Embedding a culture of flexible working across Cambridge Assessment

A new study has found that achieving a balance between the demands of work and everything else in life was almost as important as pay, and for those aged 45 and over it was the most important factor in their current role. 

The Meaning of Work report, which explores what work means to people in the UK in 2019, also reveals that 40% of people would swap their holidays for flexible working hours.

Responding to the report, UK Economist Pawel Adrjan said: “Employers who want to attract and retain the best staff will need to take an imaginative and flexible approach to how they organise their people”.

Another recent survey found that 81% of people believe that flexible working would make a job more attractive to them, and 79% said that working flexibly would make them more productive.

These statistics reaffirm why flexible working has gained a lot of traction in recent years within Cambridge Assessment. In a previous post, I outlined Cambridge Assessment’s ‘Just Ask’ flexible working policy and why we are advocates for a more flexible way of working.

We have now taken another series of steps towards becoming an organisation that better supports flexible working which will meet the needs of our diverse employee and customer base.

Flexibility-focused

Saul Nassé, Group Chief Executive of Cambridge Assessment, is the Corporate Board sponsor of a new Flexible Working Project Group which is focused on how we best help people work flexibly, including working from home, job-shares, sabbaticals, swapping shift patterns, and more besides. 

Saul said: “I am very pleased to be the sponsor, as I think becoming an organisation that better supports flexible working will be great for all of us and the jobs we do. We want to truly embed a culture of flexible working across Cambridge Assessment and, to help with this, there are some quick wins we can get on with straight away.”

 Quick wins

• Our current policy said you had to work here for 26 weeks before you could request flexible working. From 24th May, we’ve removed this restriction.
• At the moment, you can only apply for a flexible working arrangement every 12 months. However, life changes aren’t always predictable and flexibility isn’t fixed. So, we’re removing that constraint too. Look at arrangements that are appropriate for you, your team and the work you’re doing, and make a request to your manager at any time.
• Some people think that we have core hours that flexible working arrangements need to work around. That isn’t the case; you and your manager are free to make any arrangements that work for you both.

Further improvements

While this update is focused on changing our policies, we will also be providing more training and support to our current employees and new recruits on flexible working. We will share stories and examples of flexible working that show the benefits to individuals and the organisation as a whole in the coming months.

Thinking of applying for a role with Cambridge Assessment?

We encourage anyone applying for a role at Cambridge Assessment to talk to us about how they’d like to work – we offer to match your current flexible working arrangements where this can be accommodated and commit to long-term career support as your situation and requirements change.

Do you benefit from working flexibly? What flexible working practices does your company advocate? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.