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The Equal Parenting Project looked into the benefits of flexible working

Managers are increasingly positive about the benefits of flexible working and are realising that it can help to improve productivity in the workplace. The Equal Parenting Project at the University of Birmingham surveyed 597 managers across the UK and found that the majority believe that flexible working encouraged better motivation and performance.

Flexitime and home working have been the most popular forms of flexible working during the pandemic

It has been the most positively received by employers. On the other hand, other kinds like job-shares, part-time work, and compressed hours are not as favoured, even though they are the ones that would particularly benefit parents. To address this, companies should work to promote such types of working and alter performance evaluation processes to make flexible working less stigmatised.

Flexible working has become a permanent trend

The deputy Labour leader, Angela Rayner declared that flexible working has become a permanent trend. Labour’s new deal for working people aims to make employers accommodate requests for flexible working, like part-time, compressed, and term-time hours. She criticised the Conservative government for not making flexible working the default and making it instead the responsibility of the employees to ask for it.

When it comes to hybrid working, the study found that the majority of employers do not expect employees to be back in the office more than four days a week and the percentage of those expecting one day a week in the office has almost doubled.

Long hours working is still seen as essential for career progress

The research also looked into the attitudes towards long hours working, which is still seen as essential for progress in one's career. The percentage of managers who said employees had to work long hours to progress fell from 43.3% in 2019 to 35.2% in 2021, but has since increased back up to 41.9%.

The attitude towards flexible working is much more positive than it used to be before the pandemic

Dr Holly Birkett, from Birmingham Business School, said that the attitude towards flexible working is much more positive than it used to be before the pandemic. Dr Sarah Forbes from the University of York added that this change would be particularly helpful for women, who have often not been given access to good quality and well-paid flexible working options.

Many organisations still rely on informal arrangements for working from home or flexitime

The research further established that, although there is a growing trend in advertising new jobs as being available for flexible working and supported by managers, many organisations still rely on informal arrangements for working from home or flexitime. Unfortunately, this could be reversed if the line manager were to change.

Employers are using surveillance software and monitoring emails

The research indicated that nearly a third of managers reporting this. The majority of the surveyed managers felt that this showed a lack of trust and increased their own stress levels.