Flexible working is one of those topics that has been ‘hot’ for a long time, yet the CIPD recently announced that the percentage of the UK workforce with a flexible working pattern in place hasn't increased since 2010.
As a measure to tackle the stagnation in the uptake of flexible working, the Flexible Working Taskforce, Chaired by BEIS and the CIPD (and comprising members such as the Confederation of British Industry , Federation of Small Businesses and the Chartered Management Institute ), have launched a campaign to promote the use of the tag line ‘Happy to Talk Flexible Working’ in all job advertisements, at all levels. It is their hope that this will help to tackle “outdated attitudes” around flexible working. The CIPD note that members of the task force have all pledged to use this strap line when advertising vacancies and to promote the business case for flexible working.
While this is a positive step, does it do enough to tackle those outdated attitudes and does it really have a wide enough understanding of the range of flexible working options available?
Firstly, attitudes. I’ve been fortunate enough to work in a range of organisations over the last 15 years and it’s fair to say that the view of ‘flexible working’ can vary hugely. I’ve worked in organisations (usually public or third sector) where it was very much the norm and the option was taken up by the vast majority.
However, I’ve also worked in organisations where the tools and policies exist but the culture prevents higher levels of take up. Whilst flexible working isn’t just about childcare, we know for a lot of women, the working patterns they adopt (as well as maternity leave) has a direct impact on their careers ( and the Gender Pay Gap ). How many organisations say ‘we promote flexible working’ but have no senior staff that work flexibly? This sends the message that to get on, you have to work (often more than!) full-time hours. This is heightened by the demands of the ‘always on’ economy and for many people leads back to the same old choice of life or work. A failure to consider patterns such as compressed hours (e.g. five days in four) because ‘it’ll open the floodgates’ or ‘everyone does extra hours’ also often disproportionately effects women. Again, this reinforces the message that if you want days off in the week you have to be prepared to suffer a salary reduction and the associated career impact.
In order to truly make progress on flexible working, we need to move away from ‘hours worked’ and look at ‘job done’. This is trickier in certain roles and industries than others (and has links to conversations about better work , automation and use of AI) but if employees know what needs to be done (and get it done), does it matter if they start at 7am and work until 3pm? or take a break in the afternoon (to go to the gym or pick up the kids) and then continue to work in the evening? It’s about trusting the people you’ve hired to do the job you hired them for.
Perhaps both employers and employees need to think less rigidly. While there are some circumstances where absolute certainty is needed for both the employee and the employer, there are a great number of other cases where working in a more agile way would raise the take up of flexible working and release all the benefits it can bring. This will probably take more than the adoption of a tag line, it must be part of an organisation’s culture. And, whilst legislation might help, it’s my hunch that the labour market, skills shortages, and innovation will be the factors that really drive this.
To help organisations truly adopt flexible working, my ‘manifesto’ would look something like this:
Understand the benefits that it can bring e.g. a bigger pool of talent, employee retention (which has huge
cost implications ), higher levels of focus and innovation
Trust people to do their jobs (there are options available to you if they abuse that trust- but most people don’t)
Think outside the box- flexible working isn’t just working ‘three days per week’
Start
by assuming every job can be done flexibly until proven otherwise
Role model- if it’s a genuine option with no career impact, there should be people at the top working in that way
Challenge perceptions- don’t let someone leaving at 4pm be accused of being a ‘part-timer’
Finally, like all things ‘HR’, isn’t it time flexible working got a re-brand? ‘Agile working’ is on the rise. Answers on a post-card…