Our new research, in which we polled manager members of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), shows that only 1 in 5 line managers have proactively offered flexibility at a formal review. Here’s why it’s better for everyone when employees don’t have to ask.
There’s an increasing amount of data around flexible working, including our revelations that only 1 in 4 job ads offer it despite nearly 9 in 10 employees wanting it. But something we haven’t known is whether employees generally have to request flexible working, or are proactively offered it.
So we worked with CMI, and polled 879 managers, and here’s what we’ve learned. Only 1 in 5 line managers have ever offered flexible working at an annual review or performance review, ever. Even worse, only 1 in 20 have proactively suggested it at least once at the point of promotion.
Does this matter? Well, yes. And not just for employees either.
Historically, there has been a stigma attached to working flexibly, and particularly part-time, as something that is only really valid for women with children. And while attitudes are changing, the ‘request-response’ model is slowing progress down. It creates a sense that flexible working is something that requires specific circumstances, rather than being open to all.
If it were proactively offered to everyone, flexible working would become more widespread and, critically, more gender-neutral. It would be more acceptable to work flexibly for non-childcare reasons, increasing take-up by non-parents, and opening up more flexible career pathways. Over time, this would help employers achieve a healthier, happier, more productive and more inclusive workforce.
If you think this is something you could improve, the solution is relatively straightforward. You need to build a proactive strategy which encourages your line managers to discuss flexible preferences at key career development points. For example, your framework for annual appraisals or performance reviews could include a requirement for managers to ask team members if they are happy with their working pattern, and make it clear that they are willing to discuss flexible alternatives.
But of course, strategy isn’t enough. As Niamh Mulholland, the CMI’s Director of External Affairs says: “We know that there is often a gap between flexible working policy and practice. The key to closing that gap is really good line management – which means ensuring line managers are properly equipped to help staff work flexibly, and empowered to champion flexible working and call out bad practice.”
So you’ll also need to offer training for your line managers to help make sure they’re implementing your strategy in the right way. This would involve teaching them how to discuss flexible working and upskilling them in job design, so that any arrangements that are agreed work for the business as well as the individual.
And yes, this will require an initial investment of time and training budgets. But as we’ve shown, the impact of flexible working on headline issues such as employee well-being and the gender pay gap will ensure that it is worthwhile. If you need any support, we’re here to help.
Published December 2019
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder
It won’t come as much of a surprise that, when it comes to flexible working, the construction industry is a tough one to crack. However, tackling complex sectors is one of the things we do best. So we’re partnering with four major employers, with the support of Build UK, to research, design and pilot new approaches that will overcome the barriers and bring about sustainable change.
The construction industry is known for a long-hours culture. It also has a dearth of female talent; CIC data suggests that women make up less than 15% of the workforce. What’s more, these women are leaving the industry at a faster rate than men, in part due to the lack of flexible working arrangements.
At the same time, the industry is facing skills shortages and a talent drain. Record employment, a high proportion of over 55s in the workforce and the uncertainties around Brexit (critical in an industry in which around 10% are non-UK nationals) are all colliding, with the result that attracting, retaining and progressing talented workers is an increasing challenge.
It’s also worth noting that the culture of long hours is having a negative impact on both men and women in the industry, affecting their mental health and their ability to balance work with caring and family life.
Overall, then, there is an urgent need to design more flexible roles and career pathways within construction, to deliver better work-life balance and build a more diverse, healthier workforce.
So we have joined forces with Build UK and four employers for a 12-month change project. We’ll be working with BAM Nuttall, BAM Construct, Skanska and Willmott Dixon to gain insights into making flexible working viable within the construction industry, and to design and pilot new approaches.
We’ll start with an initial insight phase, including a deep-dive diagnostic into each of the four partners’ current working practices and perceptions. We’ll use these insights to develop a flexible job design change programme, which we’ll then pilot across a number of construction sites. We’ll end with a thorough evaluation of what worked and what could be improved, and will share our findings with the wider industry.
Throughout the programme, we’ll offer support, coaching and training to HR teams, senior leaders and line managers, so the new approaches are understood and championed at every level. We’ll use these pilots to design industry-wide guidance on operational challenges, large and small, from how to plan and deliver a pilot to the best way to advertise a flexible job.
