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Cabinet minister Liz Truss has called for flexible working to become the norm. The...read more
New research has found a huge increase in the number of roles advertised as flexible. Good news for working dads.
Three times as many remote working jobs are advertised today compared to a year ago. According to new research the number of roles advertised with flexible options has trebled since coronavirus struck.
New Street Consulting Group said around 80,700 vacancies for remote working were advertised at the end of last year, up from 26,600 at the same time the year before.
The need for social distancing saw many workplaces shut last spring. Since then a number of big firms have embraced flexible working. Companies such as Google and Standard Chartered expect employees to continue to work from home permanently. That’s good news for the huge proportion of working dads who say they want to keep some form of flexible working once the pandemic has passed.
The New Street Consulting Group research threw up some surprising findings. While flexible working has for too long been seen as a perk that comes with seniority most of the new posts advertised as flexible now are for more junior roles earning less than £50,000 per year.
Natalie Douglass, New Street Consulting Group, said: “Businesses are now deciding how many of their staff they are going to bring back into the office once this crisis is finally over and how many can stay remote.
“Most businesses take the view that staff and tasks are better off in an office environment where close team working, collaboration and mentoring can more easily take place. However, we are certainly going to see a more hybrid workforce with working from home an option for at least some of their staff. Feedback we get is that many staff have missed interacting with their colleagues, that the experience of working from home has been isolating. Obviously not everyone has a space that they can easily work from.”
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