As City associates call on firms to show increased flexibility, Rupert White reports on research highlighting just how pressing the need for change has become




Following the call last week by the City of London Law Society's associates forum for firms to 'actively implement' flexible working (see [2007] Gazette, 28 June, 5), a new report has outlined just how urgent the need is to have effective policies in place.



The report, Beyond Boundaries: the emerging work culture of independence and responsibility, launched by Orange's Future Enterprise Coalition, points to several potential downsides of a poorly thought-out implementation of flexible working. But it also details how the benefits can be dramatic.



Two key points to emerge are the need to address the failure to retain female workers throughout their working lives, and the seeming inability for firms to be more flexible in the number of days employees can work from home.



Orange surveyed 427 people working flexibly. They were asked how much time a week they spend working from a location of their choice. 'Up to a day' scored 44%, while 'five days or more' scored 21%.



This compares poorly with anywhere in between - those working two, three or four days a week scored 22% combined. This indicates, according to Orange's research, that there is an inability to let staff choose how many days a week they need to work from home.



Link this to the Law Society's recently published annual statistical report, which showed that the gap between the number of men and women working in the legal profession will shortly be bridged, and to work by the Equal Opportunities Commission showing that women drop out of high-level jobs in their early thirties, and the need to work out how to reconnect with those otherwise potentially lost to the profession is clear.



By 2016, 54% of the legal profession will be female. Almost two-thirds of law undergraduates and 62% of new trainees are women.



A female assistant solicitor present at the launch event for the report, Emily Platt of City firm Kemp Little, agreed that law is an ideal environment for flexible working because much of the work can be done remotely and autonomously. This is particularly the case in certain practice areas, such as employment, tax and property, though perhaps less so in corporate.



'The increasing number of women in the legal profession is also a huge driver for change,' she told the Gazette. 'But law firms are perhaps slower to embrace change than other organisations, due to their hierarchical structures and institutional nature.'



The issues addressed in the Orange report are relevant to law firms, she said, and were addressed at the lecture: maintaining productivity, ensuring adequate management for employees working remotely, and looking at the pros and cons of flexible working when implemented effectively or without sufficient consideration.



'As flexible working becomes more of an accepted norm in clients' workplaces, it seems inevitable that law firms will bow to the demands of their associates and partners, male and female, in an increasingly competitive market for talent,' Ms Platt said.



But achieving the precarious balance between satisfying client demands and employee appetite for flexible working will be the ultimate challenge, she added.



'A recurrent theme [of the event] was the fact that companies and firms use flexible working as a hook to incentivise new hires,' Ms Platt said, 'and whether in practice this can live up to employees' expectations where work cultures are institutionalised and inherently inflexible.'



This links to a potential driver for law firms to overhaul their flexible-working arrangements for existing staff - the Orange report found that 50% of those questioned said that being able to work more flexibly will be an important factor in choosing their next job, but less than a quarter plan to actively seek more flexible working arrangements in the next 12 months. In other words, they may feel unable to get access to good flexible working at their current job, but it will be a key factor in looking for their next position.



The general feel of the event was that the answer lay in planning, trust in employees and good IT to allow people to connect when and where they needed (though the last point might come as no surprise considering the report's sponsor). But the main points were unavoidable: in the coming years, staff will vote with their feet if firms cannot offer the working lives they want.