Since the pandemic, part-time working has been the ‘forgotten flex’. As Fawcett Society recently highlighted – the lack of good quality part-time working in UK workplaces, plays a key part in keeping the gender pay gap wide. What should HR leaders do?

Hybrid and home working exploded in the pandemic, and are now a deep-rooted part of the way many businesses work. There’s been little, if any, focus on that lesser discussed flex: part-time working. Yet the numbers of people who work part-time in the UK are vast: 8 million people, accounting for a quarter of the entire UK labour market, work fewer than 5 full days a week.

And it seems that it is the future: Bill Gates and Jamie Dimon are both on record saying they believe that humans will work 3-3.5 days a week in a matter of years, with AI taking care of the rest. Even Simon Cowell has announced that he is a part-time worker now, taking the classic Friday off.

It’s official – there is no one size-fits-all solution
With the support of Phoenix Group, Lloyds Banking Group and Diageo, we’ve undertaken a large-scale study, surveying 4,000 workers, running focus groups, and conducting an in-depth review of existing literature and evidence pertaining to part-time work. We wanted to understand how part-time work is perceived and experienced, and how experiences and attitudes vary by gender, age, class, ethnicity and other demographic factors.

And the picture emerging is highly complex, with big disparities between how different groups experience and perceive part-time work.  Here are some of the key findings  – and a few pointers for getting it right in your HR approach.

• Part-time work is still highly gendered

Far more part time workers are women than men (76% Vs 24%) – no surprises there. But interestingly, while women of all ages are mainly work part-for the care of another, men are more likely to do so to better manage their mental or physical health. This variation highlights some of the gender inequalities we know exist.

The continuation of the burden of caring falling so heavily on women has huge implications, fuelling issues like the gender pay gap and pension inequality. Part-time workers are disproportionately likely to be struggling financially (45% of low-income respondents work part-time, compared to 12% of those with the highest household incomes) which is in turn fuelled by the lack of part-time opportunities at more senior levels.

Secondly, it shines a light on the  cost of the current health crisis. The fact that a large proportion of people need to adjust their working hours to manage their mental and physical health is a red flag, and demonstrates that flexible working should be considered a key component in supporting the health and wellbeing of a workforce with a very long working lifespan.

The ‘boss block’ prevents progression
In more positive news, far fewer workers now assume that part-time workers are less ambitious and go getting (just 23%, compared to the majority, 50%, who see part-time workers as no more or less ambitious than anyone else). Back in 2012, when we launched the Power List, 75% of people thought that working part-time at aa senior level simply wasn’t possible. But now, according to our new data, less than half think that part-time limits career progression (46%) though a high volume remain undecided. I’d sum this up as a small step in right direction.

There are real disparities of opinion between different groups, however. And it’s particularly concerning to find that the group who are the most likely to think part-time is a barrier to progression are managers – the gatekeepers of career opportunity, who are often actively involved in job design. Ironically, managers  – who create ‘the boss block’ – are also the most likely group to say they would like to work part-time in future.

Need to move on from the ‘request-response’ model to proactive offers of flex
Part-time working opportunities are built around the premise of the employee raising a request. It takes confidence to ask and not everyone feels included. Our research highlights that almost a third of workers don’t feel comfortable about speaking to employers about changing their working pattern. Again, this varied significantly between different groups, with parents feeling more comfortable ‘to ask’ than any other group.

In focus groups participants highlighted the sense that people seem to need a reason to request flexible working, instead of it being available to all. As one younger participant said, “There’s a want versus need culture. You would need a strong excuse to have flexible working. You have to need it and not just want it.” If more conversations are had proactively with staff at key career points – annual reviews for instance, then this can be overcome.

 HR’s role in opening up better part-time career paths
The key question is: what should HR do?  If we believe that part-time is a valid working arrangement (which we, and forward-looking employers and policymakers certainly do) then how can we make the experience better?

The answer is: we need a more fluid approach to flexibility. A ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach won’t even apply to one person throughout their career, let alone to a whole workplace.  It needs to be a regular conversation and an open conversation so that both sides can communicate what they need.

As one of our older participants put it:

“There needs to be a flexible approach to flexibility – a rethinking of it so that working arrangements can be adjusted more easily. (…) Jobs need to be designed more flexibly and fluidly to respond to people’s needs and changing life circumstances.”

The wins? Greater attraction powers. Greater retention. And potentially: greater productivity. Here are our three key recommendations:

• Make a range of flexible working arrangements available. Make clear what’s possible by role, at all levels. Enable people to flex up and flex down as they build their career. There should be no point of ‘disembarking the ladder’. Think as widely as possible. What can you offer, that will also work for the business? Job shares, flexible shifts, compressed hours, term-time hours, annualised hours and part-time should all be part of the discussion.

• Champion great part-time examples. Celebrate great examples of part-time working within your company and showcase ‘what’s possible’.

• Take a gender-neutral and reason-neutral approach to part-time and flex. Even better, be proactive about offering alternative working patterns, rather than waiting to be asked. This will help shift away from part-time being so gendered, and full-time being the default. People like to hear the permission via what’s possible, before they make their asks.