What is a FlexScore®, and how is it calculated?
20th May 2024
A FlexScore® is one simple yet powerful number that tells you how flexible a company truly is.
It’s a percentage value which we calculate here at Flexa by assessing a company’s flexible working environment, and it's the result of a 2-step verification process. First, we look at all the flexible working options a company provides, from where their employees work to the benefits they offer and lots more in between. Then, we verify this data by surveying a statistically significant portion of the company’s employees, and asking them to rate their satisfaction with the following key indicators of flexibility:
🌎 Location
⏳ Hours
🎁 Benefits
📣 Senior Leadership
🤝 Trust & Autonomy
⚖️ Work-Life Balance
To supplement this, we also assess the company’s EVP (Employee Value Proposition) under the following categories:
🌈 Diversity & Inclusion
💰 Salary & Compensation
🚀 Mission & Vision
🏆 Reward & Recognition
✨ Culture
And finally, we give employees a chance to anonymously have their say about their company working environment, so that prospective employees can read on-the-ground reviews and learn what it’s really like to work somewhere – before they even apply.
As you might be able to tell, it’s a pretty comprehensive process! And that means that Flexa’s 2 million (and counting) users can trust that Flexified® companies are walking the walk, not just talking the talk.So, what's the point of a FlexScore®, and why does it matter?
Well, the average person spends up to 3 hours searching online to find out what flexible working options are on offer – and that’s just for one company. 3 hours. Per application. Not the most efficient use of your time, is it?
And this is increasingly common, too, as flexible working is now a non-negotiable for 87% of the global working population. Think of how many hours a year 87% of job-hunters are spending trawling through Google and social media, trying to pin down current employees to talk, and sometimes even going through a whole interview process… only to find out that a company’s working environment isn’t the right fit for them.
It’s a broken system, and Flexa’s FlexScore® is here to fix it.
The FlexScore® is our way of quantifying not only what flexible working really looks like in practice at different companies, but also exactly how current employees feel about all elements of their workplace experience. Gone are the days of fluffy definitions and an inability to define what “flexible working” actually means. We’ve distilled hours of research into the click of a button. Think booking.com, but for your next company.
Oh, that does sound useful! Can you tell me a bit more about how a FlexScore® is calculated?
Every company on Flexa goes through two stages of Flexification in order to receive a FlexScore® – and our seal of approval.
Stage 1: Company benchmarking
In the first stage of the process, we benchmark each company against the market based on key indicators of flexibility such as location, hours, benefits, whether they offer an evolved work week, and ease of access to flexible working. We have compiled millions of data points from companies all over the world to understand exactly what the average offering is, and what makes a truly flexible company in practice. A company has to score more than 50% (above average) at this first stage in order to proceed to the second step, meaning that every company which ends up on Flexa is above average when it comes to flexibility.
Stage 2: Employee surveying
At the second stage, we survey employees currently working at the company about their own experiences of the company’s working environment. In order to standardise and compare fairly across different working environments, we ask perception-based questions, such as “When it comes to the flexible working culture at your company, how well do you think your senior leadership team role model and support flexible working?”
We ask these questions across eleven different areas: location, hours, benefits, senior leadership, trust & autonomy, work-life balance, diversity & inclusion, mission & vision, salary, reward & recognition, and culture. This is because we want to give prospective employees a comprehensive and accurate view of what it’s like to work at a company. A minimum number of employees must take the quiz so that the answers are statistically significant; this means that the sample size will depend on the size of the company being assessed, and that our users can rest assured that our FlexScore® is a reliable indicator of life at the companies on Flexa.
This might sound like a lot of work, but through the magic of technology, each survey takes just a few minutes to complete. We take large volumes of quantitative data to draw reliable conclusions, rather than small samples of in-depth qualitative data, which can often be less reliable. This means we get the best of both worlds: reliable data, without being a massive drain on company or employee time. And so far, we’ve never had feedback that a Flexified® company isn’t really flexible – so the system works!And finally: how does having a FlexScore® benefit a company?
Flexible working is hugely in demand, and this demand is only growing. By being a Flexified® company, employers can be found by millions of candidates who are looking to bring their talent and dedication to a flexible role. Flexible working adds tremendous value to your EVP and Employer Brand – we shout about our Flexified® companies through emails and social media to build awareness around the fantastic benefits they offer, getting them in front of the right people.
Candidate engagement with Flexa is always high, and that makes Flexification a great way to publicise your flexible working arrangements and other benefits to attract the best talent who want to work the way you do.