And when the programme is complete? Well, that won’t be the end of the story, for our partners or for the industry as a whole. Our hope is that it will be the beginning; the beginning of a change within construction towards a better work-life balance for all.
Published October 2019
You might think that we would welcome the proposals on flexible recruitment in the government’s Good Work Plan with open arms. Surely, as champions of flexible working, we would be delighted by the concept of requiring all employers to clarify whether a role they’re advertising is flexible? Well yes, but… there’s a bit more to it than that.
It’s certainly true that Timewise has led the campaign for flexible recruitment that has got us to this point. We’ve been tracking the flexible jobs market for the last five years with our annual Flexible Jobs Index. And we were the first to flag up that the supply of flexibly advertised roles (currently just 15%) lags way behind the massive demand for such roles (which our research has put at 87%).
So of course, we would be delighted if more employers would consider making their roles flexible, and then advertise them as such. But should they be legally required to do so? Our answer is: not yet, and not without proper support in place. Here’s why we hold this view, and what we recommend instead.
We have always been clear that any legislation around flexible recruitment should benefit candidates and widen the flexible jobs market. But legally requiring employers to consider making a role flexible could have unintended consequences that would have a negative impact on both.
Firstly, there’s a danger that legislation without support will simply lead to ‘flexwashing’, by which I mean employers advertising a role as flexible without making any changes to it. And that just won’t work. You can’t just dish out a laptop and leave staff to get on with working remotely, or chop a day off the working week and expect the same outputs.
So managers and HR will need support and training in how to design flexible roles; otherwise, they’ll do it badly. This is true for all roles, but particularly acute when it comes to front line low-margin sectors. In these, it is much more complex to create good flexible jobs that give workers more control and predictability over how they work.
And secondly, there’s a concern that employers who aren’t really on board will advertise a role as having flexibility, because they feel they have to, and then mysteriously fail to shortlist any candidates who they think might want it. That’s bad news all round, but particularly for groups such as parents, carers or people with a medical condition, for whom flexibility can be the difference between working and not.
But look: this isn’t just a moan, and we’re not against the principles that the government is working towards. On the contrary, I’ve been pushing for a programme to support the development of good flexible work in my role on the government’s Flexible Working Taskforce.
Our ultimate goal at Timewise is to help create a buoyant jobs market for the millions of people who want and need to work flexibly. And we know, based on our 15 years’ experience in this area, that will take time and thought to get right. So here are the steps we believe should be taken to make this proposed legislation a success:
I believe all three of these elements have an equally important part to play in stimulating a fairer flexible jobs market. Yes, legislation is important, but changing workplace law won’t change workplace culture by itself.
To achieve real progress, businesses also need to be helped to understand how to equip managers with the skills they need. And they need to make the sustainable, structural changes that we know will support genuine flexible recruitment. That means our government – whichever it may be – incentivising and supporting businesses to do their bit.
It’s important to remember that this isn’t a quick fix; as the Scandinavian countries’ experiences have shown, it takes many years to create a truly flexible market. And it only happened because their governments were prepared to fund programmes to improve business performance and the quality of flexible roles, as well as prioritising and investing in family-friendly working practices.
So please, let’s do it properly. Step by step. Because if we are successful at creating real culture change, we will have a truly flexible jobs market. One in which employers are not just advertising job vacancies as flexible, but actually hiring quality candidates into well-designed flexible roles. If you’d like some help getting started, you know who to ask.
Published October 2019
Nursing has been highlighted as ‘the most urgent challenge’ in the Interim NHS People Plan. Our year-long pilot has focused on improving nurses’ work-life balance by addressing their working patterns. And it’s delivered three key recommendations to tackle the nursing shortage head-on.
It’s well-known that the NHS is struggling to find and keep enough staff, but the numbers relating to nursing shortages are no less shocking for their familiarity. Nurse resignations for poor work-life balance have increased by a staggering 169% between 2011-12 and 2017-18, according to analysis for the Labour party. And the Interim NHS People Plan notes that the organisation will need to recruit 40,000 extra nurses in the next five years just to stand still.
