Flexibility at Work model

Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s CEO, decision of ending the telework program in the beginning of this year, continues to give much to talk about, with several opinions given about the advantages and disadvantages this format represents to modern economy organizations.
One thing is for sure: flexibility at work is on the agenda. Small companies are already following multinationals that long ago realised  new generations are more and more fan of the “work every time, anywhere” model, considering this represents undeniable efficiency profits for companies, namely regarding real estate costs, besides the collaborators satisfaction increases, having consequences in productivity terms.
An article published last July by the Harvard Business Review named “Working from Home: A Work in Progress” reveals very interesting data about the work flexibility theme and the new models companies are adopting on this domain.
One of the studies involved the Human Resources department of a New York bank, which implemented a flexible work program, allowing to several professionals to occasionally work from home. Most of those questioned mentioned working more focused outside the company, admitting that in the office the distractions and interruptions harmed their productivity. Some of this study questions focused on the emotional plan, concluding most of them was able to be more creative outside the office’s traditional environment and the frustration levels related with their work results diminished when developing their activity at home. A second study with 700 American professionals with an MBA came to show that those working in companies with work flexibility programs have more career evolution perspectives than those working in companies without that type of programs.
When all this studies point in the same direction, there are those posing the following question: but distance working will not cause the professional isolation and breach of team spirit in companies? Also here the market and the society made sure to be able to answer these needs and is not by mere chance that we have been watching, in the latest years, to an exponential growth of Coworking spaces – according to Census 2013, Portugal is one of the 10 countries in the world with more Coworking spaces. We are speaking of spaces that, integrating many times, the secretariat support through the “virtual office”, give the professionals comfortable work places which stimulate creativity and synergies with other companies.
These new work models came, without a doubt, change the functioning paradigm of the 21st Century companies, which mainly value the results, no matter where they were produced. The “work every time, anywhere” model, came to stay.
[Carlos Gonçalves, Avila Business Center’s CEO via]