New research has poured cold water on the idea that the UK labour market has a competitive advantage by being more flexible than its European counterparts.
On the contrary, only 48 per cent of UK organisations offer flexitime to their employees compared to 90 per cent in Germany, 94 per cent in Sweden and 92 per cent in Finland, and just 20 per cent offer tele-working compared to 44 per cent in Germany and Sweden, 40 per cent in Norway and 39 per cent in Denmark.
The statistics are revealed in the latest Cranet (Cranfield Network) survey of comparative human resource management (HRM), carried out by a worldwide network of 40 business schools, co-ordinated by Cranfield School of Management in the UK. It contains data from 8,000 organisations across 32 countries between 2003 and 2005.
Professor Shaun Tyson, director of Cranfield School of Management’s Human Resource Research Centre, said: “While there may be more restrictive labour laws in some European countries than in the UK, the development of flexible working time and flexibility of contract is almost universal.
“Some of these practices are seen by employees as part of the social contract in that they produce family friendly working conditions as well as offering efficiency savings for employers.”
The survey also found that the proportion of UK organisations using other flexible working arrangements is more comparable to the rest of Europe including part-time working (97 per cent), job-share (55 per cent) and home-working (32 per cent).
