When operating as a flexible employer, it’s important to utilize all of the tools and resources at your disposal. This week’s news roundup covers the importance of flexible work strategies, how technology can change your corporate environment, and a conference that will help you make the most of your remote work.
Fast Company takes a hard look at the different flexible work strategies that companies employ to help them manage and thrive in a flexible work environment. And since part of that is due to available technology, it’s important for businesses to focus on the latest trends and technological resources. The World Economic Forum touches on this idea specific to the real estate industry, and then our very own CEO, Sara Sutton, shares her experience with technology on Business News Daily.
Finding talent can also be dependent on your flexible work strategy. Many professionals are seeking work-life balance, and for companies to access top talent, they need to get creative in their recruiting. ebn discusses this when uncovering the many crazy and unique benefits that are offered by employers. Entrepreneur takes it a step further, and looks at how companies can make the Top Company Culture list, which will surely attract talented professionals, including millennials who are shaping remote work environments, as featured on Insight.
If you are looking to stay up with the latest flexible work trends and attract top talent, you won’t want to miss the TRaD conference. HR Examiner, SmallBizDaily, and HER Agenda have dug into the state of remote work and shared information on the TRaD conference, which will help any flexible employer up their game in the industry.
Rounding out the news is a special tribute to Earth Day. MIT Sloan discusses the many ways in which flexible work supports the environment. It’s truly a win-win-win environment for employers, employees, and the environment when flexible work is implemented.
Here are articles to help you prep your flexible work strategies, technology, and remote environment:
5 Flexible Work Strategies and the Companies That Use Them on Fast Company
“People who are in tune with their daily habits understand which elements create more stress and what time of day offers the best opportunity to be creative, which means flexible work can also create opportunities for more exceptional work.
A thought leader in this space, FlexJobs offers tips on creating a flexible work proposal form in order to allow employees to express their needs thoughtfully and directly.”
How Technology is Changing the Real Estate Industry on World Economic Forum
“Working in concert with one another, the convergence of these factors and the ever-present pressure for companies to streamline costs, is making remote work viable for a wider array of knowledge workers than ever before. According to FlexJobs.com, 2014 saw a 26 percent increase in remote job postings over 2013. This directly translates to smaller footprints of traditional office space that companies need to lease, purchase, or build.”
Document Management Systems: A Buyer’s Guide on Business News Daily
Discover a better way to recruit remote talent
Founded in 2007, FlexJobs is the most experienced remote & hybrid hiring platform.
- Unlimited job posts
- Low, flat membership fee
- Access top-level remote advice
- Unlimited resume searches
- Reach the right candidates
- And so much more!
“Sara Sutton, CEO and founder of FlexJobs, said storing all of her files digitally and in the cloud allows her to get her documents anywhere she is, which is especially important because she works remotely.
‘Having access to all our documentation, no matter where we’re physically working from, is amazing,’ Sutton said. ‘I know that if I go to a conference or even just the coffee shop to work for the afternoon, all my documents come with me.’”
20 Crazy Benefits Offered by Employers on ebn
“’Gone are the days when job seekers were happy to simply get hired. Now, top-tier talent can negotiate for—and get—some pretty cool perks from their jobs,’ says Jennifer Parris of FlexJobs. She shares a few unique employee benefits offered by companies.”
Think You Have What it Takes to Make Our Top Company Cultures List? on Entrepreneur
“‘FlexJobs was so honored to be recognized as a Top Company Culture. It was a great boost to our team and total validation that our efforts are being received with as much intention and care in which we mean them,’ says FlexJob’s Carol Cochran, the director of People and Culture. ‘Most of our leadership team added the award to our signature lines in order to let everyone know how awesome our environment is!’”
How and Why Millennials are Shaping the Future of Remote Working on Insight
“Consider these stats from a survey of Millennials from FlexJobs, conducted in 2015:
- 85 percent want to telecommute 100 percent of the time
- 54 percent want to work a flexible or alternative schedule
- 50 percent would be okay telecommuting some of the time
- 47 percent prefer to work a part-time schedule
- 39 percent want to be freelancers or contractors
Look at the huge difference between the percentage of Millennials who want to work remotely all the time versus all other forms of flexible work. It’s clear that remote work is the preferred work-flex choice of this generation.”
TRaD Works on HR Examiner
“An emerging community of companies that have successfully harnessed remote work will be gathering in Washington DC on June 8/9 for the TRaD* Works, (telecommuting, remote & distributed*) Conference. Let Dell, ADP, Anthem, CNN, SAP and others teach you how to make remote work work for your business. Visit TRaD.Works to register.”
Going Global, Spring Clean Your Business Strategies, The Power of Influencers, Retailers are Optimistic and Other Things Entrepreneurs Need to Know on SmallBizDaily
“FlexJobs and Remote.co are hosting the first-ever TRaD* Works Conference (*Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed) in Washington, D.C. on June 8 -10, 2016. Remote.com projects 50% of people will work remotely by 2020, disrupting the traditional brick-and-mortar work model. The Conference will offer businesses ‘actionable insights into how they can support and optimize remote work programs to maximize the economic, social, health, and environmental benefits of remote work.’”
Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed (TRaD) Works Conference 2016 on HER Agenda
“Telecommuting, Remote, and Distributed—or TRaD—work is indisputably becoming more and more of a reality in our workplaces, with some estimates stating that 50 percent of the people will be working remotely by 2020. The TRaD Works Conference is all about creating a community event for the companies who are at the forefront of this reality, as well as for those keenly interested to learn how they can advance their organization’s telecommuting, remote, and distributed work efforts.”
Flexible Jobs Help Make Every Day Earth Day on MIT Sloan
“One surprising way people and companies can have a positive impact on climate change is to offer employees flexible work options. According to Flexjobs, the leading job search site specializing in telecommuting, part-time, freelance, and flexible jobs, ‘Much of an individual’s carbon footprint is based on when, where and how he or she is required to work.’
In fact, the company found that if people who held telework-compatible jobs worked from home just two days a week, the U.S. would:
- Save nearly 52 million gallons of gas
- Save over 2.6 million barrels of oil
- Reduce wear and tear on highways by over 1 billion miles a year
‘In the U.S., where commuters travel primarily by car, where access to public transportation is often limited and inconvenient, and where super commuting is on the rise, we need to do more to promote the environmental benefits of working from home,’ says Sara Sutton, founder and CEO of FlexJobs. ‘Remote work generates meaningful benefits, from lowering commute-related gas and oil consumption, pollution, and carbon emissions to reducing a company’s need for office space to overall energy savings and minimizing the need for work-related travel through remote collaboration tools like web and video conferencing.’”
Readers, have you implemented flexible work strategies into your business? Are you looking for resources on becoming a flexible employer? Share with us below!
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