Bosses expect 4 out of 5 people to work flexibly by 2016

New flexible working standard vital in competition for talent

New York, NY -- FlexPaths, a global leader in flexible working solutions, and LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network, today announced new findings from a series of business think tanks involving CEOs, senior HR professionals and workplace decision makers from across the US, the UK and other countries, including Spain, Argentina, El Salvador, and India. The sessions revealed that bosses anticipate 50 to 80 percent of employees would move to time or location flexible work within five years, driven largely by the need to attract and retain superior talent. This is up from a reported 25 percent today.

The findings from these think tanks offer a point of view rarely communicated in an industry dominated largely by human resource professionals - that of the C-level executive. Through the peer knowledge exchange that unfolded, the participants, across industries and from around the globe, were able to share challenges, and glean insights and best practices in a collaborative environment. At the same time, they acknowledged that their organizations have a long way to go to overcome the cultural barriers around flexible workforce practices.

Clare Flynn Levy, Managing Director of FlexPaths said, “It’s fascinating that the corporate world can see flexible working to become the standard in the near future, but is currently still struggling to overcome cultural obstacles and therefore to benefit from the ROI that has been proven in all the research.  The key to getting from A to B is to treat every worker as a flexible worker – to make flexible work a strategic business imperative.”

Kevin Eyres, Managing Director EMEA of LinkedIn, said, “Today’s economy is a talent economy. Companies will rise and fall on based their ability to attract and retain the best talent. Combined with that is the increase in Generation Y workers entering the workforce who expect a flexible working life as standard. Organizations failing to adapt will lose out in the battle for the best people.”

Ultimately, all of the think tank groups came to the conclusion that there is a need to develop manager capability in managing flexible workers, along with a need for infrastructure and systems to support this ‘new normal’ – including infrastructure to confidently measure performance in a virtual and oftentimes asynchronous environment.

ABOUT FlexPaths - FlexPaths®, a certified women-owned business founded in 2005, is a leading provider of web-based and consultative flexible working solutions for corporations, governments and people seeking employment in organizations that have a flexible working culture.  FlexPaths® is a leading global provider of web-based software solutions and advisory services that help companies create and leverage a flexible working culture.  You can find them on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

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