Leeds named as one of the best cities for flexible working amid coronavirus outbreak

Leeds has been named as one of the UK's best cities for flexible working as the country prepares for an unprecedented rise in homeworking.
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Prime Minister, Boris Johnson has stated that up to fifth of UK workers 'could be off sick at same time' due to the coronavirus outbreak, but new data shows much of the UK population has limited options to work remotely.

A recent study conducted by flexible workspace experts Flexioffices questioned 2,000 UK workers about the ‘work perks’ they receive, what they think of them and the benefits they experience from them.

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Currently the cities that have the most flexible working are Edinburgh with four in ten people surveyed from the Scottish tourist destination stating they have it, followed by Leeds (35%), Liverpool (34%) and London (33%) with a third of workers enjoying this perk.

Home working could be set to rise.Home working could be set to rise.
Home working could be set to rise.

Manchester comes in at sixth position offering it to only 29 per cent of the city’s workers. The cities with the lowest amount of flexible working available are Glasgow and Newcastle with less than a quarter (23%) of people having flexible freedom.

Yorkshire, alongside the North East, was named as the best placed region in terms of people who stated they were able to work from home.

Zoë Morris, President at Mason Frank International commented ‘Our opinion of what a good work-life balance looks like has changed a lot in the past few years. Job seekers today are striving for greater freedom to fit work around other priorities, often prioritizing these kinds of perks over higher salaries.

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"There are so many reasons why employers should consider offering flexible working and attracting and retaining great talent is just one of them. It can also play a massive part in making today’s workplaces more diverse and inclusive.

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"We recently conducted a survey of tech professionals in which we asked about the kind of benefits participants received, and which were most valuable to them.

"We found that women were more likely to be sold on a job that offered flexible and home working than their male peers. In sectors like tech, providing benefits like flexible working can help businesses attract more female professionals, it also helps tackle the burgeoning skills shortages that many STEM industries are currently facing by bringing in fresh talent.”