How Flexible Work Arrangements Can Make Your Startup Stronger
Okay, it was never easy per se, but at least in the old days you could focus on your product/service and your company branding. In today’s talent-starved job market environment, however, you also need to worry about employer branding if you are ever going to attract the best talent to your organization. If you need a skilled barista and not just someone to stand behind a cash register, you’ll ned a strong employer brand. If you need a rockstar coder and not just a mercenary freelance programer to help you deliver cutting-edge tech solutions to your customers, you’ll need a strong employer brand.
Basically, no matter what kind of business you want to start, you’ll need an attractive employer brand.
And there is no better way to help your employer brand stand out from the competition than by offering your potential employees some sort of flexible work arrangement. Seventy-hour, do-or-die workweeks are out, and if you persist with this operating standard, you’re going to have a really hard time finding a sustainable stream of talent to fuel your business.
Rather, what you want to do is adopt a flexible work model that accounts for work-life balance. That’s how you’ll attract and retain the talent you need to deliver your products and services to the marketplace.
Research from PwC suggests that the majority of workers believe that work interferes with their personal lives in a negative way. These workers would love it if they could make their jobs more flexible, either through telecommuting options, creative scheduling, or some other approach.
This desire for flexible work arrangements may seem a little self-serving, but studies show that flexible work actually benefits employers, too. For example, Regus found that 72 percent of business around the world say flexible work practices lead directly to increased productivity, and 68 percent say that flexible work arrangements have lead to increased revenue.
And the good news is that, despite what the naysayers would have you believe, flexible work arrangements are pretty easy to implement.
Start by Creating More Flexible Work Hours
There are lots of ways to do this. For example, you could set your standard workweek at four days instead of five. This may sound like an odd decision, but plenty of experts argue that four-day workweeks can have powerful benefits for companies.
You could also institute an unlimited vacation policy, in which staff members are free to take as much time off as they want – as long as they effectively perform their jobs and meet agreed upon targets. A lot of very successful, big-name companies have adopted such policies, with great results.
Another way to give your workers more flexibility is to farm out work to freelancers on an as-needed basis. That way, employees won’t have to put in 10- or 12-hour days when crunch time hits, because they’ll have some extra help around.
Enable Telecommuting Options
This doesn’t mean you need to abolish the office and have all your employees work-remotely. Rather, you can keep it small by allowing employees to take a day or two per week to work from the comfort of their homes (if, of course, that’s feasible for your business).
A good way to implement such a policy this is to allow employees to book telecommuting time in half-day or day-long blocks, just like they would book holidays. This will allow you to keep track of who’s working from home and when, and it will help you make sure no one is taking advantage of the policy.
Support Your Mobile Workforce
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These days entrepreneurs must pay as much attention to employer branding as they do to company branding and product development if they are to attract and retain the right talent. Given that so many of today’s top candidates are crying out for flexible work arrangements, it makes sense that startups should start building flexible work into their business processes.
Otherwise, the competition may nab all the talent before you even have a chance.