Despite increasing pressure on bosses to offer flexible working, two thirds of employers never or only occasionally agree to employee requests to work from home, according to new figures from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development.

This is despite the report’s findings that only 8% of employers believe home-workers are less productive than their office-bound colleagues, while 30% say they are more productive.

Those who are most likely to have their requests granted include managers and professionals. Also, flexible working arrangements for parents with young children are the most popular arrangements offered by respondent organisations. This increased popularity is being driven at least in part by the government’s increasingly hardened legislation around the ‘right to request’ for parents.

Meanwhile, companies are beginning to recognise the business benefits of offering flexible or home working. Top reasons given by organisations for allowing staff to work from home include increasing organisational flexibility (68%), retaining workforce/widening the talent pool (55%) and meeting employee demand (54%).

Gerwyn Davies, policy adviser at the CIPD said that fostering a culture of flexible working within an organisation could aid bosses attempts to attract and retain staff. 

“Employers and line managers should therefore have more confidence in their staff, policies and in their own management capability to ensure they recruit, retain and make the best use of the talent they have.”

Looking to the future, not much looks likely to change: over half of employers say that the level of home working at their company will stay the same (58%). Just over a quarter (27%) say it will increase and 2% believe it will decrease.

© Crimson Business Ltd.