The idea of remote working and flexible hours in the workplace has been a fast growing trend over recent times. From young graduates, to working parents who need the flexible hours, the promotion of a healthy work-life balance has meant that the priorities of employees has shifted away from the hard and fast working life. In fact, these days’ employees often expect the option of working remotely, with 67% in favour.

What’s more are the current issues many people are facing with congestion and commuting. With a 2.2% increase in traffic volume in 2016, congestion was reportedly a top concern for commuters. In fact, 45% of the UK spend well over an hour commuting every day.

With all of this going on, it’s no wonder many employees are actively looking for employers who can support the concept of flexible hours and remote working.

So what exactly does this entail? In short, working flexible hours means an employee is able to work from home on hours that can be mediated as and when they need. Understandably many companies are unsure of such work practices, as it can make managing a team harder, undermine the office environment and isolate team members.  Yet there is a solution to ensure both sides are happy, making your company an attractive choice for both young and experienced talent, and ensuring your company has the best team possible.

Creating the right extranet (or intranet) can give your organisation a new lease of life, and if done properly can be the perfect solution. In fact a recent survey even found that 83% of businesses benefitted from introducing flexible working hours. Creating the right extranet can offer many benefits, and produce a platform to give those a voice who may have not previously had one.

So what can you do and how can you go about doing it?

1. Make Ground Rules

It’s all very well offering flexible hours, however it is important to ensure your employees understand what is expected of them. Every business is different in this respect, but taking the time to explain to your employees what is required of them and how often they can work remotely etc. is important in maintaining strong team relationships.

2. Decide your business needs

Once you have understood what the primary and secondary needs of your business are, you can approach a company to develop an extranet around you. It’s important to take this preparation time, as the bespoke functionality of your extranet will depend on your concerns, opportunities and needs as a business.

It could be creating a management system that ensures your employees are completing the work needed to a precise time schedule, or else creating the functionality that ensures your office culture is enhanced online. Whatever the needs of your company, trying a “one-size-fits-all” approach can lead to problems further down the line.

3. Design, Build and Support

Approaching the right company to provide the end to end process of designing and developing the extranet in line with your business needs is vital. At BBI Brandboost, we can offer training for specified CMSs’ to empower management and staff to take control whilst providing ongoing support throughout, giving your organisation the platform for flexible working.

If you have any questions about creating your own Intranet or Extranet, you can find out more information here.