Flexible working has recently made great strides. Last month, half of the UK workforce was working from home as a result of extraordinary social distancing measures introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. There is hope for many that flexible working – remote, reduced hours or compressing hours into shorter weeks – could be here to stay. This morning the Minister for Women wrote an article which mentions an innovative trial we ran last year, showing how employers can reach a wider pool of talent by boosting their offer of flexibility at work.
In today’s workplace, more and more employees are looking for one key thing from their employers: flexibility. 9 in 10 current non-workers want flexibility, which can take many forms, such as part-time working, flexible start and finish times, or working from home. Yet only 15% of jobs’ are routinely advertised with flexible working options.
While most jobs eventually become flexible – statistics from 2017 show 60% of workers end up working flexibly – a lack of flexibility at the point of hiring can put off qualified candidates from applying. And it’s particularly likely to deter women who are twice as likely to work flexibly compared to men and to be more averse to ambiguity in job adverts. Women may also avoid asking for flexibility in the first instance due to justifiable concerns about negative employer reactions.