Expected by workers and championed by global brands, flexible working has become the new normal. According to Owl Labs 1 in 2 people don’t want to return to jobs if they don’t offer some form of flexible work. From attaining the best talent to boosting productivity and engagement, the benefits of workplace flexibility are many and varied. Consequently, for those organisations looking to build and maintain a competitive edge, flexible working has become a critical priority.

Whilst leaders may wish to immediately replicate the innovative flexible work strategies that they see publicly endorsed by the likes of Google, Twitter and Microsoft, a successful flexible work strategy rests on a solid foundation.

Here we share a few steps that organisations need to take into account when embarking on building their own flexible working strategy.

Adopt a Remote First Approach

Flexible working will only work if companies structure it correctly. To do this, leaders must remain conscious of avoiding the alienation of remote workers or creating a hierarchical structure where office-based colleagues have privileged access to information and decision-making opportunities.

Being remote-first means that all team meetings should contain a video conferencing element – as part of a wider technology portfolio – to open communication and collaboration to all participants. This bridges the gap between those working from home and their office peers, putting remote workers at the heart of every conversation.

 

 

Facilitate Equity of Voice for All

Organisations must nurture an environment where it is not the loudest voice that prevails, but simply the best idea. All workers need the ability to share their ideas in real-time, without fear of interruption. To enable this, teams need collaboration tools which do not favour a dominant speaker but give equal share of voice to all participants.

Ideally, video meetings should be supplements with real-time collaboration tools such as digital whiteboards, allowing remote workers to spontaneously brainstorm and submit ideas on an equal footing with their office-based colleagues.

Give Remote Workers the Right Tools

For remote workers to participate on equal footing to those in the office, they need to be given the right tools to contribute to discussions intuitively. Too often, remote work experiences can be limited by inadequate hardware and small screen experiences which limit teams to reviewing a single screen or document at any one time.

For an optimal work environment, workers need to be able to share and review multiple documents and data points simultaneously, picking and choosing what content to view and where to display it. The simple remedy to the limitations of these small-screen meeting experiences is to empower remote workers with the ability to contribute to meeting discussions using multiple devices. Join video calls via smartphone and review documents on your laptop as you add to whiteboard discussions on your tablet.

 

Provide an Adaptable Digital Space

Whilst remote workers should be empowered to work their way, in-office workers need to feel that their in-room environment and experience is worth the commute. As the post-pandemic workplace shifts ever more towards activity-based working, organisations need to make provisions for multi-functional environments which can be instantly repurposed by different teams and individuals to suit their needs.

–With the right hardware,  spaces can be adapted to different requirements and specifications with relative ease. Outfitting collaboration spaces with interactive displays, for example, can empower people to get more from the tools they use whilst enabling spaces to be repurposed in an instant.

 

Laduma is THE Digital Workspace for Flexible Working

At Laduma, we believe that the new breed of Hybrid Workforce needs a new breed of Hybrid Workspace. One singular platform where you can bring all your favourite applications and tools with you to do your best work together.

Teams need to work fast, efficiently and with freedom, having access to the tools they need in one place. With the help of Laduma, you can pull meetings, notes, reminders and specialist tools into one central platform for frictionless collaboration from any location.

To find out more about how we can help you to support flexible working, request a demo.