How flexible working supports employee wellbeing

As the name suggests, flexible working is any arrangement that varies from what you consider to be standard working hours or work location. You can tailor flexible working to suit the needs of individual employees while still considering business needs.

For example, say your standard working pattern is a 40-hour week split over five days, where every employee works in the office or your main business premises. Flexible working is anything that varies from that pattern. It can involve flexible working hours or a different working location. You can offer flexible working in any way that suits your team and gives them more control over their working pattern.

Let's consider specific examples to see how flexible working arrangements could work in your business.

Flexible hours

Flexible working hours can provide a different working pattern while retaining the usual number of hours worked over a single week or month. For example, employees with children might want to move their start time back so they can come to work after the school run or forward to ensure they arrive at nursery pick-up on time. Alternatively, you can offer compressed hours, where employees work their usual hours over four days instead of five, giving them a day off during the week.

Some employees may prefer to reduce their working hours. There are various ways to implement this, including reducing the number of days worked each week or the number of hours worked each day. A reduction in hours typically comes with a pro-rata pay cut.

You can also consider a system where employees work core hours but work flexibly around these to deal with emergencies or personal commitments as needed. You can set up a system to record their hours and ensure they work their contracted hours over a month or year.

Flexible working location

Technological advances have made working from home or another location easier for your team. Remote working platforms give your employees remote access to digital files, while Zoom and Teams enable staff to meet and discuss projects from anywhere in the world.

Home working can benefit employees by letting them avoid a stressful commute or work in a comfortable environment. This can benefit employees with physical disabilities or mental health conditions by enabling them to manage their physical comfort or take respite from a busy office environment. In some circumstances, it can allow parents to stay at home when their child is ill without taking a day off work.

A hybrid approach lets staff work in the office on some days and from home on others.

Working at home can bring distractions and also negatively impact employees' mental health. We'll discuss those considerations shortly.

Job sharing

A job share lets two employees share a single role. It can benefit employees who want to work part-time in a role that requires full-time hours. Job sharing requires careful coordination as two staff members effectively share duties and responsibilities and must communicate effectively between themselves and with their managers to coordinate tasks and ensure they meet the role's expected outcomes.

In a job share, your employees can split their working hours in various ways depending on the role. Employees can work half a day or half the week each or alternate weeks. Some roles might require an overlap so staff can speak in person, while others can communicate via email or another virtual system.

When you offer flexible working in your business, you also show your team that you value their wellbeing and understand they have lives outside work. Happy employees are more likely to be highly engaged, offer better customer service, and be less likely to leave for other job opportunities. Offering flexible working benefits can increase workplace diversity, providing opportunities to working parents and staff with disabilities who require reasonable adjustments to access work.

Many flexible working benefits stem from giving your team the opportunity to adjust their work and create a positive work-life balance. Flexible working can positively impact physical and mental health and give you happier and more motivated employees.

Let's examine how flexible working benefits employee wellbeing.

Improved mental health

Flexible working can lead to reduced stress in your workforce because it lets them balance their personal, work, and family life more easily. For example, some employees may have caring responsibilities for elderly parents who need practical support. Flexible working hours mean your staff can adjust their working pattern to suit these commitments without worrying about the impact on their career. It can also help workers avoid stressful situations. They may experience stress when commuting on a packed train or find the noise of a busy office overwhelming. Travelling at quiet times or working at home for a couple of days a week can help reduce their stress and prevent more serious mental health conditions from developing.

Flexible working also benefits employees with existing mental health conditions by helping them manage their symptoms.

Reduced risk of burnout

Burnout occurs when workplace stress becomes chronic. Some stress is normal, but if your team is constantly under pressure from a heavy workload and working long hours without any prospect of relief, they can experience burnout. It has symptoms that are similar to depression, with employees becoming irritable, having mood swings and losing interest in their work and activities they used to enjoy. Research suggests that workplace stress has risen since 2012, with an 11% increase in workers reporting experiencing stress at work. Burnt-out staff frequently take more time off due to sickness, which can create a vicious cycle impacting employee wellbeing as other workers take on more work and become overwhelmed.

While burnout is usually caused by workplace stress, commitments outside work can add extra pressure. Flexible working can help to relieve this by giving employees time to deal with personal matters. Of course, you must also manage and control sources of workplace stress.

