Looking back on my blog articles for 2014, it has been an interesting year with a quite a few articles focusing on the topic of “Flexible work arrangements”.

It started out as a discussion back in May 2014 where we did a video clip around a simple concept where employees are empowered with the flexibility to manage their own work schedule and the benefits that flexible working brings for both employers and employees. You can view the blog article here – “A changing workforce – is flexibility the key? (Click Here)”

That led to another article around the Fifa World Cup 2014, “What is HR going to do about the World Cup? (Click Here)”

Given the football fever and the crazy time zone, many companies look to having some form of flexible work arrangement to help mitigate the impact of a sleepy workforce, which in turn maintain a reasonable standard of productivity.

Going into June and July with a lot of anticipation and excitement, I welcomed the arrival of my new baby girl, Audrey. In preparing for Audrey’s arrival, I changed my working schedule to work about 70-80 per cent of the time from home for the next few months. This allowed me to be around my wife and our new born baby while she’s on maternity leave. That was the inspiration for the blog article “How to manage your time with a flexible work arrangement? (Click Here)“

One of the feedbacks I got soon after the article about my own flexible work arrangements went live was, “How do you ask your manager for such an arrangement?”

Apparently, it is not easy to go about asking for such “special” arrangements. That brought about the next blog article “How to ask your manager for a flexible work arrangement (Click Here)” which led to a radio interview with 938Live on the same topic.

(Wei Leng and I @ 938Live studio)

One thing led to another. How do you hire for a flexible work culture (Click Here)?What do you look for?

In recruitment, we like to hire the best talent for the job; thus, flexible working should be a choice that the employee can exercise. Having said that, there are still steps in which one can take if you are looking to hire for a flexible work culture.

I think we had given the “Flexible Work Culture” topic a pretty good coverage in 2014.

Do let me know if there’s any topic you would like to see in 2015.

Cheers
Eric

Eric Wong is Head of Talent Acquisition & Development (APAC) at Polycom, and blogs about how video collaboration can benefit the HR function on Polycom’s “The View from APAC”. Connect with him on Linkedin or follow him on Twitter @ErickyWong.