Abstract: One-third of UK managers are brokering covert versatile working preparations with their groups, exposing a elementary disconnect between official coverage and office actuality. Microshifting – splitting the standard nine-to-five into versatile time blocks – is gaining traction as a sensible answer.
In response to new analysis from world expertise options supplier Robert Walters, one-third (33%) of UK managers admit to having ‘covert’ versatile working agreements with their workforce members. The examine of two,000 white-collar professionals throughout the UK additionally finds that solely 35% of employees assist their organisation’s present versatile working coverage.
Meet the microshifters
With three-quarters dissatisfied with their firm’s official line on versatile working, an rising microshifting pattern is gaining traction.
Microshifters are taking their conventional nine-to-five working day and splitting it into shorter time blocks that greatest swimsuit their power ranges, private obligations, care duties, and capability for productiveness.
This implies a employee would possibly begin earlier or end later, with extra breaks unfold all through the day. Schedules differ based mostly on every particular person’s working preferences and distinctive wants, reasonably than a company-wide blanket rule on working hours.
The analysis exhibits that 61% of UK employees need their employer to undertake microshifting. Notably, 40% say it could really encourage them to extend the variety of days they spend within the workplace every week.
Microshifting and return-to-office mandates
The return-to-office (RTO) mandate debate persists. Whereas Robert Walters’ analysis finds 52% of employers now anticipate workers within the workplace for 3 or extra days every week, staff are pushing again. Three in 5 UK employees said they’d not adjust to RTO calls for, based on a 2025 examine by the World Institute for Girls’s Management at King’s Enterprise Faculty.
Microshifting may, subsequently, be thought-about an efficient lever to drag in negotiations on in-person working.
Lucy Bisset, Director of Robert Walters North, feedback: “Providing versatile hours might really feel counterproductive for employers trying to improve workplace attendance. But, a extra adaptable schedule, with out the strain of rush hour commutes or staying at their desk all day, may encourage professionals to attend the workplace extra continuously.”
Nonetheless, an employer who prioritises desk-working hours over outputs could also be lacking the entire level of microshifting.
Certainly, management improvement & tradition transformation skilled Deborah Hartung challenges this method:”As Mark Carney put it at Davos final week: ‘Nostalgia isn’t a method.’ It’s time to get up, measure supply over desk time, and efficiency over bodily presence.”
Managers’ response to microshifting
With a 3rd of managers presently agreeing to covert versatile working preparations, it’s unsurprising to see this cohort exhibiting assist for microshifting. Over two-fifths (43%) of the road managers surveyed thought microshifting may strengthen workforce engagement. An additional 37% stated they had been open to experimenting with the method.
“Microshifting is a extra clear model of the unofficial versatile working preparations that exist already in lots of UK organisations,” Bisset remarks. “For managers and senior leaders, the query is whether or not it ought to be ruled by belief and outcomes or quietly negotiated between colleagues.”
Help for microshifting amongst managers is cut up. Simply over half (51%) consider this manner of working may result in quiet quitting and professionals slacking.
“Whereas fears of microshifting fuelling disengagement are justified, the truth is that inflexible working patterns are already pushing professionals to hunt workarounds,” states Bisset.
Past the buzzword
Whereas micro-shifting is depicted as a office pattern gaining momentum, Hartung cautions in opposition to viewing it as merely the newest buzzword. Moderately, it’s an method based mostly on belief and autonomy, with outcomes measured reasonably than desk presence.
She describes the analysis as “a flashing warning mild exhibiting how senior leaders and shareholders are nonetheless clinging to visibility as a proxy for worth, whereas staff reside the truth of contemporary work, parenting, and caregiving.”
“If insurance policies had been genuinely match for goal, 33% of managers wouldn’t be brokering covert offers simply to maintain groups productive and sane,” Hartung concludes.
Key takeaways for HR leaders
Should you’re trying to handle covert preparations and transition to extra fit-for-purpose versatile working insurance policies, take into account these actions:
- Perceive what’s really taking place. Converse confidentially with line managers to study what casual preparations exist already. These conversations will present you the place your official coverage fails and what staff genuinely want.
- Concentrate on outcomes. Outline clear deliverables and success metrics. Should you can’t articulate what good efficiency appears like past attendance, your coverage received’t assist versatile working successfully.
- Take a look at microshifting with supportive managers. Select managers who already reveal trust-based management and run a three-month trial. Measure engagement, productiveness, and retention earlier than and after to construct your proof base.
- Rethink your return-to-office method. If 40% of employees say microshifting would improve their workplace attendance, versatile hours would possibly obtain what mandates can not. Contemplate whether or not you’re making an attempt to construct collaboration or implement compliance.
- Make flexibility discussable. The truth that 33% of managers are working covertly indicators a belief drawback on the organisational degree. Create protected pathways for open dialog about versatile working preparations.
