UK firms fall behind the rest of Europe in their failure to exploit flexible working patterns

Of 8,000 firms questioned, 90% in mainland Europe made flexitime available, compared with just 48% in the UK.

The finding in a report published by the Equal Opportunities Commission this month, prompted David Cameron, leader of the opposition to call for private and public companies to make flexible working rights available for all employees.

'The nature of work is changing and UK business needs to come out of the dark ages and realize that it cannot continue to use working practices that originate from the 19th century', said Sir Digby Jones last month. His opinions have influence. Before June was over he was appointed trade minister by Gordon Brown.

'It needs to modernise, change its approach, retrain its management and understand the benefits of new smarter working practices', he added.


Only one in five UK firms give staff chances to work away from the office.

BT has reported productivity improvements of 20% where it has introduced smarter working practices.

Sir Digby Jones has launched the WorkWise UK Quality Mark, which allows any organisation to gain recognition for the successful introduction of smarter working practices.

The TUC, TfL, HBOS, NHS and BT are among the organisations that helped create the WorkWise UK standard, which acts as a framework for organisations wanting to be more work wise.

'There are numerous reports indicating the UK's poor productivity compared witrh competitors. But we would not need to work such long hours to the detriment of family and personal life, if we used the smarter working practices', said Phil Flaxton, Work Wise UK's chief executive.

The EOC is pushing the government to make flexible working available to UK's 29 million workers.

The small step enabling staff to come in or leave at different times, if adopted by enough companies, would stagger the rush hour by making it less intense, reducing road congestion and overcrowding on public transport, reducing travel time and making it a less stressful part of the day for all.

Encouraging staff to work from more convenient locations such as from home or whilst on the move could significantly enhance productivity, reduce traveling time and improve quality of life. Even providing access to satellite offices, hot desks or other facilities more strategically located could reduce traveling distance and time further.

Technology has an important role to play in enabling smarter working practices. Although the latest advances in mobile technology and the continuing widespread growth in the adoption of broadband is enabling these practices to be implemented, smarter working is not just about technology it is also about changing culture, changing the way people work and giving them the skills to work smarter.

The EOC has identified four key flexible worker types. These are:-

Timelords - those who control their hours and location of work. The EOC estimates there could be up to four million potential timelords in the UK.

Shift-shapers - those with set hours and a fixed location, but flex-shift patterns. It is believed there are 17 million potential shift-shapers.

Time-stretchers - those with a set place of work who can control the hours they work. Seven million people are potentially time-stretchers.

Remote-controllers - those with set hours who can control where they work. It is estimated the UK has one million potential remote controllers.

For more details about how to become work wise go to www.workwiseuk.org