In more conventional industries, such those that employ frontline employees with in-person job functions, the adoption of flexible working has been slower.
The advantages and pleasures of flexible working have long been appreciated by the digital jobs sector. It seems to make sense that more conventional businesses with in-person interactions, physical labour, or hands-on tool and machinery manipulation have adopted flexible working more slowly. Healthcare, high-street retail, hospitality, logistics (especially haulage), construction, and manufacturing are among the industries that have trailed somewhat. As a result, workers are being driven to other industries with more alluring flexible work arrangements, which is creating issues with recruitment and retention.
It doesn’t have to be this way because there are now creative and innovative HR software programs that can allow flexible working in traditionally rigid industries.
Thinking creatively is frequently the catalyst.
Even while there is a clear need for flexible work arrangements (and game-changing HR software is available), many traditional industries are stuck, and innovative thinking is needed to start the change process. This HR software is the very reason that these dreams of flexibility in work schedules have been realized.
As an example, in view of how the employees felt, Sealed Air, which is an international packaging company employing 16,500 workers, started implementing flexible work schedules from the year 2025. The HR professionals and people managers could easily categorize their workforces into three categories, namely hybrid, remote, and location-based. Following conversations between plant engineers and managers at Sealed Air, in-house positions that were not previously believed to be commutable to flexible working were converted to flexible roles. The implementation of cloud-based HR, project management, and people management software ultimately made all of this shift possible.
In the construction industry, companies like BAM Nuttall and Skanska UK have implemented successful flexible working initiatives. This was once more motivated by creative thinking and made possible by HR software. Changing hearts and minds was the first step in this initiative, which used a variety of HRIS (including the timewise author of the case study) to increase homework for site roles that weren’t entirely done by hand, improve worker input into their working patterns, and improve manager capability to implement flexible working.
More recently, companies like Sense have entered the market with wearable technology that enables front-line employees to communicate with the rest of the workforce as well as with more conventional office systems like Microsoft Teams and essential HR applications.
A variety of HR software will always be necessary to support the shift to flexible working in rigid industries; we’ve listed some of the most important solutions below.
Mobile apps for employee self-service (ESS and MSS)
Manager Self-Service (MSS) and Employee Self-Service (ESS) are the primary components that form a cloud-based HRIS. The services allow both managers and employees to do HR management activities online via an internet portal or mobile app. These activities include vacation requests, absence tracking, and expense or evaluation forms submission. ESS and MSS actively promote flexible working among deskless workers by moving the HR and people management processes online.
Modern clock-in technology
The manufacturing industry has historically used a punch-in and punch-out procedure to confirm employee attendance, requiring managers to be present to keep an eye on worker productivity and attendance. With “big brother” features like facial recognition and fingerprint check-in, as well as IP addresses and GPS locks that enable managers to remotely confirm employees’ attendance and whereabouts, modern clock-in and clock-out software has streamlined this process.
Team management for remote work
Even the activities of deskless employees are remotely monitored by managers using Controlio. This is made possible by one-click time tracking technology, which enables deskless employees who have trouble accessing timesheets to use a handy mobile timer app to record the amount of time spent on various tasks. Reports that break down all time recorded by project, client, and personnel are usually generated by these systems. Once more, this type of technology allows people managers to manage teams remotely utilising performance indicators by circumventing protocol.
Software for Remote Task Management
Project managers of various industrial sectors like manufacturing and construction may manage their industrial projects remotely using this software. Through regular updates received from the assigned people, project managers may remotely assign tasks, deadlines, and budget to the on-site staff while keeping an eye on their performance and achievements.
Rota software that has the ability to switch shifts
Cloud-based rota software is the most revolutionary piece of software that has made it possible for eateries and assisted living facilities to smoothly implement flexible work schedules. Employees in these industries have historically had extremely strict work schedules based on printed, predetermined weekly and monthly timetables that were too difficult to alter.
More flexible online timetables can essentially be automatically generated using best-of-breed rota software. The key element is shift-swapping functionality, which permits employees to switch shifts with one another (provided they have comparable skills) without consulting the boss, allowing for some degree of self-determined flexible working.
Any rigid business with a pool of equally skilled personnel performing the same job, including retail, HGV, manufacturing, and possibly even construction, might benefit from this shift-swapping mobile.
