Line managers:
The critical cogs in making flex work

In a year that has seen flexible working fiercely debated, researched and analysed, it's hard to see that either the business case or employees' desire (especially working parents and carers) for it has to be proven any further.

A huge volume of research this year (including My Family Care's Working Parents & Carers Flexible Working Survey) has dominated HR headlines.

But where exactly are companies on the flexible working continuum and what challenges do they face?

My Family Care ran three well attended webinars in October for HR & Diversity leaders in banking, law and cross-sector, to share the survey results and explore the experience of leading diversity practitioners and their organisations.

The vast majority of attendees at all three webinars reported a 50:50 split on being at the beginning of the flexible working journey; either at the point of legal compliance for parents and carers or offering the 'right to request' to all employees. Very few said they were confident with flexibility or that it was truly integrated into their organisation as simply the best way of getting things done.

So what were their biggest challenges?

Overall, engaging, supporting and managing managers were overwhelmingly the biggest challenges cited. From getting managers' buy-in to flexible working, enhancing their ability to manage it, to monitoring and ensuring that a consistent approach is applied across the company.

Managers that 'get it'

This concern was mirrored in the My Family Care employee research which showed respondents really appreciated a manager who appears to 'get it' - to understand the scope there is for wanting to do well in both work and wider life and being able to do that, given trust and flexibility.

Sometimes they remarked this was more likely among those who are parents or carers themselves, though that is not a guarantee. The other resounding message was the perceived unfairness of inconsistency across any organisation.

Moving the culture and convincing leaders

Perhaps unsurprisingly for the client-facing legal and banking sectors, moving the culture and convincing leaders and partners were by far the biggest challenges that they felt they faced. Servicing client needs was also a big concern. That said, our guest diversity leaders all had anecdotes of how people and teams had made it work in client-facing roles, while being clear and transparent about contactability and contingencies.

Find out how Centrica, Citi and Baker & McKenzie address this issue and many others.

Want your managers to understand the potential of flexible working? It's a core part of what we do. We offer two highly relevant programmes:

The Flexible Manager

Workshops and roundtable sessions, using case studies and planning frameworks to bring out best practice and stimulate honest, practical debate. We focus on creating an atmosphere that is open-minded and relaxed, yet focused and productive. We look for practical solutions and take-aways.

The Internal Change Agent for Flexibility

HR & Diversity teams' roundtable and best practice workshops: hands-on development of internal capability sharing insights and practical tips. We work with you from where you are to where you want to be and we pride ourselves on both supporting and challenging to help you move forward. These workshops focus on knowledge, skills and structure for action-planning and implementation.

Join the growing family of companies...

That help their employees through working with My Family Care.

Get in touch to find out how we can make work+family work for you.