Almost two thirds of Centrica staff are working on a flexible basis and the utility group is using the approach to better serve its peak customer demands.
When utility business Centrica first looked to embrace a more flexible way of working in 2006, it was largely out of a desire to reduce office space and cut down on overheads.
The move, though, has also helped employees better manage their non-work commitments.
Today, around 60% of the business works on a flexible employment model, including its fleet of maintenance engineers. "They work longer hours in the winter when more boilers need replacing, and in the summer time they have much longer holidays, which is good for people covering school holidays," says head of HR policy and diversity Alison Hughes.
In the head office, arrangements tend to be more informal, with people able to vary working hours as they need, while in contact centres shifts can be allocated to suit people's personal requirements.
"We have a lot of older workers too, so what is one person's nightmare is another person's dream shift, so it's really just a question of matching preferences," says Hughes.
This can create issues, she says, particularly in ensuring those who are not parents are treated the same as those with children.
"You could have people wanting to work flexibly because of childcare and then a man who wants to work four days a week to go golfing on a Friday," she says. "That's the difficult bit; how does a manager prioritise?" Centrica has recently invested in training for managers to help respond to such requests, says Hughes.
The business has also moved to help new parents. It offers 26 weeks' full maternity pay and support for mothers returning to work, and has recently focused on dads as a result of the upcoming introduction of shared parental leave.
"We're in the process of setting up a dads' network to share ideas and experiences, and we'll also use that group to get some views around what they want and what the likely take-up of leave might be," adds Hughes.
Going forward, the plan is to launch an online portal to host company guidelines and policies and provide advice to both working parents and carers, around issues such as childcare and eldercare. Carers are another area of focus; Centrica currently matches leave carers need to take to cope with their responsibilities, potentially providing up to an extra two weeks' leave a year.
