part of the day they come for a face to face meeting at the office. It is a common practice with flexible work that employees continue working with clients or colleagues at different time-zones while they are working from home and not staying late working from the office.
Flexible work is also one where employers show their trust towards the employees. Employees get to choose when and where they want to work within reasonable operational parameters. This also allows for flexibility to decide to work from the office whenever they feel the need to and not just commit to a week-by-week schedule.
The big breakthrough for the flexible work model occurred with the arrival of the global covid pandemic. Around 1.5 billion professionals globally transitioned to working from home during the first two weeks of the pandemic. The pandemic forced countries to lockdown and people began to work from home, two years later, the culture of work has changed forever.
A study by Owl Labs shows that European employees want the flexibility and the autonomy to work on their own time. With the whole world shifting to remote and hybrid work, 36 percent of European employees say flexible working hours and four day work week would convince them to stay with their current employer. The study shows the need for business leaders to “take their whole company into consideration when building these policies.”
What are the different types of flexible work?
In a survey of a thousand UK-based full-time employees, HiBob found that 21 percent were working exclusively from their home. The study also found that 42 percent were working in a hybrid framework, while 37 percent said they were working onsite. It also found that 63 percent of full time employees were working from home at least part of the time.
The HRTech company also found that employees now prefer flexible work as one of the important motivations for them to join a company. It also found that mid-size companies tend to be more flexible and lead the way for workplace agility. However, when it comes to flexible work, there are several types to consider as part of the work policy:
- Hybrid work: The hybrid work is a location-flexible work arrangement where employees are allowed to work either onsite or offsite. Now that COVID related restrictions have been lifted, a number of hybrid work models have emerged. Some employers might require their employees to come to the office twice or thrice a week and work the remaining days from home. This model has seen the highest adoption among a large section of employers.
- Fully remote: This policy is usually stated in the job description where companies hire professionals to work from remote locations globally. In the past companies that were fully remote were very progressive in their work style, relying on technology for interaction and investing in travel for face to face meetings in various locations. Today, a certain position can be set up as a remote position allowing that specific person to work from home or from a remote office that is not one of the main sites where the company has offices.
- Work from home: This is essentially the continuation of the pandemic trend wherein people who began working from home due to lockdown are no longer returning onsite. This could be driven by flexible work policy from the employer or the employer eliminating offices and encouraging employees to work from home. Work from home is no longer a perk given to senior executives, rather a flexible policy that is offered to many professionals.
- Four day work week: Four day work week began as an experiment but could become normal in the future. It is an arrangement where an employee is required to work only four days a week. The UK began a trial of a four-day work week last month in what’s touted to be the world’s largest such trial with 3,300 workers participating at 70 companies. There are several models of 4-day work weeks.
- A 4-day work week that includes a 20% pay decrease – that is the case of actually setting up an 80% of a full-time position as part of workplace flexibility.
- A 4-day work week that is considered full time employment (100% full-time) – the more progressive approach that will probably be a new norm in the future
- A 9-day two week policy, where the employee is required to work 5 days a week for one week and 4 days a week for the next. This is also considered a 100% full time flexible model.
- Flexible work hours: Flexible working hours is an arrangement where employees can start or finish their work day as they seem fit. They don’t need to adhere to set guidelines but the model allows employees to schedule their work times according to work that can be accomplished. Flexible work hours are usually part of hybrid and remote work policies
- Work from Anywhere: This model allows employees to work from a remote location as they and their employers see fit for a certain period of time (normally up to 2 months) . This location agnostic model is also seeing a lot of interest from young professionals and has benefitted the likes of companies like Airbnb. Airbnb recently revealed how people are booking places for months as they use their rental homes to not only vacation but also work. Imagine your employer’s headquarter being based in the US and your home location being India but you are working from Europe for two months to allow you to change scenery and enjoy living where the weather is nice and leveraging the you non working hours to explore new places
State of flexible work in Europe
The study by HiBob also paints a clear picture on how flexible work is becoming a norm in Europe. The study focusing on employers found that around 44 percent of employers in the Netherlands are allowed between 31 and 50 percent employees to join the hybrid work arrangement. In Finland, that number is around 43 percent while 41 percent French employers are seeing between 16 and 30 percent of their employees being offered hybrid work.
In the Netherlands, around 44 percent confirmed that their employer offers a hybrid work arrangement. Around 30 percent employers are seeing between 16 and 30 percent of their employees work in a hybrid work arrangement. Sweden and Denmark employers are also offering hybrid work arrangements to their employees.
