: Flexible work arrangements: Development of a policy for flexible work arrangements including home office and office days

  Background: Offering flexible work arrangements such as working from home or flexible work hours are
associated with higher employee satisfaction, health and commitment. With the COVID-19 pandemic, many
companies shifted much of their workforce to working from home. Towards the end of this period, employees
would like to remain working from home while many companies prefer them to return to working at the office. In
order to maintain productivity and employee commitment, it seems that the solution is a combination of both:
working from home on some days and coming into the office on other days. In order to achieve this compromise,
companies need a general policy on how to deal with flexible and mobile work.
Task: Develop a concept of flexible work which considers working from home and working from the office for an
organization you know or imagine (a company you work for, worked for or know, or an NGO). The opportunities
and risks of flexible working for employees and employers should be discussed considering its possible locations
(company office, working from home, mobile working “from anywhere”). Further aspects of consideration are the
effects of flexible working for team cohesion, employee commitment and organizational culture. A policy for
flexible working could for example include a framework of fixed rules (e.g. fixed weekdays for working at the office
or a fixed number of days per week/month for working from home) and a set of recommendations (e.g. team rules)
how to create a productive and motivating working atmosphere in the team and the organization. Additionally,
the policy draft should consider major steps of the implementation of this policy in the organization. This should
also include risks, that might occur in the implementation process, and stakeholders, which need to be
considered during the implementation, such as work councils.
Introductory literature:
Smith, E. F., Gilmer, D. O., & Stockdale, M. S. (2019). The importance of culture and support for workplace
flexibility: An ecological framework for understanding flexibility support structures. Business Horizons, 62(5),
557–566.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2019.04.002