How can employers be encouraged to advertise more jobs as flexible?
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At a glance
Many jobs advertised in the UK didn’t make it clear that they could be done flexibly. This perceived lack of flexible options deterred qualified candidates from applying, reducing workforce diversity.
BIT and the Government Equalities Office partnered with Indeed and Harvard Kennedy School to run randomised controlled trials to test if adding simple prompts to the job ad posting process would encourage employers to advertise positions as flexible.
In total, the trials reached nearly 100,000 employers posting 780,000 jobs that gained close to 20 million applications. The prompts we added increased the number of jobs advertised as flexible by just under 20%.
The challenge
Too many employers were leaving talent on the table. Even before Covid-19 lockdowns caused a wave of home working, many people in the workforce wanted more independence over where and how many hours they worked each week. But in 2020, only 22% of quality jobs in the UK were advertised with flexible options, like the ability to work from home or flexitime, even though more of them would have been able to offer these options.
During the hiring process for quality jobs that didn’t advertise flexibility, women may also avoid asking for flexible options because they fear potential negative reactions from employers. This perceived lack of flexibility can deter qualified candidates, contribute to the gender pay gap and support less diverse workplaces.
Jobs traditionally advertised as flexible are often lower paid and less likely to come with promotions or pay raises. Women are disproportionately more likely to hold these positions.
What we did
In a project funded by the Government Equalities Office, BIT partnered with the job site, Indeed, and Harvard Kennedy School to increase the number of jobs advertised with flexible working options.
Behavioural science research shows that adding simple prompts at timely moments can encourage people to shift their behaviour. We explored the effects of adding prompts to hiring managers who were in the process of posting a job advert.
The impact
The basic prompt led to a 17-20% increase in the number of jobs advertised as flexible. The additional messaging didn’t make a difference, suggesting that simply adding a step to choose flexible options was a strong enough intervention in itself.
As a result of this increase, employers tapped into a greater talent pool. Jobs that advertised flexible working options attracted 19 to 30% more applications. If these prompts were added to all job posting platforms, up to 174,000 more jobs a year would be made available to job seekers looking for flexible work.
Flexible jobs not only attract more candidates, but could also help reduce the gender pay gap. Our work generated critical evidence to strengthen the UK labour market as a whole by making flexible options more obvious to people who need them.
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