The conditions employees work in is vital as it plays a significant role in their physical and mental wellbeing. This is why businesses adopt various cultural practices to ensure employees work under ideal conditions. Offering flexible hours is one way that modern businesses attempt to improve their workplace culture. This practice has been known to improve the mental health of employees, and many business owners have considered adapting this practice. If you are still contemplating including flexible working arrangements or wondering how this practice can help improve your employee’s mental health, this post is for you.
1. Boosts productivity
Flexible working hours generally result in higher productivity, which is beneficial. For starters, it boosts your company’s efficiency. Second, it can assist workers in feeling more fulfilled in their employment. If people leave work in a better mood than when they arrived, feeling like they accomplished a lot, it can only be good for their mental health.
2. Dealing with emergencies
Everyone has family emergencies, and their personal lives frequently interfere with their professional lives. Most employers would understand if you need to take time off for personal reasons, but you may face some unpleasant questions if it becomes a recurring issue. Flexible working hours can help in this situation. Under more traditional workspaces, it is easy to identify the bias and discrimination against women, making it difficult to fulfil due obligations causing stress and anxiety. Establishing flexible working hours changes this paradigm, making it easier for women and others to carry out various personal duties without discrimination- which, in effect, improves their mental health.
3. Lower stress levels
One of the most common reasons for poor mental health is stress. While having more control over your working hours can be challenging, it can help you better manage stressful situations. This is beneficial to both the company and the individual.
4. Higher staff retention rates
Flexibility is high on the list of criteria for a huge percentage of the population when choosing a place to work. This is the case because of the rising responsibilities of life outside of work. According to research, employees are more likely to stay at a company that offers flexible working hours. Employees’ mental health benefits from increased retention, as they get more comfortable over time, while internal recruiters benefit from spending less on recruiting new staff. Offering employees flexibility is a terrific approach to reward excellent performance and greater staff retention rates. Many workers value flexible working hours over job advancement and salary. This is beneficial since rewarding employees for strong work performance has improved employee mental health.
5. Flexible working hours help employees to relax and unwind
If a worker is having mental difficulties for any reason, the added stress of having to go to work could make things worse in the long run. If they could choose the order in which they work, they could modify it to give them a break only when it is essential. Employee mental health and productivity have been demonstrated to benefit from this flexibility.
