Flexible working is the future

By Samuel Sanya

Most working mothers would welcome the opportunity to stay at home and still deliver on the job. Employees looking to make extra money can now work two jobs via the Internet.

It’s called flexible working; sometimes the words flexi-time and flexi-place are used to describe this new phenomenon that’s sweeping over the world, Uganda included.

The flexible working movement is all about allowing employees, especially those with children less than 6 years to balance work and family obligations.

Under this movement, employees get to work the same number of hours as they would at a normal 8:00am to 5:00pm job and to be equally productive, however, they get to divide the hours between working at the office and at home.

An employee could choose the work between 10:00am and 3:00pm at the office pick their children from school and spend some time with them and still deliver on their assignments between 6:00pm and 10:00pm.

Recruitment is an expensive process that many businesses are keen to reduce. It’s cheaper to keep your employees than to lose them and flexible working is one proven method of keeping staff.

Human resource management site Hr.com notes that companies spend between 4% to 400% of a departing member of staff’s annual salary to recruit their replacement.

Even then, a new recruit only achieves up to 60% output in the first three months of employment and it takes at least six months for an employee to become ‘value adding, according to a survey by Regus, a global workplace provider.

Ugandans want flexible working The Regus survey reveals that most working Ugandans now regard flexible working as a make-or-break for job offers.

The survey canvassed the opinions of more than 20,000 senior executives and business owners across 95 countries including Uganda. Up to 74% of the respondents pointed to flexible working as a perk that attracts top talent.

80% reveal that they would choose one job over another similar one, if it offered flexible working hours.

Another 73% confirm that flexible working also improves staff retention. Lower staff turnover would result into reduced hiring costs and the ability to attract and retain top staff talent.

More findings revealed that 70% of respondents said that flexible working makes employees more loyal, and 63% say they would have stayed longer in their last position if flexible working had been an option.

“Flexible working, which is cheaper than fixed office working, offers the attractive perks of lower stress and better work, family balance,” said Joanne Bushell, the vice president for Regus Africa.