This is crucial for both individuals and the company, in ensuring that all employees are able to fulfil their career potential, and that the business is able to harness as wide a variety of talent as possible.
Flexibility is crucial to many women who are balancing work and family life. A recent study for Santander showed that when working mums were considering whether or not to take up their current job, fitting their hours round the school day was the top priority, followed by the opportunity for flexible working. Together these were the most important factor for 52% of working mothers, compared to around one in six who said that the salary was their primary consideration.
The opportunity to work flexible hours is one of the reasons why Santander branch manager Diljit Gill has stayed with the company since she joined the graduate programme in 1998. She has two sons, aged six and seven, and works from 9am - 3pm at her branch in south London. With her home, branch and sons' school all within half a mile of each other, Diljit is able to balance family and work life very effectively.
After her second son was born, Diljit decided to take a career break, and spent two years as a full time mum. Although her original plan had been to take a break for five years, when her youngest son started nursery it prompted her to return to work. When she did so, in 2009, she returned full time but quickly realised that this wasn't right for her. After discussions with her regional manager, they agreed a flexible working pattern which worked for both parties, providing Diljit with the chance to resume her career development, and helping Santander by retain her valuable skills and experience.
The research for Santander also looked at the impact of childcare arrangements on mothers' careers and found that one in six women have given up work at some stage because the cost of childcare has been too high. Diljit's hours have enabled her to match her working day to that of her sons' school hours, with the occasional support from her family covering any unusual work requirements.
Diljit believes that for flexibility to work there has to be a bit of give and take on both sides, and that having a supportive team both at work and at home is vital in making the balancing act relatively stress free. Like many parents, she spends a lot of time outside work ferrying her sons around various activities, something which produced an unusual endorsement of her work life balance. She says: "I knew I was doing something right when my youngest was asked at nursery what I did for a living and his answer was "My mummy's a driver!""
Diljit Gill is a branch manager at Santander UK