FLEXIBLE WORKING MYTH BUSTER
Is there anyone who doesn't want the chance to fit a career around their family life rather than the other way round?
Trouble is there's a myriad of myths that may just be stopping you dipping your toe in the flexible working world - so we decided to bust a few for you.
1) Flexible working isn’t productive
You may have heard that flexible working isn’t as productive as keeping more traditional business hours, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. More and more companies are actually trying to accommodate their employees’ requests for flexible working because the benefits for both staff and employer include:
Increased motivation and productivity:
Better staff retention
Higher customer service levels
Reductions in costs
Less carbon emissions (working from home and less staff in the building is great for the environment too).
Smart businesses have started updating their offices to suit more flexible workers through hot-desking, video conferencing and of course job share.
2) People who work from home don’t do any work.
The notion that home work means no work has been proven to be a misconception. Last week a study showed 4m people now work from home in the UK and as Phil Flaxton from Work Wise UK a smart working campaign group put it: "Stronger economic growth has clearly boosted the number of people in work, but it has not yet boosted productivity, which is the real key to long term prosperity in our very competitive world.
"To help achieve the productivity improvements necessary, many employers need to change their outdated attitudes to home working and embrace new ways if working in the 21st Century. "
3) Flexible working = working from home.
Working flexibly isn’t simply working from home, it covers a wide variety of options and can be anything outside a standard Monday to Friday, nine to five arrangement. Forms of flexible working include:
Part-time work
Compressed hours
Different start and finish times
Job sharing
Term-time working
Working from home for part of the week
Career breaks/sabbaticals
Varying leave entitlements
4) It’s only useful for parents
There’s no doubt about it - flexible working can be particularly appealing to parents with school age children or couples looking to start a family but actually flexible working is actually a viable – and increasing popular option – for any employee at any stage in their life.
Research is showing that Individuals increasingly want more say in when and where they work, while at the same time customers are demanding services and products to be available at times when they want them. People are also realizing that jobs don’t always have to come at the expense of time with their family or have to involve being packed like sardines onto a rush-hour train.
And as a result, flexible working is a fast-growing trend and we want to help it grow faster by building the UK's biggest totally free database of job share buddies.
Sign up now www.shareyourjob.com
