Millions of employees will be able to request flexible working from day one of their employment, under new government plans to make flexible working the default. Flexible working doesn’t just mean a combination of working from home and in the office – it can mean employees making use of job-sharing, flexitime, and working compressed, annualised, or staggered hours. The raft of new measures will give employees greater access to flexibility over where, when, and how they work, leading to happier, more productive staff. Flexible working has been found to help employees balance their work and home life, especially supporting those who have commitments or responsibilities such as caring for children or vulnerable people. (more…)

A new poll of 3,450 people in a dozen countries from Unit4 claims that around two in five organisations have lost employees over the last year because they believed they would enjoy better flexible working options elsewhere. While most firms now have a formalised approach to flexible working, the report claims that policies vary enormously, exacerbating the challenge of recruiting and retaining people for those firms with an inconsistent approach.  (more…)

An analysis of survey data on 1,694 parents of young children found that working from home can result in a “traditional division of housework and childcare”, with men fearing they may lose their masculinity when taking on more routine tasks. Although the research, by Professor Heejung Chung, of the University of Kent, and Dr Cara Booker, University of Essex, uses data from 2010-16, they believe its conclusions are still valid now, at a time when the pandemic has greatly increased home working. (more…)