Flexible working ‘requires the right management systems’

Businesses in the UK are failing to embrace the benefits of flexible working because they don’t have the right management systems in place to monitor their staff, a new report has found.

A recent survey by the Institute of Leadership and Management (ILM) found that flexible working is currently offered by 94% of organisations, with flexible hours, part-time working, off-site working and job sharing being the most popular forms. However, Auto Time Solutions has conducted a study into why organisations may not embrace flexible working, finding that the main reason is distrust because the right management systems are not in place.

Stigma of flexible working

Christian Berenger, business development director at Auto Time Solutions, believes that there is still a strong stigma attached to flexible working, which has been backed up in numerous pieces of research. This could present a significant problem for employers, as the government looks to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees in 2014. Mr Berenger said,

Most negative attitudes tend to stem from the perception that workers can only be productive if they are in an office environment. But this is an outdated view and shows that employers have failed to adopt the right technology needed to support flexible working policies.

New technology can provide a solution to many of these false perceptions, and utilising new infrastructure often leads to more benefits beyond simply tracking workers at home. Cloud technology, for example, has been found to be a practical way of sharing work wherever employees may be, and can also reduce the amount of documents being saved as hard copies.

Reap the benefits

Trusting staff to manage their own working time and responsibilities can improve overall morale as well as increase job satisfaction and staff retention. It also leads to the emphasis being placed on productivity and results, rather than simply time spent in the office.