Organisations must proactively encourage a culture of flexibility across the entire workforce, or risk negatively impacting employee engagement levels and the ability to attract and retain top talent. That is the advice from global talent acquisition and management specialist, Alexander Mann Solutions.

The call comes in response to a report from the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee, Fathers in the Workplace, which recommends that all new jobs should be advertised as flexible to reflect societal change.

The paper reports that fathers are even more likely than mothers to perceive that they will be viewed negatively by employers if they request to work flexibly, and that women with dependants are over three-and-a-half times as likely to report working part-time as men with dependants.

The report also highlights that while 96 per cent of employers say they offer a level of agile working, research by the Timewise Foundation has found that only 9.8 per cent of ‘quality job vacancies’ – that is, jobs paying over £20,000 full-time equivalent – are advertised as being open to some kind of flexibility.