More companies in the UK are implementing flexible working initiatives than ever before, according to Orange.

The telecoms company surveyed 500 businesses and found 63% offer some type of flexibility to employees. Welsh staff are the most likely to take up the offer with 29% working remotely, compared with 25% in the south of England and 22% in Scotland.

Sheffield is the city with the most flexible working with 32% of employers giving staff the option while Brighton and Liverpool came bottom with only 15% of employers having flexible working policies.

But more than a third (36%) do not offer flexibility at all and in the West Midlands only 16% of employers have a flexible working arrangement in place.

The survey also found a disconnect between HR and IT departments around flexible working as 50% of employees who work flexibly are unable to access technology that administers it.

Nearly three quarters of employers (72%) think flexible working boosts morale, more than half (53%) think it improves morale and 58% think it helps staff retention.

Orange UK vice-president of business Paul Tollet said: "It's great that over half the UK working population is able to take advantage of flexible working. But the fact that over a third of employers have yet to consider it is surprising, particularly when the benefits are well acknowledged."