Ambition Requires Flexibility

Like most vague terms, "flexibility" is often thrown around by employees and employers but little is done to make sure that everyone is on the same page.
Flexibility can be a number of things, ranging from flexible hours, to a flexibility to handling tasks that may not exactly be within your job description, so lets see how most people define flexibility and pick it up from there. As seen in this article by eclipse recruitment we can pinpoint flexibility as: "flexibility in the workplace is about when, where and how work is carried out. What we are seeing is that people want the ability to work remotely, work split hours, work around the traffic, do school drop offs or pickups or leave early on a Friday for a long weekend while from an employee it means that they are flexible when you need them to be. It may be that you need them to start early or finish late, attend an industry event, or provide extra support or work longer hours during a particularly busy period, or to deliver to clients."

On the other hand, mindtools defines flexibility as "The capacity to adjust to short-term change quickly and calmly, so that you can deal with unexpected problems or tasks effectively.". This can mean anything from offering to cover a co-workers shift to allowing your workers to work from home.

But why is flexibility so important?

There are numerous reasons why flexibility can be important from a corporate standpoint. Inside6q in their article state more than a few benefits of what being flexible can mean for a business. Being flexible can mean that your employees can find their own balance of life/work, work at a pace that better suits them and generally build a more employee friendly culture in your company. What does that give the company though? Well, for starters, employees that enjoy said freedom, may turn out to be more creative, feel more inspired to work, and have a better morale as a result.

Take a random person from the crowd and it is almost guaranteed to find a person who finds the grey, cubicle office job as "soul draining", and this can have a profound impact on your workers productivity. If they are not inspired by the culture of your company or their surroundings, then it is most likely that they are not going to be excited to go to work, which will result in their productivity taking a nose dive.

According to the same article however, as an Employer, having a more flexible work culture will attract better employees. The "top guns" of an industry tend to work better under more flexible schedules and having a company that seems appealing to them, might lure them away from companies they find rigid and uninspiring, so that means that your overall productivity will rise in the long run.

However, flexibility is not all fun and games, and before making sure you are flexible for your employees you have to make sure that being so, will not be counter productive to what you want to achieve.
According to this article by TheBalanceCareers mention a few cons of being flexible in your work ethics. Some employees just wont work without direct supervision, and by having your employees work on a more fluid time table, means you might not be reliably available for a client.

Not to mention that, in the end of the day, your company goals, timetable and work may not be suited to a more flexible culture, and that is ok too. Flexibility is important for your employees, but in the end of the day, flexibility for flexibility's sake did more harm than good.

Now that we have a better understanding on what a company has to gain by being flexible, lets see why companies also look for flexible employees.

Lets face it, working for someone/something is a business transaction and you have to be able to give in order to receive, so it is only fair that a company that gives you a flexible schedule can expect you being flexible as well. By being able to adapt to changes in the way you work, work the odd hours or even volunteer to cover for someone while they are on leave can go a long way.

If you flip it around, this means that as an employee, being flexible means you cover a workers shift, help out your co-worker even if that is not, technically speaking, within your job parameters, or even working the odd hour or two.

I found that a very useful article in my research was this one from The Balanced Careers website. There you can find a good overview of what was discussed as well as examples and a list of skills you can work on to be more flexible.

The bottom line, according to what I have read so far, is to make sure that in the end of the day, the value you provide and the culture you maintain and live by, deserves and lives up to the flexibility you demand from your employer.