Almost half of HR professionals (46 percent) responding to a new study said that a lack of trust over productivity was the biggest barrier to flexible working, compared to an average of 28 percent and 19 percent in the legal profession.

HR respondents were also divided on whether they make more of a conscious effort to remain contactable when away from the office, with 50 percent on both sides. Seventy-five percent of wholesale/export professionals said they did make more of an effort.

Just eight percent of HR professionals are unlikely to forget about the office when working from home – the lowest across the board. This rose to 10 percent for manufacturing professionals and leapt to 31 and 40 percent for media/PR and retail respectively.

The research, commissioned by Microsoft and conducted by Ipsos Mori, looked at trust and flexible working in the workplace.

Out of the 1000 respondents questioned, 70 percent said they don’t feel guilty about working away from the office. Just over a quarter (26 percent) reported facing questions from colleagues about why they aren’t in the office.
Interestingly, 37 percent of CEOs and MDs said a lack of trust over productivity was the biggest barrier to flexible working, compared to 16 percent – less than half – of senior managers.

Trust is not only a barrier to flexible working but an on-going problem: 36 percent of respondents said that colleagues are mistrustful of each other when someone isn’t in the office. HR came in at 46 percent, behind catering and hospitality (58 percent), retail (47 percent), wholesale/import (50 percent) and military/police (57 percent).
Forty-two percent of HR respondents were in companies of 500 employees or more.

Gender statistics

Of the 1000 respondents, 506 were female and 494 were male.

• CEOs/MDs: 63 percent male, 37 percent female
• Directors/Senior Managers: 63 percent male, 37 percent female
• Middle managers: 61 percent male, 39 percent female
• Junior managers: 53 percent female, 47 percent male
• Executive/Officer: 60 percent female, 40 percent male
• Clerical/administration: 75 percent female, 25 percent male

In the HR sector, 67 percent of respondents were female and 33 percent were male.

Positions of HR respondents

• CEO/MD: eight percent
• Senior Directors: four percent
• Middle Managers: 29 percent
• Professionals: 21 percent
• Junior Managers/Supervisors: 17 percent

Ages of HR respondents

• 18:34: 29 percent
• 35-44: 33 percent
• 45-54: 21 percent
• 55-65: 17 percent

Geographic locations of HR respondents

• North-west: 17 percent
• West Midlands: 17 percent
• South-east: 17 percent
• Yorkshire and Humberside: eight percent
• Wales: eight percent
• Greater London: eight percent
• East Anglia: eight percent
• East Midlands: eight percent
• South-west: four percent
• Scotland: four percent