Timewise, a personnel consultancy that specialises in flexible working, has been tracking the growth of flexible working in the UK workplace since 2016.

Timewise’s 8th annual Flexible Jobs Index analysed six million job advertisements nationwide, across all industrial sectors.

Some 17% of roles advertised in construction now offer flexible working options, it found, up from just 2.6% in 2016.

In this report, ‘flexible job’ means any advertised vacancy that is either part-time or offers home-working, hybrid working, flexible start and finish times, flexible shift patterns, remote working, term-time, or jobshare. Additionally, jobs that offer ‘flexible working’ or ‘agile working’ are tracked; these tend to be full-time jobs where the employer is open to flexible working patterns by arrangement with the candidate.

Timewise found job adverts for surveyors, site managers and scaffolders all offering some form of flexible working. However, construction remains the second worst industry in the UK which to try and find a flexible job, it said, with only jobs in manufacturing advertising a smaller proportion of flexible jobs, at 16%.

The breakdown of construction job advertisements showed that:

•          11% were for part-time roles (predominately for office-based roles)

•          4% included some home-working

•          4% offered unspecified ‘flexible working’

•          1% offer flexible shifts – i.e. in onsite roles.

Timewise head of consultancy Amy Butterworth said: “The constraints that hold back further progress in the construction sector are well known – the complex nature of onsite work in teams and with supply chains, the pressure of deadlines, contracting arrangements, the culture that prevents people from feeling they can ask for it. But the past few years have shown just what is possible when you apply imagination to way on-site work is organised and shifts are scheduled. There are 3.8 million shiftworkers in the UK – they cannot be left out of the flexible working revolution. Forward-thinking employers in the construction sector are already investing in solutions that create a better work-life balance for their teams on site. More is urgently needed.”

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