The benefits of flexible work arrangements are hard to ignore when it comes to employing IT professionals. The specific benefits that result from hybrid work are often overlooked by employers.
That isn’t to say it’s their fault. It’s naturally difficult to find flexible work arrangements and examples of them that prove their benefits to employers long ago. However, the statistics changed after the COVID-19 global pandemic which forced hybrid working for many companies.
Since then there has been a gradual increase in work arrangements that differ from the traditional onsite. The overwhelming amount of positive reviews and effects have guaranteed that this work environment will become a stable opportunity for employees in the long run.
IT professionals also include this statistic. Their job mainly runs on software and other technology-related business processes which can be easily handled remotely depending on their specialty. Learn more about the benefits of flexible work arrangements that can ultimately save your company from costs, increase your employee’s performances, and more.
What are Flexible Work Arrangements?
Before going through its benefits, it’s best to learn what flexible work arrangements are, especially since there are many types of flexible working arrangements that you can transition into for the benefit of your company and employees.
Simply put, flexible work arrangements are alternate arrangements or schedules from the traditional working day and week. Employees may choose a different work schedule to meet personal or family needs. Alternatively, employers may initiate various schedules to meet their customer needs.
Flexible work arrangements define schedules during work hours that are different from traditional job shifts. It will also include syncing their personal and work responsibilities for better time management.
8 Benefits of Flexible Work Arrangements for IT Professionals
Having a lack of trust in your employees, micromanaging, and other challenges of flexible work arrangements are common causes of concern. However, once transitioned well to achieve the perfect work-life balance, your arrangement may likely create benefits that solve these problems to begin with.
Learn about all the benefits and the way they solve primary issues surrounding flexible work arrangements below.
Achieve Work-life Balance
One of the most well-known benefits of flexible work arrangements is work-life balance. This is because flexible work arrangements manage to relieve these issues by increasing more time for employees to focus on their health and well-being.
Work-life balance is a highly sought-after benefit amongst many employees to give more time to their personal affairs while maintaining productivity amongst their tasks and output. This is especially necessary amongst IT professionals working in isolated quarters compared to more sociable professions.
To socialise with their peers and loved ones without sacrificing the quality of their output is the best outcome for both employee and employer. Not only does it enhance their communication skills and time management, but it also prevents stress and overwhelming workloads.
Decrease Stress and Burnout
Decreasing your IT professional’s stress and burnout is just one of the many benefits of flexible work arrangements. Just like with an active work-life balance, these advantages prevent negative outcomes that stem from the overwhelming burden of workload piled on top of your employees.
Many health-related issues and low productivity levels are caused by inflexible collaboration between employees and employers during traditional work setups. There tends to be a hierarchy where clocking out doesn’t matter. If your boss needs you, you must reply immediately.
This leads to many heart-related issues and mental disorders due to the stress and burnout your employees will gradually be burdened with. The result? Heated discussions, relentless overtime, and miscommunication among their peers and themselves.
With flexible work arrangements, employees can take a simple amount of time to refresh their minds and prevent overworking themselves to the point of health-related issues. This saves income for both the employer and the employee in the long run.
Increase Autonomy
Increased autonomy amongst the benefits of flexible working hours for employees is a natural result. Being able to move independently without a micromanaging tool or being observed in a possibly invasive manner as an IT professional can demotivate your employees.
Trust is required to achieve harmony, effective collaboration, healthy boundaries, and other benefits of flexible work arrangements when giving autonomy. The results produce innovative ideas that showcase your employee’s capabilities and enhance their confidence in your company as well as themselves in their profession.
Improve Health
Just as we continue to discuss the benefits that flexible work arrangements offer, we should also discuss the positive health-related effects and not cons of the traditional work environment.
An employee’s health improves greatly once they’ve mastered their new flexible work lifestyle. Employees significantly become happier in their work and engage more during collaboration and meetings.
Not only do they emotionally feel better, their immune systems can become tougher depending on their tasks and meals. It also significantly reduces the chances of heart disease for employees thanks to their relaxed atmosphere.
Avoid Rush Hour
An all-time favourite of employees regarding the benefits of flexible work arrangements is the ability to avoid rush hours. Nobody in the world enjoys being stuck in a traffic jam. Even more so employees rush to get to work on time.
Professionals such as IT experts can skip the time slot where cars are jam-packed and arrive at a more spacious hour. Even better, some flexible work arrangements allow work-from-home benefits that prevent spending more money on gas, time, or commute hours and more on their daily tasks.
Being able to avoid rush hour while still actively participating in their deliverables is every IT professional’s dream. The ideal situation for many is remote working to save up costs completely. However, this all depends solely on their employers when or where they can participate in their work hours.
Establish Routine
An established routine is often overlooked compared to the other benefits of flexible work arrangements. However, this type of habit can create spectacular results at an expected period.
Routines for IT professionals create a slot for collaboration between their team members and clients. Knowing when they are most active throughout the day gives others a chance to discuss with them anything they require.
Meanwhile, it also creates an opportunity for IT professionals to set healthy boundaries for themselves and their clients. Unlike other professions, IT professionals may be called for sudden emergencies throughout the day. Established routines help decrease the number of unimportant calls during off hours and prevent overworking and low-quality outputs.
Enhance Productivity
There are many reasons for flexible work arrangements. For employees, being able to stabilise their body to prepare itself habitually between work and relaxation helps them achieve their goals. Meanwhile, employers can expect enhanced productivity in return for their new work arrangement.
How does enhanced productivity come from being more flexible at work? Now that employees have a balanced life compared to their previous arrangements, they are more likely to focus on their tasks with renewed energy.
Increase Job Satisfaction
An immediate response to the benefits of flexible work arrangements is job satisfaction. Unlike other companies that don’t offer flexibility, employees working with hybrid arrangements become more satisfied and happy with their company’s culture.
Employee retention skyrockets thanks to work-from-home arrangements. Even more so with IT professionals who wish to work diligently in the comfort of their home. This is in comparison to companies demanding an exceeding amount of time for their employees and making them work onsite.
Retention rates matter with company expenses. Whenever an employee leaves the company, every training module and coaching they’ve received is put to waste. Their replacement will undergo the same training and incur the same expenses. If your company isn’t doing well on its retention rate, the same cycle will repeat.
Types of Flexible Work Schedules
There are many benefits of flexible work arrangements that your company can acquire by following specific work schedules that cater to its benefits. The most well-known one is remote work, wherein employees are allowed to work from home permanently.
The following remote work methods are telecommuting and hybrid work. Telecommuting refers to working mostly in remote locations but still visiting the office on specific dates. This is unlike hybrid work, which refers to a set number of days between remote and office settings in a week.
There are other forms of flexible work schedules such as flexitime and condensed workweeks. Some employees prefer to have a set schedule of shifts compared to the usual 9 AM to 5 PM. Meanwhile, condensed workweeks refer to output-based performances wherein employees can finish a week or month’s work in a shorter period to take the rest of the days off.
Conclusion
As technology and research advances so do the benefits of flexible work arrangements. Get on board with the future and join the transition from onsite to flexible work schedules now!
Don’t know where to start? Why not contact us at Flexisource IT and learn how to join our team? Check in on our career page to see if we have a position open to your interests now!
