When employees work in a way that works for them, they tend to be more satisfied, productive and loyal. Many people want work to fit around their lives, rather than to fit their lives around work. This has resulted in an increasing preference to work from home and flexible working, which sometimes employers find challenging to address.

A request for change in working practices can cause friction for some businesses. While employees may prefer flexible working and working from home, managers who organise and oversee work practices are faced with the problem of how to change existing practices in a way that preserves quality and standards.

However, inflexibility to employees’ preferences may result in employees looking to move to businesses that operate in a way that works for them. It may also mean that potential employees ignore employers that do not listen to, and are flexible around, employees’ work practices preferences. Those who have the strongest skills and talent can choose whom to work for and will choose businesses that they are happy to work for.

 “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, not the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change”.  Change does not have to be a scary word. There needs to be an ongoing dialogue – with honesty, transparency and mutual respect –between employees and management on adapting work practices while upholding high standards.

It is likely that this process of adaptation takes time, iterations and calibration. There does not need to be a solution straight away, or indeed, it may be that work practices will continue to evolve as technology develops. Building and maintaining a relationship of openness, respect and trust must be the basis on which changes and evolutions in working practices should be built on. After all, a business cannot be successful without the goodwill of those working to make the business successful: losing the goodwill of employees and potential employees is something that few businesses can afford.