5 ways science shows flexible work, works!
We all know the pitfalls of working long hours, week after week.
You know the ones, where you’re regularly into work before 8am to capitalise on the most productive hours of the day, then, blink and you’ll miss it, lunchtime’s here.
Then after back-to-back meetings and churning through a to-do list just as fast as it grows, five o’clock comes and goes and you’re lucky if you’re home and tucking into a takeaway dinner before 9pm.
While busy weeks can be exciting ahead of a special event, long hours add up.
Over time, you’ll feel tired and overworked. Your health is usually the first thing to suffer (looking at you, Chinese takeaway) and your motivation and productivity bottoms out by “hump day” Wednesday.
Endless appointments, following up colleagues for the 10th time about the same “trivial” thing, and an email inbox that never seems to sleep. Something’s got to give!
Thankfully flexible work is becoming more common and science has come to the party in proving WHY flexible work, well… works!
A recent Stanford University study showed that over nine months, flexible workers:
Were more productive and took fewer breaks
Had less sick days
Worked longer hours
Were happier in their roles; and
Had less job attrition
The results look like they’re taken from a management manual on how to get the most out of your office staff! Sign me up.
The 2014 study was run in a 16,000 employee, NASDAQ-listed Chinese firm, Ctrip – a travel agency call centre.
Employees who volunteered to work from home were randomly selected into a group who worked from home four days a week for nine months, and another group were in the office five days of the working week.
The experiment showed 13% increases in performance of the work from home group, the majority (9%) coming from employees working more minutes in their shift period while taking fewer breaks and sick days and also higher performance per minute of work (4%).
Flexible workers also reported higher work satisfaction and psychological attitude scores plus their job attrition rates fell by over 50%.
What’s more is that when the experiment ended and workers were able to choose whether to work flexibly at home or in the office, performance doubled!
Given the success of this study (and many others) in new management practices, it seems like a no brainer more businesses would be willing to try a gradual move towards new flexible work policies.
The key is having a conversation about flexible work and educating management of the benefits and then showing them the hard results.
Who wouldn’t want to report increased productivity, less sick days, happier employees with a greater commitment to the job and less staff turnover!
Best,
Lauren
P.S. What would you do with the extra time saved from not having to commute?