We need more work flexibility today!

The need for change that our society is experiencing seems to be an appropriate scenario for the promotion of work patterns that import job flexibility, ensuring the well-being, inclusion and accessibility of partners within companies.

Today, work flexibility is an issue that has become increasingly strong, and more, as we have already mentioned in previous articles, an amendment to the Labour Code on "From distance work and telework. "But as long as that change does not happen, it is imperative that employers are more emphatic today and provide alternatives to promote the care of their workers.    

We must, as companies, make a change of mind, rethinking how to do things, drivendo cultures that promote autonomy and personal leadership in order to evolve to more work formats flexible and Opticalsuch as teleworking /home office or reduction of the day.

According to Francisco Espinosa, leader of Human Resources Accenture Chile, "in the last survey GPTW, in the face of the question 'what makes Accenture a good place to work', 85% of our employees cited the benefit of home office, which shows the importance of promoting this type of initiative in companies”. 

From TesacomRossana Rojas, manager of Administration and Finance, says that "our professionals are aware that the fact of working from your home does not mean a day of rest or holiday every week, it is simply an opportunity to continue doing the same thing they do in the officebut closer to his family. All this thanks to the technologies currently available. "

"Big companies like American Express declared that productivity has increased to 45% when doing work initiatives from home, and various psychological studies report that many collaborators feel more committed to home office work because they see it as a job benefit they want to protect, "according to Guillermo Nava, VC Technical Support for Latin America of Logitech, for Human Capital Factor.  

According to Human Talent Managers some of the benefits of telework/home office are: 

1. It improves the quality of life.
2. It increases labour responsibility.
3. Time and money savings in transfers.
4. Flexibility of working hours and pace.
5. It reduces casualties and absenteeism.
6. It facilitates the evaluation of work.
7. Increase the loyalty of your collaborators.
8. I save on an office's costs.

We are going to the tactical, to implement that kind of initiatives you must start from the the basis of trust and self-management, have a culture focused on goals and objectives where it is not about the amount of hours in which they are worked, but is based on quality, and design a teleworking policy including:

• Introduction: What is it? Why do you believe it? Etc.
• Conditions of benefit:  

1) Who can use it.

2) Requirements for making use of the benefit.

3) The conditions for the benefit: working hours (in accordance with the provisions of the Labour Code, in view of the nature of their work, and as provided for in the Labour Agreement), no days for working in this form, etc.

The co-worker shall thus comply with the same time and rest requirements as apply to the co-workers who serve in the respective offices.

• Application and registration process: Determine a formal channel for access to benefit. You can propose that the collaborator, with 48hrs of minimum advance, sent a formal email to the direct boss requesting the use of the benefit, specifying the required days and policy confirmation. It is then important that this be recorded in a control system, to monitor or activate the participation of other actors that will facilitate the start-up of the benefit.
• Availability tools and technology: To be provided with the necessary anticipation and opportunity, materials, equipment, implements and working tools to properly carry out the mandated work. The failure and serious damage to the equipment provided by the company, which after a technical analysis is defined as being caused by a negligent or neglected handling and use by the worker, and which are not the result of its natural use, shall be borne by the worker.
• Conditions of the workplace: In order to enable the co-worker to carry out his or her duties at his or her private home, it will be necessary for him or her to have a comfortable and suitable place to carry out his or her working day. In this sense, the worker's home must have a space independent of domestic life that has privacy and tranquility; it must be conditioned with sufficient furniture depending on the activity to develop, with the necessary ergometry and have comfortable environmental conditions in terms of noise, temperature, humidity, ventilation and lighting. The home of the collaborator shall also have broadband (Internet) to enable the function of the collaborator to be performed in the appropriate manner.
• Information Security: In accordance with the company's policies, to protect the confidentiality of industrial secrets, sensitive business information and business matters, the partner is required to take all necessary measures to protect the information and ownership of the company at home. The partner must keep a strict reserve on each of the operations and, in particular, maintain absolute confidentiality with regard to the background or documents to which he or she has access by virtue of his or her position, both of the company and of its customers, whether they are in the company's systems or in its usual place of work. The obligation of professional secrecy shall remain for the partner even after the termination of the employment contract. It is also important that you have the assurance of connecting to secure wifi networks, working on established formal channels and complying with ethical behaviour reflected in the company's code of conduct.

The invitation is to review viable alternatives to implement in their companies and already have substantive and valid studies that support optimal performance indicators. It will not only benefit KPis' partners and achievements, but also their pockets, such initiatives help to reduce fixed operational costs.

In Alster, we integrate that flexibility not only in the way we work for our partners (home office in our business model when working with lawyers fidelancers. We also promote a culture based on values such as: "We challenge the status quo“, “We work smart.“, “we generate value by collaborating"among others, they reflect our way of acting and thinking. Always in post to deliver the best service to our customers and have the best work space for our collaborators.

By Valentina Giglio, People & Culture Manager in Alster.