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News that the coronavirus outbreak has sparked the world's biggest work-from-home experiment in China, alongside advice to Brits returning from Italy to "self-isolate", will have been met with mixed reactions.Some will be delighted to avoid the risks to their own health and maximise their productive hours from the relative comfort of their own homes. Others will feel cast adrift and less effective, perhaps a little lonely to be working away from the hubbub, chatter and background noise of an office.Read more: FTSE 100 falls further after 'bloodbath' as coronavirus weighs on stocksThere will, of course, always be those who resist the idea of working from anywhere other than the office. Opinions pervade that people who work from home "aren't really working", no matter how much some of us are able to demonstrate otherwise.With a crisis like coronavirus, the benefits of home-based working become obvious. But this should spark a more general conversation in our workplaces about the benefits of a truly flexible approach to work. Organisations that go further, pandemic or no pandemic, will enjoy improved productivity, higher job satisfaction, and a renewed ability to attract top talent.As the culture change lead at a "big four" consultancy, I witnessed first-hand the struggle to attract and retain great people, particularly working parents. The work environment did not allow people who needed flexibility to succeed, while the model of charging for time drove high expectations of consultant "face-time", rather than delivering client value.Expectations of additional sales and practice development created an "hours worked" culture, which effectively screened out people who did not have the flexibility to dedicate to these additional demands.Businesses would do better to focus on
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