Fifty four per cent of us worked flexibly last year, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

From hot desking to compressed working hours and working remotely, flexible working has taken on a new significance as a result ofCovid-19 lockdown.

For some companies, switching to flexible working was a matter of sharpening existing practices, for others it was a huge inversion of normal working patterns. The construction, transport, manufacturing and mining sectors, for example, faced certain difficulties as working from home posed new challenges for maintaining business operations

‘Needs must’ meant the acceleration of technology and internal systems was imperative for businesses across the board to operate smoothly. Trusting employees to be conscientious in conducting work from home could be an important long-lasting change which in turn could foster employee loyalty.

Flexible working is a “deal breaker” the International Workplace Group revealed, showing 83 per cent of workers around the world would turn down a job that did not offer flexible working. To underline this, 54 per cent of those surveyed said that having a choice of work location is more important to them than working for a prestigious company.

As an Executive Search Firm for London, Granger Reis has seen job applicants picking their employed based on what values the company promotes and the benefits it offers to its workforce, rather than the other way round. A company needs to have an ethos of wellbeing and work-life balance to ensure it attracts the best talent.

In turn, flexible working can foster diversity within the workplace. As Carolina Milanesi points in Fast Company, offering home working can attract diverse candidates to an organisation. Just over 19 per cent of people with self-identified disabilities are employed, according to the 2018 Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

Employees with physical or mental disabilities can face barriers in the workplace and flexible working could remove some barriers for those with neurodiversity, such as accessibility issues, the commute to work for example. Similarly, businesses offering flexible working can be essential to employees with childcare needs, assisting barriers to working parents.

Flexible working extends beyond just working from home, it is also offers other forms of flexibility boosting workforce wellbeing such as start/finish times, compressed hours or job sharing.

As an International Executive Search Firm, Granger Reis reflects this need for flexible working in the way we do business.

Reflecting on the workplace now, flexible working has created an increased level of productivity, boosted moral and enabled us to engage with international clients who often operate on different time zones due to flexible office hours. For example, as a result of introducing hot desking and a clear desk policy, we found we were cutting our waste and boosting recycling in the office. As a result, it seemed clear we needed to further assess of environmental and social impacts, so we decided to work towards the B Corp certification.

The last few months have involved many challenges across all sectors due to the unprecedented nature of the pandemic. However, at Granger Reis we believe that harnessing the opportunity of flexible working for workplace culture is paramount.