A quarter of UK workers might apply for flexible working, YouGov survey suggests

UK employers could face a significant surge in the number of employees requesting flexible working conditions after new legislation comes into force on 30 June 2014, a recent survey carried out by YouGov could recently reveal.

The survey of 2,328 British workers (of which, 1243 were working — excluding sole traders) was commissioned by Croner, a Wolters Kluwer company providing information and consultancy to HR, health & safety and business professionals, and found that 26% of employees are likely to request flexible working arrangements once the new legislation comes into force.

Under the existing legislation, only employees with children under 17 and those who have responsibilities as a carer have the right to request flexible working. However, the new law extends this right, and means that any employee (with 26 weeks' service) will be able to apply to work flexibly.

Data obtained from the survey also suggests that 69% of the working population has never made a flexible working request, with 13% citing financial implications as a reason for not requesting flexibility and 22% saying that they did not think their request would be accepted.

Flexible working options seem to have a very positive effect on overall productivity, with 27% of respondents whose businesses had offered flexible working believing that flexibility helped to increase productivity and 28% saying it reduced sickness and absence.

Meanwhile, 63% of respondents believed that flexible working created a better work life balance and 42% said it created higher staff morale. On the other hand, 16% of respondents felt that it could create tension in the workplace, rising to 19% of 45-54 year old workers.

All the companies that consider offering their employees flexible working options should also implement the required workforce management systems beforehand, and this is specifically where Tensor's WinTA.NET solution could put its market-leading efficiency to very good use.

From simple determination of overtime by the number of daily hours worked, to the more complex payment of overtime hours adjusted when periodic targets are not met, WinTA.NET can supply working rules to calculate the correct result. The system contains special rules to accommodate the formal flexitime contracts worked by many public sector employees. Workers paid on an annual contract basis can receive reports stating how many contracted hours they have yet to work.

If you'd like to find out more about the WinTA.NET Time and Attendance monitoring and management solution, just contact us or Book a Demo, we'll be more than happy to answer all of your questions and queries.