As we know from our work in other sectors, offering flexible working is a sure-fire way to improve work-life balance. But in a shift-based, skills-driven, 24-hour environment like an NHS ward, it’s complex to introduce. As a result, most wards operate on a two-tier system in which a few, fortunate individuals have an agreed flexible working arrangement (FWA), usually for childcare reasons. Everyone else then has to fit around them, with minimal input and even less predictability.
Over the last year, we have been supported by the Burdett Trust for Nursing to explore potential solutions for making work-life balance available for all, and not just those with a FWA.
Our belief was that by increasing the fit between nurses’ working pattern preferences and their actual working patterns, more of them would stay. At the same time, we were mindful that any solution would need to work within the KPIs and mix of skills that ward managers needed to deliver.
So, building on academic research, and following a series of focus groups with participating hospitals, we piloted a team-based approach to rostering , with the aim of increasing the amount of input that nurses have into their working patterns, whilst taking into account the operational constraints of life on the ward.
A sizeable piece of action research, this two-stage project involved 240 nurses in seven wards across three NHS trusts. We ran the first, six-month stage at Birmingham Women and Children’s Hospital (BWCH), and used our findings to inform the second stage at Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH) and University Hospital Southampton (UHS).
We began at BWCH by creating and training a lead team for each ward who were responsible for creating the roster (previously undertaken by the ward manager). Each lead team were allocated a subgroup of nurses and tasked with finding out their long-term preferences.
The lead team members then worked together to create the roster based on their colleagues’ input, making sure that unpopular shifts were spread fairly and that each shift had the right number of nurses with particular skills.
Following the completion of the first pilot at BWCH, we fed our learnings into the second six-month stage, across all three hospitals, and finished with a formal evaluation.
Our evaluation indicated that there were three main benefits to team-based rostering. A comparison of pre- and post-pilot data showed:
Other important findings include: the critical role played by the ward manager in making the new approach work; the need to choose the lead team members carefully, to ensure the right balance of skills; and the extra time (and so budget) required to train the teams and deliver the roster.
Overall, then, we are cautiously positive about the potential of team-based rostering; indeed, the teams who worked with us are continuing to create their rosters in this way. However, there’s no question that more work is needed so that other teams and NHS Trusts can benefit from what we have learned. And, given that most of the guidelines on flexible working in the NHS are not adapted for shift-based roles, it’s also clear that bespoke definitions need to be developed.
We are therefore making the following recommendations to bring about widespread change:
It won’t be a quick fix; these kind of changes take time, money and serious collaboration. But by taking action, we stand to gain a happier, healthier workforce who will stay within the NHS for longer. And given that nursing shortages are already at critical levels, there’s no time to waste.
Published September 2019
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder, Timewise
First, the good news. This year’s Flexible Jobs Index, our annual report tracking the proportion of flexibly advertised jobs, puts the 2019 figure at 15%. In 2015, it was 9.5%, so the trend is continuing in the right direction.
But, but, but… it’s painfully slow, inching up by a couple of percentage points (or less) each year. If it continues at this rate, it will be a long time until the supply of part-time and flexible jobs matches the demand (which our research puts at 87%).
And when we dug deeper into the data, we uncovered some insights that employers who want to get the best from their workforce shouldn’t ignore:
While the highest salary bracket (jobs paying £80K FTE) has the fastest rate of growth, these roles are more likely to be described as ‘flexible’, rather than ‘part-time’. This may make it harder for key groups of employees to progress, particularly women who can’t work a full week. And that, in turn, can have a knock on effect on issues such as the gender pay gap.
There’s still a sharp drop in the availability of flexibly advertised jobs between the under £20K band (23%) and the £20K – £34K band (14%). This creates a structural cap on progression for many low-paid workers who have skills, but need to work flexibly. And it is certainly likely to make it harder for employers to build an inclusive, motivated workforce.
Finally, there are big discrepancies between the availability and growth of flexible opportunities in different sectors. In health and social services, for example, the percentage of flexibly advertised jobs far outstrips those of sectors such as construction and engineering. So it’s critical to have a sector-specific focus for any flexible working strategies you develop.
