Our third and final report in the ‘Fair Flexible Futures’ programme demonstrates the financial case for frontline firms to invest in flexible working. The results show that break-even is reached surprisingly quickly, through savings in costs relating to sickness absence and staff churn.
In frontline sectors, which often run on tight margins and with an acceptance that staff churn is high, it’s particularly difficult to make a business case for investment in flexible working. But frontline workers have borne the brunt of the pandemic, whilst seeing other workers reap the benefits of increased homeworking and flexible hours. In the face of acute skills shortages, employers need to level up by seeking flexible solutions for frontline workers, or risk losing even more of them.
Following on from successful pilot programmes in five frontline sectors (retail, construction, social care, teaching and the NHS), Timewise commissioned the Institute for Employment Studies to undertake a break-even analysis of investing in flexible working. IES calculated how quickly the benefits of improved retention and reduced sickness absence could offset the costs of a typical programme.
The findings make a strong case: within just a few years, savings begin to outweigh the costs of implementing flexible working, and begin to deliver financial returns.
We hope this powerful analysis will help fill the evidence gap on flexible working ROI, and provide the impetus for employers and policymakers to prioritise investment in changes to working patterns, for the benefit of business, the individuals they employ, and society as a whole.
Published April 2022
The Greater Manchester Good Employment Charter sets a high standard for jobs in the region, promoting practices that support diversity and inclusion, and encouraging fair pay. Flexible working is a core part of the charter, and this report by Timewise looks at how well the region is doing when it comes to openly offering flexibility at the point of hire.
The answer is: very slightly better than the national average (at 27% versus 26%), but with some interesting granular differences. For example, in Greater Manchester, flexibility is most available in jobs paying over £60k. This is in sharp contrast to the UK as a whole, where flexibility (mainly in the form of part-time arrangements) has always been most available in low-paid jobs.
And home-working, which is now commonplace for office-based staff, is being offered in only 11% of the region’s job adverts.
There is a clear need for employers in Greater Manchester to do more, and faster. Flexible hiring can reach a wider talent pool – essential in today’s challenging jobs market, where applications are in short supply.
More importantly, flexible working is essential to creating fairer, more inclusive workplaces. It should need no explanation that inclusivity must start at the point of hire, and not be restricted to existing staff. Nor must it be restricted to certain types of jobs or salary levels.
We hope that the Flexible Jobs Index for Greater Manchester will inspire the region’s key anchor institutions to champion flexible hiring as part of their wider inclusive growth strategies. And we hope it will galvanise Greater Manchester employers to consider flexible working as a matter of routine when they advertise jobs – alongside salary, pension and other benefits.
The event was hosted by our Development Director, Emma Stewart, and featured a panel of business leaders who provided their own insights and analysis about what they’re seeing on the ground, as well as their suggestions for what needs to be done to shift the dial. We’ve included a recording of the event below.
Among the key themes which emerged were:
Our thanks got to our panel for sharing their insights and experience: Neil Carberry, CEO, The Recruitment and Employment Confederation; Jonny Briggs, Head of Talent Acquisition and D&I, Aviva; Farrah Ekeroth, Head of Employer Brand, EY and Jane Galloway, Head of Flexible Working, NHS England.
Since March 2020, a workplace revolution has taken place. Pandemic-enforced lockdowns have triggered a huge uplift in remote working, which appears to be here for the long term; at the time of writing, large numbers of employees who previously worked in offices remain home-based, and many companies are offering hybrid working arrangements for their teams.
But while much has been written about the move towards location-based flexible working – that is, people working from home or in other off-site locations – there has been little, if any, attention given to time-based flexible working, particularly part-time. Put simply, the voices of people who cannot work full-time, and their experiences during and after the pandemic, are not being heard.
This report sets out to remedy this omission; to listen to the experiences of part-time workers and job seekers, and understand how the pandemic has impacted them. It builds on the quantitive data from our first Fair Flexible Futures report, providing real-life insights that will help employers, policymakers and labour market intermediaries drive more inclusive policy and practice.
In this next pandemic phase, the hiring market must undergo an about-shift to keep pace with the times. This report from Timewise Jobs is for recruitment professionals, employer brand specialists and people leaders who want to best position their organisations to attract a diverse and inclusive workforce.