A better work-life balance

A positive work-life balance gives your employees time to spend with their loved ones and on activities they enjoy. As we've mentioned, that can help to improve their mental health and reduce stress. Offering various flexible working arrangements lets employees find the right balance for their needs and adjust as their circumstances change.

What represents a good work-life balance can change throughout life. Flexible working gives your team peace of mind, knowing their working pattern can adjust if necessary. If your business can adapt to changing circumstances, you're also more likely to retain valued employees. A 2023 survey found that 55% of working parents would change jobs for a role offering flexible working, while 30% were employed in roles below their level of skill and experience because they offered flexible working.

Greater financial wellbeing

Physical and mental health are often the first things that come to mind when we think about wellbeing. However, financial wellbeing is also an essential part of the picture. Financial stress can lead to poor mental health. An employer can support employees' economic wellbeing in various ways, including a market rate salary, pension contribution matching and employee discount schemes. However, flexible working can also support employee wellbeing by helping them to save money.

For example, working at home lets staff commute less frequently and saves on travel costs. Off-peak travel is cheaper in some areas than peak times, allowing employees to save money on their tickets.

At lunchtime, office-based staff may head to the nearest sandwich shop or takeaway, while home working gives them time to prepare a healthy lunch, which is also cheaper. Of course, the trade-off could be that their heating and power bills are higher.

Improved job satisfaction

Flexible working increases job satisfaction, which is great for business as it reduces staff turnover, recruitment and training costs. CIPD research found that staff experienced greater job satisfaction and were more likely to stay in roles that offered flexible working. They were also more highly engaged and willing to recommend their employer to others.

Many studies have linked job satisfaction to improved wellbeing, greater self-esteem, reduced stress, anxiety and depression and a lower likelihood of burnout. Developing strategies such as flexible working, which increase job satisfaction, can improve employee wellbeing and benefit your business.

Improved physical health

Physical and mental health are closely linked. People with physical illnesses or injuries can experience symptoms of poor mental health, particularly if they must take time off work as a result. Mental health conditions can lessen someone's ability to look after themselves, perhaps because of low motivation or difficulty concentrating.

People with anxiety and depression can experience headaches, stomach issues, loss of appetite and insomnia, which leads to exhaustion. Here's how flexible working can help reduce mental health symptoms and promote greater physical wellbeing.

Lower risk of heart attack and stroke

Stress can cause other health issues, especially if you deal with stress by drinking alcohol, smoking or eating unhealthy food. As we've mentioned, flexible working can support employee wellbeing by helping them reduce stress. Research by Harvard and Penn State universities in the USA found a link between flexible working and improved wellbeing. It suggested how flexible working gave staff more control over their working patterns, which reduced stress and decreased their risk of burnout.

More time for exercise and healthy eating

We've mentioned that flexible working can help your team manage their work and personal commitments more effectively. It can also give them more time to care for their health and wellbeing. It's easy to look at flexible working as a necessary adjustment for employees with children or other caring responsibilities or for staff with mental health conditions or physical disabilities. However, it can let your employees find time to create healthier lifestyles. For example, staff working at home could replace their commute with a walk, run or a visit to the gym. It could also give them time to cook a healthy meal in the evening as their evening starts as soon as they log off.

Alternatively, a shift in their working hours gives employees time for exercise before heading into the office. This means they're more likely to arrive energised and in a positive frame of mind.

Impact on sleep

Flexible working can impact sleep but needs careful monitoring and management. Employees can match their working pattern to their sleep, for example, by working in the evening or early morning if that's when they focus best. Moving working hours in this way fits well with home working, as team members can log on whenever they like. However, working from home can increase social isolation, which could intensify if colleagues can't speak to each other using virtual platforms because they're online at different times. It can also cause problems if your team must collaborate to work effectively.

Research also suggests that irregular working hours among home workers can disrupt sleep, leading to insomnia or poor quality sleep. Exposure to blue light when using screens late at night may also be a factor. Encouraging your team to develop a regular routine when working at home and educating them on ways to promote healthy sleep will help them avoid this.

We've discussed how flexible working can benefit your business and employee wellbeing. You may wonder how to implement flexible working in your workplace. Flexible working can benefit your team but must also work for your business, so you should consider your core business needs when implementing a flexible working strategy. For example, you may need to have your team working together in the office some of the time or need to ensure core hours are appropriately staffed. The type of work your business carries out may make home working impractical, but other flexible working patterns are possible.

