My role allows me to meet exceptional people every day. Intelligent and remarkable people looking for the next step up the ladder or an entirely different career altogether and despite the variety, the majority of my candidates have one thing in common and that’s the need for flexibility.
8 in 10 candidates I meet, who are both male and female and of different ages, ask me for a role that allows for flexibility. These are the very best people on the market, or what I like to call grade-a candidates. From graduate to senior-level directors, this is the most sought-after talent pool and their main criteria is really quite simple.
I ask everyone I meet for their top three wants and in the majority of meetings, flexibility is key alongside something about their ideal role and culture.
These candidates are deriving from the Big 4 or blue-chip companies who already offer flexible working to some degree so if you are a company that doesn’t, quite simply, you are going to miss out on the top tier of talent.
A flexible working policy portrays you to be a forward-thinking business that truly cares about the wellbeing of their workforce and the ROI can be shown through the productivity, alignment and satisfaction of your staff and of course above all, your talent attraction and retention.
When I bring this conversation to my clients who aren’t as forward-thinking about topics such as flexible working, I get the following counter points.
Does it drive or hinder production? Can I trust my workforce to work remotely? What effect does this leave on the workforce who remain in the office?
We live in an age where the best talent want flexibility and so in order to attract them, it’s non-negotiable. Flexible working isn’t simply a millennial fad that accommodates for a work pub balance. The most senior people of any blue-chip, multi-national and Big 4 organisation work flexibly and at our Women in Business event last Thursday we heard from several established women who told us they are more productive when working from home and in fact, it’s what makes them willing to check their emails at weekends. It is something that boosts productivity, drives alignment and loyalty to your organisation and encourages a culture of trust and wellbeing and most importantly, it’s not just for mothers.
Men, women, senior professionals and graduate workers. They all want flexible working and for every company that doesn’t there are several forward-thinking businesses that will.
My message is simple. Embrace agile working and use it to attract the talent you need to take your organisation to the next level.
I’m keen to hear from you – do you have a flexible working policy and does it help you thrive at work? And, if you don’t, I’d like to hear more about how you think it might help. 
