• AB World Foods, Finalist 2017, Best Large Private Sector Employer

  Enhanced and competitive family-related benefits. ‘Summer Hours’ scheme enables employees to finish early on a Friday – 62 per cent take up. New flexible working trial: Employees in the commercial departments now have the flexibility to be able to work from home on a Monday and Friday and benefit from core office hours of 10am-4pm…

• Highlands and Islands Enterprise, Finalist 2017, Best Public Sector Employer Award

  All staff can access flexible working and have the technology to work remotely. The organisation recruits from a large geographical area and does not see location as a barrier. 25 per cent of staff have agreed flexible working arrangements in place, with informal local flexibility such as remote or occasional working from home encouraged. New…

• Virtual Sales Team, Finalist 2017, Best for Flexible Recruitment Award

  Virtual Sales Team’s business model is designed on flexibility and all external roles are advertised as flexible. The company has set a target that full-time staff will not exceed 20 per cent of the workforce, aiming to create a diverse team of employees who provide a better quality of service for clients. Overall, 83 per…

• OUTiCO, Finalist 2017, Best for Flexible Recruitment Award

  Pharmaceutical SME OUTiCO actively recruits on the basis of flexibility. As well as using the Happy to Talk Flexible Working strapline, it is including flexibility in the advert headline, attracting candidates who are looking for better work-life balance. Flexible contracts are offered as standard – 100 per cent of staff have flexibility. The company uses…

• Berwin Leighton Paisner, Finalist 2017, Best for Flexible Recruitment Award

  A new office was set up to operate in a more flexible way, challenging law firms’ traditional ways of working. Home-based team of real estate lawyers recruited as part of this drive. Flexi-time system trialled in the firm’s Manchester office. Together with formal flexible arrangements this means 96 per cent of the Manchester office have…

• Holiday Extras, Finalist 2017, The Cross River Partnership Best Flexible Working Initiative Award

  Extended its flexible working scheme Anywhere Anytime to give complete flexibility to the team. Under Anywhere, Anytime+ employees can work wherever and whenever they want as long as their objectives are delivered and they are contactable. Managers trained and given autonomy to make agreements that are right for their team and the business. All team…

• AB World Foods, Finalist 2017, The Cross River Partnership Best Flexible Working Initiative Award

  The ‘Summer Hours’ initiative was introduced to enable employees to go home early on a Friday in the summer months. In return for working extra hours Monday-Thursday, employees can finish work from 12.30pm on Friday, allowing them more flexibility in the traditional holiday period. Initially introduced as a trial, it received excellent feedback and was…

• Civil Service, Commended 2017, Best Public Sector Employer Award

  The Civil Service has shown consistent leadership and innovation in flexible working and inclusion. In total, 24 per cent of employees work part-time and many others work flexibly in some way – such as home working, term time working or compressed hours. Managers are trained on flexible working and job sharing is actively supported –…

• Sky, Commended 2017, The Best Large Private Sector Employer Award

  Sky has worked hard to challenge myths about flexible working and 90 per cent of the organisation works on a flexible basis. The culture focuses on employee performance instead of desk time and is committed to helping employees achieve their personal goals and work-life balance. Leaders have begun to talk about flexibility and promote the…

• Anglia Ruskin University, Commended 2017, The Allen & Overy Innovation Award

  Anglia Ruskin University’s formation of a Part-Time and Flexible Working Forum in response to employee concerns about work-life balance was noted by the judges. The forum has worked to improve career development for flexible workers, promote the benefits of flexible working to reluctant line managers and generally display the organisation’s commitment to flexibility. Evidence from…

• Inspiring Scotland, Winner 2017, Best Third Sector Employer

  Uses flexibility to compete with the salaries offered by larger organisations Flexibility is proactively offered and is the norm Employees are encouraged to suggest new ways of working The judges were impressed by the way Inspiring Scotland uses time to compete with private sector organisations offering bigger salaries. Its flexible culture attracts and retains high…

• Dulas, Winner 2017, The Deloitte Best for all stages of Motherhood Award

  100 per cent retention rate for mothers five years after the birth of their first child All requests for flexibility approved Mothers make up two-thirds of the senior management team Engineering firm Dulas is bucking the trend in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics) businesses, with its extremely successful retention strategies for new mothers…