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By Will Sturgeon, 2 November 2005 16:40

NEWS

The public sector is still failing to embrace flexible working, according to research out today, despite the highly publicised benefits of staff retention and increased productivity.

A YouGov survey, commissioned by NTL, found that only eight per cent of respondents consider the government departments they work in to be fully flexible.

And despite high demand for flexible ways of working, 50 per cent of respondents said they don't expect this situation to change or flexible options to improve within their department over the next five years.

This is despite the fact that many daily tasks and chores could be performed anywhere if appropriate remote working solutions were put in place.

Separate research out today from email management firm Kinomi found that almost two thirds of public sector staff spend at least 30 minutes per day searching for emails and almost one fifth spend more than an hour per day doing so.

This equates to a worrying 20 hours per month spent on a task which could be done from anywhere an employee is able to connect to work email and could easily be fitted in around a more flexible approach to work.

Among the reasons given to YouGov for this apparent reticence to mobilise staff and enable remote working are concerns about co-ordinating staff, cited by 43 per cent of respondents, technology concerns (38 per cent) and fears of greater distraction at home (27 per cent).

This apathy towards remote working is at odds with the government's own Project NOMAD initiative.

According to the YouGov findings the south of England is the area with the highest level of understanding that flexible working is likely to increase morale and have an effect on issues such as staff retention.

That would appear to be supported by an announcement today from Kent County Council which has rolled out a solution from Scalable Networks to enable greater remote working for staff looking to log on from home.