Informa’s flexible working policy shortlisted in Working Mums Awards

Informa has been shortlisted in the WorkingMums Awards for its innovative flexible working policy. It is now in the running to become the UK’s overall top employer for working parents because of its commitment to flexible working, encouraging diversity, enabling employees to build their careers and recognising employees’ need for work/life balance.
 
Emma Blaney, Group HR Director, explains, “We grew rapidly between 2003 and 2005, from 850 employees to 7500.  We had a great gender mix, but we knew this was a danger as many females were of childbearing age, meaning business success would take a significant hit without excellent policies in place.
 
“We wanted to create an environment where skilled people could return to work, where life outside work wasn’t a reason to stop working with us. We wanted to reduce the likely loss of talented people to ensure business continuity.”
 
The flexi-time policy, officially created 6 years ago, is the driving force behind 264 of Informa’s 3055 UK staff currently working flexibly. Some do so to care for children, others are writing a book and for some it is simply to create better work/life balance.  Informa’s request in return, is that the business needs to be able to efficiently manage any changed arrangements, and that employees ensure continuity – for the business and co-workers - by working to the same routine every week.
 
An internal employee survey (141 flexi-time respondents polled in June 2012) showed:
• 76% of flexible working employees feel they can continue career progression normally
• 88% feel they can continue with training
• 112 gave Informa a top rating of creating work/life balance
• 120 respondents said on a scale of 1-10, the policy is 10 (very important)
• 96% said working flexibly positively impacts their productivity
• 102 people said working flexibly impacted very highly on their views of Informa
• 84% couldn’t continue working without it
  
Important to the entry were Informa’s gender equality in management teams, showing that 47% of Informa’s managers are female, along with many of its highest ranking employees.  Also notable is the Informa Academy which offers unique training to support all employees in their role and careers.  In 2011, 1726 attendees took part in Informa Academy courses, an increase of 19% over 2010.