Flexibility at work is good for business

The COVID-19 pandemic transformed the way individuals across the world worked.

According to a new report by the International Labor Organization (ILO), the biggest impact the pandemic had on the labor market was a reduction in number of hours worked. This was linked with a desire to “contain the spread of infections by contact restrictions, the closure of plants and economic activities or even curfews”.

Unemployment rose, and more women withdrew from the workforce, often to take on increased caregiving responsibilities.

In response governments and organizations supported short-term work contracts and job sharing more than ever before; “the aim of these provisions was to maintain employment levels as far as possible, despite the sharp decline in the volume of work”, according to the ILO research.

More flexibility around working hours also emerged, which “enabled individuals – as well as companies, enterprises and industries – to collectively reduce the hours of work following a trend already generated before the crisis, while at the same time creating the possibility of increasing hours of work for new economic bottleneck areas, such as in the healthcare or pharmaceutical industries, if required”.

Beyond flexibility over when employees worked, COVID-19 also pushed employees to rethink where people worked. Full-time remote work became the norm for office-based work, enabled by technology.

The ILO report noted: “Without the willingness of employees to work both time-flexibly and location-flexibly during the pandemic and especially during the times of lockdown, the negative effects on the economy would probably have been even greater. Flexibility was and is necessary in times of crisis.”

The increased flexibility from COVID-19 crisis measures were also benefits for employees and business – this included increased productivity and high retention rates. Employers who quickly restricted flexibility once the crisis eased are now suffering with higher attrition in the ‘Great Resignation’.

Striking the right work life balance

Despite the positives of workers’ flexibility, these crisis solutions are not a silver bullet in the long term. It is crucial to remember that “flexibility was often provided informally and not regulated”, and it has been associated with increased burnout and damaged work life balance.

2022 was the worst year for burnout on record, according to Gartner, and Workday’s research found that the risk of employees burning out has been rising during the pandemic.

Burnout is a leading cause of sky-high quit rates in the ‘Great Resignation’, which has been costly for businesses.

All of this is very worrying for employers since happy employees are more productive.

Work life balance is associated with many benefits for employees and employers alike – including better mental and physical health, higher productivity, lower absenteeism and increased loyalty and commitment to the organization.

Therefore, policy makers and organizations need to learn from the COVID-19 pandemic and “look very carefully at the way working hours are structured, as well as their overall length, we can create a win-win, improving both business performance and work-life balance”, stated Jon Messenger, lead author of the ILO report.

Of course, this is much easier said than done. Employers can start by prioritizing health and safety, as well as ensuring employees have a clear boundary between their work and personal lives. The latter is especially important for remote workers who often struggle with switching off outside of their working hours.

ILO’s report also made it very clear, however, that employers must ensure employees have a say in the working models, particularly around hours.

According to the report, mismatches around the number of hours employees worked and the number of hours they wanted to work – otherwise known as underemployment and overemployment – is negative for work life balance and employee satisfaction.

Currently, one in three workers have some kind of mismatch, and this impacts their wellbeing, the conflict between their working and personal lives and drives higher attrition rates.

“Having a degree of control over their hours of work facilitates better working-time matches for workers, leading to a greater likelihood of job satisfaction,” noted the report.

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