What is flexible working?

I’m part of a new generation of professionals seeking part-time work and speaking with Emma Cleary, Director of Flexibility Matters most employees looking for part time hours or work from home jobs are still mostly parents or primary caregivers. The Flexibility Matters team has helped to fill three out of seven roles at We Are All Connected and Emma shared her own experience of not being able to find suitable professional part-time roles locally which led her to eventually open up the Sussex office.

‘I think the most frustrating aspect about the lack of flexible roles is that employers are really missing out on the wealth of talent that they could harness to grow their businesses. At Flexibility Matters we hear so often about the brain drain and the talent gap – to the tune of over £170 billion lost to the economy, and all it takes is for employers to look at working hours in a less traditional fashion, short days, working from home and holiday flexi-time – just as WAAC has! The payback is huge – loyal, happy staff dedicated to their work with a better work/life balance.

Before the government changed legislation in 2014, only carers or people looking after children were eligible to apply for flexible work contracts, now all employees in the UK have the right to apply after twenty six weeks of employment. But how well is this known? I asked friends in full-time employment if they knew they were eligible to apply for a flexible working request and many were unaware, with a few male friends assuming only women are allowed to if they have children. Obviously my ‘pub study’ does not account for the views of many but it did help to reinforce my experience that employers do not necessarily shout from the rooftops about flexible work options. Employers must deal with requests ‘in a reasonable manner’  and can only turn down applications if there is a good business reason for doing so, learn how to apply for flexible working here.

Working from home or flexibly in the office, makes sense in our modern world with technology making it easier to stay connected and family life demands more flexibility too, with many mothers returning to work or fathers wishing to be more hands on with childcare.  Research shows that organisations that adopt flexible employment policies increased productivity, improved employee wellbeing, talent attraction and retention, and reduction in accommodation costs (People Management, 2016) and flexible working case studies from Flexibility Matters clients back up this sentiment. My mental well-being improved since working flexible hours as I am able to use my time learning new skills training as an Integrative Therapeutic Counsellor, which is important to me as I know I am happiest when learning and best of all my counselling complements and enhances my marketing consultancy in many ways.

Of course, there are some necessary ground rules to put in place when working flexible hours or from home and I thought it would be helpful to share how we manage it as a team.

I’m naturally an organised freak, needing to plan my workload to avoid panic stations at the thought of my to do list and I find good diary management, planning my week and daily tasks, helps my efficiency. As a team we manage resource using Teamwork which is worth using to track productivity and organise ourselves by project and task list.