Research sees flexi adoption rise among SMEs but raises concerns of me too policies

According to new research which polls the attitudes of over 400 HR managers* at SMEs across the UK, 28% more SMEs claim to practice flexi-working than this time last year**. But while flexi-working is on the increase in the SME community, the annual research, by Inter-Tel Europe, the business communications provider, highlights that SMEs are only making small concessions to accommodate flexi-working and may be making unsubstantiated claims.

Some 90% of the HR managers questioned said that less than 10% of their staff worked from home at least once a week, and only 1% of managers could say that over half of the company regularly practiced flexi-working. For those that had adopted flexi-working, 19% said that it had been demanded by staff, although just 2% have made it an integral part of their HR policy as a result. Surprisingly, 23% of HR managers claimed that as staff didnít know about the flexi legislation there was no need to make plans for its adoption.

Getting in the way of going flexi was the inability to monitor remote staff (18%), and a belief that flexi practices went against the business culture or business model (33%). On the other hand, HR managers did recognise that if they adopted flexi-working staff would be more productive (33%), more motivated (53%) and less stressed (92%), and that flexi practices would make it easier to recruit staff (48%).

Chris Harris, managing director of Inter-Tel Europe, comments on the findings:

ìOn first glance it was very encouraging to see just how many companies had adopted flexi-working over the last 12 months. But when we looked more closely at the figures, flexi-working emerged as a ëme tooí claim, rather than a well thought out policy. We were especially surprised to see so many HR managers claiming that staff didnít know about flexi-working. Government figures released in April show just how many employees are aware of the right to request flexi working***. It wonít be long before the UK workforce starts to use flexi-working as a criteria to select prospective employers, as they go in search of ways to strike a better work life balance.

ìAny business that ignores this and the growing awareness of flexi friendly legislation does so at its peril. SMEs in particular, will have to take flexi-working to new heights if they are to attract and retain the best skills available. Making more of the technology they already have, or being bold and becoming an early adopter of emerging and cost saving technologies such as IP telephony, would certainly be worth considering in order to capitalise on long-term flexi and cost efficiency gains.î