It’s more complex than it looks, and many organisations are grappling with how to get it right. Here’s what they’re asking.
By Claire Campbell, Consultancy Director
There’s no question that the four-day week is a hot topic right now. Every time we host a webinar, or meet a client, it’s one of the first things we’re asked about – and apparently, many employees are asking about it too. And as an organisation focused on how flexibility can help people thrive in their work and home lives, we’re very much on board with the concept.
But it’s becoming clearer with every conversation that there is a lot of uncertainty around the four-day week; firstly, about what it actually looks like in practice, and secondly, about the best way to implement it. So we thought it would be helpful to share some of the questions that we’re being asked, and our suggestions for how to answer them.
One of the most common questions people have about the four-day week is what it actually is – and this is important, because it’s not what many people think. Specifically, it doesn’t mean employees just get a free day off each week with no impact on the other four days. The leaders of the 4 Day Week Global campaign have worked hard to clarify this, but the misconception remains.
So if it isn’t that, what is it?
At a basic level, it’s a pattern that expects employees to do 100% of their job, in 80% of the time, for 100% of their pay. How? Essentially, by being more efficient; by improving productivity in a way that allows them to achieve the same in less time. So it’s about reducing your hours, but not your outputs.
This is another big question – and the answer is, it depends on the organisation. If you are considering implementing the four-day week, you will need to work with your teams to explore how they can deliver the same levels of service or productivity more efficiently.
Examples that are often cited include reducing unnecessary meetings, automating certain processes and redesigning others to involve fewer people. There was also a suggestion from the UK pilot programme that some people picked up their working pace – 62% of employees who took part said it increased, with 36% saying it stayed the same. And a couple of the participant companies took strategic decisions to reduce overall workload – such as letting go of minor clients or cancelling a couple of non-core projects.
The key point is that there isn’t a one-size-fits all solution for this. Your teams will need to work collaboratively to identify where efficiencies can be made, and then design working arrangements that work within the new parameters.
That might mean everyone gets a full day off each week, or it might mean people working five shorter days, or even an annualised arrangement. The ideal scenario would be to offer your employees options on how they spread their 80% of hours across the week, so they can find a pattern that fits with the rest of their lives.
It’s much harder to see how the four-day week can be made to work through efficiencies within roles in which there is a really strong correlation between the hours worked and the service provided, such as patient-facing, customer-facing and contact centre roles. So organisations with these roles, who believe in the concept, may have to invest in making it happen, on the basis that this will have a positive impact over time.
That’s certainly the approach taken by Citizens Advice in Gateshead, who took part in the UK pilot. Their solution was to hire extra staff to cover the extra hours, in the hope that the investment will be offset by a reduction in recruitment, retention and sickness costs; at the time of writing, this is a work in progress.
There is also an argument that, for industries that rely on agency staff, hiring more permanent staff to allow everyone to work fewer hours for the same pay could be offset by the savings on both agency costs and sickness absence. One to watch is South Cambridgeshire District Council, who took part in the initial UK pilot, and is now trialling a four-day week for refuse loaders and drivers. This will cost £339,000 extra over two years in increased staff and new lorries, but the council believe savings will be made through using fewer agency workers, as well as rationalising bin routes to reduce wasted time.
Right now, the ‘payback’ data on frontline four-day weeks is limited, although our own research has highlighted a more general correlation between flexible working and people taking fewer sick days. But companies with some frontline staff will need to give some thought to how they make it work for their roles, to avoid exacerbating the gap between flex haves and have-nots.
This is another real challenge thrown up by the four-day week, and one which organisations with part-time employees are working to tackle. During a discussion about the pilot, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Liz Watts noted that “In terms of part-time hours, this was the trickiest bit.”
One solution is to reduce the part-timers’ hours in line with the reduction for full-time staff, but it’s arguably a stretch for someone who is working less than a full week to compress their hours even further without affecting outputs. This is particularly true if their part-time job was never properly designed to match the decreased hours – we know anecdotally that many part-timers are already squeezing a full-time job into fewer days.
