Key takeaways
- Legal Empowerment: The Employment Act 1955 now grants employees the right to request Flexible Working Arrangements (FWA), marking a legal shift toward more adaptable work environments.
- Workplace Benefits: Flexibility enhances productivity, job satisfaction, and well-being, while also reducing costs and supporting diverse work styles and personal responsibilities.
- Implementation Challenges: Organizations must address issues like fairness, communication gaps, and performance tracking to ensure flexibility doesn't hinder operations.
- Strategic Execution: Success requires clear policies, employee input, digital tools, and regular performance reviews to balance autonomy with accountability.
Table of contents
- Introduction
- Advantages of the workspace flexibility concept
- Challenges of the workspace flexibility concept
- Tools to support workspace flexibility
- Optimising workspace flexibility: strategies for success
Introduction
The workplace has undergone substantial change, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the rapid advance of next-generation technologies. Buckminster Fuller stated, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” Workspace flexibility creates convenience through mobility and collaboration and extends beyond physical rooms in traditional environments.
The Employment Act 1955 has officially recognised the flexible working arrangement (FWA) concept, granting employees the statutory right to request FWA, in accordance with the provisions of the legislation.
Offering an appropriate work shift (for example, 7am to 4pm; 8am to 5pm; or 10am to 7pm), as compared to only one standard shift, allows employees to accommodate other responsibilities after or before working hours. The new lens in workplaces creates the autonomy for employees to choose when, where and how they work without compromising the quality of work provided. By giving employees the independence to choose, they will be happier, and this will improve productivity and create a positive workplace culture.
A study by Herman Miller revealed that an employee’s comfort in the workplace directly affects important predictors of operational efficiency such as productivity, job satisfaction, retention, well-being, and at its most basic level, worker’s health. Creating flexible workspaces can yield positive results in areas of employee engagement and job satisfaction.
Advantages of the workspace flexibility concept
The following are common reasons in favour of workspace flexibility:
- facilitates the freedom to use alternate workspaces and work outside traditional working hours
- promotes family-friendly workplace culture as it is beneficial for employees who need to take care of family members who are ill at home, or with school-going children
- allows the employee to work in a space comfortable for them
- caters to unique styles of working and work commitments; for example, a content reviewer prefers a more silent workspace to enhance focus on minute details
- increases interaction as employees can transfer their workspace over to a lounge or group area
- promotes a sense of camaraderie, especially with hotdesking
- allows start-ups or small businesses to save rental costs
- facilitates the gig economy, and allows freelancers and remote workers to work in a more conducive environment
- lowers turnover if employees are happy in a flexible culture
- values personal passions or hobbies outside of work
- saves overhead costs such as electricity, water, stationery supplies, printing costs and pantry supplies if fewer employees are at the physical office daily
- promotes a more diverse workforce
- reduces commuting stress due to travelling and saves costs.
Challenges of the workspace flexibility concept
The following are the potential obstacles to implementing workspace flexibility:
- employees becoming complacent in their work
- employers may have difficulty dealing with competing requests to work flexibly
- grievances among employees if their requests have been rejected
- accurate record-keeping is required by employers to monitor employees’ working hours
- communication may be a problem
- conducting training simultaneously for all employees.
Tools to support workspace flexibility
A digital workspace requires:
- office laptops and mobile devices
- a VPN setup
- cloud-based storage such as OneDrive
- communication platforms to conduct meetings/training such as Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet
- a digital document management system
- any other devices/software appropriate for each work need.
Optimising workspace flexibility: strategies for success
The following needs to be considered to implement an effective workspace flexibility approach:
- understanding and complying with the requirements of ss 60P and 60Q of the Employment Act 1955
- consulting with employees on what they want from a flexible workspace by conducting surveys
- considering the benefits to employees and the organisation
- developing well-drafted policies such as a “Flexible Working Policy”, which should be read in conjunction with the “Workplace Safety and Health Policy” and “Protecting Company’s Property While Working Remotely Policy”, in compliance with the relevant legislation
- assessing the impact on other team members or other departments
- ensuring employees understand that they need to adopt certain practices so that the arrangement does not negatively impact the rest of the team
- establishing effective communication procedures to ensure regular contact between employee and manager, especially in case of emergency
- monitoring employees’ behaviour and job performance
- mandating that employees engaged in a home-based work arrangement must agree to always be contactable and available for communication during normal business hours or hours agreed upon by their manager
- sharing mobile telephone numbers for employees working out of the office
- developing a leave calendar for each department that is shared among the team members
- ensuring employees are aware of their colleagues’ working hours
- mandating the use of an “Out-of-office” message when away
- determining if there are any potential pitfalls and deciding how to deal with them
- ascertaining the required budget for the tools required and the cost to the organisation; for example, the cost of purchasing laptops
- addressing incident reporting and management — workers’ compensation liability is purely limited to injuries and accidents sustained while carrying out work-related duties
- establishing a reasonable equilibrium between flexibility and physical presence in the office, if required
- ensuring no one is treated unfairly
- reviewing performance regularly
- keeping work desks tidy for the next colleague if hotdesking is adopted
- running a pilot phase over a defined timeframe.
Adopting a human-centric approach that prioritises employees’ needs and aspirations through workplace flexibility plays a vital role in maintaining engagement throughout their entire workplace journey.
