Following the findings of the Modern Families Index which revealed that fathers are under-utilising flexible working policies, enei chief executive Denise Keating comments.

This research is a clear indication that business cultures are not keeping up with the rapidly changing social expectations of fatherhood. Modern fathers want to play a part in bringing up their children and seeing them for a couple of hours after work is no longer enough. Almost 50 percent of young fathers have taken a sick day in order to achieve work-life balance, demonstrating that there is a clear need for flexible working policies that actually work in practice.

However, the masculine nature of the majority of organisational cultures dictates that flexible working arrangements are a sign of low commitment and weakness, which prevents young fathers from utilising flexible working arrangements. In the same way that working mother’s often feel that working flexibly creates challenges to their career development, without flexible working role models in business employers will struggle to recruit and retain working fathers and mothers.