Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+

Latest NewsHR practiceWork-life balance

More than half of employees want a better work life balance

by Quentin Reade 7 Jan 2005
by Quentin Reade 7 Jan 2005

Employees in the UK want a shift in working practices in 2005 to better reflect their changing working lives, according to  research.

Changing Demographics, published by research and management consultancy the Work Foundation, found that more than half of 1,000 people surveyed were dissatisfied with their working hours. Most would prefer to work fewer hours.

Not only do people want to work fewer hours, they want greater flexibility.

The greater desire for time outside work may arise from the increase in numbers of dual income households – often meaning someone has to care for children around the demands of work – and the growing realisation that people will have to have to work until later in life to fund their retirement.

Those working in small companies were more likely to say they could work flexibly than those working in mid-size organisations, despite smaller firms being less likely to have an HR function.

However, while small firms might be good at informal flexibility, it does mean that employees’ access to flexibility depends far more on their relationship with their managers than on policies setting out clear rules. This has the protential to result in unfairness, the report said.

More than two-thirds of respondents said that career structures need to allow for time out without damage to career prospects, and that organisations need to change the long hours culture.

The report’s author, Laura Williams, said: “As the population changes, the Government and employers need to respond to the repercussions these changes create for the labour market.

“When designing products, companies understand that at different times in their lives, different people need and want different things.

“It is not such a giant leap to apply this to the labour market: to start talking not just about working hours, but about working lives, which helps encompass the way that each person can and wants to work may change over the lifetime,” she said.

One Stop Guide to Flexible Working

Avatar
Quentin Reade

previous post
Hutton sets ball rolling for NHS staff medics pay discussions
next post
BMA calls for ban on smoking in public places in Wales

You may also like

Holiday pay changes: how entitlement will be simplified

26 May 2023

Finance worker wins £32,000 after ‘hormonal’ comments

26 May 2023

Retail headcount declines at fastest rate in 14...

26 May 2023

Pets at Home jobs boost with new stores

26 May 2023

Could micro-credentials help your business survive uncertainty?

26 May 2023

Bank holidays: six things employers need to know

26 May 2023

Black and ethnic minority workers twice as likely...

26 May 2023

Neonatal leave and parents’ redundancy protection bills become...

25 May 2023

Millions leave careers due to lack of flexibility

25 May 2023

Police Scotland chief admits force is institutionally racist

25 May 2023

  • The HR Bundle: Your one-stop guide to building a successful global HR Department PROMOTED | Get your hands on Deel’s free HR bundle...Read more
  • The Benefits of an Employee Assistance Programme PROMOTED | EAPs support employees in a range of ways...Read more
  • Intergenerational working and how to manage up and down the generations PROMOTED | The benefits and challenges of intergenerational workplaces...Read more
  • Bereavement in the workplace: How training can help HR get it right PROMOTED | HR professionals play an essential role...Read more
  • UK workforce mental wellbeing needs PROMOTED | The mental wellbeing support employers are providing misses the mark...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 2023

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2023 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • Home
    • All PT content
    • Advertise
  • Email sign-up
  • Topics
    • HR Practice
    • Employee relations
    • Equality, diversity and inclusion
    • 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
  • XpertHR
    • Learn more
    • Products
    • Pricing
    • Free trial
    • Subscribe
    • XpertHR USA
  • Webinars
  • OHW+