It's also wise to consider your core values and how flexible working can help you carry them out. As we've mentioned, if improving employee wellbeing is a priority, flexible working can help. It can also help make your workplace more inclusive. For example, flexible working can support staff with disabilities as they can work at home or tailor their travel arrangements.

However, working from home can risk isolation, which negatively impacts mental health, meaning long-term home working may not be advisable for staff with mental health conditions. A hybrid approach may be more suitable. Alternatively, you can find ways to help home working staff develop positive relationships with their colleagues. Research suggests that having a business bestie supports good mental health at work.

Consider potential flexible working arrangements

As we've mentioned, flexible working should fit your business and employees' needs. Before offering flexible working to your staff, consider what flexible working arrangements are practical so you can set realistic expectations from the outset. You may have also received requests from your team and considered these on a case-by-case basis. A clear strategy and flexible working policies will help you consider requests fairly using appropriate guidelines.

In some cases, suitable arrangements may vary depending on which department a staff member works in. For example, say you have a shop floor and an administration office. The shop will likely have fixed opening hours to serve members of the public, meaning you must ensure sufficient staffing levels during those times. However, you may be able to offer more flexibility to office staff with no customer-facing role. You must avoid unfair discrimination when making decisions about flexible working. It's a good idea to seek legal advice when creating flexible working policies.

Here are some types of flexible working arrangements to consider when creating your policy.

Hours

Flexible working hours can be regular or occasional. Your staff may have a regular routine that lends itself to fixed hours, even though their working pattern may vary from standard office hours. Others may prefer to change their working hours to fit around occasional appointments or an ad hoc schedule.

You could offer earlier or later start and finish times, shorter working hours or part-time working. Time off in lieu or a flexible schedule with core hours can help when some working days are longer than others. For example, a solicitor who works long hours travelling to see clients or attend court hearings will likely value a shorter day afterwards.

Location

Working at home lets your staff avoid commuting on a packed train or in busy traffic, which can help reduce stress and travel costs. Technology enables staff to access information and work online without leaving the house, and they can also collaborate with their colleagues via communication platforms like Zoom and Teams.

You should consider the impact remote working will have on team and company culture. As we've mentioned, positive workplace relationships support good mental health, while remote working can cause or exacerbate poor mental health. Regular contact with colleagues can help to prevent this. You can schedule meetings or 'water cooler' time online, giving team members time to chat informally. In-person events let employees meet face-to-face and can help you celebrate team and company achievements.

If your work requires high levels of security and confidentiality, consider setting rules for work location. For example, an employee seeking a shorter commute may head to a co-working space near their home on days away from the office. If this may impact data security or client confidentiality, consider specifying which locations their remote working agreement covers.

Hybrid working

Flexible working doesn't have to be all or nothing. You can offer a mixed approach to meet business needs while giving your team flexibility. Say you have projects that will benefit from in-person collaboration and brainstorming in the office but with individual elements that staff can complete at home. In that case, you can offer your staff the opportunity to work from home on 2-3 days each week but ask them to come into the office on the other days.

A hybrid approach can also apply to working hours, where staff may have varying weekly schedules due to shared caring responsibilities or activities outside work.

Compressed hours

Compressed hours let employees work full-time over fewer days to give them time off during the work week. For example, an employee working 40 hours a week may decide to work ten hours a day over four days instead of eight hours a day over five days. Alternatively, they may prefer to work for nine hours on four days and finish at lunchtime on the fifth day.

When offering compressed hours, you must also consider relevant legislation. Working time rules specify that workers must have at least eleven hours of rest between shifts. Our examples offer sufficient rest time, but other working patterns may not.

Job sharing

We've discussed job sharing, which lets two staff members share a role and split the hours, duties and responsibilities between them. Offering job sharing can also help you retain skilled staff who want to reduce their hours but have a job that requires full-time work. The logistics can be challenging. If an employee wants to switch to part-time work, it may depend on you recruiting someone suitable who also wants to work part-time. Two existing staff may ask to share a role so they can reduce their hours. You can also advertise full-time roles but state that you will consider a job-sharing arrangement, letting you discuss this during the recruitment process.

We hope this guide has provided some helpful insights into the impact of flexible working on your employees' wellbeing. Including health insurance in your employee benefits package can give you and your team access to private medical treatment and wellbeing resources. At Globacare, we support our clients with tailored advice on the right insurance products to support your team's health and wellbeing. Contact us today.