Dump the 9 to 5. Arguably it belongs to the 20th Century. Increasing numbers of employees work flexibly (ever phoned your bank at 8 pm or placed an online order at 10 pm?). It produces results not just for the end customer but for employers too.
A recent survey estimates that 46% of the working population seek flexible working options. So if you include flexible working in a job advertisement you almost double the pool of candidates likely to apply. Since there are so few (6%) of job advertisements offering flexible working you might even treble or quadruple your applicants.
So what is the challenge?
Flexible working can take many forms:
- Variable hours – computerised scheduling processes (contact us) help match employees’ time preferences to business needs
- Part-time work which is very popular – again it can be “juggled” with minimal difficult in many, although not all, cases
- Add shifts – in my manufacturing experience the “twilight” shift was always well-liked
- Working from home – not right for every job but with modern technology easy to provide and to monitor
- Job sharing – when a job is shared you may get 120% because each participant is just that little bit less stretched and the right employees will give a little bit extra
- Zero hours – much more attractive than given credit for
- Term-time working – can be coupled with part-time, job-sharing perhaps, or zero hours