83% of UK companies allow their personnel or certain groups of employees one or more types of flexible working.
That’s the conclusion offered in a joint study conducted by Protime, a specialist in time registration and personnel planning, and HR service provider SD Worx.
Of all the countries surveyed, the United Kingdom is the number one for flexible working. 59% of all UK companies let employees choose where and/or when to work, be it from home, in a flexible workspace or at the office.
24% allow this for certain employees and having the option to work flexibly is usually based on an employee’s job type (50%).
In total, 83% of British companies provide their personnel or certain groups of employees with one or more flexible working options. In France and Belgium, the percentage of companies is 78% and 76%, respectively.
Flextime most prevalent
Flextime, which allows employees to determine their own working time, is the most common form of flexible working in the UK (65%), followed by remote working (37%), which may mean working from home or a co-working space.
When considering all the countries surveyed, flextime is the most popular in Germany, with as many as 80% of companies offering this to their employees. In the Netherlands, only 36% of companies offer flextime. However, co-working / working from flexible workspaces is permitted much more often in the Netherlands (46%) than in the United Kingdom (34%), Belgium (29%), Germany (25%) and France (23%).
Peter s’Jongers, CEO of Protime, said: “Being physically present in the office from nine to five continues to be overvalued in many cases. In today’s society, in which work and private life are becoming increasingly intertwined, employees are asking for more flexibility to determine their own working locations and hours. Online time and attendance registration are already helping European companies make home working and remote working available to their employees. In the war for talent, these (online) registration tools have an important role to play.”
Brenda Morris, MD SD Work UK and Ireland, added: “The role of technology has meant that flexible working has become available in ways that were previously impossible and as technology develops, it’s likely to increase even further. This is likely to have a positive impact on the workforce as more employees favour the autonomy and freedom available to them through flexible working options. Giving employees more control over where and how they work doesn’t just help with employee experience but can also increase productivity which is why it’s so promising to see so many countries across Europe adopting this way of thinking.
The online survey was answered by 502 senior professionals across Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands and the UK. The sample is representative of the specific local labour markets, with the same composition as to statute (blue-collar) workers, office workers and civil servants, gender, region, work regime, language, educational degree and organisation size as that of the active labour population in the countries concerned.
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
