Flexible working practices on the increase

Parker, Jane

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Flexible working practices on the increase

Публикуван: 17 July 2005

In February 2005, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development [1] (CIPD) released a nationwide survey report on flexible working practices, based on the responses of 585 Human Resources (HR) professionals. A CIPD Working Party - consisting of HR professionals, academics and representatives from the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), all of whom have driven recent legislative developments in the area - was set up to help develop the survey (Flexible working: Impact and implementation - An Employer Survey [2]).[1] http://www.cipd.co.uk/[2] http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/wrkgtime/flexwking/flexworksurvey.htm?IsSrchRes=1

UK organisations are increasing their use of flexible working arrangements, in particular, part-time work. Key motivations for implementing flexible arrangements include staff retention and recruitment, and meeting various stakeholders’ needs. Employers indicate that various positive effects have resulted, yet challenges remain concerning take-up, communication and implementation.

Flexible working: Scope and context

In February 2005, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) released a nationwide survey report on flexible working practices, based on the responses of 585 Human Resources (HR) professionals. A CIPD Working Party - consisting of HR professionals, academics and representatives from the Department for Trade and Industry (DTI), all of whom have driven recent legislative developments in the area - was set up to help develop the survey (Flexible working: Impact and implementation - An Employer Survey).

**Table 1: Flexible working: Availability and formality (%)**
Flexible working: Availability and formality (%)
	Total availability	Available to all staff	Formal policy	Informal arrangements
Part-time work	86	43	41	24
Term-time work	38	15	18	22
Job-sharing	63	29	32	23
Flexitime	55	21	32	19
Compressed hours (e.g. 4-day week)	47	15	17	23
Annual hours	28	8	14	15
Working from home on a regular basis	55	7	19	30
Mobile working	27	3	9	16
Career breaks/sabbaticals	42	25	26	16
Secondment to another organisation	37	18	18	18
Time off for community work	22	15	12	17

Base: 585. Source: Adapted from CIPD (February 2005), Tables 1a and 1b, p. 6.

Responses reveal that public, private and voluntary sector workplaces often combine informal and formal arrangements. Part-time work is the most commonly available practice (cited by 86% of respondents), corresponding with the UK’s high ranking among European countries in terms of its proportion of part-time workers. Indeed, the Working Party said: 'in many organisations, part-time working is now so ingrained it no longer appears to represent an example of "flexible working".'

While childcare and maternity provisions are relatively well served, only 4% offer elder-care provisions which, as the report observes, is significant given major challenges for employers posed by an ageing population.

Motivations

Respondents cited the following as ‘very important’ reasons for adopting flexible working practices:

to help retain staff (47%);
to comply with legislation (47%);
to meet employee (43%), customer (39%) and business (38%) needs;
to help recruit staff (31%).

Perceived effects

Organisations perceived that flexible working has impacted positively in terms of:

staff retention (cited by 71% of respondents);
employee motivation (70%);
the ‘psychological contract’ (66%);
recruitment (51%);
managing absenteeism (46%);
productivity (45%).

Just 27%, 25% and 16% of respondents respectively felt that flexible working positively impacted on customer service, team-working and knowledge-sharing, while 8%, 16% and 14% reported a negative effect in these areas.

Take-up and evaluation

Despite the reported benefits, the availability and take-up of flexible working vary. An average of one in four employees (26%) in the organisations surveyed utilises flexible working arrangements. Take-up is highest in the smallest (fewer than 50 employees) and largest (more than 5,000 employees) organisations (29% in both). According to the Working Party, this may be due to the former being more likely to operate ad hoc, informal arrangements, while the latter are more likely to have 'sophisticated, well-communicated policies in place' .

Where flexible measures are available, the occupational group most likely to take them up are administrative, secretarial and technical workers, while senior managers and graduate trainees are least likely. Senior managers and manual/craft workers are the least likely to have access to flexible working opportunities.

**Table 2: Take-up of flexible working, by occupational group (%)**
Take-up of flexible working (%)
	Availability of flexible working	Take-up
	Availability of flexible working	High	Medium	Low
Senior managers	86	8	18	74
Professional staff	93	11	35	55
Middle/junior managers	93	9	36	55
Administrative, secretarial and technical staff	97	30	44	26
Sales and customer service	92	20	36	44
Manual/craft workers	82	14	24	62
Graduate trainees	88	6	9	85

Base: Organisations employing the relevant occupational group. Source: CIPD (February 2005), Table 8, p. 13.

The proportion of employees working flexibly is highest in the public (42%) and not-for-profit (33%) sectors. Manufacturing and production make least use of flexible working. However, across all sectors, 60% of organisations witnessed an increase in the number of employees taking up flexible working practices in the past three years. The average increase in uptake was 20%, with private sector services most likely to report an increase for the period. Perhaps unsurprisingly, most organisations (78%) reported that women make more frequent use of opportunities to work flexibly.

Challenges and prospects

Awareness of flexible working policies varies, and was reported to be highest among public sector respondents. The report suggests that '(t)his is indicative of the effort parts of the public sector have invested in high-profile initiatives, such as Improving Working Lives in the NHS' [ National Health Service ]. The public sector was also most likely to publicise policies during recruitment and induction, indicating 'to candidates the benefits of flexible working because they can't always match private sector levels of pay' .

Nevertheless, major constraints on the implementation of flexible working are:

perceived operational pressures and customer/service requirements;
line managers’ attitudes and ability to manage flexible workers;
the prevailing organisational culture and management style;
lack of senior level support;
financial and technical constraints.

Employee resistance or lack of interest is rarely a problem, although men are less likely than women to take up flexible working arrangements. However, some employees do not ask for flexible arrangements in the belief that, given the nature of their job, it will not be practicable to accommodate the kind of flexibility they want. Steps taken to address such employee concerns include:

improving communication on available arrangements (64%);
making development opportunities available to people working flexibly (62%);
asking questions regarding flexible practices in employee surveys (49%);
highlighting flexible working opportunities in job advertisements (38%);
gearing performance management to focus on individual output (not ‘presenteeism’) (37%);
encouraging managers to act as role models by adopting flexible working themselves (32%);
focusing job descriptions on outputs (29%).

The final verdict may be that over the next three years, 68% of survey respondents anticipate an increase in the current proportion of employees working flexibly, particularly in private sector service organisations (72%). The average predicted increase is 18%.

Jane Parker, University of Warwick

Еврофонд препоръчва тази публикация да се цитира по следния начин.

Eurofound (2005), Flexible working practices on the increase, article.