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Small
Businesses Back Flexible Working, Says Survey
Six
out of ten smaller firms offer flexible working to their staff
and over half of them believe it has a positive effect on employee
relations, according to the biggest quarterly survey of UK small
to medium sized enterprises (SMEs).
Simon
Wainwright, Head of Small Business at HSBC Bank, which commissioned
the report, said: "SMEs are clearly switched on to the
benefits of enabling staff to choose when and where they work.
Enabling people to work at home or share their job gives staff
the freedom to spend more time with their families, or in leisure
activities. Staff remain motivated and engaged, so it's a win-win
situation."
The
report, by the independent Small Business Research Trust (SBRT),
defines flexible working as part-time working, forms of job
sharing, flexitime, working from home and the provision of career
breaks or sabbaticals. A random sample of 7,000 small firms
across the UK, carried out by The University of Liverpool Management
School, showed that 58% offer some form of flexible working
to their employees. Fifty per cent of these firms felt that
flexible working had a positive effect on employee relations,
with only 8% saying it had a negative impact. However 42% cent
considered it had no impact one way or the other on the business.
Flexible
working is seen as most effective by employers in helping to
motivate and retain staff, with over 50% supporting this view.
It is regarded as least effective in controlling absenteeism,
with 35% saying it helps and 7% saying the effect is negative.
Forty seven per cent thought that flexible working increased
productivity. However many employers felt that flexible working
had little impact on staff recruitment, retention, motivation,
absenteeism or productivity. But only a few firms (less than
10% in each category) thought the effects were negative.
While
flexible working is on offer to many employees, the majority
of firms do not have formal processes to allow this. The report
concludes that this lack of formal procedures may suit smaller
businesses, as it allows managers to be flexible, but may also
restrict opportunities for some employees.
Brian
Wolfe, chairman of the SBRT, said: "Our survey shows that
the majority of small businesses have adapted well to the needs
of today's employees. But flexible employment works best for
most small businesses when they agree ways of working that suit
them and their employees, rather than having formal or legislative
processes in place. And employees and politicians need to recognise
that the nature of some smaller businesses and jobs can make
flexible working impractical and uneconomical."
Part-time
working is the most common form of flexibility in employment.
More than 50% of firms with flexible working practices had adopted
part-time working. Twenty per cent of these offered it to all
employees, and 80% to some.
About
a quarter of the businesses with flexible working offer some
or all of their workers the opportunity to work from home; and
about a third offer flexitime to some or all of their employees.
However, less than a quarter of firms offering either part-time
working, flexitime or working from home, had formalised these
offers.
The
SBRT survey also included a number of businesses run by women.
It found that, compared with other firms, a similar proportion
operated flexible working practices. The report concluded that
there was little evidence that firms led by women showed greater
empathy with family-friendly working practices.
The
Marketing Innovation Group in Cheshire, which develops products
and services for digital marketing, is one firm that offers
part-time working. Rob Bielby, a director, said that the company
had always used part-time or "key time" workers. "The
great thing about part-time people from my point of view is
that it means you can have a wider spread of resource so that,
when you need it, you're able to extend the hours and meet fluctuating
demand."
Sameday
plc, a Cheshire transport company, has two employees who share
a job, alternatively working 3 and 2 days a week. The company
also employs two part-timers. However Tracy Hoather, the company
secretary, said that people often felt that they had a right
to flexible working. "The more we raise people's expectations,
the more pressure it puts on small businesses." She pointed
out that "a lot of people want to tailor jobs to suit their
own child care hours. We cannot accommodate that because the
phones are still ringing at four o'clock and five o'clock at
night."
At
one time the company had employed part-timers who worked morning
or afternoon shifts. However, it was "always easier to
get people in to do the morning shift but nobody wanted to do
the afternoon shift."
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