Partner Article

Will flexible working transform business culture?

Liberal Democrat Business Minister, Jo Swinson has announced that from next year under new government plans all employees with at least six months service will be able to request the right to work flexibly.

These changes are being introduced to encourage businesses to accommodate the lifestyle of all employees, not just working parents, a move that is designed to lead to higher employee retention rates in companies and reduce recruitment and training costs.

To date businesses have been reluctant to embrace flexible working as they fear it will impact productivity levels. Research from Skype and YouGov found that amongst 2000 UK workers in 2012, 70 per cent of people wanted to work from home more often but over half (51%) were not allowed to do so by their companies.

The desire to work from home is so strong amongst some employees that they would be willing to take a pay cut in order to do it. Research released in 2012 from Cisco found that 56 per cent of workers would happily earn 10 per cent less in exchange for flexible working.

I think that the fears businesses have about how flexible working could decrease productivity are unfounded. A recent experiment conducted by O2, which closed down its European headquarters in Slough, found there was a 15 to 20% increase in productivity among those that had been working flexibly proving that with the right planning and communication, businesses can manage a flexible workforce without impacting their productivity levels.

You only need to look at the success of the London Olympics when more than half of companies made temporary changes to their working practices to enable staff to work more flexibly during the Olympics or to allow them to watch key events at work and business didn’t grind to a halt.

Flexible working could also lead to far greater numbers of disabled people being able to work, especially for those where commuting every day is difficult.

A report published by the Equality and Human Rights Commission showed that although more than one in five adults are disabled, only half are likely to be in work, compared to four fifths of non-disabled adults. If businesses were more flexible and supported remote workers with the right technology then they would benefit from having a far better choice of talent and a more diverse workforce.

This is also the case for many working parents who would benefit from greater flexibility shown by employers. According to research many companies are still inflexible which is affecting the number of women returning to the workplace after maternity.

Last year, a report published by Ernst & Young entitled, ‘The glass ceiling is an outdated concept’ highlighted these issues. The company surveyed 1000 working women about the key barriers they felt hindered career progression.

It revealed that 39% of women believed that motherhood had already impacted or would impact the future progression of their careers. Therefore if companies could be more flexible, working mothers would be able to juggle work and family commitments which would encourage greater numbers to return to work after maternity.

With careful planning and the right technology in place there is no reason why businesses can’t manage a flexible workforce without impacting productivity levels, in fact many businesses would benefit by boosting employee morale and increasing retention rates.

We have seen big improvements in technology in recent years including high speed broadband, the rise in the number of people with computers, laptops and tablets and with technologies like cloud computing becoming mainstream, businesses could easily and affordably incorporate flexible working into their working culture.

Cloud computing is becoming increasingly widespread among businesses as it enables people to work productively from home and still feel as though they are part of a team. If a company adopts a hosted desktop solution it would allow employees with internet to access all their emails and files using web-enabled devices such as smartphones, laptops and netbooks.

Additionally, the ability for employees to simultaneously share documents and other files over the internet can support both internal and external collaboration, meaning that they do not need to be in the office (or even the same country) and are not reliant on their organisation’s servers and technology to work. They can carry on as normal wherever they are based without wasting hours spent unproductively in transport delays.

To successfully manage our modern lifestyles, it seems inevitable that more and more businesses will have to embrace flexible working hours. As technology continues to advance, businesses will realise they won’t have to miss out on reaping the benefits of a changing work culture.

Having the potential to increase staff retention, reduce capital investment in IT and boost employee morale, businesses would be foolish not to embrace flexible working. There are plenty of options available to make a flexible workforce possible without compromising productivity, so businesses should act now and offer their employers the flexibility they want.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Sturges, CEO of WorkPlaceLive .