Advertorial for IWG
By Katie Cunningham
There’s a simple way to attract the top staff in 2024, and it has little to do with salary, research shows that the real perk today’s employees are looking for is flexible working.
Many HR executives consider flexible working an effective recruitment tool.
In practise, flexible working can mean different things to different people, but it generally describes an approach to working that blends remote work with time spent in a traditional office setting.
According to Stanford University’s Professor Nicholas Bloom, a renowned global expert on the topic, employees value flexible working so much that they equate it with getting a pay increase of around 7 or 8 per cent. And new research from IWG, the global leader in workspace solutions, has found that 88 per cent of employees consider flexible working to be the leading benefit they would expect in a new role.
It’s not hard to see why more professionals want the ability to work from home. The advantages are numerous: less time and money spent commuting, more time for things that improve their wellbeing, like exercise, and greater ease in managing childcare arrangements.
So in-demand is the ability to work flexibly that many now consider it a must-have. IWG’s The Future of Work report, which forecasts workplace trends for 2024, found that almost half of workers would only consider roles that allowed them to work in a flexible way. And a survey from Microsoft found that more than half of workers would consider quitting their job if their flexible-working policy was axed.
The secret to a “smart” company
Flexible working can mean different things to different people.
More executives are waking up to the importance of offering their staff a flexible model. IWG’s polling of HR executives in the US found that 95 per cent consider the offer of flexible working an effective recruitment tool.
“Workplace flexibility is now the number-one driver of why employees are looking to move to other opportunities,” says Josh Brenner, CEO of recruitment company Hired. “Companies that have forced people back to the office for a full five-day-a-week schedule have seen really large attrition because of that and are seeing workers starting to look around for other opportunities.”
Smart companies today are allowing staff to work remotely much of the week, bringing the team together one day a week for collaboration and team bonding. This model has benefits for the employer, too, allowing them to move to smaller hybrid hubs like the sort offered by IWG, and saving them money on costly office-space rent along the way.
Ongoing academic research by Stanford University predicts that between a third and a half of white-collar workers will continue to work in a flexible way in the long-term. And IWG’s recent survey of CEOs found that three-quarters expect to still be operating a flexible model five years from now.
The majority of those CEOs also reported that offering a flexible workplace increased employee happiness and productivity, as well as resulting in higher employee retention and attraction rates.
Winning back time is a winning formula
For employees, the benefits of a flexible workplace extend far beyond their 40-hour week. Take the lunch hour. In an office, it’s often sacrificed altogether as employees are pulled into meetings as they eat. A work-from-home day allows workers to “reclaim” their lunch hour and put it to good use: by hitting an exercise class, tackling some life admin like the grocery run, going for a walk in the sun or sitting down with a good book. It gives them more time back in their day for themselves.
“This is a great example of the way in which flexible working improves our lives,” says Mark Dixon, founder and CEO of IWG. “One of the greatest strengths of flexible working is the way in which it empowers us to reclaim our own time. By ditching the traditional nine-to-five in favour of more flexible arrangements, we give ourselves space to do the things that make our lives better.”
Dixon feels the modern workplace is undergoing an exciting and essential change.
“As each year goes by, it becomes clearer that we’re living through a landmark era of transformation in working life,” he says. “Look at how the geography of work is shifting, as more and more people get to live their dream of working close to home.
“There’s no doubt that flexibility is here to stay – and it’s changing the world for the better.”
IWG’s extensive network includes leading workspace brands Regus, Spaces, HQ and Signature. To discover how Regus can help you find a better work-life balance visit regus.com/success.