Good people are hard to find and we have fewer resources to pull from. With everyone chasing the best people, businesses are really going to have to ‘pull it out of the bag’. Money is seldom the main driver for employees, it may attract them to apply but you won’t retain them if the benefits don’t give them a work life balance.
Employers must sell themselves and promote company benefits more than ever before in order to compete with other employers. It’s not enough to offer good salary, absence, wellness and pension packages, what employees want is flexibility, which could include different work patterns, working from home and more holidays! Actually, this is what people have always wanted but it seemed out of reach.
There are very few positives about the Pandemic but one thing has emerged, employers have had to think ‘outside the box’ in order to keep their businesses going. We’ve seen that it can work and why shouldn’t we automatically flex to accommodate a work and personal life balance. More importantly, why haven’t we done this before?
There are always roles which are a little trickier to organise, they may require shift work, an early start or overnight but believe me, there is usually a ‘work around’, if we are open to it.
The government together with the CIPD have written a consultation paper on making flexible working a day one right, https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/making-flexible-working-the-default This is not only good news for individual employees but this is great for families.
I’ve always believed that women are disproportionately affected when an employer refuses to offer flexible working arrangements, so it’s time to do a bit of ‘levelling up’!
With staff shortages, we must do all we can do encourage women and mothers back into the workplace. Part-time workers need more opportunities. Why are the best jobs reserved for full-time employees? People who work part time are no less committed that their full-time counterparts and yet they are so often overlooked.
Flexible working can improve employment outcomes for women, who are currently struggling with childcare. We must also be prepared to upskill our current workforce to ensure we have the skills we need to keep this country going.
The CIPD have created a great little graphic which provides a few ideas about the types of flexible working.flex-from-1st-infographic-types-of-flexible-working_tcm18-99648