We hear more and more about flexwork, and for good reason: the health crisis and its lockdowns, by leading a large number of employees to telework, have accelerated the process of companies thinking about the different working methods.

 

After Twitter, which declared that " teleworking for life " was possible for some of its employees in May 2020, Facebook and Google followed suit, announcing that they were considering the possibility of giving up part of their offices. After a year of crisis and mass teleworking, the time to take stock, however, seems to foreshadow a change of gear rather than a general deployment of all-teleworking.

 

 

But the idea germinated and France is not to be outdone. Buoyed by some successes (such as those of AXA, BNP Paribas and Bouygues Immobilier), more and more companies seem to be betting on hybrid and/or flex office working formulas and opting for a transition from " conventional working arrangements to innovative working arrangements" on a larger scale.

In a nutshell, there is now an interest in implementing flexible formulas that work rather than questioning the relevance and viability of flexible formulas.

 

 

However, " flexwork ", by referring by its very etymology to notions of flexibility, agility and flexibility, tends to be confusing. Often reduced to teleworking, it can nevertheless be carried out within a company, provided that certain aspects are assumed. But then... What is its exact definition? What are its different forms? What are the benefits and obstacles associated with it? And, ultimately, is it really the future of work? We take stock of these questions.

 

 

 

 

But what exactly is flexwork ?

 

Part-time, teleworking, job-sharing... How to find your way around?

In its most prosaic definition, flexwork is above all a planned arrangement of employee/employer working arrangements that does not fall within the framework of a so-called " conventional " working week, i.e. 35 hours per week in France.

 

 

The two flexwork solutions generally put forward are:

 

• The alternative work arrangement: In this configuration, the arrangement between employee and employer is defined in advance and is strictly planned. If the working hours are part-time, their hours do not vary. In the same way, the workplace(s) is/are defined in a fixed way, although they can alternate.

• The flexible working arrangement: here, the employee is required to work a certain number of hours every day or every week, but can, for example, start or end his or her working day whenever he or she wants. The employee's place of work can also change depending on the needs and the arrangement negotiated with the employer, with more flexibility than on an alternative method.

 

 

It is then necessary to distinguish three modalities of articulation of flexwork:

 

1/ The arrangement around time: this concerns the frequency of flexible arrangements between employees and employers, who are then in the front line. This can be permanent, alternate, temporary or occasional, for example.

 

2/ The arrangement around the place(s): Flexible working can be done in different places: at home, on the move, at a non-personalized workstation inside the company (flexoffice), in a co-working space, etc. In other words, in flexwork, the workplace can be fixed and/or mobile and is not only related to teleworking, as is often thought.

 

3/ The arrangement around a workstation: That is to say, " job-sharing", i.e. the fact that two or more employees share the tasks assigned to a single position.

 

 

Combinations of flexible and alternative arrangements, of positions, times and/or locations are of course possible, as flexwork allows for a wide variety of formulas, from the most regulated to the most individualized.

 

For example, an employee who is part-time, who shares his or her position with someone else, who teleworks part of the time but works the other part of the time in a flexible workspace within his or her company... live the flexwork experience to the fullest!

 

 

 

 

What makes flexwork a work solution of the future

 

A solution of the present

What tends to make flexwork appear as a solution for the future is above all... that it is a working solution of the present! For example, part-time contracts, telecommuting, flexible working hours and vacation days are already part of our working culture. In France, 18.4% of employees were working part-time just before the Covid crisis. Thanks to this, partial and/or total teleworking has developed, making flexwork even more concrete.

 

According to the Malakoff Humanis barometer, the number of teleworkers jumped by eleven points between November 2019 and May 2020, from 30% to 41%. While the figures seem to have returned to normal in December 2020 (at 31%), the number of teleworking days is higher than before the pandemic, falling from 1.6/week in November 2019 to 3.6 days/week at the end of 2020.

 

The experience has convinced more than one!

While 75% of employees and 66% of managers believe that teleworking will continue to develop, 86% of teleworkers want to continue working in partial distance, bringing the ideal number of teleworking days to 2/week instead of 1.4/week before the crisis. This enthusiasm could be a first step towards even more flexible solutions!

 

 

A solution that is tending to develop

On the one hand, the digitalization of work tools and the increase in the autonomy of certain routine tasks, which make teleworking more possible than ever, are opening up the flexwork breach even more.

