Flexibility within a framework will help attract and retain top talent. There‘s been a lot of talk about the future of work. Will it be fully remote? Will it be hybrid? What will this mean for traditional offices? And what will that mean for your overall culture? These are important questions, but as leadership increases their understanding of these issues, a more clear picture has begun to emerge. More important than the “where“ conversation—meaning where exactly work will be performed—is the “when“ conversation. However, the simple fact is there is no one-size-fits-all approach here. Employees want the flexibility to deal with their personal lives during the day. They need to go shopping. They need to take care of their children. They need to address their own mental well-being. One way of allowing for this is offering “flexibility within a framework.” This refers to offering basic guardrails around what work will look like at an organization and letting employees figure out what will work best for them within a set of parameters. This might look like establishing “core work hours“ or days when collaboration should take place within an office setting. Overall, though, it needs to be up to employees to have the autonomy to decide for themselves. If employers demand the right to dictate when and where work will take place, they‘re going to lose the battle for exceptional talent.