As with turning a five-day job into a four-day one, the answer lies in collaborative discussion and job design; exploring what efficiencies can be made and looking at how to make the role and its outputs achievable within the available time. It’s certainly not a good idea to expect the part-time or compressed hours employee to continue on the same hours for the same pay while everyone else around them is seeing their hours reduced.
The short answer to this is yes – and if it’s implemented well, it’s likely to help you keep the staff you have, too. Why wouldn’t it? But there are a couple of things to be aware of here.
Firstly, if you think that offering a four-day week will help you recruit great people, you’ll need to tell candidates about it; there’s anecdotal evidence of companies not wanting to promote this working pattern in case it attracts ‘the wrong kind of candidates’. This is based on an (outdated, in our view) assumption that only slackers want to work fewer hours, and it doesn’t really make sense; you certainly won’t be able to attract candidates through the four-day week if you keep it quiet.
And secondly, if you’re recruiting at a time when you’re piloting the four-day week, you’ll need to make that clear – otherwise, if you decide to revert to a more traditional working week, you’re highly likely to lose your new recruits.
This is a great question – and one we don’t feel qualified to answer, yet. The recency of the four-day week pilots, and the lack of large organisations taking part, mean that the data is in its infancy, and it’s just too early to call.
It’s certainly fair to say that there’s a risk of increases in individual productivity and retention reversing if people start to slip back into old habits. But it’s equally possible that the long-term health and wellbeing impact of working fewer days could lead to sustainable and quantifiable benefits for companies.
So we hope that the organisations which are piloting and implementing the four-day week have robust tracking in place, and are willing to share the outcomes, so we can all learn what the real impact of this new working pattern is.
Published June 2023
Domiciliary care roles have a reputation for offering flexible work that will suit people (mainly women) with their own family caring responsibilities. However, the flexibility on offer is often ‘poor flexible work’. Zero hours contracts bring unpredictability and insecurity, while the ‘flexible hours’ that are available are mostly at unsociable times – early mornings, evenings and weekends, which are prime times when carers need to be with their own families.
Timewise teamed up with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) to explore what carers say they need to make the job fit better for them. Our aim was to provide insight as to how small changes and greater transparency around the nature of working patterns could potentially enhance retention during the first few months of the job – a ‘crunch’ point when many new recruits realise the schedules are not a good fit.
We developed and tested a guide for carers with a focus on how to manage the realities of scheduling. Guidance for hiring managers was also produced, highlighting the need for transparency and support.
This project by Timewise and LBBD has reinforced previous evidence of the need to improve flexible working options for care workers, to make it a more attractive career choice.
Published February 2023
GRAHAM is a privately owned Construction and Facilities management company with 16 regional offices throughout the UK and Ireland, with 2,500 staff. Its Civil Engineering division specialises in resolving complex engineering challenges, from easing commuter congestion to powering renewable energy.
The challenge and opportunity
GRAHAM’s workforce already had a degree of informal flexible working and, having read our report – Making construction a great place to work – wanted to understand how to extend this further to all teams through engaging the site-based managers. Recognising the shift in expectations for more agile working, and understanding that it would be key to staff retention and recruitment, GRAHAM’s leaders were keen to bring about change as quickly as possible.
In the past, objections to introducing flexible working practices within the construction industry have centred around the need to maintain health and safety standards, being unable to offer any level flex to all roles, meeting commercial targets and managing sub-contractors and suppliers.
“The construction industry is very traditional in its approach to working, but we want to challenge this and demonstrate that flexibility can be integrated without compromising on delivery for clients or financial performance.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
Our solution
While there was broad enthusiasm for change across the organisation, there were some initial pockets of reluctance, largely due to a concern that there was already enough to do without having to manage new working patterns. Our position as external experts, and collaborative approach, were considered key to overcoming this barrier.
Working closely with the GRAHAM Human Resources team, we explored two options; running an in-depth pilot program with a small part of the business, or providing training and support for managers more broadly across the Civil Engineering division, so they could initiate their own flexible working pilots.
We concluded that the best route was to implement a top-down approach by engaging the team managers. This would allow them to adapt their learnings to their own teams’ circumstances and overall objectives.
