Despite increasing momentum toward businesses offering more work flexibility, it’s still relegated to the status of a “nice to have” benefit at many companies. But if your business really wants to differentiate itself, consider elevating flexibility to the level of a company core value.
According to a recent Entrepreneur article, “core values are the guiding principles that dictate behavior and action. Values are things that you can tell specific stories about. Stories of when a colleague did something amazing for a customer or a teammate. If you can’t tell a story about something you’ve listed, it’s not a real value.”
Why are these values important? Well, as the article notes, workers “are no longer impressed by the cereal bar and spiral slide to the breakroom. Employees of today want to be inspired. They need to trust the brand they are handing their talent, time, and effort over to.”
One way to create that trust in your company is to show you trust your workers. And there’s no better way to prove that trust than to offer flexible work options.
However, that’s not the only benefit to creating a corporate culture that includes flexibility as a core value.
Below are five more reasons to embrace flexibility as a company core value:
1. Recruitment and Retention
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For example, creating a flexible culture can help with recruiting and retaining new employees. If you include a core value of flexibility in a job posting, candidates will know that you are a modern, forward-thinking company. And as a hiring manager, you will have the opportunity to recruit from almost anywhere.
Flexibility is also extremely important to millennials. Since they are now the largest part of the workforce, establishing your company’s flex credentials can help attract them to your open positions.
2. Engaged Employees
Once you’ve hired those talented millennials—or anyone else, for that matter—you’ll want to keep them engaged. Again, a corporate culture that stresses flexibility can help. When employees have more control over their work lives, they’re bound to be more engaged.
And when they’re engaged, they’re likely to stay. Your company spends considerable time and money on training and developing its workers, so you don’t want to lose them to competitors just as they’re hitting their stride.
3. Better Work-Life Balance
Multiple surveys show that employees are more prone to remain in jobs that help them find a good work-life balance. Offering flexibility in the form of telecommuting or shifting work hours, for example, can help people build that balance.
Employees who have more balanced lives also are likely to be physically and emotionally healthier than other workers, which again emphasizes the importance of making flexibility a core value.
For example, flex work options can reduce stress. Perhaps a worker can shift her schedule and avoid a long commute. Or she can avoid some work/family conflict by having the time she needs to attend a child’s school program or care for an aging parent.
4. Improved Productivity
While companies should want their employees to be healthy because it’s the right thing to do, they also may see benefits to the bottom line through a focus on flexibility. This is especially true because workers who get to telecommute on occasion or have other flexible work options may actually be more productive than those who are toiling in a cubicle all day.
5. Emergency Preparedness
And finally, a core value that emphasizes flexibility may make your business more prepared when an emergency or natural disaster strikes. When employees are prepared to work from home when a huge snowstorm hits or the power goes down at the office, your business can keep running with minimal interruption to regular activities.
There are plenty of reasons to make flexibility one of your company’s core values. Once you decide to do so, you need to follow through and make sure the emphasis on flex remains key to your business.
As the Entrepreneur article notes, “When embraced properly, core values become part of your day-to-day activities within your company’s walls and beyond. They are a compass for performance and the stories you tell when asked about your business. Make them matter.”
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How has your business established flexibility as a company core value? What benefits have come from that decision? What other advantages can a company draw from this kind of focus on flex? Please share your ideas in the comments section.
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