Women Rule when it comes to Flexible Working

04-09-2006 13:30

Women are leading the way when it comes to recognising the benefits of adopting flexible working, according to a survey of UK small businesses by BT Business.

Female directors, in particular, strongly advocate flexible working with almost half of the female respondents in a senior position believing that increased productivity and reduced costs are the main benefits of flexible working. As well as having a direct impact on the bottom line, 70 per cent also appreciated the human benefits, believing that it improves staff motivation and retention.

Having the option to work flexibly as an employee benefit has risen sharply up the employee agenda in the last few years - more than 37 per cent of men and 34 per cent of women now say they would be willingly give up part of their next pay rise if they could work from home. With the Work and Families Bill proposals to extend the right of employees to request flexible working hours, currently progressing through parliament, this is an issue that is not going away.

Companies employing less than fifty people account for 99.3 per cent of the UK’s businesses, so owner-managers play a critical role when it comes to making the UK workplace a more flexible one. According to the survey, female directors are grasping this opportunity for a change in work style, with 41 per cent recognising that a benefit of having a flexible working policy can also reduce absenteeism – a critical issue given that "sickies" are estimated to cost the UK economy around £1.7bn per year.

Ann Wood, general manager, Marketing, BT Business, said: “Women running businesses in the UK are really thinking about how smarter working practices can benefit both their employees and their business. They are not afraid to embrace technology to support flexible working aspirations.

“With the right combination of secure infrastructure, systems and support, any organisation, regardless of size, can ensure its employees work together effectively wherever they are. BT assists thousands of UK organisations, of every size, move to a more flexible way of working by drawing on our own experiences BT has 11,500 home worker and another 64,000 equipped to work flexibly. It also has a return to work rate after maternity leave of 99 per cent, and annual staff turnover below 4 per cent, compared with a sector average of 17 per cent.”