The Hindu Business Line : In search of the flexible employer

Flexibility will be the defining dimension for being seen as a preferred employer in the coming years. Unfortunately, while more and more organisations are spending a lot of time and money to unravel the mystery of ‘engagement’, few are willing to recognise flexibility as a critical driver of this engagement.

Ganesh Chella

Monica who has just had a baby works three days a week from home and visits her workplace once to meet the team and take stock.

Prakash works in Mumbai but his family has decided not to move. Thankfully his employer has permitted him to travel home every week-end.

Vikas has just interviewed for his new role through the internal job posting process. He wants to move because he has been in his current role for 18 long months.

These and hundreds of others are constantly seeking that golden privilege from their employers — flexibility. It is my belief that “flexibility” will be the defining dimension for being seen as a preferred employer in the coming years. Unfortunately, while more and more organisations are spending a lot of time and money to unravel the mystery of ‘engagement’, few are willing to recognise flexibility as a critical driver of this engagement.

Why is flexibility becoming so important?

Organisations are demanding it: The quest for flexibility was triggered in many ways by organisations.

Organisations want flexibility in their staffing models and the employment structures. They have also come to expect flexibility in the way they define the boundaries of work and home. Most important, they have come to expect significant flexibility in the way they pay and reward their employees.

Coping with this new way of working obviously led to a high level of flux in the minds of employees who were brought up to think of employment as a stable, long-term, predictable relationship.

While many who were already in employment saw it as a huge problem, those who entered the labour market under these flexible conditions, are beginning to see it as an opportunity, a new found freedom, excitement and fun.

Technology is making flexibility possible: Technology is certainly helping organisations to come up with ways in which they can make work life flexible, especially if that can help them access scarce and low-cost talent pools. The limits of what technology can do to enable flexibility are being pushed by the day and we know little about what the future holds.

Scarcity is enabling it: In times of scarcity, organisations are willing to dilute their bureaucratic frameworks and become flexible. Nothing seems to be more important than getting the employee to work for you. If this meant that we throw the policy manual into the garbage bin, so be it.

Women need it: While everyone wants flexibility, women need it the most, given that they continue to play the role of homemakers. With more and more women entering the workforce, flexibility is becoming the key to attracting and retaining women and ensuring sustainable careers for them.

Dimensions of flexibility: There are at least five dimensions of flexibility that employees are beginning to value and demand:

Flexibility in structuring the work day: If work comes home, the home has to come into the workplace. If work keeps me away for home for long, it must be okay for the home to keep me away from work at least for a while, with no penalties. It cannot be a one way street any longer — organisations cannot expect that employees come in on time, but cannot expect to leave on time.

Women will especially insist on greater flexibility in the way they can design their work day. Sensible organisations are already waking up to this reality.

Structuring the workplace: Closely linked to the work day is the workplace. Employees are increasingly wanting to explore ways in which they can get at least some of their work done remote.

The pressures of commuting in any of our metros and the crunch on office space will fast drive the demand for greater flexibility in defining the workplace and smart organisations will respond quickly.

Structuring the place of residence: Big career breaks cannot mean breaks in the careers of spouses or disruption in the education of children. This is a realisation among many families. Employers are beginning to respect this and thanks to diminishing costs of air travel, more and more employees are choosing to travel during the week to return to their abode for the week-ends. Look at any of our airports on Monday mornings and you will see this for yourself!

Structuring the employment contract: Given the need for autonomy or the desire to pursue other interests or the need to keep options open, many employees are designing their employment contracts around their special needs.

Someone is on contract, someone is part-time, someone is a consultant, someone is moonlighting and someone else is temping. Organisations are making a bold departure from their traditional employment models and fast encouraging these arrangements.

Structuring the career: This is the last bastion of the bureaucratic organisation and is taking some effort undoing. Employees are still unable to design their own careers within their organisations. For one, most employees are thoroughly unclear about what they are good at and what they want. Organisations are also grappling with the task of making internal career mobility a lasting reality.

Most important, organisations are unable to come to terms with employees who have diverse interests and may not fit into the stereotypical “high performing” employee. There is a tendency to measure everyone with a common scale and look down upon the so called soldiers or differently talented employees.

Tomorrow’s successful employers will be those with a high Flexibility Quotient — those that can incorporate as many of these flexibility needs as possible into their value proposition and not see all their employees through a single filter. So, what is your FQ?

(The author is the founder and CEO of totus consulting, a strategic HR Consulting firm. He is also the co-founder of the Executive & Business Coaching Foundation India Limited. He can be reached at ganesh@totusconsulting.com)

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