Amongst its many findings, the research highlights the scepticism that flex-seeking candidates have towards job adverts with generic promises of a flexible working culture. It also provides a vital reminder that remote working is just one form of flexibility, and that candidates’ strong appetite for part-time must not be forgotten in the rush to adapt to hybrid working patterns.
The report concludes by providing clear recommendations to businesses, on how best to articulate flexibility in order to increase job applications and develop employer branding for our new working world.
Site-based construction work is a particularly tough nut to crack for flexible working. With its location based work, inter-dependent team roles, and a long hours’ culture created by rigid deadlines, the options for flexibility are more limited than for most sectors.
The demanding working patterns are believed to contribute to a troubling record on mental health and wellbeing, as well as challenges with gender diversity, so the sector has increasingly been searching for solutions.
In this programme of pilots, we tested a variety of flexible options that gave construction teams greater control over their working patterns. As our report shows:
We hope our learnings will inspire other construction firms to trial and roll out flexible working, in order to address skills shortages by attracting a wider audience (especially women), and look after the health and well-being of the workforce. Our report includes a 10 point plan with guidance for employers on how to do this, and also recommendations to the Construction Leadership Council to catalyse change at scale.
Our thanks go to BAM Construct, BAM Nuttall, Skanska UK and Willmott Dixon for their pioneering involvement in the pilots. Also to Build UK, Barclays LifeSkills and CITB for their support in making the programme possible.
Our working practices are changing. From the homeworking revolution to the increase in hybrid working, the debate on productivity and flexibility is likely to rage on for some time. These changes have also exposed and amplified existing inequalities, especially for part-time employees, who often work on the frontline in low-paid jobs.
Early in the pandemic, it immediately became clear that these roles were facing the brunt of job losses and changes in working hours. Furlough has been effective in keeping millions of employees in work, but it is masking significant challenges, especially for part-timers. And as we move towards economic recovery, there is a risk that the gap between the flex haves and have-nots, which existed before Covid-19, will widen significantly, leaving many frontline workers behind.
It is for this reason that we have launched Fair Flexible Futures, a campaign for change with the aim of making good jobs flexible and flexible jobs good. In this, the first in a series of Fair Flexible Futures reports, we present new analysis on how part-time employees are faring, and explore what more needs to be done to support them.
The over 50s now stay in work longer, because they want or need to. They increasingly have to balance work with the changes that come with ageing (from physical changes to a desire for more control over how they spend their time). And they make up a third of the UK workforce.
Employers value the experience and skills that over 50s bring to their roles. But the power of flexible working as a retention tool for this demographic has not been given the same level of attention as it has for other groups such as working parents.
Timewise therefore partnered with the Centre for Ageing Better to explore how employers could best support older workers through flexible working. The key findings of the project are reported below, together with details of the methodology.
Although the mechanics of implementing flexible working are the same for all demographics, ‘what happens at the edges’ can be different for older workers:
Appreciating the needs and wants of over 50s will help to engage them in conversations about flexible working, and retain their skills and experience.
Our research and pilot programme explored feelings around whether there was a ‘hierarchy of acceptable reasons for working flexibly’. Both managers and staff felt that:
Flexible working initiatives aimed at older workers need to be carefully managed to ensure there are no perceptions of age discrimination. It’s important for employers to pre-empt how different people may respond, and factor this into communications. The best way to support flexibility for over 50s may be to make it:
Either
Or
This was an 18-month programme in two-phases:
Insights research: The first phase consisted of focus groups and surveys with six large employers: Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Leeds City Council, Legal & General, McDonalds, Sodexo and Whitbread. We spoke to more than 40 over 50s staff from these organisations, as well as 34 managers with older workers in their teams. We also ran a survey for the over 50s, with 421 respondents, to understand attitudes and perceptions about work-life balance and flexible working, and to gain an insight into their lived experience. This was conducted between November 2018 and February 2019.
Employer pilots: Our research was followed by pilots with Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and two divisions at Legal & General. The purpose of the pilots was to bring about changes in working patterns for a cohort of over 50s, providing them and their managers with the training and tools to implement and adapt to different flexible working patterns. This part of the programme ran from May 2019 to February 2020, and was completed prior to the covid-19 pandemic.
