When companies are considering employee compensation packages, most will focus on building out competitive starting salaries and traditional benefits offerings. While these are absolutely fantastic starting points, many times modern employees value flexibility as an important deciding factor when choosing an employer and sticking it out for the long haul.
Successful businesses don’t just view extra autonomy for employees as a “nice-to-have.” Instead, they view initiatives like offering additional PTO or extending the ability to work remotely as important for building more motivated teams and fueling their growth.
By transitioning away from focusing on hours worked toward what’s being delivered, businesses can gain many efficiency benefits while also building stronger, more loyal relationships with their employees.
The Shifting Baseline of Employee Benefits
Of course, getting a regular paycheck is an important motivation driver for all employees. However, most businesses learn from employee benefits surveys that, while a competitive salary is important, many employees want more freedom and flexibility in their daily work routines.
This need has become so important for many workers that they view work flexibility and greater control over their work location as dealbreakers when comparing job offers. There are so many benefits to being allowed to work from home or take additional time off that many would be willing to pass up slightly higher pay scales rather than sacrifice their flexibility.
For businesses, this is essentially an investment in their employees that can pay off in the long term. By offering more flexible working arrangements that may not fully align with a company’s core hours, the positive ROI can often be seen in increased output and better employee performance.
The other benefit from showcasing a more flexible hiring approach is that the business is able to bring in additional resumes for consideration. By offering remote or hybrid hiring conditions, this often widens the talent pool, with more individuals feeling compelled to apply.
Measuring Team Flexibility With Return on Investment (ROI)
Decreasing the Hidden Costs of Churn and Burnout
Many businesses make the mistake of underestimating just how expensive it can be when their employees quit. Having to replace a senior manager or a niche specialist has proven to cost considerably more than just the recruitment fees alone.
There are also many less visible costs that can continuously drain business resources, such as losing highly valuable institutional knowledge that only they had, projects stalling out, and the months of lost productivity while getting new hires up to speed.
While the initial investment of offering employees more PTO than required might seem high, these added initiatives are the elements that help the business reduce turnover. Compared to high recruitment costs, these investments easily provide returns that make them worth it in the long run.
Improving Operational Efficiency and Profitability
One of the reasons why so many businesses are switching to distributed workforce models is the lower operating costs that often come with it. When you don’t have to worry about paying for the dedicated workspace, on-premise infrastructure or real estate to keep employees productive, all of this can go back into the business budget.
This means more of the business capital can be allocated to other important initiatives, such as product development, marketing outreach, and improved operational capabilities. It also means that your business can scale its customer support outside of just core business hours. With more employees working across different time zones, you can start to expand the level of service you provide.
Offering this type of working flexibility also opens up recruitment processes to national or global talent pools. Often, these candidates have specialized skill sets that aren’t easy to source locally, giving you a stronger competitive edge in the industry.
Re-engineering Workflows for an Adaptive Culture
Guardrails, Not Gates: Redefining Accountability
Traditional office working frameworks made it relatively easy for managers to track performance. Because everyone worked in the same location, it was easy to apply a standard look-back measurement method to gauge attendance, productivity, and benefits eligibility.
However, flexible working models mean more employees handle their workloads off-site. This has created a need for leadership teams to adapt their management styles based on the new norm.
One of the most effective ways to still achieve the productivity from employees needed, even when they’re out of sight, is to focus more on output than on input. This means re-engineering workflows so that employees feel more empowered to get the job done when and how they see fit. So long as projects are being finished and employees are caring for the needs of their roles, managers shouldn’t dwell too long on where and when employees work to achieve these objectives.
Taking these steps helps employees take greater accountability for how they work outside the office, while managers can focus on other high-level tasks rather than micromanaging smaller ones.
Training Leaders for Remote and Hybrid Employee Management
Middle managers often struggle most with adapting their leadership styles to flexible working arrangements. It’s hard to blame them for this since, for decades, management teams were trained to focus on the clock and try to maximize efficiency throughout the day. However, it’s important to remain agile as a business, and this means looking for opportunities to help your managers learn and grow as well.
Investing in remote and hybrid team management training is a meaningful way to help managers adapt to the new working landscape. With the right tools and training, managers can learn how to spot roadblocks with their remote teams, identify when potential burnout is creeping in, and gain better insight into the professional growth of their departments.
Make Flexibility an Added Company Perk
Adding more flexibility to your employee offerings can give you a considerable advantage over other businesses.
By focusing more on your employees’ output rather than where they’re working, you can help build a stronger, more trusting relationship with your teams while reducing your operational costs.
Author Bio: Frank Mengert
Frank Mengert continues to find success by spotting opportunities where others see nothing. As the founder and CEO of ebm, a leading provider of employee benefits solutions. Frank has built the business by bridging the gap between insurance and technology driven solutions for brokers, consultants, carriers, and employers nationwide.