“In order to fast track the benefits of more agile working patterns, we partnered with Timewise. Their consultants took the time to understand our objectives, working with us to develop an adaptable model that fitted with our business needs, but which was also easy to implement for managers on the ground.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
The process
We began by designing a series of regional workshops for site-based managers, to share real-life examples of how flexible working can be successfully implemented for construction workers.
As well as sharing our experience and expertise from our work elsewhere in the sector, we also highlighted examples of where flexibility was already taking place informally at GRAHAM. Sharing these examples helped bring the discussions to life, highlighting arrangements that were working well and opening up conversations about how to build on them.
The rate of change in attitudes towards flexible and hybrid working within the industry has outstripped that of many team managers, so hearing relevant success stories from colleagues, as well as our third-party expertise, was key to opening minds to the potential benefits.
Overall, the workshops demonstrated clearly that, despite people’s fears that working flexibly might negatively impact the project, it actually benefitted it, by helping workers become more engaged and productive.
Learnings and outcomes
The workshops really helped overcome negative preconceptions of flexible working, with the majority of attendees immediately seeing the value of offering it to their teams and understanding how even small changes can make a big difference to individuals.
At the end of each workshop, all attendees agreed to commit to doing at least one thing to work towards implementing flexible working in their own teams. To support this, this, we also built guidelines for Civil Engineering managers to use on site as they evolved their ways of working. This was all brought to life with anecdotes from our previous pilot work within the sector.
GRAHAM continues to review their operations, collating their learnings for ongoing review. This will help managers to see the value of flexibility, which has already resulted in lower staff turnover and increased engagement rates.
The client’s view
“We are an innovative employer and recognise that creating a modern working environment leads to personal and business benefits. Timewise’s holistic approach means ongoing support beyond the project with access to their peer community. Creating change won’t happen overnight but with the ongoing support, innovation and advice from Timewise, a modern working culture will emerge.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
Published January 2023
The place-based rise in flexible working that evolved during the pandemic has passed frontline workers by. Whilst most office-based employees were, and still are, able to work from home, those who have to be based at a specific location didn’t have that flexibility. And the hype around ‘hybrid working’, and its conflation with ‘flexible working’, have taken attention and resources away from other kinds of flexible arrangement.
The figures are pretty stark: frontline and place-based workers, a category which includes roles as diverse as medical staff, transport workers, teachers, cleaners, retail assistants and construction workers, make up almost half of all UK employees. And yet just 3% of shift workers, which many frontline employees are, have any flexibility in their role.
The result is the risk of a two-tier workforce, split into flex haves and have-nots, in which those who can work in a hybrid way have easy access to flexibility, while those who work in frontline and placed-based roles (which are more challenging to make flexible) are left to struggle on without it. And this is increasingly having a knock-on effect on recruitment and retention, as people who want or need flexibility seek it elsewhere.
But here at Timewise, we know that it IS possible to make place-based and frontline roles more flexible. We’ve carried out pilots in teaching, construction, nursing and retail that explored how innovative job design can create some flexibility around when and how much people work. And we have also shown that investing in flexible working in frontline sectors pays for itself within just a few years, through improved retention and sickness absence. We invited leaders from a range of frontline sectors to come together to talk and learn from each other, discussing the challenges they are facing, the actions they have taken and the outcomes they have achieved. Here are the key themes that came out of our discussion.
Aside from the obvious logistical challenge that remote working is rarely an option for place-based roles, there are some other key issues and barriers that our attendees noted:
The battle for talent against more attractive roles elsewhere
Many frontline industries are struggling with staff shortages – from nursing and care work to construction and engineering. And the reasons why are varied, including rates of pay and unsociable hours or shifts. These both prevent people from wanting to join the industries, and make them more likely to leave.
However, offering some kind of flexible working can help mitigate the ‘brain drain’. It’s been shown, for example, that many teachers who leave for another profession reduce their hours. So making time-based flexibility available within these roles could encourage them to stay on, delay their retirement or join in the first place.
The impossibility of offering the same flex to everyone
Clearly, someone working in an on-site role can’t spend their entire time working from home. So organisations which have a combination of office-based and frontline roles won’t be able to offer everyone the same arrangement. This can be hard when employees look at the flexibility others are getting and want the same.
