By Gemma Simpson, 7 September 2007 12:15
NEWS
UK companies are failing to offer employees flexible and remote working options.
Almost three-quarters (71 per cent) of UK workers said their companies either do not offer any flexible working options at all or discourage it even if it is available, according to a YouGov survey for Orange Business Services.
More than a third (39 per cent) said their companies do not offer flexible working options and another third (32 per cent) said even if their company did offer some type of flexible working, it was either discouraged or impractical.
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More than half (56 per cent) of the 1,400 UK workers quizzed said they would like to work outside of the office.
A coffee shop was the most popular out-of-office location for 26 per cent of respondents and a further quarter opted for a library to complete work tasks, the YouGov poll found.
But 41 per cent of respondents said they could not do their job other than in their assigned place of work, the research reveals.
Flexible working is becoming increasingly important with the IT crowd because of the benefits of improving their work/life balance and upping productivity, according to separate research from an online recruiter.
Comments
There are 2 comments. Join the discussion
1. Chris Tolmie
Flexible Working is important for people with kids and other caring requirements. It reduces pollution (less sitting in rush hour traffic) and allows for improved communities (less people leaving dormitory towns to work). There are plenty of collaboration tools enabling teams to work remotely and keep in touch with colleagues. Suppliers include Microsoft, Nortel, Polycom and others. Employers have no excuse!!
2. Nick Cole
Flexible working is an excellent concept, but with significant drawbacks. Not all jobs are suitable unfortunately, but ultimately the management costs in terms of planning, co-ordination are increased possibly significantly with little real productivity benefits.
In practice if UK working hours were more in line with continental practices the losses associated with poor work-life balances and increased stress would be reduced.
Perhaps also a more relaxed attitude to the fact that staff and company are both part of society, customers as well as servants should be part of the equation. Staff or customers are not there to be exploited, but in partnership with management to the benefit of all.