Recent work

The construction sector is a difficult nut to crack for flexible working. Project delivery often necessitates unsociable shift times to avoid disruption to traffic or business; it also requires staff to work at different sites around the country, and to put in long hours to meet profit-linked deadlines. 

The harsh working patterns inevitably impact recruitment. Young people are not attracted to the sector – nearly half of construction workers are aged 55+. Women make up less than 15% of the workforce. And there is a toll on mental health – 1 in 4 workers have considered taking their own lives. 

Supported by Build UK, we partnered with four major construction companies (Bam Construct, Bam Nuttall, Skanska and Willmott Dixon) to pilot new working patterns. The project proved that flexible working is possible, even on-site. Read the report here or the one-year-on review here.

It’s no secret that the teaching profession has a recruitment and retention problem. Long hours, large workloads and the opportunity for better pay elsewhere are all taking their toll. As a result, many schools are struggling to achieve a full staff team.

Clearly, schools will never be able to match corporate salaries. But what they can do is give teachers more control over their time and their work-life balance by increasing flexible working options. Our 2019 research project explored this in some detail.

More recently, building on our previous findings, we partnered with three multi-academy trusts to explore how best to design flexible teaching roles, and found that a proactive whole-school approach can be transformative, creating a supportive and more motivated culture.

The staffing crisis in the NHS has the organisation close to breaking point. Large numbers of staff are leaving, with many citing work-life balance as the main reason. Recruitment is challenging, vacancies are left unfilled and agency costs are spiralling as a result.

Flexible working is central to tackling these issues, but introducing it is complex. Among the challenges are the need for staff across a 24-hour cycle, the shift-based nature of many NHS roles, and the need for a balance of specialties present at all times.

Our action research project saw us exploring the barriers to improving work-life balance for nursing roles, and designing and piloting ways to overcome them. We piloted a new, team-based process for creating rosters and delivered three key recommendations for stakeholders. We published our report on this work in September 2019.

The investment and savings profession employs more than 90,000 people. Its high-pressure culture can be prohibitive for many groups of employees. Women in particular, who do well at entry level but struggle to climb the career ladder (the gender pay gap is 31%). But also fathers of young children, older workers, and employees who develop health conditions.

Lack of flexible working has specifically been identified as a key barrier for women trying to progress into senior roles, particularly when they have to balance work with caring responsibilities. A few pockets of good practice are emerging, but the pace of change remains slow.

To improve access to ‘smart’ and flexible working, Timewise ran a one year programme in partnership with the Diversity Project (set up by a group of industry leaders to improve inclusivity). We worked with four investment and savings firms to develop and pilot new approaches to working patterns. Download our insights summary to see what we learned.

In 2017, the government introduced the Apprenticeship Levy, to facilitate the creation of more, better apprenticeship schemes. These schemes are seen as an excellent way to bridge the gap between school and work, as well as tackling in-work poverty among key groups.

However, many people within these groups are unable to access these schemes because they are only available on a full-time basis. This includes older workers, single parents or those with young children, and those with disabilities.

Following initial research with the Learning and Work Institute, we are now working with Camden and Hackney councils and NW London Maternity Services to design and pilot new models for part-time apprenticeships. We will deliver our recommendations late in 2019.

Flexibility in working hours is one of the main reasons people choose to work in retail. But while part-time and flexible roles may be available on the shop floor, the lack of similar opportunities in store management leaves many retail employees unable to progress.

Following an initial pilot with Pets at Home, we partnered with five retailers – B&Q, Cook, Dixons Carphone, Tesco and the John Lewis Partnership to explore the issues, and create workable solutions, through our Retail Pioneer Programme.

We started by exploring the barriers to flexibility at store management level, and then identified the strategic, cultural and operational changes needed to overcome them. Our report on this project, was published in May 2018.

53% of the social care workforce work less than full-time. And in theory, because they’re on zero hours contracts, carers can choose both their schedules and the amount of hours they work each week. But is the job as flexible as it sounds?

Our Caring by Design project saw us working with carers, managers and sector experts to explore what flexible working means within social care, and how it could be improved.

We then explored structural constraints that stood in the way of true flexibility, and went on to pilot potential solutions with a community support provider. Our report on this project was published in May 2017.

In 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic ripped up the rulebook of what normal work looks like. Whole companies and sectors moved to remote working. 40% of medium to large employers said they would permanently increase remote working options, and 13 million people said they intended to ask to hang on to their flexibility once the crisis passed.

However, there’s a big difference between offering remote working at speed, in a crisis, and delivering a sustainable, fully flexible culture.  So, with the support of Barclays Life Skills, Trust for London and Smallwood Trust, we created a programme of webinars and toolkits for employers and their teams, offering practical support on how to redesign roles and workplaces for a post-Covid world.

During the first six months of the pandemic, our team ran a series of webinars, attended by 460 employers from a range of industries and organisations. Our employer guide, setting out how to approach flexible job design, was shared with over 800 employers, and our employee toolkit reached more than 13,000 people. We have also captured the wider learnings from this unusual time and will share them once we have completed our report