Sorry Boris, flexible working on the up

Despite Boris Johnson's fine words below, Tomorrow’s Leaders, a new study commissioned by City & Guilds and the Institute of Leadership and Management, reveals that 73 per cent of managers have flexible working in their organisation. “The study also highlighted the main obstacle to the wider adoption of smarter working practices generally,” said Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, the national campaign backed by the TUC, CBI and British Chambers of Commerce to promote smarter working. “The culture of ‘presenteeism’ where management require staff and employees to be at the place of work to be considered working, is an anachronism from the 19th century – it is completely the wrong approach in today’s modern working environment. To overcome this, managers need to have access to more up-to-date training.

“The introduction of smarter working practices is inevitable as the UK strives to meet the competitive challenges from the Far East. The study reported that three-quarters of respondents believed workers that worked flexibly were more productive. This reinforces findings issued by BT earlier this year that reported a 20 per cent increase in productivity when smarter working practices were introduced.”