Nine to five boundaries increasingly blurred report reveals

MORE people than ever before are ‘teleworking’ from home according to a study published today which details workplace trends.

The latest CBI / Pertemps Employment Trends Survey has revealed that almost half of all employers (46%) said they now offered teleworking to staff – a dramatic increase from 14% two years ago and 11% in 2004.

Other strands of flexible working have also appeared, particularly term-time working, and job sharing.

Over the past five years employers have also become increasingly supportive of staff looking to take career breaks or sabbaticals.

John Cridland, CBI Deputy Director-General, said: “The boundaries of the traditional 9 to 5 in the office or on the shop floor are becoming more and more blurred. Employers are embracing the benefits of flexible working, even as the economy heads into more uncertain times. Using teleworking to take work out of the workplace has become very popular, and is also a useful way to avoid a laborious commute, balance family commitments, and even reduce carbon emissions. As technology becomes more reliable and widely available, this trend can only grow.”

The research also dicsovered employers were looking at flexible retirement as worries about the credit crunch and pension provisions hit home.

In the last year three in ten (31%) employees reaching retirement age asked if they could postpone leaving work. .

The report said that employers continue to face challenges when assessing requests to postpone retirement, and it is essential to keep a default retirement age as a trigger for discussion.

 The survey, which drew 513 respondents employing more than one million staff, showed that although flexible working has been a success, with nearly all (93%) employers offering at least one form of flexible working, and 57% offering at least three, there is deep concern among employers about other areas of employment law.

Two thirds of employers (64%) said that cumbersome employment regulation was endangering the labour market flexibility which has been crucial to business success in recent years.