• Companies are reluctant to document flexible work policies
• 75% of organizations offer remote work to some or all employees
• 30% do not have a method to measure productivity of remote workers

The latest survey data from XpertHR shows a disconnect between the popularity of flexible work arrangements and their formal documentation. Despite a sharp increase in flexibility in recent years, the XpertHR 2023 Flexible Work survey found that only 56% of organizations have developed formal policies to govern flexible work arrangements. Even fewer companies document employee agreements to set expectations around flexible work.

“This finding may reflect some uncertainty around the future of flexibility in the workplace,” says Victoria Kelleher, Lead Survey Specialist at XpertHR. “Although flexible work has become far more common, employers seem reluctant to guarantee the options they currently offer to employees indefinitely.”

Flexible arrangements may give an organization a competitive edge in the fight for talent. Based on data from over 400 companies, rates of arrangements like fully remote or hybrid work have skyrocketed since the start of the pandemic. Prior to the pandemic, more than half of employers (54%) did not offer remote or hybrid flexible working arrangements to any employees. Today, 75% of organizations offer remote working to some or all employees, and 83% offer hybrid working to some or all employees.

The main driver for this higher level of flexibility was a focus on recruiting talent (90%) and increasing retention (90%), followed by work-life balance (87%) and employee wellness (84%).

Alongside this, many organizations were driven towards greater flexibility in a bid to increase engagement (75%) and to improve performance (70%). But without the proximity to oversee activity, managers are struggling to measure the productivity of remote and hybrid workers. Although some employers monitor the amount of time remote workers spend on company computers to make up for this, less than one in ten (7%) use this data as a proxy for productivity. Instead, many organizations are relying on KPIs to assess performance, and 41% quantify productivity by monitoring the time remote workers take to complete specific tasks. However, despite the desire for better productivity and engagement, 30% of respondents said that there is no set method used to assess the productivity of remote workers at their organizations whatsoever.

“Since remote work limits the ability managers have to monitor behavior, it can be hard to tell how the business is being affected,” Kelleher notes. “Data can counter this uncertainty, but there is no consensus on what metrics to use, and many organizations don’t have a method to measure outcomes in this area at all. The lack of oversight may be the reason employers are reluctant to make a commitment.”

Measuring productivity is not the only challenge facing businesses when it comes to flexible working practices. Four in five companies report significant challenges in their efforts to increase the availability of flexible options. For example, about half of organizations have had to contend with resulting harm to workplace culture. Interestingly, some respondents noted that this cultural strain is at least partly due to perceived cross-functional inequity in flexibility.

“For hands-on jobs, adapting tasks to a remote setting can be impossible,” says Kelleher. “Whole departments can be left behind while remote or hybrid practices are offered to employees who have more computer-based tasks. In some cases, this can cause friction between departments, or between leadership and employees who are denied flexibility.”

Beyond this, nearly a third of companies report that the need to upskill employees or managers to work in a flexible environment has posed a challenge. However, 39% of organizations still do not incorporate applications specific to flexible environments when training managers. Employers who do most often train managers on how to adapt performance management to a flexible setting. Very few companies (27%) train managers to monitor and promote employee engagement in a remote setting, however.

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