Staying flexible?

Do most bosses secretly want their staff back in the office? That’s what the head of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) Tony Danker has hinted at, claiming the “world of work has gone totally crazy” since the pandemic. 

Asked if employees only working in the office on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday is impacting Britain’s economic growth, he replied: “Look. Yeah, you might be right. We have no idea where [this is] going to land.” 

As the UK faces a recession and IMF predictions point to our economy shrinking by 0.6% this year, are we likely to see companies’ push for a more rigid, pre-pandemic work landscape to boost productivity levels, and ultimately the country’s growth? 

Some of the loudest voices in the corporate world have been rallying to get their employees back at their desks. 
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon described the remote working as an “aberration”, similar sentiments were shared by Jes Staley, chief executive of Barclays who said working from home is “not sustainable”. 

Another fervent advocate for getting people back to the office is Jacob Rees-Mogg who last month criticised the “second best” work from home culture, saying: “You need people in the office to deliver services.” 

But is productivity low? 

Research from Birmingham University shows that seven in ten managers find that flexible working increases productivity, and six in ten see it as a performance-enhancing tool.  

ONS figures suggest that productivity increased since the pandemic. However, in the three months to September, public sector productivity fell 1.3% compared with the previous quarter. 

Hiring is still hard 

The UK is experiencing labour shortages due to a post-pandemic rise in economic activity mostly driven by early retirement, which the House of Lords economic affairs committee concluded is unique to Britain. 
In the current climate, hiring is difficult, and quitting is common. 

Organisations argue that if we truly want to get Britain - and the economy – working again, there must be more opportunity to work flexibly as a default to get more people into the labour market. 

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill, which is currently going through parliament, will mean that workers will be able to ask for flexible working arrangements, like part-time, or hybrid working. 

Currently, all employees have the legal right to request flexible working, as “a statutory application”. Employees must have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks to be eligible. 

The Flexibility Bill will remove these barriers so people can access the flexible working arrangements without having to wait. 

It will give them a day-one right to request flexible working, allow for more requests per year, remove some red tape to make the process easier for the applicant, and will require a consultation between employer and employee if the request is rejected.  

But the bill has drawn criticism. 

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Writing in a comment piece for the Times newspaper, James Dyson condemned the plans to extend employees’ rights to work from home as “economically illiterate and staggeringly self-defeating”. 

The founder of Dyson said the move would “hamper employers’ ability to organise their workforce”. 
“Employers, who are charged with being competitive and developing their workforce, know the huge damage [working from home] does to companies and employees alike.” 

Catherine Gregory from Working Families tells Reward Strategy that flexible working naysayers like Dyson are at risk of “losing their competitive edge and may very well see their people voting with their feet”.  

“There is this bizarre misconception amongst the Dysons and the Rees Moggs of the world that people working flexibly aren’t really working.  This perspective isn’t borne out by data,” she said. 

“Beyond legislation, I think it’s vital that employers learn and understand the business case for and benefits of flexible working.  Embedding effective flexible working practices into an organisation’s culture will help increase the talent pool, drive retention, and increase productivity. It’s good for people, it’s good for business, and it’s good for the economy.” 

Brendan Burchell, a sociology professor at Cambridge University, points out that remote working seems to be effective, and if employers were taking a massive hit on their outputs and profitability, “they wouldn’t be doing it”. 
 
“One good thing that the pandemic did was made people think differently about work. They realised ‘we don’t have to go into the office every day. We can work different hours to suit us and our lifestyles. It’s made a lot of people’s lives much more manageable. 
 
“If you prioritise economic growth over quality of life, it makes sense for employers to try and get people to work long hours. But as a society, we’re moving away from thinking that economic growth brings solutions to our problems. I know it’s difficult to make these arguments when we’re going through a recession.” 
 
Burchell, who is one of the researchers on the four-day week trial, which is in its final month, argues that having a flexible week versus a four-day week will perpetuate gender inequality, as women will be much more likely to take up flexible arrangements. 
 
Think tank the Women’s Budget Group (WBG) has found that fewer days in paid work could lead to a better balance in men and women’s share of unpaid care work, such as for children or other dependents. 
More than 70 firms are taking part in the trial, which sees employees work four days of the week, instead of five, with no loss of pay. 

Forty-one firms responded to a survey midway through, to which around 86% of those surveyed said they would keep the four-day week policy going after the trial ends. 

In September, Labour MP Peter Dowd tabled the first ever parliamentary bill to bring in a four-day week, saying the working week should be capped at 32 hours, insisting it would be good for the economy, workers and the environment. 

He pointed out that 18 million workdays were lost between 2019 and 2020 due to “work related stress, depression, or anxiety”. 
 
He also shared the findings of a World Health Organisation report, which has shown that “long working hours are killing hundreds of thousands of people globally every year”. 
 
‘Like a hand grenade thrown at the economy’ 
 
However, Conservative MP Sir Christopher Chope said the proposals would be like a "hand grenade being thrown into the economy". 
 
Back in November 2021, Atom Bank decided to trial a four-day week, which saw the team move to working 34 hours with no loss of pay. 

