Released On 23 September 2019
Cityparents Annual Member Survey 2019 Results
Welcome to the 2019 results of our Annual Members survey and many thanks to all of you who participated. The responses received yielded a wealth of data and insight into people’s experiences of combining a City career with a meaningful home life.
When it comes to work life balance, overall we are encouraged to see a slightly more positive outlook across the City than in previous years, as measured by our City Index of Work Life Balance. 56% of respondents responded positively, up 6% on 2018. Further, we see flexible working policies more widely offered across London’s City businesses and they are appreciated by those that benefit.
However, according to our survey, both employees and employers aren’t able to fully reap the benefits of this flexibility as day to day working cultures lag behind. Many respondents to the survey commented on the lack of trust shown by organisations to employees wishing to work remotely, and yet 89% felt at least as productive when working from home compared with the office. Some 38% of respondents see flexible working as not genuinely encouraged within their firms and 44% believe that it has a negative impact on career progression. Further, many respondents commented that despite these factors, they prefer to stay in their current roles for fear of losing the flexible arrangement in a new job.
The topic of mental health is once again prominent, shining a spotlight on intense workloads and expected availability, with over a quarter of respondents saying they would change jobs in search of a better work / life balance. When stress levels are at their highest, 58% said that personal relationships suffer, 54% find it difficult to sleep well and 30% believe they are more likely to make a mistake at work.
Other themes emerging are the role of technology, the need for flexibility around longer-term career paths, the impact of high stress working environments and the flexible working ‘trap’, which are all covered in our report which is available here.
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If you have any questions about the report, please contact Louisa Symington-Mills at louisa@cityparents.co.uk. If you are a journalist, please contact Anna Richards on anna@cityparents.co.uk.