How introducing flexibility in your business model can boost profitability

A significant technique to boosting the profitability of your business is to ultimately keep your workforce happy. When a workforce is satisfied, they will become more productive and efficient as a team. Add this to the fact you’ll minimise the turnover rate and you’ve got yourself a long-term effective workforce bringing in a higher profit. 

 

Encourages employees to work at their full potential

 

Allowing flexibility means employees aren’t forced to work when they are distracted or drained. Flexibility could include allowing a 10-7 day as opposed to the traditional 9-5, employees working half the day from home to skip traffic, or even allowing remote working altogether. 

 

For instance, one of your long term employees is a mum to young kids and needs to be available to drop them at school and pick them up. Something as simple as saying no to that request could result in that employee being stressed about organising child care each day and therefore lowering their level of productivity, resulting in less work being produced than if you had said yes.

 

Reduces the turnover rate

 

Ensuring your workers are satisfied will directly extend the period they work for you. Compare the amount of work new employees can produce to an employee that has been around for 10 years and you’ll see a significant difference. Long-standing workers can boost the money coming into the business because they have been around long enough to know what works. 

 

In addition, retaining employees means you can minimise the time and money required to constantly hire and train new employees. Instead, you can allocate the time into projects that bring in profit.

 

This point is more evident with tradesmen or mechanics where hiring is more casual and instant than the long processes offices require. It’s these fast processes that will encourage more people to quit if they simply aren’t satisfied with their workplace. 

 

Increases your pool of candidates when hiring

 

Highlighting flexibility in job advertisements increases the number of people who apply to the role, and therefore the number of suitable and valued candidates you can choose from. Highly valued workers often acquire additional projects - flexibility gives room to hire those that are sought after and have other commitments.

 

With the larger hiring pool and the opportunity to access those special workers,  you may even be able to find the perfect candidate yourself, as opposed to spending the average $10,000 it costs to hire through a recruitment agency.

 

Recruit effective workers at a lower cost

 

Remote working is a prime example of how you can hire fantastic workers while offering a lower wage, boosting profit. Let’s look at New York - workers there can expect a significantly higher wage than those living in the country due to the extortionate living costs. Opting for remote workers doesn’t mean you will be lowering the bar of quality - there are a huge range of workers who hold the same qualifications and experience but are wanting to move to their home towns or simply live the relaxed lifestyle of smaller towns. 

 

Lower the costs of resources and office space

 

A notable number of employees prefer working from home permanently or on a hybrid basis, such as two days a week. In fact, nearly half of full-time American workers want to work remotely frequently, even when the current Covid climate goes back to normality. 

 

Applying a more lenient business model will directly bring in perks that lower the business costs and therefore increase profit. Simply allowing employees to work from home around 3 days a week, and allowing those whose positions allow them to work remotely full-time, will reduce the office space and resources you need to invest in. Your costs are lowered and employees are satisfied - it’s a win, win when it comes to boosting business profit. 

 

Be prepared for change

 

Embracing flexibility and therefore adaptability to better improve situations for all will generate the skill of being able to think on your feet. This is crucial given the current climate. Taking initiative as opposed to having a strict model will mean employees know how to respond to unexpected circumstances and avoid potential disasters further down the line. It’s these incorrect decisions that can be disastrous in losing income, existing clients and customers as well as potential ones. 

 

Let’s take a look at lockdowns as an example. Those businesses that prepared when there was news of impending lockdowns and gradually started to implement procedures to transfer their office to allow working from home were prepared for the inevitable. 

 

Whereas, those that were strict and carried on as normal, were sent into a mad rush when the official news came. No doubt many businesses globally had projects that couldn’t carry on. For this reason, the preparation that can occur as a result of flexibility is crucial to boost profits.  

 

Just like anything in life, for a business to be successful, there needs to be balance. Allowing flexibility while putting measures in place that encourage workers to be productive will see your employees satisfied, more motivated to work and optimising on their peak performance, all while retaining long-standing employees. Flexibility has never been more prominent, important and appreciated than now.