HR expert reveals the key benefits of ‘chronoworking’ and how it positively impacts businesses.
- Moneypenny spoke to HR experts about the benefits of chronoworking.
- Searches for ‘chrono working ‘have increased +600% year on year.
- 84% of Brits feel pressured to work overtime to meet job demands.
Searches for ‘chronoworking’ have increased +600% year on year1 as employers and employees alike seek the benefits of working around individual circadian rhythms opposed to a standard nine to five.
Moneypenny spoke to HR experts Kim Napeñas, managing partner at Interval Group, and Vit Koval, HR expert and Co-founder at Globy, to understand the key benefits of chrono working to both employees and businesses.
The benefits:
When asked about how chronoworking can positively impact employees, Kim said that there are three key benefits: increased flexibility, motivation, and productivity.
Vit adds chronoworking can help to align natural productivity cycles “Such customization will lead to employees being satisfied for feeling respected and valued for their personal needs and rhythms.”
“This flexibility will, moreover, bring up the morale of the company and, at the same time, bring in more employees to the teams needing differences and diversities who may prefer flexible hours of working for their own or health reasons.”
Productivity:
Already implementing a chronoworking policy, Kim said “We’ve seen an overall increase in productivity and job performance from chronoworking, as our employees can plan their working days around their natural body clock and balance their working hours with personal commitments.”
“Our employees also feel more motivated thanks to the improved flexibility offered by chronoworking. Whilst this trend is relevant in the professional services space, within which Interval operates, it probably won’t work for all sectors and industries.”
Vit added “This is a flexible arrangement that will help minimize the lost productive time that is taken up by futile attempts to concentrate during off-peak personal productivity times, potentially leading to work and efficiency that are not of the highest quality”.
Work- life balance:
Unlike a traditional nine-to-five, chronoworking focuses on aligning work hours with productivity peaks and therefore, employees are able to pick and choose their schedule.
Vit said that this ultimately will aid in a better work-life balance “Chronoworking can improve the work-life balance by allowing the work hours to fit according to the personal life of the employee, which can result in less stress and burnout. For instance, they might encourage a parent who works shifts in conjunction with his or her child’s education and schedules to spend ample quality time with his or her family. This aspect of flexibility could make the employees feel like they have control over their time and are not losing everything in their private life just so they don’t lose their job.”
The future of work schedules:
Kim went on to say that the continued advancements in technology could mean that chrono working will become more prevalent in workplaces.
“A key enabler for chrono working is the advancement of technology, including internet capabilities, VPNs, collaboration, and videoconferencing platforms. These have enabled many tasks to be completed remotely and with multiple people collaborating on the same documents at the same time, with transparency on who has done what.”
“Looking ahead, as more companies adopt chronoworking, I believe the concept of a ‘global workforce’ will become even more a reality; not only will we see employees across the world working more closely in ‘virtual teams’ based on their chosen working hours, but also employers benefiting from a much bigger talent pool, as geographical / time zone differences become less relevant.”
Vit echoed “Indeed, the future of work will change along the lines of chronoworking—more so as technology literally makes ease both remote and asynchronous working. With businesses going global and their workforces distributed, indeed, demand for such flexible working arrangements can only increase.”
