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Fully flexible work arrangements - are employees for or against them?

Fully flexible work arrangements - are employees for or against them?

 

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Having a fully flexible working arrangement could change how people work - for instance, gone will be the nine-five working days, and in will come a set of working hours tailored to an employee's needs/preferences. Further, this could mean lesser reliance on the office environment, and more access to working from anywhere, as long as targets and goals are achieved. 

Nearly eight in 10 employees (79%) surveyed recently are in favour of such an arrangement, Perkbox has noted.

Of the 1,600 respondents, close to nine in 10 (85%) said having such policies would indeed improve work-life balance, while slightly more than half (53%) believed it could make employees more engaged and productive; and 50% said it would allow them to feel more in control of their own workloads. 

While this was so, a lower percentage (9%) said they either disagreed or strongly disagreed with this concept. Why? According to about four in 10 (43%), this could mean some employees may do more work than others; while 37% said companies may, as a result, feel like less of a team. 

What was also noteworthy was that some respondents even felt this could make it harder for them to maintain workplace friendships (34%).

Overall, a much smaller share of respondents (2%) felt having a fully flexible working policy would not have any impact on the workplace. 

How do employees feel about pay transparency?

Apart from the above, respondents were also asked how they felt about knowing what their colleagues earned.

To this, a little more than six in 10 (61%) thought having partial pay transparency was a good idea, while 15% felt it wasn't a good idea.

Zooming in to which demographics really felt this way - more women than men felt that partial pay transparency was a good idea (63% vs 59%); at the same time, slightly more men than women (19% vs 17%) thought full pay transparency was a good idea.

On the lower end of the spectrum, 6% in total were unsure of whether it was a good or bad idea.

Interestingly, respondents also noted that having pay transparency would be the biggest driver of productivity and motivation - with 70% feeling so. According to the survey, this suggests that if companies were to make salary information available internally, they may be able to drive greater productivity and higher results from their employees who are driven by seeing what those at other levels within the company are earning.

Gamification - could this be the way to increase employee motivation?

Yes, say 56% of respondents. In fact, more than half of them even believed the use of gamification could help recognise people for their achievements, while more than one-third felt it could help with team building.

Lastly, one in three also felt that gamification in the workplace could help improve efficiency. It’s believed it could help employees receive more up-to-date feedback (29%), which could, in turn, help employees to feel more fulfilled and engaged in work.

Photo / 123RF

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