by Brianna Crandall — February 22, 2012—Facilities managers who deal with space management, shared workspaces, and related workspace allotment issues may be interested in new research from Vodafone UK that indicates that U.K. companies are sharpening their focus on softer workplace benefits such as flexible working to attract and keep the best talent.
Exploring the shift in employee expectations, the first in Vodafone’s new Perspective series of insights that explores the latest working trends, shows that flexible working is having a major impact on job satisfaction today, and is now considered more important to U.K. workers than financial benefits such as a stake in the business, perks, bonus programs and pensions.
The new research, based on interviews with 1,366 senior managers and employees across U.K. organizations of all sizes as well as other resources, looked into the biggest influences on job satisfaction. It reveals that work-life balance (cited by 28 percent of respondents) is nearly as important today as basic salary (cited by 30 percent of respondents).
The study also reveals that only one in five employees is likely to seriously consider changing jobs over the next 12 months. This is consistent with the latest figures from the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics (ONS), which show that just 2.4 percent of the U.K. workforce changed jobs in 2011, compared with twice that number over a decade ago. The stagnation in the talent pool is a problem for British businesses as the majority of employers (eight out of ten) surveyed say that they now have to work harder than ever to attract and keep the best talent.
Flexible working is an expectation, not a perk
As employers battle to hire the best, the study shows that flexible working is emerging as one of the most valuable weapons an employer can have. Peter Kelly, Enterprise Director at Vodafone UK, commented, “Flexible working has gone from being a nice-to-have perk to now being at the heart of employees’ expectations. British business clearly understands that motivation and job satisfaction are more than about money; work-life balance and feeling supported at work are also vitally important. Finding better ways of working will strengthen an employer’s offer to potential new talent but will also enable current employees to find a work-life balance that suits them.”
Half of all managers surveyed feel that offering flexible working options makes them a more attractive prospect as a potential employer. Eighty-five percent of managers believe that employees now expect greater flexibility from the companies they work for. U.K. business seems to be responding to this expectation, as three-fifths of organizations surveyed now equip the majority of employees with the technology to work from wherever they need to. This figure is slightly lower in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) (46 percent), and slightly higher in larger organizations (63 percent).
Flexible working key to building a better business
The positive impact of new ways of working on organizational performance and the bottom line are also widely understood by managers. Such practices are felt to create a more productive organization (nearly 6 out of 10 managers cite this as a top five benefit), enable a more flexible workforce (50 percent), and save costs by reducing office space requirements (54 percent). When asked to rank the perceived benefits of flexible working to employees, managers put improved employee satisfaction and retention at the top of the list.
Employees are equally positive about the benefits of flexible working. According to the report, among employees who are able to work remotely with full access to systems and colleagues, more than three-quarters say it boosts their job satisfaction, and a similar proportion say that it improves their work-life balance.
