A two-year pilot project has revealed that giving frontline workers more access to flexible working can cut sickness absence, improve performance and boost organisational loyalty.
The ‘Flex For All’ project, conducted by Timewise and the Institute for Employment Studies (IES), which was funded by Impact on Urban Health, set out to introduce flexibility into “hard to flex” frontline roles at three major employers.
Pilot initiatives with nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, construction workers at Sir Robert McAlpine and retail employees at Wickes found that increasing flexibility in these frontline roles improved employee health and wellbeing, work-life balance and levels of job satisfaction.
Flex inequity
A key reason for conducting the study was to address inequity around access to flexible working in the UK.
Project researchers said that the UK has become two-tier in terms of flexible working. The country is split between ‘flex haves’ who are mainly desk-based and ‘flex have nots’ who are in frontline jobs working on building sites, behind tills or on hospital wards.
With an estimated 5.1 million people in the UK working in construction, retail and nursing – the sectors in which this trial was conducted – the study could have wide reaching implications.
Valuable results
Before the pilot, a survey showed that 51 percent of participants agreed that their current working arrangements allowed them to maintain a good level of personal health and wellbeing. At the end of the pilot this had increased to 82 percent of respondents.
Similar improvements were seen for work life balance and job satisfaction. Before the trial, 52 percent said they had a good balance between their work lives and home lives, which increased to 78 percent following the trial. And 83 percent of employers said they felt their job satisfaction had improved by the end of the trial due to their new flexible working arrangement.
Organisation level benefits included reduced sick leave, greater loyalty and improved performance.
At Wickes more than a quarter of participants (28 percent) reported taking less sick leave due to their new flexible working arrangements.
Introducing the pilots
Timewise worked with employees and managers at the three employers to devise new ways to schedule work or manage teams, while also taking their priorities and operational challenges into account.
At Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust in London 15 nurses on the Acute Admissions Ward piloted a new rostering process designed to give them increased input and control over their shift patterns.
At Sir Robert McAlpine, project managers worked with senior leaders and seven teams of middle managers to create a more consistent approach to supporting formal and informal flexible working for employees. This included late starts, early finishes and part-time working.
For Wickes, the pilots took place at 13 of its stores across the UK and offered a range of flexible working options to store managers, operations managers and duty managers. This included the option to trial a four-day week, flexi-time and job share.
‘No going back’
“This research shows that employers who are prepared to innovate and invest in flexible working for site-based staff will be rewarded by increased employee engagement and performance,” said Sarah Dauncey, head of partnerships and practice at Timewise and report co-author.
“All three of the employers who participated in the programme – Guy’s and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, Sir Robert McAlpine and Wickes – are looking ahead and furthering plans to widen access to flexible options. For them, there’s no going back.
“And, for employees, the benefits of increased autonomy over their working pattern are stark. The flexible working they gained through the programme is central to how they want to work in the future.”
Myth busting
Wickes chief people officer Sonia Astill said: “We are delighted to be giving the opportunity for our store management teams to explore flexible working options and busting the myth that managers in retail operations need to be on-site at all hours of the day. We have demonstrated that this just isn’t the case and that being open-minded about flexible working patterns can deliver significant benefits to both the company and colleagues.”
Astill said the company wants its people to feel at home and feel supported to be their authentic selves at work. A healthy work-life balance that allows people to switch off from work and spend more time with friends and family is key to achieving this, she added.
“It is also a win-win for the business leading to higher levels of engagement, reduced turnover and the ability to attract and retain diverse talent. Ultimately, happy colleagues lead to happy customers and better overall company performance.”
Empowered workforces
Sue Cox, associate chief nurse at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Being involved in this pilot programme has supported us in meeting the individual needs of staff to improve their work life balance, all while balancing the needs of our patients.”
“At Guy’s and St Thomas’ we are committed to supporting and empowering our workforce to ensure we continue to provide the best care we possibly can for patients.”
Astrid Allen, senior research fellow at IES and report co-author, said: “The piloted approaches that Timewise helped to introduce were beneficial to both the employees and their organisations. Our findings suggest that many other employers could benefit from offering similar approaches to their people.”
- For more on this project, read the full report titled ‘Flexible working for all: Achieving greater equity for frontline and site-based workers’.
