Deciding to offer more flexibility to your employees through remote or hybrid scheduling, or by increasing time off, shouldn’t be viewed as just an “operational expense.” Over the years, these types of benefits have been strategically implemented by businesses to drive better team performance.
Many employees today place a high value on autonomy. The idea of someone constantly looking over their shoulder while working, or of being burned out due to a lack of vacation days, is enough to send employees to job boards.
However, when your business views employee flexibility as a tool for growth rather than just an additional cost, you can help create a more motivated workforce that builds a more resilient business as it scales.
Employee Benefits Have a New Baseline
While most businesses have a specific template for designing their hiring strategies, the conversation around employee compensation and benefits is continually evolving. Although a competitive salary helps attract an employee’s attention, keeping it over the long term takes a bit more work.
Talent Market Demands
Workplace expectations have changed over the years. Now, with remote working opportunities popping up, being able to get some level of scheduling flexibility has become almost just as important as a good quality paycheck. It’s not just the “role” that individuals look at anymore, it’s the “lifestyle” it can afford.
Although every business is different and will need to consider whether off-site work is feasible, it’s important to keep your hiring structures adaptable to the times. Having overly rigid policies without any real operational rationale just reduces the talent pool you have to work with.
The Autonomy Shift
There is a common misconception that extending greater autonomy to employees inevitably leads to laziness, especially when employees aren’t required to work in the office. However, most high-performing employees can get more done in less time when they’re not “on the clock.”
Strictly monitoring attendance and ensuring start and end times are enforced may seem to keep people productive, but often the opposite occurs. Micromanaging tells employees, in so many words, that management doesn’t trust them to deliver their assignments unless strict guardrails are in place. This actually saps motivation rather than improving it.
How More Flexibility Can Positively Impact the Bottom Line
Having a more open mind about workplace flexibility does more than keep employees actively engaged. It can help protect your profit margins in ways that may not be immediately apparent.
Decreased Turnover Costs
You never want to lose sight of how impactful to your budget increased employee turnover can be. Often, the costs of replacing an employee can exceed their annual salary. This is due to high recruitment fees, resources spent on onboarding and training, and productivity losses as the new team member gets up to speed.
Beyond recruitment costs, there are also losses that can emerge over time, especially if a highly tenured employee is involved. They take with them years of business knowledge that isn’t always documented, and can be hard for the business to recover quickly.
Overhead Reduction
One of the most significant savings opportunities for businesses that allow more flexible employee work schedules is a reduction in overhead expenses. The more employees who are comfortable working from home or in temporary off-site offices, the less budget is needed for commercial real estate, office infrastructure, and utility expenses.
This provides greater flexibility for businesses to invest in other critical areas, such as product development, marketing campaigns, or expansion into new markets.
Improved Productivity Metrics
Measuring value is subjective, but it’s important for businesses to rethink how they approach this topic in the context of employee performance management. Focusing more on hours worked rather than projects delivered is a metric that rarely correlates with profit gains and losses.
Transitioning to a result-based management approach helps to shift leadership focus to what actually matters for the business – the work getting done. When employees are evaluated on their contributions to the business, it helps incentivize greater efficiency in their day-to-day tasks.
Taking this approach often helps improve overall profitability for the business, since you’re paying for forward momentum rather than just filling seats.
Reducing Employee Turnover
Improving your employee retention can be approached in a few different ways, but it’s not just about having ping-pong tables or snacks in the office. Keeping employees loyal to the business long-term is more about helping each individual feel genuinely valued by the business. Flexible PTO policies help to establish and build on their foundation of respect.
Building Trust Through Feedback
The best way to know what your employees value in their compensation and benefits programs is to ask them directly. Openness to benefits surveys shows that leadership is actually listening and willing to make changes in alignment with their employees’ needs.
When staff see their feedback change a policy, it creates a sense of ownership. They stop feeling like just employees and start feeling like partners in helping to build and improve the company culture.
Loyalty During Tough Times
All businesses hit rough patches at one point or another. Getting through these situations depends on various factors, but a crucial one is having employees who are deeply passionate about helping the business overcome the challenges it faces.
If an organization respects personal time when things are calm, employees are far more likely to dig in when things aren’t going so smoothly. It’s essential always to remember that loyalty works both ways. People who feel the business takes care of their needs are much more likely to stay with the company during a crisis. Those who think their work is going unappreciated will likely be the first to leave if there are signs of distress in the business.
The Cost of “Presenteeism”
There is a hidden cost to employees working while sick or mentally “checked out.” While at first glance, not taking additional sick or vacation days might look like dedication, this can sometimes actually be “presenteeism,” where employees are physically present, but not really paying attention to what they’re doing.
While this can happen from time to time, if allowed to persist, this mentality can negatively impact employee productivity and morale. An employee who’s always working through burnout will often make mistakes that others have to fix. Because of this, it is far more efficient to encourage time off so that the employee can return at full capacity than to operate at half-speed for weeks.
Modifying Your Business’s Operational Structure
Just because you’re offering more flexibility in your business doesn’t mean you don’t need to have structure. For it to work, you need the right balance of control and adaptability.
Guardrails vs. Gates
Effective management policies have certain guardrails in place without being overly rigid. Instead of dictating every minute of an employee’s workday, establish clear expectations, such as core hours for collaboration.
This keeps the team aligned without killing autonomy. A smart move here is applying the “look-back” measurement method to your benefits calculations. Instead of trying to predict eligibility based on a rigid schedule, look at the actual hours worked over a standard measurement period. This ensures your benefits spend is accurate and compliant, even when schedules fluctuate.
Asynchronous Workflows
When the team isn’t in the same business, you have to get more creative about assigning workloads and checking in on their status. Shifting to asynchronous workflows and better documentation can help here.
While this might take some effort to set up, it’s what will help to keep your business scalable regardless of who works in the office or at home.
Manager Skillsets
The biggest hurdle to creating more flexibility in employee work arrangements is often management styles. Increased employee flexibility can sometimes expose certain skill gaps in managers who typically rely on visual observation to see if people are performing.
Managers should be trained specifically on how to help improve employee performance based on their output, not their physical presence. If a leader can’t assess performance without watching the employee, that’s a skill gap that should be addressed.
Preventing Common Pitfalls in Leave Policy Design
Even with good intentions, business policies can sometimes backfire if they don’t cover certain fundamentals.
Not Establishing Mandatory Minimums
Another way to prevent burnout among employees is to mandate a minimum time off. Requiring staff to disconnect for a set number of days helps to ensure they’re able to recharge their batteries and is an important way to help build a more sustainable workforce.
Mandatory PTO minimums also remove the guilt of employees taking a break when they need it.
Forgetting to Enforce Leadership Adoption
Of course, no business initiatives will work long-term if the C-Suite doesn’t participate. A company can have the best policy on paper, but if the executives never take a vacation or send emails while they’re supposed to be “offline,” the policy doesn’t hold much weight.
Keep Your Business Flexible
Having a flexible business model is critical to building and retaining a great team. By following the strategies discussed and seeking opportunities to enhance the value of your benefits offerings, you’ll build a lasting, positive culture within your organization that reduces staff turnover and helps the business scale more sustainably.
