Leicester, UK (PRWEB) November 30, 2008 -- Research(1) carried out by YouGov on behalf of Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank has shown that many SMEs believe extending flexible working rights to an extra 4.5 million workers will create a further 'burden' for British business.
The survey of small business owners revealed a number of concerns about how the extension of flexible working rights could affect their businesses including the potential impact on customer satisfaction, increased costs, and the possibility of the introduction of such changes creating resentment among their childless workers.
Already there are measures in place to give parents with children under 16 additional rights, and these could become law as early as April 2009. In addition, there have been calls from unions to ask employers to review the rights for parents undertaking unpaid leave to cope with family emergencies. The development comes at a time when the UK birth rate is approaching its highest for 35 years(²).
Some 38% of small business owners said that offering extended flexible working rights will be difficult, and 65% claim that they do not have sufficient numbers of staff to provide flexible cover. While 45% of business owners believe that the changes will be disruptive and more than half (54%) expect that they will be unable to meet customer expectations.
The associated costs of taking on extra staff to ensure their business banking can be managed effectively concerns almost a third of small business owners.
More than two thirds of small business owners feel that the legislation could be unfair on childless employees, while 86% believe that the changes will be harder for them to implement than larger organisations due to the lack of available resources internally, and that the changes could be unrealistic.
The changes could also impact on employment and promotion prospects for staff, as more than half of businesses admitted that they would take into account the need for flexible working when recruiting new staff.
The research shows that more than half of small business owners view the changes as unnecessary, while 47% think it unimportant in helping to achieve improvements to the work-life balance.