Employees And Businesses Discover Benefits Of Flexible Working
The benefits of flexible working are becoming increasingly appealing to employees across the nation - and it isn't hard to see why.
A growing number of workers in Britain are taking advantage of the chance to request flexible working and are finding that their lives are enriched as a result.
New government legislation aimed at helping families in the UK requires companies to seriously consider requests from parents of young children and carers to work flexibly. A report by the National Centre for Social Research (NCSR) reveals that nine out of ten families in Britain are negatively affected by unsocial working hours.
According to the NCSR poll of 11,000 people, eighty per cent of working fathers and more than half of working mothers have to work outside the range of 8am to 7pm on weekdays. The report warns that a growing number of children are missing out on crucial time with their parents.
Many businesses and unions claim that labour market flexibility benefits both companies and workers, with a recent study indicating that more than half of the UK workforce feel that they suffer ill health as a direct result of a poor work-life balance, the TUC reports.
A number of employee surveys have indicated that job satisfaction is higher for workers with greater flexibility in their job and retention rates are higher, with flexible working patterns playing a greater role in recruitment.
Research by the University of Nottingham's Enterprise and Innovation Institute found that more than three-quarters of UK employers believe that flexible working conditions boost productivity in the workplace and Britain is now one of the top countries in Europe for 'smart working' practices.
However, there can be problems associated with working flexibly and some employees can find non-traditional working patterns imposed on them by bosses, such as homeworking or fixed-term working.
Most of those opposed to flexible working have changed their opinions over the past few years, but some bosses continue to oppose it, claiming that it can interfere with the smooth running of a company, push up costs or damage productivity.
Employees considering working flexibly should examine the options open to them, which include part-time working, flexitime, staggered hours, job sharing, compressed hours, homeworking, self rostering, time off in lieu (TOIL), zero hours contracts and term-time working.
Almost half of the companies in the UK with ten or more employees (48 per cent) now practice flexible or smart working, with workers' travel times significantly reduced by homeworking or avoiding rush hours and more families able to spend time together.
The number of people working from home has soared in recent years, with 13.5 per cent of working adults now spending some of their week working from home and Camden Council recently witnessing a fall in absenteeism to almost zero after staff were allowed to work from home for two days a week.
The government is keen to encourage more businesses to introduce smart and flexible working practices and Conservative party leader David Cameron recently voiced his support for more flexible working at a Working Families conference in London, claiming that it offered huge advantages for businesses, families, female workers and society as a whole.
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