BUSINESS NEWS - UK - Use of flexible hours falls during the pandemic while homeworking has soared
Posted 6th May 2021 • Written by staffingindustry.com • • • • •
While working from home has surged in recent months in the UK, the use of flexible working hours, such as part-time, flexi-time and compressed hours, has fallen over the course of the Coronavirus pandemic, according to research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.
The CIPD's analysis of the ONS Labour Force Survey of ended December 2020 found that homeworking (flexible location) is the only arrangement that has increased since the onset of the pandemic.
Comparing different flexible working arrangements used in April-June 2020 to those used in October-December 2020 shows a downward trend emerging for all flexible hours arrangements. The use of part-time working has fallen from 28.3% to 27.6% while the use of flexi-time has fallen from 12.7% to 12.6%
Meanwhile, the use of annualised hours has fallen from 6.4% to 6.2%. In contrast, homeworking is the only form of flexible working arrangement that has increased during this time, from 7.8% to 10.1%.
When comparing the last quarter of 2020 with January-March 2020, homeworking has roughly doubled from 5.3% to 10.1%.
Peter Cheese, Chief Executive of the CIPD, said, “There’s been a huge shift to homeworking since the Coronavirus pandemic and this has proved to be positive for a lot of people, with many organisations now looking at how to provide more choice in where people work as we come out of the lockdowns. But our analysis shows a concerning downward trend emerging for all other forms of flexible working. If the use of other flexible working arrangements continues to fall this will drive many questions about fairness and equality in the workplace for those whose jobs require them to be in a place of work.”
According to the CIPD, this means that many workers are missing out on the benefits of using arrangements such as flexi-time (altered start and finish times), part-time hours, annualised hours (a total number of hours for the year, worked over different patterns each week or month) and job shares. It also risks creating divisions or a ‘two-tier’ workforce of those who can work from home and those who need to attend the workplace and have little flexibility in how they work.
The CIPD is urging employers to increase access to a range of flexible working options, to address inequalities in the workforce and give people a greater say over not just where they work but when. The CIPD is also calling for organisations and the government to make the right to request flexible working a day-one right.
The official data also highlights unmet demand around flexible working arrangements, with 9.3% of workers, equivalent to around 3 million people, saying they would prefer to work shorter hours and accept the pay cut that comes with this.
“This suggests that, for many, the traditional 9-5 working day is too rigid and arrangements such as flexi-time, compressed hours and part-time hours could better match people’s preferences,” the CIPD stated.