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Annual hoursLatest NewsEconomics, government & businessHR practiceFlexible working

Flexible UK challenged by Cranfield survey of 8,000 companies in 32 countries

by Personnel Today 7 Jul 2006
by Personnel Today 7 Jul 2006

A study has challenged government assertions that the UK has a flexible labour market.


Research by Cranfield School of Management’s Human Resource Research Centre, shows that UK companies are inferior to foreign rivals when it comes to flexible working arrangements and the efficient use of labour.


The study of 8,000 companies across 32 countries shows that just 48% of the UK’s companies offer flexitime working conditions to their employees, compared to 94% in Sweden, 92% in Finland and 90% in Germany.


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Researchers said that although other areas, including part-time working (97%), homeworking (32%) and job sharing (55%), compare favourably with foreign competition, these results are not enough to support the government’s claims.


Professor of HRM and director of the Cranfield Human Resource Research Centre, Shau Tyson, said: “It may be easier to make people redundant over here, but the survey shows we don’t use labour very flexibly.”


 

Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

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