The growth of homeworking has helped to cut average commute times to a 10-year low of 47 minutes and 48 seconds per day, TUC analysis of official figures has revealed. Using figures from the Labour Force Survey, the TUC has calculated that £339 milli  More...
11 November 2010 00:01

Legislation extending the right to request flexible working to all staff is likely to be implemented in April 2012, according to a business plan published by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) . The timeline for family-fri  More...
09 November 2010 16:00

Must jobs without the security of a permanent salary necessarily be viewed as less desirable? Colin Green, researcher and economics lecturer at Lancaster University Management School, argues that flexible workers may be happier than&  More...
08 November 2010 11:43

The Government has been urged to fully implement the Equality Act 2010 and force big businesses to measure and publish pay gaps, in a report by equality groups and unions. The report, from the Fawcett Society, the TUC, Unison and the Equality and Hum  More...
02 November 2010 14:26

Kellogg's has introduced an initiative to increase its employees' access to daylight by encouraging them to either come in an hour late or leave an hour early. This move comes as a study by Kellogg's found that two in five workers see less than half   More...
01 November 2010 09:24

Nearly one in five UK employees wants to work from home but is being prevented from doing so by their employer, according to the TUC. Despite the recent growth in homeworking, official statistics show that there is still "huge untapped potential" acro  More...
24 September 2010 11:51

Most of the Equality Act 2010  came into force on 1 October 2010 and employers need to make sure they comply with the  changes to legislation. Warning: This page is no longer updated. It has been   More...
22 September 2010 15:19

Government plans to get more single parents back into work could be thrown into jeopardy due to a lack of flexible working arrangements, according to new research. The Changing the Workplace report of more than 500 lone parents by charity Gingerb  More...
25 August 2010 16:27

We've had a number of employees asking, in advance, to take time off during school holidays to look after their children. What are their legal rights, and what are my options? School holidays can be a stressful time of year for both employees and em  More...
23 August 2010 10:40

Employers have welcomed government plans to bring in legislation requiring them to offer flexible working to all employees. A Hays poll of more than 1000 employers and staff found that more than half (55%) of firms were in favou  More...
27 July 2010 12:46

Employers are to be urged by Norman Baker, a transport minister, to allow staff to work one day a fortnight from home as part of the government's drive to cut transport congestion. Incentives could be introduced to encourage flexible working, and t  More...
12 July 2010 09:49

Could working mothers be the ultimate beneficiaries of the coalition government's policies and recent emergency Budget ? Will the desire to create greater flexibility in the labour market make the male-dominated breadwinner model of working nine to five  More...
08 July 2010 15:38

Private sector employers view flexible working as simply a cost benefit rather than a way of tapping into new skillsets and are at risk of missing opportunities to take advantage of the upturn and drive the recovery, a leading recruitment organisa  More...
06 July 2010 13:26

Welfare reforms announced in yesterday's Emergency Budget could have limited success in getting people off benefits and into work, due to high unemployment and a shortage of affordable flexible working, employment experts have warned. Presenting  More...
23 June 2010 15:57

The coalition government plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees.   More...
23 June 2010 13:02

A group of my employees have asked what working arrangements I've put in place for the World Cup. I haven't made any plans. What should I do? A recent survey by XpertHR indicated that 63% of UK organisations questioned have already put arrangeme  More...
09 June 2010 10:46

Some of the UK's largest employers have put in place specially devised flexible working practices to allow staff to watch World Cup matches. McDonald's has revealed that more than eight in 10 staff are set to take advantage of its flexible working a  More...
03 June 2010 11:41

Flexible working is the most valued benefit for UK employees, ahead of material perks such as bonuses, research revealed today. In a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) survey of 1,167 workers, 47% rated flexible working arrangements as the most important   More...
01 June 2010 09:54

With the football World Cup in South Africa kicking off in just a few weeks, employers are putting in place arrangements to accommodate staff wanting to view matches during work time. Nick Martindale reports. According to a survey&n  More...
12 May 2010 08:00

Volcano update: Seven things employers should be doing HR departments have fallen back on tried and tested flexible working systems to cope with the disruption the volcanic eruption in Iceland has caused their employees.   More...
20 April 2010 11:54