During a conversation with my mother, we came to discuss working conditions in companies today.
I was talking to him about 4-day weeks, teleworking, flexible hours... Everything that the “Millennials” generation expects from a job according to HR media!
But against all odds, instead of being shocked and releasing the classic “young people today don't want to work anymore”, she said to me “oh I would have liked to have had these advantages!”
And so I said to myself: what if boomers also wanted flexibility?
It is often said that they are very resistant to change and that they like to work classic physical schedules in the office. But what if we were wrong all along the line?
Survey (ah ah).
The 3 components of flexible working
To begin with, we will look at the “components” of flexible working, to make sure that we are all talking about the same thing.
Jacob Morgan, the author of “The Future of Work” and co-founder of Chess Media Group, talks about the following 3 components:
- ”Working Anytime”: work anytime
- ”Working Anywhere”: work anywhere
- ”Focusing on Outputs, Not Inputs”: focus on results, not on resources
So let's go over these 3 points in detail.
- Working Anytime, it means being able to work at the hours when you are most productive. For some of your employees, it will be a matter of working normal hours, but for others, productivity will be more important after 11:00 a.m. and until 8:00 p.m. And for still others, it will rather be from 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. In fact, it's a bit like everyone wants! If these ultra-flexible hours do not match your activity, nothing prevents you from setting a framework. For example, companies ask employees to choose their hours between 6:00am and 10:00pm, in order to still schedule meetings or to focus on exchanges during the day. It's up to you to find the happy mix that you like!
- Working Anywhere, this point is quite simple to understand: it means working from where you want. But really anywhere. If you have a good connection on the beach in the Canary Islands while sipping your cocktail with your feet in the sand, that's it! In fact, you just need to make sure that your Internet connection is strong enough to be able to work.
- Focusing on Outputs Not Inputs, according to Jacob, this is the point most forgotten by companies that want to practice flexwork. In other words, it's what your employees “give back” to you, not the time they're going to spend on it. You don't really care that Michel spends 50 hours on this presentation, the objective is for him to do it. Whatever the means. This component is super important, it prevents you from falling into micromanagement and “coping” at the opposite end of flexwork. It also makes it possible to make your teams more autonomous and to show them that you trust them!
Now that you know these 3 principles, I will explain to you why it is ABSOLUTELY necessary to adopt flexwork in your business.
Retain your top talents (brain drain)
A little crazy statistic to start with: according to MomCorps, 45% of adult workers in the US would agree to be paid 9% less and have a little more flexibility in their schedules and their work.
45%.
It's just huge! And in that 45%, there are of course not only Millennials. Boomers are also interested in this new way of working.
Another crazy statistic: 73% of adult workers find flexibility to be one of the most important factors when looking for a new job. This figure has increased by 10% since 2012.
In fact, this flexibility brings autonomy to your teams, allows them to work as they want on the projects they want and gives them a super interesting work-life balance. It's super motivating, and it prevents you from having zombies on your premises!
In short, you will have understood it: if you want to attract new talent of all ages or keep your top talents in your company, adopt flexwork.
Why isn't everyone doing it anymore?
If it's “siiiiii awesome,” why don't all businesses do it? It's a bit like everything: change is not easy. Already, HR and managers need to believe in it (first step). Then, the company must be ready for: organization, tools and management level.
- Management side, as we saw above, we must adopt the “not inputs but outputs” approach. It seems simple as it sounds, but many managers and HR are not yet ready for this transition. This means: no longer looking at the schedules, not monitoring the progress of work from day to day, not checking everything at each stage... It means trusting your teams and waiting for the result.
- For the organization, it's simple: offer your employees the equipment they need for remote work (laptop, smartphone, etc.). You can even cover transport costs if they are partially teleworking!
- Finally, on the tools, you normally already had to make this transition with Covid-19 in 2020: plan effective communication tools for your teams to exchange with each other, even remotely. At Beedeez, we work quite a bit with Gather. It's a kind of virtual reality where everyone has their own virtual office, and where you can go into meeting spaces to chat with others. It's not bad at all!
For more “older” teams, it is important to also plan training sessions and to get started with these new tools. Generation Z and Millennials will have no trouble getting used to it, but for Boomers, it may take a bit longer.
Why is it for all generations?
In his book, Jacob talks about the “Fabulous Five”, or the 5 big generations of our time.
- The Traditionalists: born before 1946
- The Boomers: born between 1946 and 1964
- Generation X: born between 1965 and 1976
- Millennials: born between 1977 and 1997
- Generation Z: born after 1997
I'm taking the “Traditionalists” out of the discussion because most of them are retired now. The other 4 generations currently live together in the world of work and have different desires and expectations. But overall, we find something in common: they can all like flexwork.
- Boomers: working at their own pace, manager confidence, time to be with family
- Generation X: possibility to work everywhere (even abroad), flexible hours if they have children to manage, possibility to organize their work as they want according to their experience
- Millennials: autonomy, leadership on their projects, meaningful work
- Generation Z: connected, new tools, new ways of working, innovation
In fact, everyone can relate to it.
Objective 2022: launch flexwork in your company!
