Flex Education

Online meetings, remote working, workplace downsizing, coronacations, business-travel bans… the amount of new concepts businesses and their people have had to wrap their heads around over the last 18 months has been dizzying. And while experts assert that the challenges Covid-19 brought have advanced the conversation around more flexible working models by some ten years, all that warp-speed progress is inevitably causing some growing pains.

The one thing that looks certain is that there will be no wholesale return to how things once were. We’ve been seriously impressed by our clients’ adaptability and creativity in continuing to provide their services and support their teams, and thrilled to observe the positive ‘side-effect’ remote working has been shown to have on companies’ workforce diversity and inclusion. And we know there’s much more to the next stage in this journey than simply rebalancing recent Covid-caused flexibility with old-world office-based models, with AI poised to play a much greater role in workforce management, and comparatively vintage concepts like job-shares, flexitime and compressed hours suddenly taking on new relevance.

We’ve seen a huge uplift in candidates seeing fully remote roles. And while we’ll always strive for the best matches for their wishlists, we know from our own work the value of a significant amount of in-person interaction, and the nurturing and development face-to-face relationships deliver. Looking ahead, our hearts and minds are firmly in ‘hybrid’, and we’re looking forward to continuing to help our clients shape the innovative new workplace landscapes that will take them forward.