Work from home

Smaller companies are struggling to match big organisations in regard to working from home, one expert has said.

Phil Flaxton, chief executive of Work Wise UK, noted that in some cases, big companies even offer incentives to encourage their employees to work from home.

According to Mr Flaxton, BT is a good example of a company that uses flexible working schemes.It provides "tremendous cost savings" to the business, he stated.However, Mr Flaxton remarked that small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) "find it harder" to accommodate such moves.

"It's not really the norm to be able to provide all of this," he said, but noted that it is likely to become more popular in the future, due to the cost savings involved in such schemes.

A survey by the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform revealed that more female employees request to work flexibly than their male colleagues.