# Internal Communications 2: Flexibility &\#038; Productivity

Canonical: https://evoke-international.com/articles/flexibility-productivity/
Entity type: article
Last modified: 2026-10-16T01:40:44+00:00

## Description

Before Coronavirus (BC) flexibility was a contentious yet accelerating issue. Despite recent efforts made by companies to offer employees more freedom to design the work life that gels within the parameters of their personal life, flexible work is still regarded as an add-on rather than an innate standard. Now, the \#WFH modus operandi of the Coronavirus has forced companies into flexibility, throwing up more time and space for introspection and examination of the pros and cons of allowing employees to work flexibly and the communication challenges which accompany that pliancy. It raises the question of balance for employers, especially as they are working through these challenges in real time. Is flexibility a better opportunity to get the best out of employees? How to adjust operations around these new working models? How can we future-proof modes of operations? While major decisions are assumed at the highest level, employee feedback is the driver to implement new processes to shape what has perhaps been out of form or neglected from vital attention because of operational focus rather than employee To quell a common misconception: flexibility does not suggest working from home full-time. Many companies cannot run this way by dint of what and how they operate. This is simply the phenomenon we are experiencing now. The immediate and overnight change has been discombobulating and thrown the better part of us off kilter by way of our kitchen counter’s doubling up as a desk and our provisions-stocked fridge is now the cafeteria equivalent. Not omitting too, the extreme cleaning of which makes for excellent procrastination. A public health crisis doesn’t exactly set the scene for routine. We’re doing it though, as best we can. As has become common parlance, this too shall pass - but when, remains another question and ‘not soon’ is a possibility we need to squarely face. In many ways, Coronavirus is having an: ‘I-told-you-so’ moment. The reckoning day has arrived for companies who have long since operated on the arch aic model of measuring employee success based solely on the length of time spent at a desk. This myopic modality has just been shoved into the ‘past the point of no return’ category. Or at the very least, it is being tested by a forcible trial and error experiment. Globalization, technology and the 24/7 marketplace has changed the way we work – which is why flexibility was put on the table in the first place. Flexibility, per the context of work, should be defined in terms of options and trust – two areas which inherently increase employee retention rates. Not only do you have access to a brighter and more talented workforce when you promote remote working, you’re also likely to retain those employees for longer. Offering trust and options to employees makes them feel empowered and that their entire life is valued – not just the life they forge at work – which then vastly improves internal communications with open and honest channels aligning everybody’s needs. Recent statistics have strongly stacked in favor of employees on matters of flexibility and productivity. According to the UK Office of National Statistics, the number of workers moving into remote-working as increased by nearly a quarter of a million over a decade. In addition, 70% of workers feel that offering flexible working makes a job more attractive to them, per Probrand. Even before the pandemic struck, remote work was accelerating in the U.S. The share of the labor force that works from home tripled in the past 15 years, according to the Federal Reserve and BlueFace says by 2025 remote working will compete with office locations in the U.S. Flexible working conditions are as inevitable as the Coronavirus lingering on for some time – but ahead of it calming down, we should be assessing the the pros and cons of flexibility to strategize best practices for when we return to the regular world. Within the scope of flexibility and productivity, autonomy and accountability are at play as well and requ

## Image

https://evoke-international.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/thumbnail\_averie-woodard-5d20kdvfcfa-unsplash-1024x682-1.jpg