FLEXIBLE WORKING
Flexible working is essential to supporting young women to get into, and on at work – particularly for disabled and neurodivergent young women, and those who have caring responsibilities.
- 16% of decision makers are aware of young women leaving their organisation in the past year due to the job not being flexible enough to meet their needs.
- 3 in 10 (30%) young women say that a lack of flexibility has made it difficult for them to apply for a job, compared to just 19% of young men.
The majority of employers offer flexible working, with 77% of HR decision makers saying their business offers this. However, some sectors are significantly less likely to offer flexibility:
There are still far too many hurdles young women must cross to get flexible working – making it too risky for lots of young women to move jobs, and so limiting their career progression.
Job adverts
40% of young women would not feel comfortable asking a new employer to work flexibly if flexibility wasn’t advertised in the job description, compared to 30% of young men.
Nearly 1 in 5 employers (18%) don’t state that flexible working is available on their adverts.
Job interview / offer
86% of young women would be more likely to apply for a job if they could request flexibility at this stage, but the law only mandates this from day 1 in the job.
Putting in a flexible working request
Almost a quarter (24%) of young women said that they would not feel comfortable asking their current employer to work flexibly.
Wait for approval
67% of HR decision managers whose organisations offer flexible working told us that requests for flexible working are granted ‘most’ or ‘all’ of the time, but only a fifth (20%) said that this was the case all of the time.
Young women are less likely to have their flexible working request approved: 59% of young women who have requested it had it approved, compared to 64% of young men.
Employers should:
- Advertise all jobs as flexible (except where it isn’t reasonably possible) and include details of the type of flexibility available in all job adverts – so the onus isn’t on women to ask.
- Enable conversations about flexibility to happen during the recruitment process – people shouldn’t have to wait till they start a job to find out if they’ll be able to work flexibly.
Government should:
- Legislate for flexible working to become the default and for a duty to advertise all roles as flexible.
- Provide employers with resources as to how they can to a flexible first culture – particularly those in sectors with large numbers of women where flexibility can be more challenging, such as retail and social care.
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