Forty percent of employees on flexible working hours would forgo a doubling of their salary if it meant giving up control of the way they work, according to an online community for jobseekers, organisations and businesses.
And when the incentive to return to a nine to five structure was reduced to a 50% increase in pay this proportion rose to three quarters of respondents.
The startling results, which defy the notion that money matters above all else, will certainly make any small-business owners that read them reassess the centrality of pay rates as a tool to keeping employees happy – and simply keeping hold of them at all.
The most popular benefits that flexible working brings, according to the survey by Workology, are: controlling when and where you work (49%), escaping the rat race (35%) and having more time to pursue your own interests (30%).
However, employees who have flexible working patterns don’t necessarily have more time to pursue their own interests. Almost a third of respondents work between 41 and 50 hours a week and 30% work more than 50 – even longer than the 48-hour maximum stipulated by the Working Time Directive, which the UK currently opts out of.
Any anxieties they had about switching from traditional, rigid work patterns had dissipated within six months of working flexibly for 56% of respondents, and within 12 for 75%.
Three quarters said that their life had improved ‘a lot’ or ‘enormously’ since the switch.
Seventy-one percent of those surveyed believed that businesses with more than 50 staff should be legally obliged to offer employees the option to work flexible hours, whether they have children or not.
The results certainly pose some interesting questions for business owners at a time when working patterns becoming less predictable, staff rewards and incentives are diversifying, and labour mobility is increasing.
More than 100 flexible workers were questioned by Workology, which brings together flexible working professionals, organisations and businesses and lets them share expertise, knowledge and work opportunities.
Workology has put together a timeline of milestones in working conditions.
