Work Flexibility Is Boosting Productivity for Growing Businesses

In the past, “flexibility” in the workplace was not a benefit or perk that was traditionally offered, but rather an exception made for employees here and there. However, as work culture has evolved, flexibility has become more of a focal point during the hiring process and businesses are being challenged to implement and embrace an environment that plays to people’s skills and talents rather than geographic location.

While methods and tactics to achieve flexibility and ensure productivity vary among employers, we here at Formstack believe this could help companies and home businesses grow even further by fostering employee productivity capabilities even more. Key methods that can amplify productivity in the modern workplace include offering the possibility for working remote, improving internal communications and utilizing strategic automation tools to streamline workflows.

However, remote work can introduce new problems for companies such as added complexities in creating internal connections, feelings of isolation for employees or a lack of productivity through easy distractions. Both home businesses and larger companies can focus on these potential challenges and utilize all the solutions to maintain a connected and productive team, but also organize and simplify work processes to generate greater efficiency.

Offering employees, the ability to work where they choose enables companies to attract and retain talented people who can significantly move the company forward. A study conducted by the International Workplace Group shows that today about 4% of the U.S. population works remotely and an outstanding 85% of businesses confirmed productivity has increased due to greater flexibility. One of the advantages of hiring more remote workers means that employers are able to hire from a wider pool of potential employees, as with location removed from the equation, employers can recruit talent from smaller markets. For example, our team at Formstack has been able to hire employees from all over the country and not just in Indiana and Colorado where our company offices are located. We believe these individuals are playing a major role in the company’s growth, success and culture and being remote doesn’t negatively impact the business or their productivity. In fact, it increases it.

The ability to work remotely is one of the many important tools that can help support the success of business of all sizes, from home businesses to large enterprises. As Jason Aten of Inc. Magazine shared, with a remote workforce, people are driven to be more proactive and motivated with all-encompassing time management skills. However with a remote workforce, developing relationships with colleagues becomes a critical component, as teams must learn to work together and collaborate in a virtual way rather than face-to-face.

The harnessing of relationships helps to relieve the feeling of isolation remote employees may experience. Companies can help their remote teams by organizing retreats, which can benefit both remote and non-remote company cultures. Here at Formstack, we recently held our annual company retreat, where the entire team gathered together in Playa del Carmen, Mexico to reflect on last year’s accomplishments, set this year’s goals and spend time with coworkers and friends. Retreats can be enjoyable, but they can also have a significant impact on the company’s growth and development by incorporating face-to-face annual meetings, leadership building classes or providing educational seminars within the recreational activities of the retreat. A company retreat is an example of team building and bonding that can help shape a connected, productive and strong team dynamic within a company. Though a retreat is a more costly and a larger approach, all of these events, meetings and seminars can be coordinated on a smaller scale as well.

Communication is also an important key to driving the success of a remote workforce. According to bluesource, “productivity improves by up to 25% in organizations with connected employees.” People benefit when they are purposefully engaged on tasks, company updates, collaborative brainstorming, etc. For Formstack and other businesses such as Airbnb, Shopify, Dropbox and Pinterest, Slack has been instrumental to keeping employees connected. Since Formstack is a remote-first company, with 60% of our 200+ employees being fully remote, we also utilize a Slack Bot, Donut, to help our employees get to know each other. Donut pairs everyone in our #donut-be-strangers channel every two weeks and encourages the pairs to meet in person or via a Zoom chat. This helps us overcome the physical distance between all our employees. As more of the world’s workforce becomes remote, other applications that facilitate communication will become very helpful.

One of the biggest challenges that employers may face when dealing with a growing remote workforce is making sure employees are equipped with the right tools to do their best work and ensure high productivity as they work from their location of choice. For example, a tool that can automate an employee’s day-to-day tasks and customer interactions can simplify time-consuming processes and create more time for innovative tasks.

In a study conducted by Ketan M. Shinde, they found that automation was one of the most effective techniques for reductions in costs, waste, scraps, labor and time. These tools improved the overall performance and quality of any process for products or services by amplifying the ability to achieve optimum efficiency and avoid manual delays and error. Automation tools can also offer the ability to analyze the cause of low or poor productivity, which helps to upgrade the output quality. Automation tools are needed within the current competitive markets and can help to expand the future of successful businesses by producing high-quality and cost-efficient tools.

As mentioned earlier, though remote workers are often more productive, that can sometimes be a result of the employees natural self-discipline. So how can companies provide automation tools that help all employees stay on task and productive and avoid the lust of procrastinations? There are many automation tools that can be used and shared company-wide so that employees and managers can assign tasks and create to do lists that are shared internally, creating a visual of each employee or teams’ to do lists. This can also add a personal moment of satisfaction when the assigned task is completed and checked off the list. For example, our Formstack Workflow solution is a way for businesses to create dynamic workflow processes to help them stay organized. Other examples of workflow assistant tools that would be beneficial for businesses to look into include Integrify, Flokzu, etc.

Companies and home businesses that choose to implement a remote culture can drive these successful workforce dynamics into their foundation and continue to build a positive and productive company culture. This can help to construct the ideal working environment, enabling teams to be dynamic and effective no matter where they are. With the help of automated workflow tools and robust data management systems, businesses can operate more efficiently through streamlined workflows to develop a smarter and more successful future.