Dubai: Companies that introduce flexible working policies are reaping some positive benefits.
According to the annual Absence Management survey by CIPD and Simplyhealth in the UK, more than 70 per cent of the organisations reported that introducing flexible working options in the past year has had a positive impact on absence levels.
The findings of the study supported an earlier research, released last year, which showed that flexible working is actually good for business.
A report by UK-based charity Chwarae Teg and the Institute of Welsh Affairs showed that organisations that introduced flexible working policies had seen improvements in productivity and financial savings.
“Staff were also reported to be more focused, more motivated and more willing to work flexibly in their employer’s favour as the business need arose,” the report said.
Introducing flexible working arrangements should, however, be done on a case by case basis. Elie Georgiou-Botaris, senior consultant at Towers Watson, said flexible working policies such as telecommuting can be introduced depending on the nature of work and performance level of the employee.
“Some employees need to be in the office to be fully functional. For example, some employees require certain tools or computer programmes that they do not have access to outside of the office.”
“So long as the employee continues to produce high quality results within prescribed time frames, organisations should look to be flexible as to the location of the employees. This will in turn motivate employees and drive productivity,” Botaris said.