The chances are that at least one, if not all, of these insights are relevant to your organisation. So ignoring the data isn’t an option, particularly in an era of skills shortages and market uncertainty.
What’s more, offering flexibility up front may soon become a legal obligation. As I’m sure you’re aware, the government is consulting on proposals to support families, one of which is to give employers a duty to consider advertising all jobs as flexible.
So it would be well worth employers getting ahead of any potential reporting requirements, by taking steps to address the issues thrown up by this year’s Flexible Jobs Index sooner rather than later. In our view, they can’t afford not to.
Our consultancy and training team offer a range of services to help employers design, develop and deliver a flexible working strategy within a supportive culture. Please get in touch to find out more.
Published October 2019
By Poornima Kirloskar-Saini, Operations Director
It’s easy to see why hot-desking is a brilliant concept. It allows companies to provide less workstations, and so cut their building and maintenance costs. It encourages managers to be relaxed about their employees working elsewhere, creating an environment built on trust. And, potentially at least, it gives employees the option to work from or closer to home, with all the work-life balance and well-being benefits that brings.
Yet, according to a recent survey, office workers are becoming increasingly unhappy about hot-desking. Out of the 1,000 who were interviewed, half believed that hot-desking made them less productive, compared to a third in a similar survey two years ago. And 60% said that a dedicated desk remained their preferred option.
So is the hot-desking era over? We hope not. Our view, based on our own experience as well as our insights into workplace culture, is that it’s not the principle of hot-desking that’s the problem; it’s how it’s applied. And when it’s done well, it works for everyone.
The problem arises when hot-desking is seen as a way to save money, without giving thought to how it affects employees. Just slashing the number of desks, dishing out laptops and expecting employees to fight it out among themselves, isn’t the answer. It’s the equivalent of squeezing a full-time job into four days and calling it part-time.
Instead, hot-desking needs to be seen within the concept of flexible working as a whole. And as with any operational workplace change, it’s more likely to succeed if it’s thought through, consulted on and carefully implemented. How do I know? Because here at Timewise, we walk the walk. We have a fully flexible workspace, underpinned by the right technology, which works for all our employees, not just our FD.
Here are our five key principles for making hot-desking work for all.
Before we started the move to hot-desking, we took the time to find out what our people actually wanted. How bothered were they about being able to personalise their space? How did they feel about working from home? How flexible could they be about when and where they work? How often did they feel they would need to be in the office? What technology would they need to support remote working?
Here at Timewise, most of us work part-time in some way, which is helpful in terms of hot-desking. But we decided early on that we could only make it work if people were allocated fixed in-office days as a starting point. We could then set about building in the flexibility for people to change their days as and when needed. So that’s what we did.
Initially, one of our team was responsible for holding and sharing a weekly update about who was in or out of the office, and so which desks might be available. Needless to say, it was a total headache.
But when we came to look for an off-the-shelf software solution, we realised there wasn’t anything available that matched our needs. Most of the packages we came across only offered desk booking capability, and we needed a more bespoke solution.
So we designed our own app, which gives all members of our team individual control but also requires collective responsibility. It really works, and has made Julie’s life a lot easier. Do get in touch if you’d like to know more.
One thing that has been central to the smooth working of our new system is the IT we have put in place. Every member of our team has secure remote access to all our systems, so working remotely isn’t a second best option or a cause of frustration. On the contrary, our team love the way it supports their well-being and work-life balance, and allows them to focus on specific tasks.
Before we made the move to hot-desking, we shared some key principles with the team which we felt were needed to make it work. For example, everyone was expected to wash their cups at the end of the day, and to store their belongings and documents in drawers. We also agreed to outlaw eating at our desks.
So far, people have pretty much stuck to these principles, so everyone comes in to a clean, clear desk. An unexpected bonus is that we are now much more likely to be found eating together in the communal kitchen, which has been great for our team dynamic.
However, none of the above will be any good if your roles aren’t deliverable on a remote working basis. So before you even start investigating your options for hot-desking, take the time to look at the roles themselves.
If you need any help designing properly flexible roles, or you’d like to know more about our desk management app, please get in touch. As our experience shows, making hot-desking work is well worth it.
