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.

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.

The social care crisis is well-documented, with over 100,000 unfilled vacancies in the UK, yet working patterns and work-life balance have received little attention. Timewise set out to change that through action research with the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham.

Over six months, we shadowed domiciliary care workers and engaged with managers to identify practical, actionable improvements around rota transparency, flexible scheduling and team relationships.

The resulting resources are now being rolled out across multiple boroughs, and we’re calling on commissioners, providers and government to invest in the structural changes that will make good flexible working in social care a reality.