Birds of a feather flock together. Applying this idiom to the world of work may seem accurate at first glance - people of a similar mindset seeking out similar jobs and similar work settings. But even within these like-minded groups individuals will function to very different patterns.

Humans have an internal body clock, a natural process that governs levels of energy and alertness throughout the day. This circadian process influences every individual, and disruption to the rhythm has a clear effect. Jetlag provides the most obvious example, but high-points and energy slumps throughout a typical day are common to all.

The average employee will take a few hours after arriving at work to reach a peak of alertness and energy at around noon. This peak then subsides, declining after lunch until around 3pm. After this low, alertness tends to increase again until a second peak at 6pm. Then, it's a steady decline until the ultimate low at 3.30am.

Although this represents the average cycle, people deviate from this pattern, falling into the early morning achiever category (the ‘larks') or those more productive in the evening (the ‘owls').

Now, consider the typical working day. An early start, a stressful commute, an hour for lunch and a tiring commute home, leaving work at a set time to ensure that travel connections are made.  It is easy to see the conflict between this fixed structure and the modern science of productivity rhythms.

So can businesses adapt? Is there scope and appetite to think seriously about individual performance and differing work patterns within the modern workplace. Without a doubt - yes. Already, businesses of every size are rejecting this outdated notion of the fixed routine and thinking in a far more agile and expansive fashion about workplace routines and worker provision.

This advance is as much down to changing mindsets as it is to do with re-organising business locations.
Today's managers are learning to measure on results rather than ‘presenteeism'. The millennial workforce comes with very different attitudes to work than previous generations. Workplace flexibility is no longer regarded as a perk - rather, it is expected. Given these changing values, business leaders are quickly learning how to get the most from employees, even if they do not see them on a day-to-day basis.

The science of circadian rhythms shows us that peaks of alertness occur in the morning and again in the early evening - precisely the times when a vast majority of workers are wrestling with the commute. What if the commute was simply eliminated? How much more productive could these individuals be if they worked nearer to home?

The fact is, such solutions are available today. Businesses of every size and in every sector are consuming flexible workspace and a new pattern is emerging which aims to fit the workplace around the worker rather than the other way around.

Giving a little scientific thought to the process of productivity - and allowing owls and larks to beat their wings to a different rhythm - could well help your business to fly.

www.regus.co.uk