Published July 2019
It’s the Timewise view that no profession is un-flex-able. Yes, it’s much more complex in shift-based environments, or those offering a 24 hour service. That’s why we created our Innovation Unit, through which we tackle these hard-to-fix sectors. But impossible? No.
Yet when it comes to teaching, there is a commonly held view that it is just too complicated, particularly because of timetabling. There’s also a concern around the potential cost; Laura McInerney’s much-read 2018 piece suggested that making more part-time teaching jobs available is unaffordable, because of the extra teachers it would require. And, as in many professions, there is inevitably some resistance from leaders and colleagues.
Certainly, there are constraints within teaching that make introducing part-time and flexible roles less straightforward. But my response to the comment that we can’t afford to offer more part-time and flexible teaching roles is this: we can’t afford not to. Our new report, published in association with Now Teach , explains why, and offers some first steps to help secondary schools create viable solutions.
Flexible working can help schools find and keep brilliant teachers
It’s no secret that the profession is struggling to find and keep its teachers. The government has admitted that it has missed its targets for teacher recruitment for six years running. And when people do join the profession, they often don’t stick around long; government figures have also indicated that a third of NQTs leave the profession within five years. Increases to teacher workloads certainly haven’t helped.
Of course, there are limits to what schools can offer current and potential teachers. They will never be able to match corporate salaries, for example. But one thing they can do is try and give their staff more control over their time and work-life balance.
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder
There’s a prevailing view that all publicity is good publicity. But in the case of the recent Fiat / Elle collaboration, I’m not sure that’s true.
The latest spot in their joint content series, called ‘A modern woman’s guide to…’ features Elle’s digital editor on a video call in her car, telling colleagues she’s at a pitch. She then takes off her smart coat to reveal a football kit, and steps out of the car to join the game.
Now, I’m sure the creative team behind the film saw it as a tongue-in-cheek, lighthearted bit of fun, with a celebration of women’s football thrown in. But as the subsequent backlash highlighted, it’s based on an out-of-date attitude towards flexible working that isn’t great for the organisations’ brand reputation.
The fact is, in 2019, people shouldn’t have to lie about working flexibly. The law is on their side; all employees have had the right to request flexible working arrangements since 2014. And with flexible working frequently cited as a solution to workplace issues such as the gender pay gap and employee well-being, the zeitgeist is going their way too.
What’s more, as this year’s Power 50 winners showed, there are a growing number of examples of people who are openly, and proudly, working flexibly for a huge range of reasons. None of them need to pretend to be working when they’re pursuing their family commitments or side hustles. They just get on and deliver.
But by implying that flexible workers are skivers, the film took us back to a time when, for example, managers worried that letting people work from home would mean they spent the day watching TV or doing the washing. And in doing so, it alienated the very people it was trying to appeal to.
Any flexible working strategy worth the laptop it’s written on will include training leaders and line managers to manage flexible employees. And it seems that the importance of having a flexible culture, led from the top and taken seriously by HR and middle management, is increasingly understood.
But, while it’s clearly helpful for flexible workers to have their managers onside, that doesn’t guarantee a supportive atmosphere. Some of our recent projects have highlighted that it can be full-time colleagues, rather than bosses, who are having a negative impact.
We’ve heard stories of team members grumbling about having to take notes at a meeting that a part-timer couldn’t attend. We’ve been told of regular, snippy comments such as “Doing a half day again?” to a colleague with early start and finish times. We’re also aware of ‘Friday envy’ from full-time colleagues towards part-timers, even though the day or days off are unpaid.
And while this can be a real downer for the individual, it can also have a serious impact on the flexible culture that these organisations are trying to create. As our research into exclusion in the workplace showed, feeling isolated from the team can affect a flexible employee’s performance and progression. It can even have an impact on an organisation’s gender pay gap.
The gender pay gap is a complex issue – and closing it is a complex process. So we weren’t at all surprised that, according to the April 2019 figures, only 48% reported that their gap had narrowed (though we were hugely disappointed to see the gap widening in 44% of cases).
