The last few months has seen flexible working re-emerge as a key agenda item for UK Business thanks, in part, to some recent studies into the subject.

For example, one survey from earlier this summer concluded that Britain’s employees value the ability to work flexibly more highly than they do fiscal benefits such as pension schemes.

Carried out by employment firm Monster UK, the survey found that sixty per cent of workers rated flexible working as a more attractive prospect than either a bonus (22 per cent) or a pension (14 per cent).

STRONG BUSINESS BENEFITS

For smaller businesses in particular, this means that efforts to introduce or encourage flexible working policies and practices can reap strong business benefits. Especially as these companies are often less likely to be able to offer staff a full benefits package, including a pension, for example.

And according to another report out recently, the growing appetite for flexible working among employees is now being satisfied by their bosses.

Tomorrow’s Leaders, published by City & Guilds, a UK awarding body for work-related qualifications, shows that 73 per cent of managers now have flexible working policies in their organisation.

AN OPPORTUNITY TO DRIVE CHANGE

But the authors of Tomorrow’s Leaders also warn that we, as a nation, are changing the way we work. They tell us that Britain’s bosses are struggling to keep up with the pace of change and are finding it hard to adapt to increasingly mobile workforces.

"There’s no doubt that the UK workers are becoming more flexible, more mobile and, as a result, more productive," said Barry Fogarty, Head of Portfolio Strategy, BT Wholesale.  "Technology may have been a barrier to the uptake of flexible working in the past but good technology options are available nowadays – in particular broadband and mobile access products and services."

He added: "For example, broadband is proving to be one of the key enablers for the country’s success with flexible working. For Communications Providers, it represents a vast value chain opportunity as organisations start to plan broadband-based enterprise-wide flexible working strategies to meet the needs of management and workers as well as enabling more dynamic and competitive operations

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Effective solutions for flexible, remote working depend upon high quality broadband provision. BT Wholesale’s Broadband Max products will allow you to provide your customers with the fastest (up to 8 Mbps) and most reliable BT Wholesale provided ADSL broadband service.