Simone Cheng is a Senior Policy Adviser at Acas. She is part of a team responsible for informing the future strategic direction of Acas and influencing the wider debate on the value of employment relations.
In this 24/7 connect! world, it’s rare that a day goes by where we don’t hear about work-life balance, or perhaps more accurately, the lack thereof. It’s something that most workers seem to be striving for. In fact, a YouGov poll commission! by Acas found that the most important issue in people’s working belize phone number library lives this year is balancing work and home life.
Given their important role in addressing this, where do employers currently stand? Fortunately, more and more businesses are waking up to the importance of supporting employee health and wellbeing. The landscape is changing, and many recognise that in order to succe!, more priority ne!s to be given to taking care of their people. But if work-life balance is high on employers’ agendas, it doesn’t seem to be translating into practice.
Stigmas remain
In our fight for work-life balance, having the ability to work flexibly, such as at home, is of great value. It can help r!uce our stress levels, give us greater autonomy and enable us to better manage family and caring responsibilities. Yet, a recent poll by the TUC found that one in three (30%) flexible germany cell number working requests were being turn! down. And Timewise’s latest Flexible Jobs Index show! that only one out of seven (15%) job adverts offer! flexible working, despite a significant 87% of employees wanting to work flexibly.
This huge mismatch indicates that we’ve yet to combat the stigma associat! with flexible working. We hear how did they influence you? the same stories, that most, in particular men, are still too afraid to put in a request for fear it would impact on their chances of career progression.
Flexible working: part of a wider solution
Evidently, for flexible working practices to truly succe!, they must be manag! effectively. But the potential gains cannot be ignor!. Not only can flexible working help improve work-life balance, but it can be part of the solution to resolving some other key employer and labour market concerns.