The fact is, the roots of the gender pay gap lie in age-old structures and systems that are still the norm in many workplaces, and in many families. And overturning them won’t happen overnight. So, should employers just shrug their shoulders, move on to something else and assume that things will get better over time? Our answer, unsurprisingly, is no.
As we said last year, of the four underlying reasons behind the gender pay gap, three can be tackled by offering well-designed part-time and flexible roles to all, at all levels. It’s not just our view – the House of Commons’ Women and Equalities Committee have stated that “Flexible working for all lies at the heart of addressing the gender pay gap.” But – and this is a big but – it’s going to take more than talk.
It’s noticeable that many of the reports published to date refer to flexible working as part of their gap-closing solution. Examples of the vague promises sprinkled through these reports are: “Improve flexible working for men and women” or “Support gender diversity through flexible working” or “Continue to promote the benefits of flexible working”. Hmmmmm.
We’d like to politely suggest that this kind of talk won’t cut it. It’s great to see part-time and flexible working being included in employers’ plans, but if we want to see substantial change in, say, five years’ time, they need to be converted into action, right now. And here are our suggestions for how to do it.
Causes: Due to a lack of flexible senior roles, many women who need flexibility in order to work are denied the opportunity to progress. They can’t move up in their organisation, because there’s nowhere to go. And they can’t find a flexible promotion elsewhere, because only 15% of roles are advertised as being open to flexibility.
Solution: Design flexibility into your senior positions. That doesn’t have to mean making them all part-time; job sharing, compressed hours and working from home are all options that can be attractive to women who need flexibility. If you’re not sure how to approach job design, talk to us. Then make sure you are upfront when you’re hiring about what flexibility you can offer.
Causes: As we noted in our previous article on this topic, there are societal issues at play when it comes to part-time work and childcare (or indeed, any type of caring responsibilities).
Research has shown that, today, almost as many men as women want to work flexibly, and over half of younger fathers have said they would take a pay cut to work less and spend more time with their family. But fathers are twice as likely as mothers to report the fear that working flexibly will have a negative impact on their career. And if they do ask to work flexibly, their requests are turned down at almost twice the rate that mothers’ are.
Solution: It’s a big ask, certainly, but employers who take their gender pay gap seriously need to overcome these cultural biases. Instead of asking women to work like men, how about empowering men to work like women?
So start by making sure that the part-time and flexible roles you offer are as attractive to career-driven men as they are to their female counterparts. Again, the role of job design is critical, as being asked to squeeze a full working week into fewer days for less pay isn’t going to appeal to anyone, whatever their gender.
Causes: Again, as we have noted, many of the most poorly paid occupations are those requiring characteristics traditionally regarded as ‘feminine’, such as people or caring skills.
It’s beyond the remit of this article to discuss why these skills are so undervalued compared to more traditionally ‘masculine’ ones. But that aside, there is a suggestion that some women choose these roles and occupations because the flexibility they need doesn’t exist in more male-dominated environments. And that certainly can be tackled.
Solution: If your organisation is in a traditionally male sector, such as IT, tech or construction, there will be wider cultural challenges to address. But a very practical measure will be to introduce or improve flexible working practices, at all levels.
In the short term this will help you find and keep more women. And over time, it will lead to a more balanced workforce, able to challenge the prevailing culture from within. Once again, this means thinking carefully about how the roles are designed, and making sure they suit the needs of your sector, so that the women you recruit will stay, and rise through the ranks.
So that’s what you need to do. And the good news is, you don’t have to do it alone. The Timewise team are acknowledged experts in designing and delivering truly flexible roles, across all sectors, including challenging ones which require particularly innovative solutions.
We can help you with your flexible diagnosis, such as understanding where you sit on the flexible working spectrum. We can provide training and consultancy to support the development of your flexible working strategy. And we can work with you to create, deliver and roll out flexible working programmes or pilots (as we’re currently doing in sectors and with clients as wide ranging as Now Teach, Diageo, the NHS and the London Stock Exchange).
None of these will lead to immediate leaps forward; it’s about building a culture and a structure in which change can happen over time. But by closing the gap between rhetoric and reality, and making your actions speak louder than your words, the future of your gender pay gap reporting will look a whole lot brighter.
Published April 2019