Some organisations are dealing with this by trying to bring their hybrid employees back into the office, for the sake of solidarity with their colleagues. We’d argue this isn’t the right approach, and only makes sense if it would benefit the on-site colleagues and make a real difference to the team as a whole. Instead, the key is to look at what flexibility CAN be offered within the frontline roles.
‘We’ve always done it this way’
The status quo can be a real barrier to innovation. Sometimes there are structures and processes within an organisation that seem set in stone, without anyone having asked why, or what else could be done instead.
One example cited by an attendee was a local authority’s bin collection service, which had always started at 6am. No one knew why it was scheduled so early, or could think of a good reason why it should stay that way, so they changed it to allow flexibility around start times. Levels of service were unchanged and there were no complaints from residents or employees.
The role of clients and the supply chain
Another factor that frontline organisations have to consider is the demands of clients, customers and the supply chain. For example, if clients expect on-site teams to be available at all hours, or suppliers feel they can deliver whenever they like, it can make it harder to facilitate time-based flexibility.
It’s true that these are factors that need to be worked around, but it can be done. Setting clear expectations with clients at the beginning of a project, for example, makes it possible to move away from industry norms.
The need for industry-wide change
Underpinning this point, as, one attendee noted, is that that some leaders, managers, suppliers and clients have such entrenched mindsets that it will take an industry-level shift to overcome them. We agree, which is why we make a point of carrying out projects and pilots across an industry, usually in partnership with four or five organisations and supported by industry bodies.
For example, we rallied four construction pioneers to work with us on an action research project, supported by Build UK. This allowed us to research, test and trial new approaches for on-site staff, and share our learnings widely. We’ve carried out similar projects in teaching, retail and the NHS.
So, with the above challenges in mind, how can frontline organisations get better at flexible working? Here are some things to consider.
Involve your staff in the process
Begin by exploring what flexible working means to the people in your organisation. While they may understand more common arrangements like part-time and hybrid working, they may not be aware of what else could be possible for their role.
Finding out what the main outcomes they want to achieve from flexible working is a good place to start. It could be as simple as being able to drop off or pick up a school-aged child, a broader issue around work-life balance, or something else entirely.
For example, one of our attendees realised that a top focus area for their employees was career progression and development. They therefore developed a model that included two hours a week from home to achieve this.
Another attendee spoke about running workshops for employees to discuss their needs and wants, which resulted in staff being given one day in every 20 off, and the establishment of core hours outside which people were not expected to respond to emails.
The process is almost as important as the outcome, because involving your employees in the discussions will ensure they feel heard, understand what can and can’t be done, and feel ownership of the solutions.
Invest in job design to explore viable options
Once you know why people want to have more flexibility, you can then look at how to match the flex you can offer to their needs and role. At Timewise, we have developed a ‘Shift-Life Balance’ model which helps frontline employers explore issues around input, stability and advance notice to develop appropriate workloads and patterns.
It’s worth remembering that sometimes, a small change is all it takes to achieve the better balance an employee is seeking. One attendee noted that allowing employees to start just one or two hours later was enough. Another highlighted the feeling of ownership and fairness that employees gained from having input into the rosta, rather than having it imposed upon them.
We ourselves found in our construction pilot that simple changes such as altering the timings of site briefings, and developing a pattern of rotating shifts, made a surprisingly big difference.
Look at changing practices to boost productivity
If you’re willing to move on from ‘we’ve always done it this way’, it’s possible to rework your processes and practices to achieve the same in less time. One attendee described a unit who are paid on the number of jobs they fulfil in a day. They make their own choices about how best to achieve that target and have become more productive as a result.
Another noted that, having introduced some flexibility, “There has definitely been a positive impact on productivity. Morale is much better, and the guys are working harder.”
Upskill managers and embed a culture of trust
Finally, none of these measures will land unless you have established a culture in which people’s lives outside work are respected, and they are trusted to do their best work. And they won’t work in practice unless line managers are trained and encouraged to see them through.
