A free flexible working website to help senior managers work more flexibly has been launched by charity Working Families.
Work Re-tune, which launched earlier today, is designed to encourage more senior employees to take up flexible working in the UK. It aims to help those staff work out how to implement more flexibility in their roles by asking them questions about their role and assess opportunities, barriers and concerns.
A report by the University of Cambridge last year found that women make up just under half the workforce, but they represent less than one-third of legislators, managers and senior officials.
Because women do more work in the home, the report says, they tend to take on more part-time work and lower-paid roles.
But the Working Families tool, sponsored by the government’s Quality Part-time Work Fund and headhunters Sapphire Partners, aims to change the presumption that senior positions cannot be worked flexibly.
Sarah Jackson OBE, chief executive of Working Families, said: “This unique new resource challenges the myth that senior roles cannot be flexible. It helps both senior people and their employers to think afresh about how a role can be done differently. Successful flexible working at a senior level is a win for both the organisation and the employee”.
Some 14 million people work flexibly in the UK. The government hopes an extra 4.5 million to do so after its recent announcement that the right to request will be extended to parents with children up to the age of 16.
Barbara Follett, deputy minister for women and equalities, said: “Businesses, of all sizes, are reaping the benefits of flexible working. It helps them to attract and retain excellent workers who, thanks to the increased control they have over their time, are more productive, which helps their employers stay ahead in an increasingly competitive global market.”
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