24 May 2010
Just over 60 per cent of FMs report an increase in flexible working in the past five years, according to the latest FM 100 poll.
But there remain a few cultural barriers to its wider use, according to some FMs.
Only a slim minority, 6 per cent said it is used less now than five years ago.
The big driver is simply the improving technology, the vast number of FMs said.
No FM said that they do more now in order to save money on office floor space or because of major budget cuts that require shifting people to working from home.
One FM whose business has provided dongles for employees’ laptops and broadband to home-workers said their increasing use of flexible working has greatly improved the organisation’s image as a desirable place to work.
“Our definition of flexible working is anything from part time, job share, mixed working hours, compressed hours, regular home working and term-time working,” she said.
“This has meant a decrease in staff turnover and has proved one of the main factors for professionals wanting to work for our organisation.”
Another FM said that while it has increased within their organisation, “there is still a general feeling that it is only management that are permitted to do this. Technology has played a big part in making it more possible.”
An FM within the NHS noted that more flexible working was allowed, or happening, but they also lamented that more was not being done to encourage it. “Within the NHS there is so much concern about patient data safety that achieving anything but fairly basic admin away from your office is very difficult,” she said.
“We are still very much an old fashioned organisation where everyone has their own office or desk. I think it would be easier to get everyone to agree to making the NHS a private corporation than it would be to get some people to give up their desks and offices.”
But some times flexible working is simply not practical. “Our clients have an expectation that that the facilities staff, both operational and management, are available on site,” one FM said.
There still lurks somewhere in the back of the collective FM mind that flexible working is a senior management ploy to make sure their hard working employees work even harder. With connectivity to the web and a mobile phone, there is no escaping from the office.
“We still need to work 80 hours per week for 40 hours pay,” he said. “Now we can work from anywhere, and there is no excuse.”
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