Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+

LondonFamily-friendly workingFlexible workingWorking from homeWork-life balance

Flexible working key to commuter work-life balance

by Clare Allerton 14 Apr 2016
by Clare Allerton 14 Apr 2016

Employees in London are less likely to work flexibly than staff in the rest of the UK, yet almost two-thirds of flexible workers in the capital are more satisfied with their jobs and have a better work-life balance, research has found. 

A CIPD survey revealed that, despite London-based staff having much longer commuting times than the national average, just over half (52%) have the ability to work flexibly.

Flexible working resources

Policy on employees requesting flexible working

Good practice on flexible working

Task: decide the organisation’s stance on flexible working

Flexible working changes 2024

Almost one-fifth (19%) of commuters to London regarded their journey to and from work as one of their top three sources of stress.

In the UK as a whole, the most common causes of employee anxiety were: money worries (22%); the nature of their job, for example, pressure or working hours (22%); and relationship issues (20%).

The report noted, however, that flexible workers were much less likely to report being under pressure than those who do not work flexibly.

Two-fifths (42%) of those who do not have the chance to work flexibly stated that they were under excessive pressure every day or once or twice a week, compared with 29% who do work flexibly.

Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents who use a flexible working option at their workplace said they were satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance, compared with 47% of those who do not have this benefit.

David D’Souza, head of CIPD London, said: “The nature of work is changing. We need real action on flexible working from Government, the new Mayor of London and from businesses. As new generations enter the labour market with different expectations about how they want to work and older generations stay in work longer, the rigid working habits too many employers still abide by will have to change.

“Of course some people are restricted in their ability to work flexibly because of the nature of their jobs but far too often it’s the attitudes of managers and business leaders that are the major obstacles to increasing the use of different types of flexible working.”

Part-time working was the most commonly used form of flexible working among respondents, with just under three in ten employees stating that they work in this way, followed by flexi-time working (19%) or working from home on a regular basis (14%).

Flexible working benefits

The main benefits of flexible working cited by employees were that it helps them reduce the amount of stress or pressure they feel (29%), it enables a better work-life balance (54%) and it has been a factor in them staying with their current employer (28%).

Over one-fifth of respondents said that being able to work flexibly has allowed them to reduce the amount of time they spend commuting (23%), to manage caring responsibilities for children (22%) and to invest more time in friends and family (22%).

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

OptOut
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

The main obstacles to employers providing or increasing the use of flexible working arrangements identified by respondents were the nature of work at their organisation (27%), negative attitudes among senior managers (15%) and negative attitudes among line managers and supervisors.

 

Clare Allerton

Clare Allerton joined Brightmine in 2014 and is now a senior production editor. She has more than 12 years’ experience of legal editing and previously worked on a variety of online and print publications dealing with family, property, tax and employment law issues.

previous post
How organisations kill engagement through poor emotional intelligence (webinar)
next post
Criminal liability for allowing employees to facilitate tax evasion

You may also like

Fewer workers would comply with a return-to-office mandate

21 May 2025

Workers ‘wait and see’ as companies struggle to...

16 May 2025

University of Salford launches Better Working Lives cluster

14 May 2025

Four ways employers can reduce the risk of...

14 May 2025

Senior execs at BlackRock to work in office...

8 May 2025

Government urged to commit to wholesale review of...

6 May 2025

Reform UK councils’ staff face WFH ban

6 May 2025

Remote working may have triggered jump in employee...

17 Apr 2025

Exploring the best London office locations for ‘Zillennials’

16 Apr 2025

Post-pandemic starters seek more pay for on-site working

10 Apr 2025

  • 2025 Employee Communications Report PROMOTED | HR and leadership...Read more
  • The Majority of Employees Have Their Eyes on Their Next Move PROMOTED | A staggering 65%...Read more
  • Prioritising performance management: Strategies for success (webinar) WEBINAR | In today’s fast-paced...Read more
  • Self-Leadership: The Key to Successful Organisations PROMOTED | Eletive is helping businesses...Read more
  • Retaining Female Talent: Four Ways to Reduce Workplace Drop Out PROMOTED | International Women’s Day...Read more

Personnel Today Jobs
 

Search Jobs

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2025

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2025 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Learning & training
    • Pay & benefits
    • Wellbeing
    • Recruitment & retention
    • HR strategy
    • HR Tech
    • The HR profession
    • Global
    • All HR topics
  • Legal
    • Case law
    • Commentary
    • Flexible working
    • Legal timetable
    • Maternity & paternity
    • Shared parental leave
    • Redundancy
    • TUPE
    • Disciplinary and grievances
    • Employer’s guides
  • AWARDS
    • Personnel Today Awards
    • The RAD Awards
  • Jobs
    • Find a job
    • Jobs by email
    • Careers advice
    • Post a job
  • Brightmine
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Free trial
    • Request a quote
  • Webinars
  • Advertise
  • OHW+