Right to request flexible working has had limited impact

The ‘right to request’ that employees now have to ask for flexible working has only had limited impact on how employees actually work, research has suggested.

The study, led by researchers from King’s Business School, University College London and City St George’s, University of London, analysed more than 15,000 employees. It looked at the effects of the 2014 policy reform that extended the right to request from only parents and carers to all employees with at least 26 weeks’ service.

Since 2024, workers have had the right to request flexible working from their first day of employment, with stronger obligations on employers to justify a refusal.

The study concluded that women are more likely to take up reduced hours arrangements (such as part-time work) following the reform, with uptake increasing over time.

There was, however, no comparable rise in men’s use of reduced hours, while no significant increases were observed for flexitime or remote working among either men or women.

Positively, the study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found women experienced reduced psychological distress and higher life satisfaction after the reform. This was possibly linked to reduced working hours rather than other forms of flexibility, the researchers argued.

Governments and employers need to go further to make flexible working a reality, the research recommended. Simply giving employees a right to request is not enough when workplace cultures and biases continue to act as barriers, the research team concluded.

“Our findings show that policy alone is not enough,” argued Professor Heejung Chung, director of the King’s Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at King’s Business School.

“Without addressing workplace cultures and entrenched gender roles, flexible working risks reinforcing existing inequalities rather than reducing them. Women were more likely to shift into part-time work, while men’s patterns of work remained largely unchanged.

“This may reinforce existing divisions in paid and unpaid labour, with long-term risks for women’s career progression and financial security, and even risking the wellbeing of the family and men as well,” she added.

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