The new shape of work: Redefine flexible working
Embrace flexible working arrangements for all
COVID-19 has tested many people’s ability to be flexible in terms of how and where they work. The next challenge for employers is to help everyone move forward by designing and implementing flexible working strategies that are inclusive. Such strategies should embrace all employees at all life stages and harness the many different forms flexibility can take.
Many employers say they will provide flexible work arrangements at a grander scale than before the coronavirus pandemic. The hope is that this will deliver real business value, including sustained engagement, productivity increases and greater access to expanded talent pools. Nearly all companies (98%) are taking steps to create a healthy hybrid work culture. This is having a positive effect. Since the pandemic, 83% of energised employees trust their organisation to let them work flexibly. However, engaging a blended workforce, in which employees have a range of different work experiences, will be challenging for both managers and teams. It will affect everything from hiring and learning to business development and performance management.
Leading companies are combining the best of the pre-COVID era (personalisation, global outreach and outcome-led actions) with the remote, flexible and digital models that are redefining work today. They are rethinking how different jobs can flex and how to offer their people more flexibility, whatever life-stage they’ve reached. They are innovating and creating solutions that recognise people’s financial, health and career aspirations. “Flexibility for all” is the new shape of work. Use our expertise to explore what’s possible, desirable and sustainable.
The six dimensions of flexibility
Three ways to get started on flexible working
Test your organisation's flexibility
Use our free tool to assess where your organisation currently stands in terms of delivering flexibility for your workforce.
Flexible working
Mercer has proven experience helping organisations create flexible working strategies to transition from fixed to hybrid structures.
Hone your flexible working strategy
Design and implement a strategic approach to flexible working that delivers long-term value for both your employees and your business.
Explore more
-
Future of workDual reports are now available for our Future Skills and Future Jobs Surveys. Find out which skills and jobs employers expect to be most important over the next three years.
-
Podcast
Delivering flexibility and security at Unilever
July 18, 2022 | Episode 23 | 23:08Workplace flexibility is high on the business agenda and organisations are looking at adjustments to their operating models. In this episode, Placid Jover, Unilever’s VP HR for Latin America, talks about a new approach to talent management that balances the need for critical skills and workforce flexibility to help both the company and employees succeed. -
HR function
Change management
Discover how to develop and implement a successful change management approach that puts people at the heart of change. -
Future of work
Transforming HR to deliver an exceptional hybrid experience
Just 4% of HR teams believed they delivered an exemplary employee experience. With that understanding, Mercer developed its HR Accelerator, an employee-centred and multidimensional approach to help companies create a more agile, efficient and strategic HR function.
Related solutions
-
Talent & transformation
Organisation design
Mercer’s organisation design consulting can help you transition from a traditional multilayered organisation to a simple, agile and distributed structure. -
Attract & retain talent
Strategic workforce planning
Mercer’s strategic workforce planning solutions provide a rational business basis to prioritise, develop and fund the people practices needed to support business… -
Employee experience design
Mercer’s employee experience design uses design-thinking principles to define and shape solutions to meet your people’s needs more effectively and to bring out the…
Related insights
-
Future of work
Future of work
Uncover how organisations are seizing the opportunity to redesign work, working and the workplace to prepare for the future of work. -
Future of work
The chief people officer’s quick guide to generative artificial intelligence
Humans plus AI deliver a real advantage. The role of CPOs in shaping how we prepare for the impacts on our businesses and workforce has never been more acute. -
Flexible working
Flexible working
Flexible working models are here to stay. Make them work for your workforce.