The summer holidays are in full swing! And whether you’re heading off on a big family holiday or you just want to enjoy more of the little moments that make summer feel special, there are many ways for employers to support their people make the most of their time (and still deliver for clients).
At Flexibility Works, we don’t just talk about flexible working — we live it. Working part time, from home, or flexing our start and finish times are all part of our usual ways of working. But we still need to get creative to help each other design a summer that works for our personal lives and keep our business wheels turning. We talked early, planned together and devised our new ‘summer your way’ pick-and-mix menu of flexible options to help our staff soak up the season.
Our focus was on low cost solutions (for us and our team members), and options that work for us as a business as well as our people. If you need some more inspiration on small changes that can make a big difference, check out our ‘summer your way’ options below.
Build it up, take it back
Put in a few extra hours or days during busier times, and take them back when it suits you and the business, such as in school holidays. This means employers benefit from extra resource when they need it most, and can let people enjoy time off when they want it most (and businesses are often quieter).
Making the most of annual leave
Sometimes you want to take a big block of time off. But other times, little and often suits best. So whether our colleagues want a two-week total break, or to use single days of leave, or split leave days in half, we’re happy so long as their calendar is up to date and colleagues and clients are clear when they’re available.
Compressed or flexed hours
Working longer days in order to take a full day off each week can work well in the summer months. Or starting early, taking a long lunch with the kids, and finishing up later. So long as we know when our people are working and how to contact them, we trust them to manage their hours themselves.
Temporary hours adjustments
We’re open to term-time working, where people don’t work in any school holidays. And we’re also open to temporary changes, such as reduced hours over the summer. So long as we know in advance and can plan accordingly, this can be another great way to give people the flex they need.
Work from (almost) anywhere
We’re a remote first organisation, so if our colleagues are heading to visit family, or want a change of scene, we’re happy for them to login wherever there’s decent wi-fi and they’re able to focus. This is usually for short periods of time, and – with our legal and tax hats on – we do check to ensure there are no tax implications if people are working abroad.
The sun shines days
We’re now thinking of other ways we can support our team, and one idea that’s piqued our interest is offering a small number of bonus hours off each year for when the weather is glorious, and everyone just wants to be outside. Our team works hard, and we know they always go the extra mile. This could be a small but valuable way we can say thank you.
These are just our ideas on how we enable our hard-working colleagues to rest and recuperate, and come back refreshed and ready for a new challenge.
What else do you offer that have we missed…?
