Key Words: Flexibility and Agile Working

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Author: Future Manager Research Center

This is a new era in the labour market. From a Company Welfare point of view workers are demanding and obtaining more benefits. Moreover, nowadays it has become essential having a perfect work – life balance and due to this, a lot of new jobs or hints have entered the labour market.

Of course, these changes are due to different factors but mainly it has to do with the fact that the percentage of women in the labour market has increased exponentially. What causes more changes in the labour market is that fact that these women are also moms. More and more females want to have both a successful career and have time for their children and, sometimes, their needs are met by the labour market.

So what are the news in the labour market and moreover what is the key word? Flexibility!

Flexibility at work but also flexibility as a trait for employees. A flexible employee has the willingness and ability to respond to changing circumstances and expectations readily. By definition, the term “flexibility” means the ability to bend or adapt to changing forces. Being flexible when it comes to work is worth a lot. Employees who approach their job with a flexible mind-set are typically more highly valued by employers.

Indeed, having employees willing to step outside their job description means employers can get more accomplished. Flexible workers who can take on more responsibilities, do different tasks, and have more to offer at their job place.

But being flexible also means that you must be in a workplace that allows you to be that way. The workplace must allow employers and employees to make arrangements about working conditions that suit them. This Help employees maintain a work / life balance and can help employers improve the productivity and efficiency of their business.

One of the most popular flexible tools at work is, of course working from home or “smart working”. It has become so essential that companies are being rated based on their flexibility. In the most recent list the first place is given to Appen; it is a technology services company based in Australia. Appen offers positions that are flexible, part time, and home based. You can work either a few hours a week or full time. Positions are available in different areas and they do offer micro – tasks, which are smaller jobs that can be completed form home in about an hour. As we can see from just this one example not only do companies have jobs from home available, but they also offer complete flexibility.

However, let us have a closer look to the most famous tool: Smart working! It is based on the concept of agile working and this phenomenon is increasingly prevalent in Italy, with 305,000 employees already taking advantage of it. Based on different researches the biggest advantage of smart working is the opportunity for employees to establish a better work – life balance.  In terms of what is needed to effectively incorporate smart working into a business, training is the factor to which most value is attributed. The second most valued factor is the need to restructure performance evaluation processes. If these two factors are perfectly implemented within the company then it is time to consider the need for a company to have up – to – date technological systems and the need for internal communications devoted to walking employees through the new approach.

Flexibility and agile working brings to a more effective productivity of employees.