Flexibility at work: Does software hold the key?

In part one of our research into flexibility at work, we saw that small and midsize enterprise (SME) employees showed a strong interest in flexible hours, working from home, and a four-day working week. In this second look into our data, we consider how businesses can use tools like enterprise communication software, time-tracking software, and other organisational solutions to make this a reality.  

The employment market and workplace expectations have changed greatly since the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data collected in Spring 2022 from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) 38% of working adults had a hybrid workplace, whilst 23% of businesses used or intended to introduce homeworking as a permanent business model. 

Additionally, in our first look into our Flexible Working Hours and Four-Day Week Survey findings, we observed that 85% of employees whose companies did not have a four-day working week pilot or option wanted to try out this model, and 66% of workers who only worked from an office wanted the chance to work from home. 

Flexibility is in higher demand than ever. Not addressing these employee needs could put SME management at a disadvantage when trying to attract and retain talented staff members and reduce employee turnover.

To learn more about how companies can adopt these practices, we asked our sample of 1,047 SME staff who worked five days a week or more and did their job primarily using a computer how they feel about software that facilitates flexible work.   

Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the full methodology.

71% would accept more employee monitoring if it meant more workplace flexibility

Companies adopting flexible working practices commonly use employee monitoring software. These tools track employee computers and browsers to check staff use company resources as they should. 

These are not always popular with workers, however. We saw in our own 2021 Employee Monitoring Survey that 47% of UK SME workers surveyed said monitoring software negatively impacted trust. How would more monitoring affect employee morale in 2023?

First, we saw that 71% of our sample would agree to extra monitoring in exchange for more flexible working arrangements. This suggests workers will tolerate additional surveillance as long as it's for a good reason or to offer something in return to employers in exchange for the additional freedoms.

Furthermore, when asked to highlight the positive effects of extra monitoring, our participants indicated several benefits. The most selected advantage, chosen by 42% of our respondents, was that it would help identify areas to improve and increase overall productivity. Yet, despite many positives being noted, 22% believed there would be no positive impacts on their work.  

Employees accept workplace monitoring for more flexibility, but do they have concerns?

Despite many employees indicating clear benefits and a willingness to accept more monitoring for better workplace flexibility, workers still noted a negative impact on trust as a potential outcome. 

When asked to select the potential disadvantages of more monitoring: 

• 48% of employees said it would increase their level of stress
• 47% said they’d have less trust in their company (the same result was observed in our monitoring survey in 2021)
• 40% indicated it would make them feel like their privacy is being invaded
• 31% said it would demoralise them

Only 15% of the entire sample stated that using employee monitoring tools would have no negative impact on their work. 

The findings suggest that many employees would be prepared to give something in return for a flexible work arrangement from their companies, but there’s a catch. Accepting more workplace monitoring comes at the cost of more stress and less trust in their employer. 

In some cases, it may be that employee monitoring is necessary to make workplace practices like hybrid working and flexible hours function and, when it is used, it must always be carefully rolled out to avoid these negative outcomes. However, as we explore next in this report, it is not the only way for companies to achieve these goals.  

89% of software users think it helps facilitate a flexible workplace

Despite the mixed picture seen with staff monitoring tools, many other types of software can help make greater flexibility at work a reality. In many of these cases, with much lower employee resistance.

In this survey, we considered four classes of programs that could be used to promote workplace flexibility:

• Collaboration software - tools which allow information to be shared across a business, such as documents, projects, calendars, knowledge bases, and task management
• Communication software - programs employees can use to communicate by text, video, or voice calls
• Project management and productivity software - applications that can help track, organise, and manage tasks and projects
• Performance tracking and time management software - tools used to view productivity and time spent on tasks and track performance metrics

Only 11% of our sample didn’t use any of this software at all. We, therefore, asked the other 89% who did use some of these tools about their experience and opinions of their use at work.

One finding that stood out from this was that most respondents who used these tools felt they helped with work flexibility in terms of time and location. Here, 89% believed software played an important role in achieving this goal.   