On the other hand, the younger generations, who are digitally savvy, are also those who want the most mobility, agility and flexibility and who best represent the future of the professional world. They are the most likely to move the lines and negotiate working conditions aimed at making them more flexible and therefore better at life.

 

The addition of these factors is quickly made and tends to establish flexwork as a model of the future for employees.

On the organizational side, flexwork formulas, promising lower real estate costs, among other things , are also attractive. Among the other arguments cited in favor of flexwork, a gain in productivity and creativity, an increase in employees' skills and an adaptation of "à la carte " working methods in the event of occasional needs.

 

 

 

 

Difficulties of application... to the impossible application

 

Control and implementation of " flex " formulas

What works most against flexwork on the organizational side is above all the difficulty of controlling employees with flexible arrangements. Without excellent coordination and clear and transparent practices, thought out beforehand and adaptable according to the realities observed on the ground, the transition to flexwork will be difficult to implement.

 

The transition of an employee and/or a team to flexwork can, in addition, change the existing dynamics in terms of objectives and commitment. Teleworking, on the other hand, raises the question of team cohesion and the risks that a lack of active collaboration due to remote working can represent for companies in the long term.

 

Managers are therefore on the front line to ensure that the processes that govern flexwork run smoothly. The crisis has also allowed them to identify the constraints raised by the deployment of teleworking. While 18% of them encountered difficulties in implementing it in 2018, 40% of them today.

 

 

Costs to be expected

Another pitfall to avoid is the flexoffice, which, by encouraging companies to give up (partially or totally) their desks, can lead them to minimize the occupancy rate of flexible workspaces and to misjudge the costs of home-office formulas. Because negotiating the transition to flexwork comes at a price.

 

To ensure that everything goes as smoothly as possible, it is necessary to plan for costs related to the professional equipment of your employees working from home. Other one-off costs can be added to these, such as those of seminars aimed at bringing teams together in order to maintain cohesion, which is somewhat undermined by remote working.

 

 

Disparities between sectors

Not all sectors are affected in the same way by ultra-flexible working arrangements. Thus, for a nurse who works in a hospital environment, teleworking can never be a formula for the future. The crisis has also made visible the disparities in the application of teleworking depending on the sector.

 

While 31% of employees were teleworking full-time or part-time in December 2020 according to the Malakoff Humanis barometer, 62% of them were professionals in the Banking/Insurance sector, 62% in Services, 23% in Health, 19% in Commerce and 17%... of Industry. In light of these figures, it is easy to understand why some flexwork solutions will not be applicable for a long time in many sectors, if not at all.

 

 

 

 

Towards increasingly hybrid work design solutions?

 

For flexwork that leaves no one behind

The disparities between the different sectors of activity should make it possible to highlight a number of other inequalities in the application of flexible solutions.

 

The younger generations, who are eager for flexible solutions, are very affected by the home office in this period of health crisis. Many young workers live in very cramped housing and suffer from a lack of space and increased relational isolation. Teleworking most of the time is also difficult for women, whose mental load increases, among other things, because of the challenges posed by the home office in terms of balancing life times.

 

 

As for part-time work, while it represents one of the first " flex " solutions favoured by workers, it is often associated with a lower salary and/or positions with fewer responsibilities. The population of part-time workers is 79.5% female, which says a lot about the relationship between gender and the professional sacrifices made by women in order to find a fair work/parenthood balance.

 

The transition to flexwork and its standardization should therefore not be made without forgetting these issues, which the crisis and the massification of teleworking have highlighted.

 

 

Hybrid solutions

The good news is that the crisis has made it possible to accelerate the reflection on new working formats, to test certain modalities and to draw the first elements of analysis. The lifting of health measures could therefore allow the implementation of healthier and more flexible flexwork solutions than teleworking alone, whose psychosocial risks are not to be taken lightly.

 

Some companies that had decided to give up their offices in the middle of the pandemic, are reviewing  their position and now want to move towards a hybrid face-to-face/remote system . Still not very common in France, job-sharing, which allows (among other things) to share top management positions between several employees, could one day give women new opportunities to break the glass ceiling and access high responsibilities while maintaining a satisfactory work/life balance.

 

 

 

The main thing is to understand that for a good balance between the autonomy acquired by the flexwork employee and his or her managerial follow-up, trust, commitment, proactivity and feedback are the keys to successful flexwork. The broad definition of flexwork thus includes a reflection on the expectations and conception of employees/managers in terms of flexibility and presenteeism... without which the application of Flexwork formulas for the future cannot be carried out with serenity.