It's a fact. Flexible working is all the rage, and for good reason. Chaining employees to their desks and ruling their working lives with an iron fist is a practice that's dead and buried.
Need convincing? A recent study by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR, formerly the DTI) shows that almost all British workplaces offer some form of flexible working.
Part-time contracts, flexible hours, childcare facilities; all can have a dramatic impact on your workplace. The figures suggest that introducing policies like these could save British employers around £43 million per year by keeping workers loyal and cutting out recruitment costs.
But separate research from the Equal Opportunities Commission shows that Britain still lags behind the rest of Europe in providing the best possible working conditions. Meanwhile, policy-makers are poised to bring British employers into line with new regulations; potentially adding to mountains of employment-related red tape introduced in recent years.
Employees already have a legal right to request flexible working conditions, and bosses face stiff penalties if they refuse without good reason.
Director-general of the Institute of Directors (IoD), Miles Templeman, is concerned by the rising tide of employment laws, especially those which he suggests encumber growth in small and medium-sized businesses. He called on bosses to change working practices voluntarily, and in doing so head off a new round of paperwork.
Responding to the report, The IoD chief said: "Employers have rights too, but we want employers to be responsive so we need to communicate better the benefits of flexible working.
"Regulation has a poor record in both encouraging innovative practice and in producing solutions that do not have unintended consequences, discriminating against smaller businesses in particular."
Meanwhile, Confederation of British Industry director-general Richard Lambert claims that businesses must work efficiently and productively to shield themselves from the ‘Credit Crunch' that has gradually taken hold of the UK financial services sector.
"Those of us who have been around a while know that credit crunches come and go, and that well-run businesses should have little to worry about over time,” he told a recent meeting of business leaders in Scotland. “But we haven't had one for a long time, so this will be a new experience for lots of people – including our political leaders.
