Smart bosses learn to bend

By KATIE TAYLOR FOR MAILONLINE
Updated:

 

BOSSES who turn down requests for flexible working are missing a golden opportunity to boost productivity, according to new research. And it can be costly, too - pregnant executive Michelle Langton won £40,000 and the right to work part-time when she took City law firm Herbert Smith to an employment tribunal.

David Dunbar

Working Families, a charity that aims to improve work-life balance, found that flexible workers reckon they are more productive, while those on normal hours believe that flexible working would improve their output.

Evidence suggests that flexible workers are far less likely to call in sick. There is also a clear link between productivity, work-life balance and good management, with the most productive workers feeling that they are the best-managed.

Reluctant employers are being swayed by the financial benefits of flexible working. Professor Cary Cooper, an expert in organisational psychology at Lancaster University, worked on the research and says: 'The fact is that the only way to get policy-makers to listen is to show them the impact.' Telecoms giant BT has embraced flexible working, with options that include working from home, job sharing and parttime positions.

David Dunbar, BT's head of work styles, has worked flexibly for years. He is in London for two days of the working week and spends the rest of it at his home office in Belhaven, near Edinburgh. David, 41, says: 'I'm not at my best in the morning, but I can get a lot done later in the day. If I was tied to a nine-to-five office job, I would definitely not be as productive.'

Staff at MSN, part of Microsoft, can work from home, operate flexitime or compressed working and take sabbaticals. Strikingly, 85% of its employees now work flexibly, including 49% of men, and business growth has increased by 66%.

Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, says: 'Flexible workers are not only more committed and motivated, but more productive, too. Flexible working is clearly linked to increased productivity and financial gains.

'Those who continue to see it purely as costly in terms of time will lose out on major short-term and long-term benefits to their organisations.'

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