As highlighted in a recent survey by Infomentum, it has been reported that greater than a third of responses have indicted towards the importance of businesses offering more flexible working packages to ensure their continued competitiveness.

In fact, 40% of respondents expressed a direct interest in flexible work situations, allowing for work to be completed at locations not limited to the traditional office format. Yet, despite this level of interest in doing so, circa 51% explained that they have not been granted permission to have flexible hours – attributed to the fact that many (57%) have a lack of trust from their employer in their ability to do as effective a job if not working within the office itself; this, of course boiling down to the concept of difficulty managing those not physically present.

And while employers have been keen to push stringent working hours, the resulting circumstance isn’t always as such. Acas explained that, in some situations it has actually resulted in a circumstance whereby those with children opt to ring in ill when there are childcare issues, as opposed to proposing the idea of flexible working situations – a factor leading to a direct rise in the number of absences and a drop in overall productivity.

There really is a mixed argument for the ability to work effectively at home. With the evolution of modern technology and mediums of information communication, there certainly is the potential for employees to be able to complete many office-related roles out of the office; but this is only in theory. In practice, only 1.5m workers around the UK work from home, and while much of this may be due to tradition holding employers back, the very concept of managing those not present, or even managers themselves no being present, is a key concern for many traditional businesses considering flexible working.