All of the four types of collaboration software were seen as useful by most respondents who already used them. These were rated as follows: 

• Collaboration software (useful according to 96% of respondents)
• Communication software (90%)
• Project management software (82%)
• Performance tracking software (75%) 

The main benefits of software that can be used to promote flexibility vary. However, better intra-team communication was the most selected advantage from our sample, chosen by 50% of current users. Other top benefits included quicker access to tasks and information (38%), increased efficiency and productivity (36%), and enhanced team organisation and collaboration (36%). Less than 1% believed there were no benefits at all. 

On the other hand, this group cited some drawbacks of using this software, which included:

• Fears of a lack of privacy (26% of respondents)
• Reliability issues using software (24%) 
• Too many notifications (24%)
• Feeling more controlled by their company (23%)

This was similar to the findings we saw before with employee monitoring tools specifically. Again, the biggest concerns relate to privacy, although in these cases, the worries were not quite as high and certainly were much lower compared to perceived benefits.

When assessing these tools in terms of how likely they would help make a four-day working week, remote workplace, or flexible hours more achievable, we asked the sample of current users to share their views.  

According to employees using these tools, the most helpful applications for remote work were collaboration and communication software. For the four-day week and flexible hours, all four tools were seen as similarly useful to broadly the same extent as each other amongst the sample, although with more optimism expressed for achieving flexible working times. 

It was notable to see that project management software and performance and time tracking software were seen as the least helpful for workplace flexibility overall. In the latter case, over a quarter (26%) of software-using participants thought these tools would not help in achieving flexibility at work.

37% of employees that use flexibility-promoting software expect spending to stall

As we’ve already explored in our previous report, companies that don’t offer flexible work options, such as hybrid working, could lose out. Flexibility is a growing trend, as shown by forecasts by Gartner, which predicts 67% of knowledge workers in the UK are set to work fully remotely or hybrid by the end of 2023. 

With many more positions on offer with these conditions, SMEs should also consider staying agile and being technically able to move with the times to avoid being left behind when finding and keeping talented staff. Is this reflected in their current software spending?

We’ve seen some compelling cases where software can make a difference for companies becoming more flexible according to employees. However, it is employers that ultimately hold the purse strings and must evaluate the cost-benefit options.

Is there enough investment in software for flexibility?

Employers not only need to be on board with any shift to a more flexible workplace, they must also be willing to spend the money necessary to ensure the company is fit and ready for the change. To learn more about SME leaders’ attitudes toward this, we asked users of software that promotes flexibility whether they think their companies intend to continue investing in tools to achieve this.

Over a third of software-using participants (37%) believed their companies didn’t plan to invest in flexibility-promoting software during 2023. In total, only 35% of this group expected more spending over the next 12 months, and 28% said they didn’t know. It seems, therefore, that a high proportion of SMEs either aren’t planning much more software spending or aren’t making it known to employees.

Employees welcome flexibility-enhancing tools

Despite expectations of capped spending from many using software for flexibility, those who expected more investment or didn’t know if it was planned by employers positively reacted to the idea of more software spending at work. 

Almost four out of five in this group believed their company should spend more on software, seemingly giving credence to the idea that software could help companies achieve greater flexibility.

How software puts flexibility in reach for SMEs

As we’ve observed in both reports, there is a strong desire by employees who work primarily on computers five or more days a week to adopt flexible practices. In this second look at our flexible working hours and four-day work week UK data, we saw that software is a major consideration for businesses looking to achieve that.

We observed the following findings in this article:

• 71% of employees we surveyed would be willing to accept more surveillance at work if it resulted in more flexibility
• 89% of employees who already use software that can help boost flexibility at work think it helps achieve this goal in terms of hours and location
• 37% of those who use this kind of software think companies aren’t planning to invest more in it in 2023
• 77% of participants who expect their companies to spend more on software for flexibility welcome the increased investment

The orthodoxy of five days working fixed hours from a single location is becoming increasingly old-fashioned for white-collar companies. However, as this report shows, companies should consider software solutions to keep up with current trends. This is no easy task, but it is a journey that firms should start planning for, as there is a long road ahead.