University of Bedfordshire

• HRM BSS064-6

• Survey report February 2005 Flexible working: impact and implementation 1 Contents Summary of key findings 2 Research findings 4 Range and availability of flexible working 5 Motivations for using flexible working 8 Perceived effects of flexible working 9 Take-up and evaluation 11 The challenge of communication and implementation 15 Flexible working in context 21 Background to the survey 24 Further reading 26 Acknowledgements 27 2 Flexible working: impact and implementation A working party was set up in association with the CIPD’s research into flexible working. This included HR professionals involved in managing flexible working in their own organisations, academics, and representatives from the Department for Trade and Industry, all of whom have driven recent legislative developments in this area. This group contributed to the preparation of the survey questionnaire and their comments in response to the survey findings are used in the report’s commentary. Range and availability of flexible working • Organisations offer a combination of informal and formal arrangements for flexible working. The most prevalent flexible working practice is parttime working, with nine in ten survey respondents offering this option to their employees. • Four in ten organisations enhance the statutory right to request flexible working, for example, by making it available to carers or to all employees. Over half of the organisations in the survey offer maternity provisions which go beyond minimum legislative requirements. This includes one in four businesses with less than 50 employees. Motivations for using flexible working • Survey participants are most likely to report helping retain staff and meeting employees’ needs as reasons for using flexible working practices. Forty-seven per cent and 43% of organisations respectively cite these as very important reasons for making use of flexible working practices. • One in four survey participants cite supporting business needs as a very important reason for using flexible working. The same proportion believe that meeting customers’ needs is a very important reason for flexible working. • More than three in ten respondents report helping recruitment as a very important reason for using flexible working practices. Perceived effects of flexible working • Retention is most likely to be affected positively as a result of implementing flexible working practices. One in three survey participants (27%) perceive flexible working to have had a major positive effect on retention and a further half (47%) believe it has had a positive effect. • Two-thirds of HR professionals (70%) perceive employee motivation as having benefited from the implementation of flexible working practices. • Over half of those surveyed believe that recruitment has benefited from the implementation of flexible working practices. Summary of key findings The Flexible Working: Impact and implementation 2005 survey explores how organisations are making use of flexible working practices, their motivations for doing so, and the effects they are seeing on their businesses. It also seeks to understand some of the challenges around the effective implementation of flexible working. HR professionals from 585 UK organisations in the private, public and not-for-profit sectors took part in the survey. Flexible working: impact and implementation 3 Take-up and evaluation • Survey respondents estimate that just over a quarter (26%) of their employees currently make use of flexible working arrangements. Take-up is reportedly highest in the smallest (less than 50 employees) and the largest (more than 5,000 employees) organisations. Both report take-up by 29% of their staff. • An increase in the number of employees making use of flexible working arrangements in the last three years is reported by almost two-thirds of those surveyed. The increase in uptake is on average 20%. • Private sector services are most likely to report an increase in take-up over the last three years. • Monitoring flexible working take-up is most likely to take place on an ad hoc basis. The challenge of communication and implementation • The most commonly reported constraint on implementing flexible working practices is operational pressures. Over two-thirds of those surveyed believe this is a very important constraint. • Concerns about line managers’ ability to manage individuals working more flexibly and their attitudes to flexible working also emerge as major constraints. • Almost half (45%) of survey respondents say line managers report difficulties implementing flexible working practices. • Senior-level support and the prevailing organisational culture also pose significant challenges. Flexible working in context • In terms of family-friendly provisions, over a third of survey respondents (36%) make special arrangements for employees who have caring responsibilities. Childcare provision is also made available by a third of organisations in our survey. • Eldercare provisions, however, are only offered by a very small number of employers (4%). • In terms of encouraging functional flexibility, employers are most likely to give their people extra training to enable them to cover other jobs (46%). The CIPD believes that flexible working arrangements can play a valuable role in organisational performance. HR’s role is not to promote flexible working as an end in itself, but to look for opportunities to use flexible working where employee needs and business needs coincide. A central issue is how to implement and operate flexible working