Almost three quarters of small to medium-sized businesses are adopting flexible working practices, and support is strengthening for Government plans to extend flexible working to parents of older children.
A new study just published reveals that small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) highlight employee satisfaction (66%), staff retention (58%), and providing a work-life balance for working parents (48%) as the key business benefits to introducing flexible working. Only 13% thought that quality of work would suffer and less than a third stated additional costs were a primary concern.
The independent research, commissioned by Citrix Online, the people behind remote working system GoToMyPC®, showed that the benefits of flexible working and web commuting – the ability to work from anywhere and travel less, by using Internet-based tools and services – were also very clear to parents, with ‘working away from the office’ being the top benefit that mums would like to receive from a job (54%), ranking above a pension (44%), and an annual bonus or health insurance (both 36%). For 87% of dads, avoiding traffic and saving time by not commuting to the office were the best things about working flexibly, while the majority of mums (69%) cited having more control over their day and spending more time with family.
In contrast, parents voiced worries over government plans to extend maternity leave from 39 to 52 weeks and give fathers the right to up to 26 weeks paternity leave with statutory pay, if the mother returns to work. Almost half of dads (46%) and 44% of mums believe that taking extended leave would negatively impact their career, with the majority of dads citing that the ability to work flexibly would make the most positive difference to family life in the first year of their child’s birth, rather than taking extended paternity leave.
Denise Tyler, founder of http://www.motheratwork.co.uk , added: “Working parents worry about the effect that having children will have on their career aspirations, so it is promising to see that businesses are recognising the benefits of flexible working and introducing options that will really help employees.”
“It is very encouraging to note a consensus between UK businesses and parents around flexible working,” commented Bernardo de Albergaria, Vice President and General Manager, Global Marketing and eCommerce, Citrix Online. “UK SMBs are actively exploring ways to enhance employee satisfaction and retention by enabling Web commuting. This way, companies can minimise disruption to their business while allowing parents the flexibility to achieve a rewarding home life as well as momentum in their career.”
