Flexible work arrangements have become a common workplace practice as organizations seek to attract and retain top talent. Both employees and job candidates now see it as a highly desirable job perk; in fact, flexible work hours and remote work options, such working from home, are some of the most highly considered jobs factors. However, before you jump into flexible work arrangements, take stock of whether or not your business really ready for flexible work options.

Here are some key questions to consider before you take this step.

What is your idea of a flexible work arrangement? Start by defining what a flexible work option would mean for your company. Working from home is usually a common arrangement, with some organizations designating one or two days when everyone must be in the office. Some companies also offer flexible hours if the job duties can be performed regardless of time zone or time frame.  When work requires that employees must respond to clients immediately, or if teams need to collaborate daily, then parameters are established regarding availability during normal business hours. If your team deals in knowledge-based work, you’ll find it ideally positioned for a flexible work arrangement in a virtual environment.

Does a flexible work arrangement support your business strategy? One of your most important considerations should be whether a work from home arrangement better supports your business strategy. This could mean everything from improving employee engagement and morale, to retaining your most qualified team members, to attracting new talent, regardless of where that talent could be residing. Working from home or during non-traditional hours even gives your company more flexibility with its use of office space, potentially allowing a reduction in your real estate footprint.

Does your office culture support these arrangements? If you’re breaking new ground at your office by offering flexible work options, you may have to deal with the perceptions of others who are less comfortable with these arrangements. For example, is productivity and success often presumed by seeing employees who are physically at their desks? Do you require employees to be highly visible in providing in-person support to meetings? Do your team members rely on impromptu meetings and conversations to get work done? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may find the adjustment to flexible work arrangements more taxing when you first implement this change.

Are you prepared to adopt new practices to maintain team cohesion? Teams will no longer have the physical proximity to create impromptu meetings and conversations. However, in a flexible work arrangement team cohesion doesn’t have to suffer. Team members who used to see each other in meetings will only hear each other on conference calls. And employees may start to feel siloed as they work out of sight from each other. Your team culture will need to accommodate this new arrangement by replacing impromptu chats with planned conversations, and by designating time for scheduled team meetings. While this may feel less organic and less flexible at first, it’s a necessary step to keeping everyone on the same page. Like tending a garden, it takes focused attention to ensure communications and connections among the team are occurring.

Do you have the technology to support flexible work options? It’s crucial to have the proper hardware, software and processes in place to support a flexible work arrangement. These tools will enable communication and productivity and without them, a remote work arrangement can be frustrating or isolating Explore collaboration tools like Jabber or Slackfor communication, WebEx or Google Hangouts for video conferencing, and SharePoint,Box or Dropbox for file sharing. And employees must have the appropriate hardware to work effectively, including work-issued laptops, cellphones, VPN connections for remote access, and proper security.

Do you trust your team? This is a tricky but important point to consider: do you trust your employees to be productive and focused on work when they’re not in the office? And do your employees feel that you trust them? Productivity is often the best measure of whether or not an employee can be trusted to in a flexible work arrangement. If your team is productive but you’re still not sure if you can trust them as remote workers, then you may need to examine this issue further before implementing a flexible work arrangement.

Have you set clear goals and expectations? Flexible work arrangements are more likely to be successful when work outputs are clearly defined. After all, how important is when and where the work takes place if the desired results are achieved? If an employee and manager do not have a shared understanding of what success looks like in a role, issues can arise in the flexible work arrangement. Setting up a flexible work arrangement is an  opportunity to performance expectations are discussed and documented. Having regular check-ins to discuss progress to objectives is a practice that supports both the employee’s performance and the success of the flexible work arrangement itself.  While defining clear accountabilities and the establishing the ability to measure results is good practice regardless of where or when an employee works, it certainly becomes even more important when an flexible work arrangement is in place.

Once you have determined that your business is ready, you’ll be ready to figure out how.