Improve your work/life balance with Get Ahead’s flexible working model
Get Ahead’s owner, Rebecca Newenham, finished 2021 on a high. She’d won the Franchise Balance award from the British Franchise Association – well-deserved recognition for her work to promote a healthy work/life balance for her team. Get Ahead’s model is built on flexibility – we believe it’s not only a healthier approach to work but that it yields great results for our business too.
In this blog, we take a closer look at flexible working – could it be the solution you’re looking for?
What do we mean by flexible working?
Flexible working is when you complete the tasks you need to following your own timetable. You can choose your own hours. Instead of making workers choose between a successful career and a fulfilling personal life, flexible working allows you to have both. Some days will be busy work days, others will be busy family days.
Flexible working is different from part-time working, where most employees must commit to the same hours each week. For example, when you only work two days a week, it’s hard to tell your employer you want one of those days off for a school trip. But when your work is truly flexible, you can go with your child on the trip without getting behind with work.
To achieve flexible working, business owners must also understand about workload. If your to-do list is so long that you need every hour of your forty-hour week to complete it, your work will never be flexible. Keeping the workload manageable is key to flexibility.
Why is flexible working good for businesses?
Get Ahead has been championing flexible working for over eleven years now with great success! Flexible working works – we’ve seen it with our own eyes.
The main reason for this is that when we are happy, we work better. We are all more productive when we’re not worrying about what else we have to fit into our days.
We also work more efficiently when we do fewer hours each week. For example, if we take an hour to exercise in the morning, we often find we go on to fit as much into seven hours as eight. In addition, families, hobbies, interests and self-care all pay into our emotional bank accounts and protect us against burnout.
Every business needs happy, positive, productive people working for it. And we’ve seen that the best way to achieve this is through promoting flexible working.
What does flexible working look like at Get Ahead?
Get Ahead’s franchisees can work as many days a week as they like, to whatever hours they choose. Of course, there are certain responsibilities that must be met, like attending the monthly franchise Zoom meeting, submitting invoices and building a business network. But in most respects, the work is scalable – virtual experts deliver the admin, marketing, business development and other tasks we offer clients, leaving franchisees free to choose how they allocate the rest of their time. Flexibility relies on a manageable workload – our “managing not doing” ethos is essential for this approach.
Franchisees can work at the crack of dawn if that’s when they’re at their best, or burn the midnight oil if that fits in around the family. They can take whole days off to see friends, volunteer with charities or make time for appointments. Networking events where franchisees connect with new clients usually take place at a variety of times so our franchisees can choose the ones that work for them.
Enjoy flexible working when you buy a Get Ahead franchise
If you’re looking for a career move that offers you less pressure and more flexibility, a Get Ahead franchise could be the solution. To find out more, explore our franchise website or give us a call on 01483 332 220 – we’d love to hear from you.
