Greater flexible working could open up employment opportunities for 1.3 million people in the UK who have caring responsibilities, disabilities and those living in rural areas, according to a study.
The research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), commissioned by LinkedIn, found that adapting work conditions to make employment more inclusive and breaking down barriers that shut many out of work could add a potential £40bn to UK GDP.
By offering flexible working opportunities, an additional 600,000 people with disabilities, 284,000 with dependent children, 306,000 with adult caring responsibilities and 104,000 from rural locations could access the workplace.
Separate LinkedIn research involving C-suite exectuives found that 86% say the pandemic has triggered a rethink of flexible and remote working.
Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at LinkedIn, said: “The pandemic has instigated the greatest workplace change in a generation, prompting businesses of all types and sizes to re-evaluate how they operate. As businesses continue to adapt to this new world of work, there is a huge opportunity for them to redesign workplace policies with inclusivity at the heart.
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“This study shows that by enabling greater flexibility, businesses can help to level the playing field and unlock new employment opportunities for around 1.3 million people in the UK.”
CEBR chief executive Nina Skero said: “The hybrid office model will, by no means, remove all the structural barriers faced by the highlighted demographic groups. Nonetheless, it does provide optimism for a more inclusive workforce.
“Realising this potential comes with its own challenges, however, and the onus falls on businesses to take initiative to ensure that inclusivity forms a key part of their agenda.”
It has been reported that more than 3,000 workers at 60 organisations are to take part in a UK trial of a four-day work week with no loss of pay.
The trial, which will run from June to December is thought to be the largest shorter working week trial to have taken place anywhere in the world, following a scheme involving more than 2,500 workers in Iceland.
The pilot is being coordinated by campaign group 4 Day Week Global, the 4 Day Week UK Campaign, the Autonomy think-tank, and the universities of Cambridge, Oxford and Boston College in the US.
Joe O’Connor, chief executive of 4 Day Week Global, told the Guardian: “Increasingly, managers and executives are embracing a new model of work which focuses on quality of outputs, not quantity of hours.
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“Workers have emerged from the pandemic with different expectations around what constitutes a healthy life-work balance.”
Among the organisations that have signed up for the trial are Atom Bank, Canon Medical Research, Panasonic, Unilever and the Royal Society of Biology.