Anne Marie Lister, chief people officer at Atom Bank said that emerging from the pandemic, they got feedback from their staff who said their health and well-being suffered because of the pandemic, and that they were working longer hours.  

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“The rest of it was basically wanting to build a bigger and better business out of the pandemic and ensure that our people’s wellbeing was being managed and protected. 

“When it was introduced, people wanted it to work, which meant people performed better during their reduced hours. 

The new system wasn’t without growing pains, Atom Bank did extensive planning on the trial and engaged with department heads to ensure customers wouldn’t be put it to any detriment. The bank was still operating for the seven days, and they had to make sure that normal service and compliance weren’t compromised. 

Lister said: “People have absolutely looked at their working day to see where they could find efficiencies. Which meetings are they doubling up on? Why are they sitting in updates when they can get the information in a different way? So, we’re finding that people are better using their time in those four days to achieve more, to be more productive, and we found they enjoyed the work.” 

Fear of the unknown 

Atom bank’s four-day week is now permanent, with employee, customer satisfaction and recruitment seeing noted improvements. Customer goodwill rose from 83 in November 2021, to 87 in November 2022. Meanwhile the ratings of Atom’s iOS and Android apps, vital for a digital only bank, are at new highs, with both now rated 5* having hit 4.8/5 this year. Atom has also reached 4.7 on Trustpilot. Atom has seen applications for roles increase by a third (33%) this year. Most significantly, Atom’s employee attrition rate has declined hugely, by over a fifth (22%) on the previous year. 

So why don’t more companies take this on? 

“I’m always really careful on this because I only work in one industry”, Lister said. 

“It’s difficult to comment on the challenges that other businesses have, but it might be the fear of the unknown. But businesses need to push themselves to come out of their comfort zone and try it. 

“I think there’s always going to be a level of trepidation. But you know, you can’t innovate if you don’t try new things and have the courage to give things a go.  

“Having worked in HR for 20 odd years, we often take the safe approach, the risk averse approach, you can still achieve great things doing that. But you’re not going to change and shape an industry and benefit people in ways that will change their lives.” 

“And this has all happened over the course of 12 months where we were piloting four days.” 

Joe Ryle, director of the four-day week campaign, says that in the current economic climate, there is a stronger case for the four-day week. 

“I would confidently say that we’re winning the argument for a four-day week. It addresses the elephant in the room which is that we’re all working way too many hours in the UK, and one of the least productive economies as well which is contributing to poor health and stress. 

“We’re going to have to reduce working hours to share more work across the economy as automation in workplaces increases so in some ways it’s inevitable anyway. 

“It’s good for workers and it’s good for employers, productivity goes up and so does wellbeing which increases output, people are more likely to stay. 

Read more: TPR increases focus on climate and ESG non-compliance 
 

“This new generation doesn’t want our lives to be defined by work in the same way it has been for our parents’ generation, and they need to recognise that.” 

Ryle says the benefits of having a four-day week include reduced sick days, the ability to retain staff and to attract new talent, also the obvious benefits which come with being seen to embrace the future.

Asked about critics of remote and hybrid working he said: “Of course, the recession is going on but that would be happening despite hybrid working and flexible working. It is as though they’re picking something to blame.” 

As the recession gets worse and people are more apprehensive about leaving their jobs, are we likely to see people trudge back to the office and a more rigid structure for fear of losing their jobs. 

And if people are scared to ask for a salary at the interview stage of a job, how likely is it that someone will ask for flexible arrangements on day one of probation? 

Hybrid is here to stay 

“It’s always unpredictable to know how changes in labour market are going to affect jobs,” Professor Burchell said. 

“In recessions, employers don’t care so much that unemployment is high, they’re in a more powerful situation. People’s jobs might get worse in all sorts of ways. Employers could turn the screw when they realise, they don’t have to be so nice anymore.” 

In recent weeks, we have seen mass redundancies across the board in all sectors, including HR as companies halt recruitment. 

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But Founder of Task HR Katie McMinn says that she is still finding vacancies are very hard to fill. 

“I can imagine that unfortunately layoffs might start happening." 

“We’re seeing the Benefit and Reward, D&I roles are the ones that are diminishing at the moment. 

“One of the benefits, I think, is that HR in a lot of organisations got a lot closer to leadership after the pandemic. They weren’t brought in just to do the firefighting, so to speak, they were there to say how do we get through this and work with the business leaders.  

So has she seen any increase in employers wanting staff back in the office as they look to recruit? 

“I’m personally seeing in the recruitment market that it’s not happening because people literally won’t move unless they’ve got the flexibility that they’ve had. I’ve been interviewing for senior roles where I’ve had people who have stopped me 10 minutes in and said, ‘I just want to check how often would I need to be in the office? Because if it’s more than one day, I’m not interested’”. 

“I think on the whole people are recognising that hybrid is here to stay. I think some of the more aggressive companies can pick and choose, but I don’t think dictating where and when employees work will do them any favours. 

“There has to be that flexibility and there has to be that respect for people’s personal lives.”  
 
As the workplace shifts, some might see the downturn as an excuse to get workers back into offices, but for now, the power lies with the employee in the face of persistent labour shortages, but as the economic situation gets worse, how long will that last?