74pc UK SMBs offer flexible work options

AMERSHAM, UK: A new study reveals that UK small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are embracing flexible working practices, with 74 percent saying they have introduced flexible working options and approximately half (47 percent) stating they believe the government’s plan to extend flexible working to parents of older children is a good idea.

However, the independent research, commissioned by Citrix Online, which surveyed middle managers and above from 298 SMBs, as well as 1,800 working parents, also highlights SMB concerns over government plans to extend parental leave, with 58 percent stating that extending maternity leave would have a negative commercial impact on their business, and 48 percent for paternity leave.

SMBs highlighted employee satisfaction (66 percent), staff retention (58 percent), and providing a work-life balance for working parents (48 percent) as the key business benefits to introducing flexible working.  On an encouraging note, only 13 percent thought that quality of work would suffer and less than a third stated additional costs were a primary concern.

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 percent), ranking above a pension (44 percent), and an annual bonus or health insurance (both 36 percent).

For 87 percent 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 percent) 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 percent) and 44 percent 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.