New figures from the authority on workplace environments and flexible working – Flexa – show that the flexible jobs market is booming.
There is a rise in the number of workers seeking flexible jobs, the number of companies adopting flexible working environments, and the number of flexible jobs being advertised.
The data comes as the wider jobs market continues its downward turn.
According to the latest ONS figures, vacancies fell for the fifth month in a row in February 2023, as economic pressures put employers off hiring. But Flexa’s data shows that flexible companies of all sizes and sectors are continuing to thrive and hire.
Over the last quarter, Flexa has recorded a 20 percent increase in the number of flexible roles being advertised on the platform. Companies showcasing their flexible benefits on the Flexa platform range from big corporates and household names to market disruptors, such as Mars, Virgin Media, O2, Blood Cancer UK, Depop and Huel.
The demand for work is strong!
Figures also show that demand for flexible work is stronger than ever. Flexa’s user base grew more than three-fold last year alone, with 1 million workers across 100 different countries now using the platform to look for flexible companies and roles.
Workers use Flexa to search for companies and roles based on how they work, as well as what they do. Filters allow users to search for companies that offer their ideal working location, hours and benefits; with options ranging from flexible hours and fully-remote roles, to dog-friendly offices, four-day weeks and more. Generating millions of data points around working preferences at any given time, the platform’s growing user base has made it a leading source of insights into flexible working trends and the evolving state of work.
Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO and co-founder of Flexa, comments:
“It’s not a coincidence that companies who offer flexible work are the same companies who are thriving and hiring right now. These companies know that flexible work is key to talent attraction. It’s also the reason that they’re able to hire in the first place – at a time when economic uncertainty has put a pause on recruitment elsewhere – as genuinely flexible work is key to engaging and enabling teams to thrive.
“Flexible work is no longer a “future of work” conversation. It’s a conversation that’s happening now. It’s a priority for the one million people around the world who are searching for flexible companies like carwow, VaynerMedia and Multiverse through the Flexa platform. And it should be a priority for all companies who want to put themselves in a position to be able to hire top talent.
“That’s not to say that flexible working preferences – and, in turn, the working environments companies offer – won’t continue to evolve. The millions upon millions of data points we collect and analyse thanks to our ever-growing user base show how the places, hours and ways in which people want to work are always shifting. It’s our job to showcase companies’ individual flexible working set ups so that, whatever the preferences of individual candidates may be at the time, everyone can find employers whose priorities and needs align with their own.”
Chris Woods, Senior Recruitment Marketing Manager at Mars, comments:
“Job hunters don’t always think of huge corporates when they think of flexible working. That’s why we became Flexified at the end of 2022 to ensure that the best possible talent does think of us. Progressive benefits like pregnancy loss leave, enhanced parental leave and compressed hours set us apart from other employers for our own team, and helped us earn the title of third most flexible large company in this year’s Flexa100. But unless we shout about it – and amplify our voice via flexible working champions like Flexa – there’s no way for others to know this.”
Amelia Brand is the Editor for HRreview, and host of the HR in Review podcast series. With a Master’s degree in Legal and Political Theory, her particular interests within HR include employment law, DE&I, and wellbeing within the workplace. Prior to working with HRreview, Amelia was Sub-Editor of a magazine, and Editor of the Environmental Justice Project at University College London, writing and overseeing articles into UCL’s weekly newsletter. Her previous academic work has focused on philosophy, politics and law, with a special focus on how artificial intelligence will feature in the future.
