Bosses back flexible working but fail management challenge
A new survey shows that businesses in the UK are embracing flexible working policies yet at the same time are risking the bottom line due to a lack of time and attendance systems to effectively manage productivity.
In the survey carried out by Amano, a provider of time management solutions, it is revealed that 98% of respondents are in favour of taking up flexible working practices with 58% saying that their organisation has fully embraced the idea of flexible working.
Yet almost half of respondents (46%) have no time and attendance systems in place to manage flexible working policies with 18% depending upon paper-based systems and 14% using clocking on and off machines with a further 14% adopting online timesheets. Only 2% of respondents use a more advanced software system that can integrate with payroll and other business functions.
Remote working ranked as the most popular flexible working policy in place (76%) with policies to enable time off in lieu (70%) and flexitime (68%) following just behind. Just over half (52%)made provision for staggered hours with 36% offering job sharing and 32% term time working. Overall more than one third of respondents (36%) offered five or more flexible working policies to employees.
Amano UK’s managing director Chris O'Riordan says: “Flexible working patterns have become an increasingly important priority for UK businesses, but the necessary technology to manage this change has been left behind. When juggling the demands of complex working policies, it is crucial for businesses to possess the technological infrastructure to effectively manage the working patterns in place and ensure that they do not have a negative impact on the bottom line.”
Workingmums.co.uk recently reported on similar news which shows that businesses in the UK are ahead of the pack when it comes to encouraging staff to take up flexible working and mobile working options (68%) compared to just 32% in Germany and 26% in France. In the survey by Citrix online, a technology provider it found that technology is the key to mobile and flexible working with two-thirds seeing access to devices and applications that enable mobility as important to productivity.
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