Availability Of Flexible Work

Key findings

• Almost all businesses offer some flexible working arrangements to all or some of their staff.
• The most widely available flexible working arrangements are flexible start and finish times on an occasional basis, flexible breaks, part-time work and unpaid leave.
• The least available flexible working arrangements are buying additional leave in exchange for reduced pay, taking sabbaticals and regularly working from another location.)
• The availability of flexible working arrangements varies by sector, gender and occupation.
• Employers report a slight increase generally in the availability of flexible working arrangements for all or some staff since 2005. Employees report an increase in some arrangements and a decrease in others. (These are indicative conclusions only due to survey differences.)

What flexible working arrangements are available?

Employers were asked about a range of working arrangements, and whether these were available to all or some employees in their workplace. Only six enterprises - one half of 1% of all those surveyed - did not currently offer any flexible working arrangements. As the graph below indicates, the most commonly offered arrangements made available to all or some employees were flexible start and finish times on an occasional basis (89%), flexible breaks, (81%), part-time work (78%) and unpaid leave (77%). Flexible start and finish times on a regular basis was available to some or all staff in 63% of workplaces.

The least commonly offered arrangements were buying additional leave in exchange for reduced pay (17%), taking sabbaticals (36%), regularly working from another location (36%) and taking additional paid leave (39%).

Figure 2: Flexible working arrangements available to all or some New Zealand workers (n=1,094)

Data Table for Figure 2

Who is offered these options?

All or some...

The graph below shows whether all, some or no staff are offered the most common arrangements.

Figure 3: Who is offered the most common flexible arrangements

Data Table for Figure 3

When options are offered to only some staff:

• occasional flexible start and finish times are more likely to be offered to professional or technical staff (34%) and general staff (26%), except in large organisations (more than 100 employees), where they are more likely to be offered to middle management (38%)
• flexible breaks are more likely to be offered to professional or technical staff (35%) and/or general staff (30%)
• part-time work is more likely to be offered to general staff (26%) and/or professional or technical staff (21%)
• unpaid leave is more likely to be offered to general staff (52%).

Variations by industry type and size

As might be expected, the likelihood of certain types of working arrangements being made available depends partly on the industry.

Types of working arrangements also vary by business size.

Availability as reported by employees

What is available?

In the survey of employees, almost all reported that at least one flexible work arrangement was available to them. Most frequently the respondents mentioned they could have:

• occasional flexibility in start and finish times (71%)
• unpaid leave, e.g. career break (69%)
• flexible breaks (67%)
• part-time work (58%)
• study leave (55%)
• regular flexibility in start and finish times (54%).

In contrast, the following options were reported as being available less frequently:

• regularly working from another location, such as home (23%)
• buying additional leave in exchange for reduced pay (20%).

It is not possible to directly compare these percentages with what employers reported as being available, as employers were asked what was available to all or some employees.

How it varies

For the most part, there were no significant differences in the availability of various flexible working arrangements when viewed by respondents' age, ethnicity or carer status, except that carers were significantly more likely to report that shift flexibility (e.g. choosing or having input into rosters or shifts) was available to them (42% compared with 34% of non-carers).

Men and women differed in what they reported as being available to them. Men were more likely to report access to:

• flexible breaks (71% compared with 64% of women)
• regularly working from another location (28% compared with 20% of women).

Women were more likely to report access to:

• part-time work (68% compared with 44% of men)
• job sharing (48% compared with 34% of men).

Availability also varied by occupation. Employees working as a legislator, administrator or corporate manager were more likely to have access to flexible breaks (80%) or occasionally working from another location (49%). Professionals were more likely to have access to taking study leave (77%) or taking a sabbatical (44%).

On the other hand, service and sales workers, and labourers and other service workers were less likely to be allowed to take study leave (42% and 27% respectively) or to occasionally work from another location (22% and 21% respectively).

Has the availability of flexible work changed since 2005?

What do employers tell us?

The following table provides a comparative snapshot of the flexible working arrangements that were reported by employers as being available in 2008 and 2005. The comparison is indicative only, due to differences in the surveys.

Totals may not sum to 100% due to rounding.
*2008 sub-sample excludes the government, administration and defence sector, and workplaces with fewer than five employees, as these were not included in the 2005 survey.

There was a slight increase generally in the availability of flexible work made available to all or some staff as reported by employers. However, in a number of areas there was a decrease in the proportion of organisations offering these arrangements to all staff, with an increase in those offering them to some staff.

The main exception to this pattern was the decrease in the availability of buying additional leave in exchange for reduced pay. This may have been influenced by the introduction of the fourth week of annual leave provided for in the Holidays Act 2003 which came into effect in April 2007.

What do employees tell us?

The indicative comparison between the employee surveys of 2005 and 2008 suggests a decrease in the availability of:

• occasional flexibility in start and finish times
• regular flexibility in start and finish times
• shift flexibility
• buying additional leave in exchange for reduced pay.

It suggests an increase in the availability of:

• occasionally working from another location
• flexibility in choosing when to work your hours
• regularly working from another location.