5 Different Ways to Let Your Employees Work Remotely

You want your employees to come into the office, but you also want to be understanding of their needs for work/life balance and offer remote work options.

Thing is, your flexible work policy doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing scenario. Giving your workers the ability to work remotely doesn't mean that you have to pack up your office and let your employees work full-time from home. Actually, the opposite is true. At last year's TRaD Works Forum (the upcoming 2017 edition of which was named one of the top 10 HR and recruiting conferences to look forward to this year), this was a hot topic of discussion, with many attendees weighing in on how to promote and advance their telecommuting, remote, and distributed work efforts.

If your company is contemplating flexible work options, consider these five different ways to let your employees work remotely:

1. Fix the Flex for Fridays

By and large, Friday is the most popular day of the week for both managers and workers alike. With the weekend just around the corner, Friday is often seen as the day when employees are the least productive. That makes it an excellent day to let employees work remotely!

2. Be Flexible When Nothing Is Going on in the Office

Sure, you need workers in the office for some meetings or when a last-minute project calls for all hands on deck, but if there are other days when their presence in the office isn't necessary, why not let them work remotely?

3. Let Employees Choose to Work Remotely a Certain Number of Days Per Month

Flexible work options come in many forms, and what might work for some of your employees might not work for others. As long as your workers are getting the job done, you can allot them each a certain number of days per month to work remotely. Leave it up to them to ensure that the work that needs to get done in the office is being completed and that they are meeting their deadlines when they work remotely.

4. Allow Employees to Work Part-Time in the Office

When employees need flexibility in their schedules but also have to maintain an office presence, you may want to give them the option to split the day in half. For example, they could work part-time in the office — attending meetings, signing off on documents, etc. — and the rest of the day remotely.

5. Offer a Compressed Workweek Option

Typically, a compressed workweek gives workers the ability to work in the office for four longer days and then have the fifth day (usually a Friday) free. This flexible work option can also be used for remote work purposes, too: You might allow workers to work a partial compressed workweek in the office so that they can get office-only work done, and then use the fourth day to work remotely.

It's evident that remote work isn't a one-size-fits-all deal. If your company's goal is to have a unified, happy, invested, well-balanced team with minimal turnover, offering options for remote work will help make that a reality.

Brie Reynolds is the director of online content at FlexJobs.