Yet the tech industry still has some way to go in understanding and applying sensible flexible working practices that deliver for workers’ needs, in particular those with caring responsibilities.
In this piece, Sarah Friswell, CEO at Red Ant, looks at what employees want when it comes to flexible working, how companies can implement this, and how flexible working practices can build a thriving working culture.
After beginning her career in account management, Sarah followed the client relationship ladder all the way to the emerging digital landscape in Dubai, where she led major projects for leading global brands including IBM and Volvo. On her return to the UK, Sarah joined Red Ant where she applied her extensive experience of networked and independent tech-based businesses to drive the company forward in its pioneering work with high-profile brands such as Charlotte Tilbury, Furniture Village and Chalhoub Group. As Red Ant’s CEO, she is responsible for driving and guiding the business, from ensuring the company is run in a sustainable and ethical way to heading up talent selection and overseeing project progress and delivery to clients. She is particularly passionate about diversity, equality and encouraging the progression of women in what can be a tough industry, and has been instrumental in ensuring positive measures are part of Red Ant’s policies.
CIPD RESEARCH SUGGESTS THAT UK WORKERS FACE INEQUALITY DUE TO A STARK DIFFERENCE IN EMPLOYERS OFFERING FLEXIBLE WORKING PRACTICES.
Just under half (46%) of employees claim they do not have flexible working arrangements in their current role. Given the current tech skills shortage, it’s a high-risk strategy to be limiting the talent pool and reversing the great strides made towards flexible working in the last couple of years.
Managing growth in an evolving workplace from office to hybrid or fully remote working means being dedicated to making “the office” a welcoming, inclusive, and trusted workplace which truly supports every individual, and it can have remarkable business benefits.
WHAT EMPLOYEES WANT
What UK employees really want is indicated in research by Reed – a salary increase (50%), flexible hours (24%) and more perks and benefits (24%) rank as the factors most likely to make workers stay. In fact, the benefits most valued by workers include flexible working hours (62%), remote working options (36%), mental health support (34%) and career development programmes (32%).
One thing is clear – most employees don’t want to go back to the way things were. Almost half (45%) stated that they either only apply for jobs that list flexible or remote working or are more likely to apply for such roles.
WHAT IS FLEXIBLE WORKING
Flexible working is about giving employees more choice and a say in when and how they work. While it’s not always a choice of where they work, it means having the ability to build in flexible working arrangements, such as changes to hours, moving to a four / four-and-a-half-day week, working part-time, term-time working or job shares. Building roles around busy lifestyles can empower workers, and women in particular, to have greater control and flexibility in their working life. It creates opportunities for people who have other constraints in being able to work standard-hour weeks or in getting to a place of work.
The ONS Labour Force Survey shows that while homeworking is continuing (rising from about 5% to 19%) other forms of flexible working are not on the rise. In fact, the number of workers in a job-share, working flexi-time, compressed hours, term-time working, annualised hours and zero-hour contracts has decreased or remained stagnant.
Small changes can make a big impact – At Red Ant, we’ve changed our official working hours to allow the team more space in the daytime for themselves. This can make a difference particularly in the summer months to boost morale. We haven’t experienced any loss of productivity – if anything, we feel the team is more engaged and dedicated to their work.
CHAMPIONING WOMEN IN TECH
The challenge isn’t just motivating more women to join the tech industry, it’s about keeping women on their career paths. So many women love working in tech, but despite its nomadic image, in reality the right balance isn’t always offered by employers and there are classic drop-out points such as maternity leave and other caring responsibilities. With women comprising 59% of the team, Red Ant has a high proportion of women who are team leaders, which means they can relate to family and work-related issues from a personal perspective.
For employers, it’s important to accept that you might not get the pattern right to begin with, but making the effort to adapt work patterns means you recognise that the wealth of talent women bring to the business is worth working to accommodate. A phased return to work, from as little as one day a week or working five days over four can allow a parent to adjust to new deliverables gradually, or to maintain their earning potential while having more time to spend with their family. Quite simply, if they don’t have to sacrifice their career ambitions, more women will make it to boardroom level.
WAYS ORGANISATIONS CAN INTRODUCE FLEXIBLE WORKING
It can be overwhelming for employers to know where to start but starting somewhere is the most important thing. Some ideas for creating real change include:
- Changing core hours to enable parents and carers to spend time with their families when they need it most at the beginning and end of the day.
- Adopting hybrid working patterns so that the team spends at least some of the week working from home. This makes a significant difference to childcare arrangements and their cost as well as other responsibilities including caring for elderly relatives.
- Enabling employees to join at different stages, including as part of an apprenticeship, can open up opportunities for women without traditional work histories. Openly encouraging women returners to work and career changers widens the talent pool, and recruiting candidates for their life skills as well as their work skills will benefit the business.
- Always be prepared to discuss roles to support women’s lives outside work – for example, we’ve recently adapted a sales support role for a talented client-facing team member who needed to adjust her work pattern to care for her children.
- The right tech collaboration tools, such as Teams, Slack and Miro will make interaction more effective. Confluence has also been an excellent resource for us to collaborate safely and effectively, ensuring that all important documents in the business are easily accessed by those who need to be able to access them.
THE BENEFITS OF FLEXIBLE WORKING
The benefits of flexible working can take time to materialise. For us, we have seen increased productivity, more international and diverse teams and increased business agility. We’re welcoming talent across all ages and backgrounds, on a hybrid or remote basis. We’ve noticed our growth in line with our diversity is strong, and I don’t believe this is accidental. Looking after your team can absolutely support your wider business goals.
A business’ success is defined by people, processes and technology. Although we can use tech to drive the future, in adopting a people-first strategy which offers flexibility and choice to the team in how they want to work, business leaders are supporting their key assets and building a thriving working culture that builds success.
To me personally, working flexibly means I’m more productive, I collaborate more and don’t end up in an echo chamber. I’m also more active, more supported and continually building a variety of skills, which is as critical to effective leadership as it is for all employees.
FLEXIBLE WORKING IS ALWAYS WORK IN PROGRESS
The CIPD calls for flexible working practices to be, “the norm – not the exception – for all UK workers”. However, flexible working is not a tick box exercise – it is an approach that needs careful planning and to be continually refreshed and refined.
If tech leaders and employees continue to share successful experiences of flexible working initiatives, we can normalise these processes to boost women’s participation in the industry and a more positive future of work.
One thing’s for sure – wherever they are working, employees will base their preferences for where they want to work on finding an employer that listens to them and can truly support them. Those employers that are truly people-first will be the most attractive to work for and more likely to ride the wave of economic uncertainty.
