LucaFlex - Why businesses today must embrace a flexible working environment

According to the centre for creative leadership, employees expect more flexibility in the workplace and are reluctant to return to the typical pre-pandemic working conditions. People are looking for a transformation in their organisation, for when and where they work. 

As specialist software developers, we focus on providing the flexibility that employees expect today. Through our flexible & remote working program, LucaFlex, we empower individuals to determine their work schedule and location according to their needs. We are rapidly evolving, and from an individual perspective, we focus on accelerated growth, professionally and personally. To enable the full potential of people, we are committed to balancing our team's professional and personal aspects. Our benefits plan is structured to provide flexible measures ensuring everyone can achieve their personal, career and well-being goals.

According to the recent workplace report by Envoy, approximately half of the respondents surveyed stated that they would consider leaving their current job if their employer failed to provide flexibility in the workplace as part of their future strategy. Many employees want flexible and remote working to remain a standard feature of employment. Other studies suggest that many employees would choose a permanent remote role over a significant pay rise. It’s clear that if businesses want to succeed in the future, it’s not a question of whether to offer flexibility but about how they will become a flexible business.

LucaNet has worked on streamlining its benefits within the LucaNet group, incorporating company values and local needs. Some of our core values include flexible working hours, remote working opportunities, and more. Our flexible working model, LucaFlex, is designed on a scalable framework that enables all LucaNet employees to work whenever and from wherever they want. The model is based on the principles of trust and ownership for their team and splits into five key pillars: Empower, Flexible, Customer-Centric, Hybrid and Balance.

Our flexible approach toward working times enables individuals to determine when to work, as long as it is aligned with the relevant manager and works with operational requirements. Our daily working lives can get busy, and at times require additional hours, so as a business, we need to be able to compensate employees for this flexibility. Any overtime can be accrued and reduced over the year with flex days. We strive to work and celebrate together as a team. Regular events provide an opportunity to meet colleagues and a chance to meet people from other sites and countries. Our bi-annual, company-wide event enables everyone to come together to learn and grow. 

A flexible work-life balance

The pandemic transformed our daily working lives, and many people had a complete rethink of their priorities. Work-life balance has taken precedence for many employees when considering a new job. Despite gradually returning to normality, the attitudes toward a flexible work-life balance have changed considerably. Many people are exploring shorter commutes that enable a better work-life balance and working arrangements that offer more flexibility around family and home priorities.

As an employer, managing the vision of a work-life balance can be challenging. A one-size fits all approach toward flexible working isn’t necessarily possible. A working parent’s concept of work-life balance will likely differ from that of a recent graduate beginning their career. 

Flexible and Hybrid work is growing considerably. Nearly every industry, business size and position will report some flexibility or remote work. According to the State of Hybrid Work in IT Trend report by Info-Tech Research, flexible working locations have become one of the biggest concerns for employees when exploring a new job.

The LucaFlex policy provides a mix of remote and hybrid working environments depending on the role and agreement with the hiring manager. We have specific guidelines for individual countries. According to one of our employees, the flexibility of the working location and times was one of the main reasons for joining LucaNet. The employee continued explaining that they had never experienced as much flexibility as found with LucaNet. There is an emphasis on deliverables and project availability, but otherwise, there is a lot of freedom. According to the employee, their favourite benefit is working from abroad, escaping the German winter, recharging their batteries abroad and focusing on projects with total energy.

A separate employee explained that flexibility at LucaNet is one of a kind and believes LucaFlex is one of the best benefits of working at the business, providing no in-office requirement, no core hours and flexible locations. The employee emphasised how happy they can balance their professional life with their family. We recently gained verification from Flexa recently gained verification from Flexa as a flexible business, and the results of the employee feedback form scored LucaNet 93% for their working hour's flexibility. 

The importance of flexible working for boosting diversity

After the recent International Women's Day, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) highlighted the importance of flexible working in accelerating diversity. Remote and hybrid working, training and education programs have proved critical in enabling more opportunities, and ACCA is urging employers to continue driving this momentum.

Following a recent survey of financial professionals worldwide, ACCA discovered that most people want a hybrid working environment, believing it provides more opportunities for productivity and further benefits or remote working emphasised by women. The 2023 Global Talent Trend report by ACCA found that while men and women equally valued the concept of hybrid working, women felt the benefits of working remotely on a higher level.

Findings from the study suggest flexible working creates better outcomes regarding mental health and retention, with hybrid workers less likely to leave their organisations. Helen Brand, the CEO of ACCA, believes that flexible working provides considerable benefits to everybody but can be especially useful to individuals with commitments that restrict their working locations or hours.

Flexible working has shifted to the forefront of strategic decision-making during the last few years, and consequently, businesses are continuing to offer long-term hybrid or remote working options. At LucaNet we know that days of a typical working environment have moved on, but there is no definitive example to follow with the new flexible and hybrid working era. Among the plans and measures introduced by many industry leaders, each organisation must create their own path, following its own employees' needs and business goals.

To read more about what drives us, what we stand for and what we do at LucaNet, and to see all of our current open positions, visit our career page at LucaNet – Growing today to simplify tomorrow.