I explored this in considerable depth in my previous book, The Future of Work. Workplace flexibility continues to be a massive area of desire for employees and focus for organizations. We live in a hyperconnected global world where work‐life balance has been obliterated and replaced by work‐
life integration. This means we take our personal lives to work and our work lives home. To continue to work in this type of environment, we have to abandon the notion of the 9 to 5 workday and instead shift toward
allowing employees to work anytime from locations of their choosing whenever possible. Granted, this type of work environment is not suited or
available for every type of role, for example manufacturing. Still, employees should have as much flexibility and choice as possible.
Consider the following statistics from Global Workplace Analytics:
Half of the U.S. workforce has jobs in which at least partial telework is possible, and one‐quarter to one‐fifth of the workforce works remotely with some frequency.
Eighty percent to 90 percent of U.S. employees would like to telework part‐time at minimum. Two or three days per week appears to be the right amount, allowing enough time for on‐site collaborative work and off‐site concentrative work.
Because studies show employees are away from their desk as much as 60 percent of their workday, Fortune 1000 companies worldwide are entirely redesigning their space.2
However, workplace flexibility doesn't simply mean letting employees work from home. Flexibility refers to employees genuinely being able to pick when and where they work whether it means coming into an office, working from home, going to a coffee shop or coworking facility, or going anywhere else where they can get their jobs done. According to FlexJobs, a site that allows employees to search for the best flexible work and
telecommuting jobs, flexible work provides several benefits to employees and the organization, including:
Increased productivity Less stressed employees Decreased absenteeism
Healthier and happier employees Cost savings
Increased trust
In 2016 American Sociological Review published a study called “Does a Flexibility/Support Organizational Initiative Improve High‐Tech
Employees' Well‐Being? Evidence from the Work, Family, and Health
Network.” The lead authors are Phyllis Moen, who is the presidential chair in sociology at the University of Minnesota and Erin L. Kelly, a professor in work and organization studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. In the study Moen et al. worked with a Fortune 500 company (not named) over a 12‐month period to see whether workplace flexibility had any noticeable impact. To accomplish the study, they worked within the IT group, where they split them into two groups. One would have the flexible program and the other would not. The pilot group given the flexible work options was able to work anywhere and anytime and was evaluated based on the work produced instead of being seen in the office. The results of the study were quite conclusive, showing that the team within IT that was given the flexible work arrangement felt better about their jobs, had less burnout, and felt lower levels of stress. This was the first time a study of this type was conducted with a control and pilot group inside of a large organization.
According to the authors, the study shows the necessity of organization‐
wide initiatives creating greater supervisor support and control and flexibility for employees.3
To further make this point, EY did a study in 2015 that surveyed almost 10,000 full‐time employees in eight of the world's largest economies, which include the United States, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, Brazil, China, India, and Mexico. The employees listed flexibility as a top feature they wanted in a job and ranked it slightly less important than a competitive salary.4
Looking at how the workplace continues to change, it's almost impossible to imagine a world where workplace flexibility won't become the standard for how we work. It's simply becoming too hard, too stressful, and less practical not to have this type of arrangement. Not to mention we have the technologies today that can easily support this way of working.
I use Uber quite frequently when I travel not just in the United States but internationally as well. I always like to strike up a conversation with the drivers to find out why they work with Uber and why they like it. I've had drivers with all sorts of backgrounds ranging from airplane mechanics and corporate attorneys to nurses and finance MBA graduates. They are people who could easily be working for companies like Wells Fargo, Deloitte, or United Airlines, but they aren't. Why not? Because of the flexibility that Uber offers them, that's the number one thing every Uber driver always tells
me. The amount of money they would make isn't that different, but they value being able to be in control of when and where they work. This is also what freelancers on sites such as Upwork always say as well; flexibility does indeed make a huge difference. This used to be seen as a perk or a bonus, but now many employees consider this the standard for how work could and should be done.
What This Measures
Organization's willingness to adapt to how work gets done Commitment to employees to make their lives easier
Progressive workplace thinking
What You Can Do
Introduce a workplace flexibility program.
Provide education and training to employees on why and how the flexibility program works.
Set clear expectations and guidelines for the program.
See Table 5.2 to see who some of the highest‐ and lowest‐scoring companies for this variable are.
Table 5.2 Offers Flexibility Some Highest‐Scoring