Flexible working boosts productivity and profits
Flexible working regularly gets honourable mentions alongside things like longer holidays as one of employees’ most-wanted perks. And it now seems firms are catching on fast.
Three quarters of companies worldwide have adopted flexible working policies, according to a survey from Vodafone of 8,000 employers and employees across 10 countries and three continents.
And the impact on firms’ results is striking: 61 per cent of those polled said flexible working increased their company’s profits.
Even more, 83 per cent, reported that productivity was boosted by flexible hours (could this be a clue to the UK’s stubborn productivity puzzle?) and 58 per cent believed it improved the firm’s reputation.
Read more: The 20 best perks firms offer their employees
Nick Jeffery, Vodafone’s enterprise chief executive, said this showed work is “what you do, not where you go”:
Employers are telling us that flexible working boosts profits while their employees tell us they’re more productive.
There is a clear difference between generations, however, with respondents up to their mid-twenties twice as positive to flexible working as those over 55.