45% of techies do not believe IT industry has adapted to flexible working

45% of techies do not believe IT industry has adapted to flexible working finds theitjobboard. Research conducted by online recruitment specialist theitjobboard.co.uk reveals that although 61.1 percent of IT professionals work flexible hours, almost half (45.2 percent) of these do not believe the IT industry has adapted itself to a flexible working culture. Flexible working was classified as working from home, working less hours/part time, flexi-time and working a four and half day week.

Nearly one fifth (17.4 percent) went as far as saying that they felt flexible working had a

negative effect on their career progression, with several respondents believing that employers saw them as less committed to their job because they were not in the office for the standard working day. In addition, 22.6 percent had considered going back to work on a non-flexible basis because of the constraints imposed on them by this way of working. When looking for a new job, IT professionals considered flexible working the second most important criteria after salary. When asked to rank the individual factors they believed to be 'Very important', 64.1 percent of respondents said salary, 57.4 percent stated flexible working, 50.3 percent chose location and 41.7 percent selected career progression.1

Of the 38.9 percent of respondents that did not work flexible hours, over four fifths (81.5 percent) were not offered the option by their employer, despite 90.2 percent saying they would like the choice to do so. 65.4 percent felt their work life balance suffered through non-flexible working conditions. Alex Farrell, managing director at theitjobboard.co.uk comments: “With the current skills shortage in the technology industry, employers need to act now to encourage and retain talent in their IT departments. The option to work flexible hours is clearly high on the agenda for IT professionals. It is is worrying therefore to see that many organisations do not offer it, and that many of those that do are not perceived to be getting it right.”