What’s the problem?

 Flexible and part-time workers tend to be occupationally segregated  Flexible working is rare at management and senior levels  Flexible and part-time working is female- dominated  Part-time work is generally low-paid

 Overworked  Stressed  Undervalued part-time workers  Part-time work does not offer opportunity for part-timers to use their abilities

 Hidden brain drain 4/5 workers “working below potential”

 Most common form of flexible working is part-time  How come part-time is so under-valued?

Part-timers working below their potential Nearly 3 million women aged 25 –54 are working part-time below their potential

 30% say working below past potential  50% believe have higher latent potential  Increasingly working PT at start of career  Working below potential because: - studying/ training for higher paid work  80% working below potential – women: - “stuck in job” - combining PT work with caring

 65% working below proven past potential - could easily work at higher level - 40% of them: men - 85% not in training/ not looking for other work  Many not want more intensive work - 46% have chosen less stressful jobs  25% held back because no opportunity in labour market - Not find work that uses experience & skills - No opportunity with current employers - Would prefer FT job, no chance with current employer - No suitable FT jobs in area

 2m working below past potential 1m say working below latent potential  88% women - ¾ combining PT with caring 40% of male sample – combining with caring  Not in education to improve chances - “stuck in job”  Not chose PT career path, circumstances - only 15% work PT because it suits (caring, less stress)

Training & job-hunting in Pt-ers working under potential

Constraints on job choice for 25–54 year old women

For employers  Extending the range of flexibilities within full-time work  Broadening the range of part-time jobs at more senior levels  Re-designing jobs to ensure they can draw in those with under-utilised talents who are currently driven to part-time work to avoid excessive stress.

Flexible working, full or part-time, is…  … available in all sectors and industries  … handled confidently and positively by line managers  … valued by employers and trade unions

 … undertaken at all levels of organisations, including senior management  … easy to move in and out of  … widely available on the open labour market

 Employer  Employee  Economy  Society

 Enhance their ability to retain staff  Improve morale, motivation and commitment among employees  Reduced stress and absence in their workforce  Increase productivity, improving retention, saving recruitment costs, helping with skill shortages, reducing stress related absence, improving motivation  Tapping into untapped potential in today’s part- time workers opening up higher level work to them

 More opportunity to work to potential in better-paid jobs  Better work-life balance  Remain with existing employers when need to change hours or patterns of work  Move to new work when they work flexibly or part-time and move in and out of flexible and part-time working without penalty  Not suffer financial penalties, other than pro- rata reductions, from reducing hours

 Best possible use of skills, qualifications and talent available  Better match between services required and labour market resources available  Reduction in government spending on stress- related illness

 Greater social cohesion, health and success from reducing inequality and deprivation  Give children best possible start in life give families best chance of good health, education and relationships  Fathers playing a more active role in bringing up future generation  Better balance between male and female carers and role models, greatly enriching the lives of our young people

 Managers’ skills & attitude  Labour market flexibility  Modernisation of job design

 Good communication and trust is key for FW  Encourage provision and take-up of training in managing flexible workers.  Realistic about what flexibility is possible, go into negotiation well prepared  Senior managers as champions for FW help achieve management ‘buy-in’ encourage take-up of FW policies.

 training in business case for FW  coaching to deal with flexible working requests to be open-minded to new ways of working  case studies of different employees taking up various FW methods benefits to the business as well as individual  active support of senior management in promoting flexible working

 Performance management “seeing” = “performing” objective-setting inputs v outputs  Communication schedule briefings so Fwers not get detached use of s for regular contact stress face-to-face contact vital conference calls  Multi-skilling teams cover for each other self-roster

 Building the organisation culture FW = business as usual  Trust use of objective measures of output  Fairness & consistency seen to be fair acceptable for all groups consistent line managers’ attitudes

 More help for labour market returners from employers (if exist) from Government to update skills or learn new ones  Finance for training to older workers out of work for less than six months  Support for phased or delayed retirement

 More effort and resource put into modernising job design  Trial periods used by employers to try out different forms of flexible working for workers  Impact on both business and individual evaluated openly and objectively

Responsibilities of employees, managers and HR: FW