Sheffield UK’s most flexible city
SHEFFIELD has been named the UK’s flexible working capital with more than half of bosses agreeing it improves productivity.
According to a YouGov and Orange survey, more than 30% of firms in the city offered their entire staff some kind of flexible working.
It also found that 63% of firms had embraced the concept to some extent. Firms that have already implemented initiatives were unreserved in their positivity over flexible working with 72% saying it boost morale and 58% staff retention.
Companies in the IT and telecoms sector were the most likely to offer workers flexible working, followed by media, marketing and PR, law, finance and banking.
The survey also found around half of flexible workers have been given a laptop while a third have been given a mobile phone.
The worst-offending cities were Brighton and Liverpool, where just 15% of companies offer flexible working.
The East Midlands was named as the least flexible area in the country, with only 16% of companies providing the option to their staff.
Ian Bromley, chief executive of CreativeSheffield – the organisation responsible for driving the city’s digital revolution – said that roaming Wi-Fi was just one example of how people were finding it easier to work and meet across the city.
“The Digital Region project is moving forward which will put us three to four years ahead of other cities in Europe in terms of the broadband internet speeds we can offer across South Yorkshire,” he added.
” One of the projects many benefits is the boost it provides for businesses wishing to offer flexible working and remote access to computer networks for employees.
He added that the report further proved that Sheffield was moving up in a number of independent rankings as a city in which to do business.
It also gives weight to recent findings of a report by Oxford Economics that Sheffield is one of few big cities less vulnerable to the credit crunch than the British average.
