How to Create a Flexible Workforce

In my last blog post, I talked about how to cope with change and one of the tips I gave was that you should try and have a flexible workforce. But that’s easier said than done. So how do you create a flexible workforce?

1. Be flexible yourself

This is pretty straightforward. People will be more willing to be flexible if you are first flexible for them. This should be reasonably easy to do on a daily basis.

Don’t be a stickler for things that don’t really matter in the grand scheme. Give a little and your people will be more prepared when you ask for a little more from them. Let somebody have an extra half an hour for lunch now and then, and they won’t moan when you ask them to take a short lunch next time a deadline is looming.

2. Have flexible hours and workspace

Most businesses could offer flexible working hours, and there are lots of benefits to the business too, but you need to consider this carefully. For example, you might want your phones covered between 8am and 8pm. In that case, flexible working hours work very well, provided your staff make sure there’s cover for the hours you need to. And ideally, you let them work it out for themselves, rather than you telling them which hours to do. You provide the parameters, your staff will make it work.

Another way to create more flexibility in your business is to allow people to work from home, even if it’s just a few days a week. This gives the employees the option to stay in and wait for the washing machine engineer, whilst at the same time still doing a full day’s work. The bonus for the employer is that once you have the systems in place to let people work from home, you’ll be all set up in case of weather emergencies or train strikes.

The key here is to offer various options, but to let your employees choose which ones they want (within your parameters of course). That is true flexibility that works both ways.

3. Encourage job sharing

Job sharing means that two or more people doing one job. For example, person A works Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning while person B works Wednesday afternoon, Thursday, and Friday. Having more than one person doing that same job gives you more flexibility. Cover is more readily available when someone wants a holiday or is off sick, as the other person could cover. If you have an extra workload, then you have people who might be able to do extra days.

Having job shares also encourages good systems because something can’t be dependent on one person’s brain. Your business has to be able to pass work seamlessly between multiple people, and you can’t do that with scraps of paper and a bulging email inbox.

4. Have good systems and processes

This might seem counterintuitive. How can you have flexibility with set processes? Well, if you don’t have that foundation in place, everything is reliant on individuals. If that person is not available, then things stop and no one knows how to pick up the pieces.

If you document the processes in advance, then anybody can step in and take over when necessary. This lets your business respond to any changing circumstances in your workforce. It also means your business gets more efficient and (usually) more profitable, but that’s a conversation for another blog post.

5. Keep on learning

This applies to your staff and you. Make sure everyone has plenty of opportunities to get better. You might make it a part of your processes and policies that at least one person goes on at least one training course every month. And ask people about what they’d like to learn.

This will make your staff more engaged and loyal; and at the same time, it will improve your business. Now John from accounts can produce those reports much quicker than before and Lesley from sales can help out with sourcing suppliers. When you ensure your staff (and you) are always learning, they improve and so does your business.

Even better is that if you give people chances to learn outside of their roles, you can minimise weaknesses and discover hidden strengths. Not only does your workforce become more flexible but it becomes stronger as well.

6. Get good at outsourcing

This is a great way to have a flexible workforce. Having another company (or two) taking some of the pressure lets you focus on what’s really important. If you can’t consistently answer the phone, get someone else to do it. If you aren’t good with numbers, get someone else to watch them.

As an added bonus, outsourcing is often more cost and time effective than hiring in-house. Of course, you’ve got to find a good outsourcing agency, but then you’ve got to find a good employee as well.

It’s often quite difficult for us as people to be flexible. In fact, lots of us have a natural inclination to be rigid. We think things should be done a certain way, and we expect people to fall in line. Your business will always encounter unexpected circumstances. If we create a flexible working environment and workforce instead, then your business is less likely to break in the wake of external forces. The more flexible we are as people and as a business the better.