So it’s vital that your leaders set the tone that flexible working is good for the organisation, and should be championed at every level. And it’s worth investing in upskilling your managers to design and advertise flexible roles, and manage flexible teams. This doesn’t mean saying yes to every request; but it does mean creating a collaborative process in which all the options can be explored so that some kind of flexibility is available in every role.
As one of our attendees noted, the talent challenges within frontline roles mean that organisations are going to need to be brave, strike out and do things differently and lead the way for others to follow. If that sounds like you, we’re right behind you; do get in touch if you’d like our help.
By Nicola Smith, Director of Development and Innovation
This year’s Flexible Jobs Index is being published at a time of great economic uncertainty. In the seven years since we began our annual tracking of the flexible jobs market, we’ve never seen anything like it.
The cost of living crisis is biting hard, with those not in work the worse hit, and an estimated 3.7 million people struggling in insecure work and low pay. And new figures released today show that there are four people chasing every part-time job. Yet, business leaders across all sectors are finding it hard to recruit the people they need, with vacancies remaining at record highs. Even though the country is now in recession, unemployment is still predicted to remain lower than in other recent downturns, and forecasters expect businesses will continue to struggle to recruit.
Clearly, then, offering more flexible jobs – and specifically, more part-time jobs – would help employers to fill their skills gaps. So are we seeing an increase in the number of employers advertising their roles in this way? Disappointingly, the answer from this year’s Index is ‘not really.’
Looked at as a whole, the picture is of minimal growth. Despite a real shift in attitudes towards flexible working during the pandemic, still only 30% of jobs are advertised with any kind of flexibility (up from 26% last year).
Crucially, we are only talking about secure permanent employment here. Highly insecure roles such as zero hours contracts and gig economy self-employed roles can provide high levels of flexibility for employers but little autonomy or control for workers, so we do not include them in our analysis.
So while 9 in 10 people want to work flexibly, and 5 in 10 currently do, only 3 in 10 permanent jobs are advertised as such.
The Index also demonstrates why the demand for part-time jobs is so high – just 12% of jobs are advertised as less than full-time. And it’s not just employers who are missing out as a result. The lack of part-time jobs means that people who can’t work full-time – including parents, carers and many people with mental and physical health conditions – are locked out of the workplace.
Furthermore, the Index tells a ‘Tale of Two Flexes’, with roles advertised as part-time lurking towards the bottom of the pay scale, and hybrid roles tending to be offered at higher salary levels. This is important. We have a good supply of low-paid part-time work – what we don’t have is decent part-time jobs higher up the pay scale. And in some better paid sectors that are really struggling to fill their vacancies – such as manufacturing and construction – the proportion of jobs advertised as flexible remains particularly low.
So why are employers failing to advertise flexible roles, when doing so would help them overcome their recruitment challenges? Our new report, created in partnership with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, with analysis from the Institute of Employment Studies, seeks to answer that question.
We interviewed 1,000 senior decision makers from a mix of SMEs and large firms, and followed up with qualitative interviews. Three core themes emerged – none of which, in our view, should be a barrier:
However, these reasons are no longer good enough. It’s now well accepted that offering flexible working up front can help employers gain an edge in the fight for talent, which is all the more critical given current vacancy rates. And with the cost of living already unmanageably high, helping people who can’t work full-time access paid work is not just a practical solution, but a social imperative.
The medium to long-term outlook remains challenging; our jobs market is facing a triple whammy of higher rates of long-term ill health, falling birth rates and post-Brexit restrictions. It seems there will continue to be fewer candidates than we need for some time to come. This is a problem that isn’t going away any time soon; employers who want to attract talented staff can’t afford to keep recruiting in the way they always have.
That means accepting that the old, less flexible ways of working won’t cut it any longer. Investing time and money in exploring how flexible working could benefit their organisations. And creating cultures where employees are trusted to deliver, part-time and flexible workers are valued and championed, and managers are trained to support them.
It will be time and money well spent, even just in terms of the bottom line; as we’ve shown, there’s a financial return on investment in flexible working. And as Bruce Daisley has noted, “Flex is the new salary”, so offering it will also help employers overcome recruitment challenges, widening the candidate talent pool and helping attract the best candidates. Not sure where to start? We can help.
