This infographic illustrates 10 different workplace models and best practices for building a remote-first and flextime-first work culture.
The recent worldwide experiment with flexible and remote work proves that it is time to retire the model of working in the same place during the same hours of the day for many industries and positions. 1 Today, forward-looking organizations understand that workplaces that are flexible in when and where work occurs—hybrid workplaces—are good business practice.2
We know that building inclusive workplace flexibility is not an all-or-nothing scenario. There are multiple variations of how to expand access to schedule and/or location flexibility in ways that can work for your company. The key is to start somewhere as workplace flexibility is imperative for business continuity and talent management now and into the future of work.
The interactive infographic (hover over the red circles to bring up more information) compares several flexible work models, recommends best practices, and highlights inclusive strategies from each model. You can explore how the different workplace flexibility models vary across geography, workflows/norms, and the employee experience and then identify where your company or team currently is on their practices and policies. To maximize the benefits of workplace flex and build a more inclusive hybrid workplace, we recommend that leaders challenge themselves to move as far along the continuum as possible toward remote-first and flextime-first models. These models help create cultures where everyone can belong, contribute, and thrive regardless of work schedule or location.
Hybrid workplaces are flexible in two ways:3
Where you work
Location flexibility
(also known as remote work, distributed work, flexplace, work-from-anywhere/WFA, work from home/WFH).
When you work
Schedule flexibility
(also known as flexible time,
flextime, flex work).
Depending on their needs and circumstances, organizations can select and expand schedule flexibility, location flexibility, or both to find the hybrid model that works best for them. But to be successful in any hybrid or full model, organizations must also nurture a remote-first and flextime-first culture that proactively utilizes best practices to include employees no matter when or where they work. Organizations may then reap the many rewards of a hybrid workplace, including maintaining business continuity during rapid change and times of crisis and tapping into an expanded talent pool that is not constrained by fixed hours or geography.
Sources:
1 White, B., & Mueller, E. (2021, July 15). The future of work has arrived and it’s messy. Politico.
2 Choudhury, P. (2020, November-December). Our work-from-anywhere future. Harvard Business Review.
3 Inclusive hybrid workplaces: Ask Catalyst Express. (2021). Catalyst.
4 Adegbuyi, F. (2021). How to be remote-first when you still have an office. Doist; Dickey, M. R. (2021, June 23). Proximity bias is real. Returning to the office could make it worse. Protocol; Embracing asynchronous work: GitLab All Remote Handbook. (2021). GitLab; Farrer, L. (2021, June 24). Does your company need a Head of Remote? Forbes; How to use forcing functions to work remote-first: GitLab All Remote Handbook. (2021). GitLab; Khazan, O. (2021, May 19). What bosses really think of remote workers. The Atlantic; Murph, D. (2021). Head of Remote. GitLab; Parker, S. K., Knight, C., & Keller, A. (2020). Remote managers are having trust issues. Harvard Business Review; The Virtual First Toolkit. (2021). Dropbox; Van Bommel, T. (2021). Remote-work options can boost productivity and curb burnout. Catalyst.
How to cite this product: 10 models of workplace flexibility. (August 31, 2021). Catalyst.
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