NHS employers should #TalkAboutFlex to accelerate progress for International Women’s Day

The theme for this year’s International Women’s Day is Invest in women: Accelerate progress. With a 77% female workforce, it’s a message the NHS should be paying heed to.

We all know that improving pay is one of the most important ways to invest in staff, with pay satisfaction at its second lowest in a decade. But it’s not the only way to show people that they are valued.

According to Timewise, around 76% of people working part-time are women, compared to 24% of men. Their research also showed that women are overwhelmingly choosing flexible work to enable them to carry out caring responsibilities.

Yet a recent survey by UNISON of over 44,000 women working in the public sector highlighted that three in ten had their request to work flexibly rejected.

Behind these statistics are personal stories of women whose careers, life chances and wellbeing are being held back. Like ‘Helen’, a nurse and single mum whose flexible working request was turned down repeatedly, until she stepped down a pay band to get some flexibility, putting her in financial difficulty. With the end result that she had to take time out for stress, and now wants to leave the NHS all together.

Changing the culture

We need to do better at investing in people like Helen, and change the working culture in the NHS to better support women in the workplace.

Huge progress has been made in recent years, and many people across the NHS have started to think creatively about how jobs and services can be designed to accommodate flex – from different shift patterns to job shares, and being proactive about advertising roles as flexible and encouraging conversations between staff, line managers and senior leaders to explore new ways to do things.

We’ve seen some great examples of strategic approaches resulting in significant benefits for both individuals AND the organisations – including United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust’s approach to the NHS People Promise, University Hospitals of Derby and Burton NHS Foundation Trust’s retention of older workers, and electronic self-rostering at The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust. Each of these has reported improved staff engagement, better retention, less bank and agency expenditure, and perhaps most importantly, an improved patient experience.

As one of the biggest employers in the world, changing the culture in the NHS to properly support flexibility could have a huge impact on the working lives of a lot of women, and have a ripple effect creating positive change for many more beyond.

So our plea to all NHS employers on this International Women’s Day is to invest some time and energy in making the promise of flexible working a reality, and encourage everyone in your organisation to #TalkAboutFlex today.