By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director, Timewise
“We cannot afford to lose any more of our people.” As these words taken from the NHS People Plan make clear, the workforce crisis in our health service is now at an acute level. Recruitment and retention are more challenging than ever; data from earlier this year suggested that one in 10 nursing positions, and one in 17 doctors’ jobs, were unfilled. And in the last quarter of 2021, at least 400 NHS staff in England left their posts every single week due to inadequate work-life balance.
Faced with a mountain to climb, and believing that flexible working is a key part of the solution, NHS England and Improvement sought our help. They commissioned us to create a model for introducing and embedding flexible working practices, and to implement it at scale. The result was NHS Flex For The Future, the largest ever flexible working change project within the NHS, involving teams from 93 NHS trusts and organisations.
So what did we do? Well, as we know from our previous work within the NHS and elsewhere, there really is no one-size-fits all solution for an organisation of this size. We therefore began by tasking each trust to create their own change team, a group of at least five members of staff who knew what their specific challenges, barriers and issues around implementing flexible working would be.
We encouraged them to make sure that the change teams were representative of their trusts, and included frontline staff (such as nurses or midwives) as well as HR and OD professionals. This was critical, not only because they had first-person insights into how things work in practice, but also to ensure that any solutions were seen to be delivered from the ground up, not imposed from the top. We also asked each team to nominate an executive-level Senior Responsible Officer, who could fast-track any issues and decisions to the board, and hold senior colleagues accountable for supporting the programme and its outcomes.
Once the change teams were established, we worked to educate and upskill them through a six-month programme of workshops and advice. This included access to specialist speakers, real-time examples of innovative practice and case studies, as well as practical tools and templates to support the process. We also set up smaller, regionally based group clinics, where they could share ideas, challenges and progress with their local peers, supported by flexible working experts from Timewise and NHS England and Improvement.
Because of its scale, the programme also provided a valuable opportunity to gather information and insights that participants and the wider NHS could learn from. For example, we discovered a real disparity in data gathering around different flexible working patterns, which has a serious knock-on effect on reporting and planning within some trusts. Similarly, we discovered that while some trusts were advertising 100% of their jobs as flexible, others weren’t advertising any in this way. Towards the end of the programme, the change teams began to put what they had learned into practice by developing a business case with which to engage their leadership teams, and a tailored action plan that proposed the right solutions for their particular trust.
Of course, driving change within such large organisations is a marathon, not a sprint, and NHS Flex for the Future was very much the start of the process. Nevertheless, we are already seeing real shifts in attitude and approach from our 93 participant trusts and organisations.
70% of participants told us they have developed an action plan which was supported by their leadership teams. And as one participant put it: “The programme has helped me influence the board and not just start the conversation, but get an organisational objective on our 22/23 business plan.” There were also clear examples within our post-programme survey of how participants’ confidence and understanding has increased. When asked to respond to the statement, “I am clear as to the ways to increase the number of quality flexible roles in my NHS organisation” agreement increased to 69% (compared to 20% at the beginning of the programme). And for the statement “I understand how to design jobs with greater flexibility”, agreement increased from 30% to 74%.
We’ve also collated more detailed feedback about the impact of the programme through a set of case studies, which have really highlighted the positive impact of our work. To pick just one example, here are some insights from Fran Wilson, Lead Nurse for Attraction, Recruitment & Retention at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust:
I was already convinced that flexible working is an area that will increase staff attraction and retention, but now I have participated in the programme I have the insight, knowledge and resources to share with other people, which really helps.
We would never have got to present at trust board level without the programme, so it’s really helped raise the profile of flexible working… It’s also inspired us to start conversations from a point of yes, and how, rather than no!
It’s a big cultural change, so it isn’t going to happen overnight… but the progress we’re making is exciting… It’s been a great investment.
You can read Fran’s full case study here.
