Flexible working: Cross-sector insights

Nine organisations contributed to these case studies. In each organisation, interviews were conducted with an HR professional, a line manager and a flexible worker to obtain a rounded perspective. A further case study was gathered from a job-share partnership (in which the job-sharers have worked together across different employers).

Across the different case study organisations, there was a wide range of examples of flexible working, including:  

• part-time 
• job-share 
• compressed hours 
• term-time-only contracts 
• flexibility over working days 
• working from home 
• annualised hours 
• staggered hours (with late starts/early finishes) 
• four-day week (with full-time pay) 
• ad hoc flexibility  
• temporary flexibility (such as career breaks and sabbaticals).

The full summaries of these case studies and practice highlights are collated here to give clear examples of flexible working operating within different contexts, including at senior levels and in roles and areas of organisations that are not traditionally seen as suitable for flexible working. By examining and adapting as appropriate some of the creative flexible working practices seen, organisations and people professionals can derive solutions that can help them to successfully enable flexible working whatever stage they are at on their journey.