Agile working creates an efficient business environment by giving employees the freedom and flexibility to work in different areas of an office, or remotely via hot-desking, when and how they choose. With less constraints and more flexibility, the focus is more about performance and quality and less about where tasks are undertaken. Here we take a closer look into agile working.
What is Agile Working?
By looking at work as an activity, rather than a place, agile working focuses on eliminating any barriers that stand in the way of achieving objectives. 70 per cent of organisations are predicted to adopt some sort of flexible working by 2020; with agile working at the heart of this transition.
The benefits of agile working
- improved quality of working relationships, both internal and client-facing
- reduced costs
- increased productivity
- talent acquisition and retention.
In recent years, the demand for more flexible working has increased, and the Manpower Group’s workspace research shows quite definitively that 79 per cent of employees want the option at their current company, with this number even higher among younger workers.
Research by the Agile Future Forum (AFF) found that agile working practices saved 3 -13 per cent of workforce costs, with the potential to increase that from 3 per cent to 7 per cent where agile working practices were implemented more considerably.
Flexible working options
Agile working is just one of the ways that employers are offering more flexibility in today’s office environments. By introducing agility to their team and workspace, businesses:
- give employees the freedom to work in the best location
- reduce the amount of time spent travelling
- employ recent technological developments into the office to improve efficiency and creativity
- allow individuals and teams to work closely with one another
- give workers the freedom to develop new, non-traditional working practices, that can improve the way the business operates
- encourage team work in a more open, collaborative space.
There are other ways for employers to ensure that their agile working environment improves office efficiency, that doesn’t include working in traditional leased office space:
Serviced offices
A serviced office is, a furnished and fully-equipped pay-as-you-use space within a building managed by an operator this gives businesses access to fully-operational office space on flexible terms, allowing them to scale easily.
Co-workingspaces
The open plan, shared environment of a co-working or flexible office spaces gives a business all the benefits of a fully established office without any of the hidden costs of traditional office space and enables employees to work at desks anywhere in the world.
What Does an Agile Working Environment Include?
Ideally an agile working environment will have all, or most, of these amenities:
Regular working: workstations, hot-desking
Regular meetings: brainstorm area (small meetings), Informal meeting space (large meetings)
Formal meeting: boardroom, audio-visual rooms, video-conferencing rooms
Production areas: designated phone call area, private booths
Refuelling/relaxing: kitchen, cafeteria, outdoor lunch and relaxation area
The business benefits of agile working
Agile working isn’t a “one size fits all” theory, but can unlock value for both the employer and the employee, and with occupier enquiries for flexible workspace having increased 20 per cent year-on-year across the UK in 2016, it’s clear that more businesses are interested in alternatives to traditional office space.
Employees love agile working because it allows them to be more creative and focused. Powwownow’s research found 70 per cent of workers view a job with flexible working options as more attractive than one with a traditional environment. Research also shows that 30 per cent of employees would choose a flexible working environment over a pay rise.
John Williams, Head of Marketing, Instant Offices