So, having educated and upskilled change teams from 93 NHS trusts and organisations, what’s next? The teams are continuing to develop and embed their action plans, and we are supporting some of them along this next stage of the journey. We’re also keen to help keep up the connections that were formed between teams from different NHS organisations, and will be looking to create more opportunities to convene organisations who are doing exciting things in this area – watch this space. In the meantime, having created and implemented this new model for change at scale, we’re eager to put it to good use, within the healthcare sector and elsewhere. If you are interested in starting a conversation with us about whether our change team model could work in your sector, please get in touch.
Published October 2022
In July 2021, we published the report into our Construction Pioneers Pilot, and it caused quite a stir. The 18-month programme was carried out in partnership with Build UK and four pioneer firms – BAM Construct, BAM Nuttall, Skanska UK and Wilmot Dixon – and set out to challenge the concept that frontline site-based roles were incompatible with flexible working. The outcomes were clear; and overnight, some long-held assumptions were overturned.
The pilot demonstrated that flexible working CAN be implemented on construction sites, without negatively affecting budgets or delivery. It highlighted the positive impact of flexible working on workers’ sense of well-being and work-life balance. It also set out the benefits of taking a team-based approach to working patterns, and demonstrated that a culture which accepts, and champions, flexible workers, is better for everyone involved.
But for us, and for our pilot colleagues, that wasn’t the end of the story. Flexible working is a long-term change; it takes time to embed it within an organisation, and progress needs to be tracked to get a clear picture of what works.
So we agreed to come back after a year and review the situation. Were the positive outcomes sustainable, and has anything else changed for the better? What still needs to be tackled? And what can the rest of the industry learn from all this? Our One Year On Review holds the answers.
To start with, the continuing positive impact on employees is clear. All four firms agreed that even small changes to ways of working were helping their staff better manage the challenges of day-to-day life, taking away potential problems that could increase stress.
The employees we interviewed also felt that they were more trusted and better understood, and that it was easier to discuss flexible working and make changes in a collaborative way with their managers. The managers themselves felt they were more open to trying out new ways of working, recognising that if it benefits their teams, it benefits the business too. That’s quite a culture shift.
And critically there was new evidence, from interviews and HR feedback, of a reduction in sickness absence. This is particularly notable in comparison to the rest of the construction industry, in which sickness absence is on the rise. All four participating firms believe that flexible working has contributed to this reduction, and given that one of our initial aims was to tackle the industry’s poor mental health and well-being record, it’s a welcome development.
Additionally, the firms have reported increased productivity levels, which they feel is the result of having a happier workforce who are better able to manage their commitments outside of work. And all this is still being delivered without any negative impact on either budget or delivery.
A further positive outcome is that our pioneer firms are now so confident about the value of flexible working that they have felt able to offer it from the point of hire. This is rare within construction, and likely to seriously improve the industry’s gender pay gap.
The review also noted some areas where there is more work to be done. There’s still a need for more consistency in management practice across the firms, and more time needs to be spent exploring other forms of flexible working. Part-time work, in particular, is still rare to the point of invisibility, particularly for on-site roles.
It also highlighted the as-yet-missed opportunity of influencing other parts of the supply chain; these new attitudes towards flexible working need to ripple downwards to sub-contracted workers, and upwards to clients too.
Overall, the evidence clearly suggests that our pioneers are reaping the rewards of their flexible working trial. They are also benefitting from this review, which has given them a forum to reflect on what’s working, within and across the four firms, and refine their plans accordingly.
What’s more, this model offers real benefits for the whole sector. Why? Because our initial pilot, and this one year on review, provide a clear roadmap for change. They set out what needs to be done, offer proof of concept for flexible working, and show what’s up for grabs for others who are willing to trial it for themselves.
It’s already gathering momentum; following our initial report a year ago, we’ve been engaged by a number of other firms who are keen to move forwards with flexible working, including Sir Robert McAlpine, Kier and Balfour Beatty. It’s our expectation that the further proof provided by this review will see even more firms taking action.
And why wouldn’t they? The evidence from this programme is pretty conclusive; it’s also backed up by our own cross-sector research, which has indicated that a flexible working trial which reduces sickness absence by one day per person per year generates a positive ROI.
In the words of Suzannah Nichol MBE, CEO of Build UK, “With such positive results, particularly around diversity and well-being, Build UK will continue to champion flexible working and I would encourage other industry organisations to do so too. If you aren’t already having the flexible working conversation within your business, it is definitely one worth starting – I promise you won’t regret it.”
