Some frontline sectors such as childcare are often assumed to be ‘too difficult’ to implement flexible working. Almost any profession can embrace it, argues Euan Cameron, it’s just about how you approach it.
Flexible working has been back in the spotlight recently amid concerns that recruitment challenges are causing a shortage of childcare workers in the UK.
A survey by Timewise showed the number of part-time positions in the industry is plummeting, leading to an imbalance between the number of childcare workers and the demand for services.
One proposed solution is to create more flexible childcare positions, in both number and nature, to enable a broader range of people to take them on.
This includes people who’ve been forced out of the industry due to personal obligations – ironically including childcare – or who have been put off entering the profession entirely due to its inflexibility.
The study suggested that almost 18,000 more childcare workers could be hired if more roles were advertised with flex and part time options.
Flexible work-proof?
This call for flexibility mirrors demands in other professions, made even more pressing by the UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill, which will enshrine the right to request flexible work from day one.
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The pressing question for many industries remains: how can flexible working be implemented effectively?
When you think of flexible work, there are certain jobs and professions that seem to fit – technology, software design, writing, or other office based activity. Childcare doesn’t immediately strike you as a job where flexible work is possible.
Other jobs such as warehouse workers or delivery drivers are often raised as “flexible work-proof”. The reality is, however, that almost any profession can work – it just depends on how you approach it.
Willo’s 2024 Hiring Trends Report identified that effectively implementing flexible working is the second most pressing issue for companies, behind only AI.
It prompted us to look deeper into the issue with a further study this year, looking at how companies are successfully implementing flexible work into their operation across a range of sectors and roles.
Inclusion and fairness
We found that inclusion, connection, and blending fairness with the needs of business are of key importance to employees when implementing flexible working policies. That includes when some positions aren’t traditionally considered ‘flexible working friendly’.
A multinational meal kit giant that was part of our Embracing Flexibility at Work study described how the majority of its 20,000 employees work in on-site distribution, unsuitable for the traditional flexible working enjoyed by many of their colleagues.
To improve fairness, and balance the needs of the business, the company elected to follow regional norms in each market, also allowing managers a level of “human flexibility” on all on-premises jobs.
On the ground, this meant allowing staff some flexibility around their working hours – if they start a bit later in the morning, then they leave a bit later, but ensuring staffing levels were maintained around core working hours.
Flexi-time is nothing revolutionary, but its application in this sense is. It was a creative approach to ensuring fairness across the workforce where an imbalance of opportunities on flexible work could have impacted culture.
It takes a concerted effort from the top, however. Essentially, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
It’s all about removing barriers to flexible working. This can include infrastructure and work times; an imbalance in connection between employees working both in person and virtually; or a lack of skills and training on how to successfully work flexibly, such as running effective meetings, and ensuring employees have the right set up and technology to enable them to work effectively.
Creating connection
Companies who go fully “remote first” often report benefits to flexible working such as improved productivity.
However on the other side of the coin they can experience negatives including a loss of connection between employees, and in some cases a feeling that some miss out on the opportunity for progress due to a lack of in person connections.
One company that contributed to the study has turned to regular full-company remote catch ups – Tuesdays with the CEO, and Thursdays an open Q&A – as well as planned virtual social events and company support for meeting up with nearby colleagues socially.
Behind catchphrases and clickbait headlines lies a simple truth – most employers want their employees to enjoy work as they deliver on role expectations.”
It replicates the opportunities for connection that IRL work created, but enables the company to maintain the benefits of fully remote work, from a truly global workforce to access to talent pools that would otherwise be frozen out by nothing but geography.
These solutions may not be directly applicable to childcare, or many other professions ‘suitable’ for flexible work. They do, however, show that a creative – and that doesn’t mean complex – approach to identifying opportunities can be found in almost any role.
Flexible working is here to stay, whether traditional companies like it or not, and the reality is the most progressive companies and professions in the world are thriving because of it.
It’s no longer seen as a nice to have, it’s a must have, and the most successful organisations and professions are prioritising it.
Behind catchphrases and clickbait headlines lies a simple truth – most employers want their employees to enjoy work as they deliver on role expectations.
Flexibility is the modern way to do that and delivered effectively it can be as valuable as money in the pocket for employee and employer.
The reason campaigners in the childcare sector are calling for change is because they want to be able to work – and flexibility is their route to achieving it. That surely benefits employers too, and those who find a way to do it will be rewarded. And that goes for any sector.
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