Many jobseekers have had to put their jobsearch on hold during lockdown. The jobs market has declined significantly, as employers have had to batten down the hatches and adapt to new ways of working, deal with furloughs and redundancies, and in many cases fight for survival.
91% of jobseekers in our survey are understandably nervous about the future jobs market. And, like everyone else, many are dealing with increased pressures at home. So the survey’s first significant heads-up for employers is this: while just over half of those in work have perhaps decided it’s safer to stay put in their current jobs, a sizeable minority (45%) will look to move jobs as soon as they can.
Any employers thinking that retention will not be an issue for a few months, may need to think again. And when the need to recruit arises, they are likely to find that the ground has shifted.
People have had four months of experiencing that jobs can be done from home, and that a 9 to 5 routine isn’t necessary. And fears of the virus are still understandably strong – 71% worry they may catch it on their commute; 76% worry about catching it at their workplace.
So it’s no surprise that when people apply for jobs, they will be looking for flexible working.
This isn’t just a case of people wanting to continue working from home. Our survey found significant levels of interest in all forms of flexible working. The proportion wanting to reduce their hours (26%) is particularly interesting – possibly suggesting that people’s values have changed as a result of covid-19, as they’ve had time and reason to reassess ‘what really matters in life’.
Our recommendation to employers is not to fear the increased demand for flexibility, but to embrace it. The last four months have proved just how productive flexible working can be, and has swept away many of the previous objections and perceived barriers. Separated physically from their colleagues, line managers will have been learning how to judge performance based on outcomes, not on the number of hours spent visibly at a desk. So now is the time to grasp the opportunity, hold on to all the positives of remote working and variable hours, and embed sustainable flexible practices into our workplaces.
Employers’ reputations are at stake here. During lockdown more than ever before, organisations have been watched by their staff. People are observing how well business leaders rise to the challenge of the pandemic and deal fairly with their people, respecting their needs for safety and for the space to take care of the non-working parts of their lives.
The good news is that most employers do seem to have been sympathetic to their staff during lockdown, and supportive of the extra stresses that the virus has brought. The vast majority of the people we surveyed said their employers were either ‘very supportive’ or ‘quite supportive’ across several different measures.
How well organisations continue to meet the needs and expectations of their staff will be vital to employer brand. A consultative, supportive approach will earn the most respect – it will be important to check in with people to ask how they are feeling, post-lockdown, and adopt inclusive working practices going forwards.
Research published July 2020
Methodology: The survey was promoted to the Timewise Jobs database in June 2020. 1,000 jobseekers took part.
Flexible working strategy, for most organisations, still relies on a ‘request-response’ model. That is: an employee makes a request to work part-time or flexibly, and the line manager or HR department responds to that.
It’s a model that Timewise would like to see replaced with a systemic proactive approach. The request-response model is to blame for much of the stigma around flexible working (especially part-time arrangements). This is because it pigeon-holes flexibility as something that’s considered only in special circumstances, predominantly associated with women and childcare.
A proactive approach from managers, by contrast, would make flexibility a gender-neutral matter. It would benefit large numbers of employees (87% want to work flexibly). It would open up flexible career pathways for those already working flexibly. And it would create fairer workplaces, as flexible working is associated with increased diversity and inclusion.
In this research of just under 900 line managers, Timewise with the CMI set out to understand the extent to which proactive approaches are currently being made by line managers.
1 in 5 surveyed managers (21%) had ever proactively offered flexible working at annual review or PDR. A similar proportion (1 in 5, or 19%) had ever offered it when recruiting. And only 1 in 20 (5%) had offered it at the point of promotion.
Timewise considers these to be low proportions, given that the wording of the questions was “Have you ever proactively offered….” To answer positively, a manager may have offered flexible working to only one of their current direct reports, since the introduction of flexible working policies. Additionally, CMI members are more likely than most managers to follow good practice around flexible working; by their nature they take a relatively formal, professional approach to management.
Timewise would like to see significant improvement in proactive discussion of flexible working at these key times. They are moments when career opportunity is under discussion, and when an open approach would be more inclusive of people who need to work flexibly.