Published July 2022
The suggestion that under a hybrid model, it will be women who predominantly opt to work from home, to the detriment of their careers, is understandable from a statistical point of view. Data from 2018 suggested that two thirds of mothers are the primary carer for their children. And during the pandemic, women carried out two thirds more of the childcare than men.
But it’s not that simple; and employers who assume it is are doing themselves and their other employees a disservice. The fact is, there are groups other than parents for whom working from home may also be a preference. And for some, lockdown-enforced remote working actually levelled the playing field in terms of access, availability and visibility.
For these groups, being supported to work from home without being affected by proximity bias is essential; badly thought-out hybrid arrangements could send their inclusion backwards. Here’s a look at some of these groups, and why it is in employers’ interests to make sure they’re properly included.
It’s been noted that autism is associated with characteristics such as loyalty, honesty and productivity, as well as logical thinking patterns and creative thinking skills, all of which are hugely valuable to employers. But for people with this condition, and others such as dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, the office environment is not necessarily conducive to working.
For example, office lighting and acoustics can be tricky to navigate for people who struggle with sensory overload. And the social aspects of the workplace, and the battle to commute, can be exhausting for those who don’t find interaction easy.
So working from home, at least some of the time, could help these employees stay focused, and produce their best work. This is particularly the case if they are supported to work remotely in a way that suits their preferred communication method – for example, audio-only may work best for some team members.
From access issues for employees who use wheelchairs, to cancer patients’ need to attend appointments during the working day, working from home can minimise some of the complications that employees with physical health issues have to juggle. It also frees up time and energy (which they may need to use sparingly) for them to focus on doing a good job.
And with recent reports suggesting that fewer than one in three patients who were hospitalised during the pandemic feel fully recovered a year later, there is every indication that long Covid may become a real issue for employees. The ability to work from home will be key to helping them stay in the workforce.
It’s also worth remembering that some illnesses aren’t physical, or visible; the needs of employees with mental health challenges must also be taken into account. For employees with depression or anxiety, there’s no one-size-fits-all; but being able to work in a calm quiet space at home may be gamechanging for some, reducing stress levels and supporting the production of high-quality work.
And given the impact the pandemic is having on mental health – with ONS data from May 2021 revealing that depression rates had doubled since it began – a growing number of employees are likely to be affected in this way, and require support from their employers to thrive.
According to Carers UK, the Covid-19 pandemic has seen the number of employees with caring responsibilities rise dramatically, with the proportion of carers in any workforce now one in four.
For these employees, working from home can mean being able to visit or support their relative in their lunch hour, or at times when they would otherwise have been commuting. This has a positive effect on their own wellbeing and stress levels, which in turn, affects their ability to deliver for their employers.
Clearly, then, being able to work from home at least some of the time is a bonus for many members of these groups. And the impact that this has on their ability to deliver is good for their bosses, too. But there’s much more to it than that.
Diversity and inclusion isn’t just a box-ticking exercise; there are good reasons why organisations should aim to include a variety of experiences, viewpoints and skills. It opens them up to a broader range of perspectives and opinions, limiting the risk of groupthink and bringing more unique ideas and solutions to any given problem. It contributes to creativity and competitiveness; offers access to a wider talent pool; and makes it easier to get the right skillset for the job.
So what does all this mean for you? It means that if you want a diverse, inclusive workforce, whose employees offer an equally diverse range of skills and experiences, you need to create a culture in which they can thrive.
That means understanding your employees’ individual circumstances – remembering that not all challenges are visible. It means taking the time to understand what working arrangements will help your people to do their best work, and designing solutions that ensure that everyone is included. Training and empowering managers to have 1:1 conversations with their team members about workplace flex is a key part of this.
And in today’s Covid-affected landscape, it means deliberately working to mitigate against proximity bias, putting processes in place to make sure that people who are in the office more frequently don’t receive preferential treatment. If you’re not sure how to design inclusive hybrid working arrangements, we can help; do get in touch to find out more.
Published January 2022
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.
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.
