Flexible working and job shares have generally been ignored in the UK as a serious option for senior management. But the results of a three-way research partnership released last week at the British Psychological Society annual conference challenge this apathy.
"It's not only a good thing for the people concerned, but it's commercially sound and viable," says Carol Savage, md of recruitment consultant The Resource Connection and a driving force behind the project.
She says: "In the past job sharing was considered only as a last resort to keep special employees with particular skills. But large firms such as Whitbread have realised there is a one-plus-one-equals-three' effect, because almost all the people in job shares are determined not only to make it work. but to make it work better."
In the study 70% of senior managers in flexible working were outperforming both their full-time colleagues and their own output when they were in full-time employment.
Job sharers scored high marks on problem solving, team work and flexibility and demonstrated greater resilience in the face of setbacks.
Very few men are in job shares: Savage's own sample could raise only 4% of its responses from job sharing men. Referring to a study carried out last year for the Department for Education and Employment, she explains some of the reasons.
"More than 90% of women want flexible working and are prepared to work part time and earn less to get it. While more 80% of men would like flexible working, they want to pursue it as an alternative way of working full time."
Many women want the social contact of office life even if they are not in the office five days a week. "In a sense, now we have 24 hour trading, seven days a week, everyone is a part time worker, because no-one works all the opening hours available,"Savage adds.
The study was jointly funded by The Resource Connection, the Industrial Society and psychometric testing specialist SHL UK. The results are about to be harnessed in a flexible working website, which will go live later this month. "You could describe the project as a sort of online matchmaker. There are many people with a wide range of skills. The fact that they want to work more flexibly is a challenge for British management to come out of the Dark Ages."
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