In Sweden, the survey found that 28 percent of employers are hybrid to an extent and between 16 and 30 percent of their employees work in a hybrid setting. About 25 percent of employers see between 5 and 15 percent of their employees adopting hybrid work. Between one and five percent of employees work in a hybrid work arrangement, says 37 percent of employers in Denmark.
Among employers with 1,001 to 2,000 employees in Europe, 28 percent say that between 5 and 15 percent of their employees work in a hybrid arrangement. Among employers with 401 to 1,000 employees, a staggering 37 percent say that between 31 and 50 percent have hybrid work as an option. Between 101 and 400 employees, 43 percent employers say that between 16 and 30 percent of their employees have chosen hybrid work arrangements.
The data shows hybrid work could be that defining factor helping an employee decide whether to accept or decline a job offer or stay in their position. In Europe, mid-size companies are clearly among the most flexible and at least some employees work in a hybrid arrangement. It is evident that hybrid work is not being experimented with but instead, being adopted rapidly. We could see more employers and employees choosing such an arrangement as they grapple with the economic situation and impact of the climate crisis and change their behaviour accordingly.
Challenges facing hybrid work
Like every new implementation, the hybrid work arrangement also comes with its fair share of challenges. From lack of acknowledgement to diminishing return on innovation, there are a number of challenges that HR and business leaders are tackling right now. Here is a look at some of the immediate challenges with hybrid work.
- Lack of acknowledgement: One of the biggest challenges facing hybrid work is work of individual contributors not being valued or taken for granted. The result could be lack of inclusion and need for business leaders to ensure their employees don’t feel adrift or under appreciated. To overcome this challenge, HR and business leaders need to communicate at an individual level to understand the impact of hybrid work and alleviate their concerns.
- Impact on innovation: As countries have opened their borders and lockdowns have been lifted around the world, one of the ways employers are trying to get their employees back to office is by talking about the impact of hybrid work on innovation. It’s a contentious topic and some like Tesla and Apple might argue that their product design and technology are intellectual property and would be better safeguarded within office premises. Employers need to come up with ways to keep their innovation DNA intact instead of resorting to “back to office” ideology.
- Feedback and Learning: This challenge could be limited to those starting their career wherein the feedback may not be immediate and learning could be limited. Business leaders can overcome this challenge by changing their leadership style and also how they communicate with their team.
Flexible model becomes way of work
There is now enough data to point at flexible work becoming the way of work for employees and employers around the world. This is further illustrated by the adoption of various models of flexible work in the UK. According to a study by HiBob, among companies with 10 to 100 employees, 42 percent say they have hybrid work while 20 percent are fully remote.
The study also shows that 25 percent of employers have adopted either a four-day work model or are supporting work from anywhere for a number of months in a year. With 39 percent adopting flexible work hours, the study reveals that 159 percent have adopted more than one flexible model of work.
When it comes to organisations with more than 2,500 employees, 48 percent have adopted flexible work hours. It is followed by a hybrid work model at 32 percent, work from anywhere for a number of months at 22 percent, four-day work model at 17 percent, and fully remote work model at 15 percent. Among these survey respondents, the study shows 149 percent have adopted more than one flexible work model.
Among employers with between 101 and 999 employees, 37 percent favour hybrid work model while 30 percent support fully remote work model. Around 20 percent support either a four-day work model or work from anywhere. The four day work model is adopted by 20 percent while 147 percent say they have adopted more than one flex model.
The same survey saw companies with 1,000 to 2,499 employees say that they have 39 percent employees in a hybrid work model while 24 percent and 25 percent are in a fully remote or four day work model, respectively. These employers are also adopting flexible work hours with 34 percent favouring the option. The work from anywhere option is chosen by 27 percent while a staggering 162 percent agreed to supporting more than one flexible work model.
Among mid-size companies, an astonishing 53 percent say that workplace flexibility is “very important” to them. With more than half the respondents choosing flexibility, mid-size companies risk losing talent by not offering such an option. Flexible work is also emerging as the second major criteria for accepting a job and it is second only to increased pay.
One thing is abundantly clear: companies not only stand to lose existing talent but also fail to hire new talent if they don’t offer flexible work models. As a result, how employees work has changed from need to business criteria. For HR leaders at mid-size companies, a flexible work model could be the secret to success in both retention and recruitment of talent.
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