Flexible working report: key points – Telegraph.co.uk

• But businesses are not adapting their workforce strategies. The demands of
workforces have developed significantly but the traditional model of work
used by businesses often remains similar to the one used in the 1980s and so
is coming under strain. Greater workforce agility is essential – and by
workforce agility, we mean making sure that a business establishes the
optimal workforce to support its objectives, by harnessing demographic and
societal changes.

But barriers currently stand in the way of businesses considering workforce
agility

• Flexibility has largely been positioned as an employee benefit rather than a
benefit to business. Most research and evidence of benefits is in this
space. As a result, the broader business benefits of agility have not been
clearly defined or understood.

• Most companies’ approach to agility sits in the employee value proposition
space. It is often about individual arrangements for individual members of
staff (giving Mary Friday afternoon off to look after Johnny) or sits in the
‘parents’, ‘women’s’ issue department. It is rarely looked at as a way to
help businesses meet their business strategies.

• According to the CBI’s 2011 survey of businesses, 96pc of UK companies
offered at least one type of flexible working practices. But given that
flexible practices have tended to be developed with the employee – rather
than employer – in mind, companies are often wary of extending them further
because they are perceived to be a risk to the business. For instance, 32pc
of companies surveyed suggested that doing so would have a negative impact
on productivity.

• It is rare for companies to take a business-focused approach to assess the
business value of an agile workforce, and to use that assessment to define
agile working that works for the businesses as well as for employees.

• But with little available research into how businesses themselves can
benefit from agile working, the perception of it remains as being a cost and
threat to business.

• Also, companies often lack the practical support needed to implement agile
working practices effectively.

• Leadership is vital to ensure success of workforce agility – create the
right culture from the top down.

The Agile Future Forum is designed to help businesses overcome these barriers

• The 22 founder organisations, chaired by Sir Win Bischoff, Lloyds Banking
Group and – incl Cisco, Tesco, Citi, Ford, – believe that workforce agility
has increased their ability to compete in a global market and generated
significant and tangible economic benefits for their businesses.

• The Agile Future Forum, supported by McKinsey, has carried out detailed
research in order to define the business value of workforce agility in
supporting the competitiveness of UK plc and provide the leadership and
practical support required to increase agile working practices across UK
plc.

Agile Future Forum definition of workforce agility

• Workforce agility allows an organisation to establish the optimal workforce
to support its objectives. We define agile working practices in four ways:

– Time: when do they work (eg part-time working; variable hours)

– Location: where do they work (eg multiple sites; working from home)

– Role: what do they do (eg multi-skilling)

– Source: who is employed (eg direct employment or via contractors).

Business benefits of agile working

• The research has found that agile workforces can drive business benefits in
a variety of ways:

– Meeting customer needs more effectively;

– Increasing quality of outputs (eg because of multi-skilling);

– Attracting and retaining high-quality talent (because motivated by
opportunity and choice), as well as increased productivity and innovation or
a reduction in costs.

• Our research pilots show benefits were found across sectors, workplaces and
company sizes.

• Significant value is already being realised in the UK. In our in-depth
studies, agile working practices currently generate value equivalent to
3-13pc of workforce costs. For example:

– A Tesco superstore uses part-time working and multi-skilling practices to
meet customer demand more efficiently, thereby generating value equivalent
to 13pc of workforce costs.

– Realigning working patterns within the Lloyds TSB branch network to meet
customer demand for extended opening hours has led to a 3pc increase in
income in the first year.

– A Ford manufacturing plant saves the equivalent of 3pc of total plant costs
by using outsourcing, flexible absence cover and alternative maintenance
shifts to achieve cover in line with plant needs.

– By offering staff the opportunity to reduce their hours on a temporary
basis, should the business need them to, KPMG was able to avoid redundancies
and saved themselves around £4.7m as a result.

– MTM Products Ltd, an SME, has seen a 10pc increase in productivity as a
result of introducing multi-skilling, which means they are able to respond
to peaks and troughs in demand for different product lines by redeploying
staff to where they are needed most.

• Most current practices could be extended – and more implemented – to capture
further business benefit. Our research pilots suggested that more extensive
or innovative agile working practices could generate further value of 3-7pc
of workforce cost and sales uplift up to 11pc. For example:

– Eversheds, the legal firm, allowed employees the freedom to choose their own
working model, and saw 28pc of staff reporting increased productivity and
14pc of staff seeing an increase in chargeable hours.

– A head office function of Lloyds Banking Group identified further
opportunity to reduce premises costs by 23pc through multi-site practices.

• Workforce agility can offer a competitive advantage for companies and for
the UK economy. BT was able to repatriate a call centre from India to the UK
because agile working practices enabled it to improve customer service at
more competitive terms. This is expected to bring more than 500 jobs back to
the UK and generate business benefits of £30m for the company over three
years.

There are a number of ways that a business can capture the value of agile
working

Our research has identified five golden rules to successfully implement
workforce agility:

– Be business-led. Do not leave it all to HR;

– Understand the needs of your business and your workforce, and find practices
that support both;

– Develop the agile working model bottom-up – focus on individual business
units;

– Consider big, strategic changes – ambitious plans can bring the greatest
benefits;

– Prepare leadership first, and put in place sufficient management capacity.

The Agile Future Forum is committed to helping British business to benefit
from agile working

• Our report and website set out detailed case studies of how founding members
have benefited from agile working, and guidelines as to how other businesses
can replicate these benefits.

• We will be sharing our newly developed business value assessment with
organisations across the UK, through a seminar programme

• We will be sharing our experiences and best practice at a series of
conferences

• Our CEO will be talking to other CEOs to raise awareness and to encourage
them to join the group.