Part-time opportunities for parents

A new UK law promoting part-time and other forms of flexible working could therefore have a greater impact on investment banking than other industries. Starting at the end of this week, parents with children under six years old have the right to request that they work flexibly, under the Employment Act 2002.

Flexible work includes everything from teleworking to working part-time, job sharing, and a compressed week in which standard working hours are crammed into fewer days. There are signs that the new law could lead to more flexible working hours for many staff, not just those with young children.

Susan Henderson, an employment expert at law firm Lovells, says the law on the face of it appears toothless. It simply requires that each request for flexible working be considered. Requests can be rejected on a number of pre-defined grounds, including that flexible working would disrupt customer service or create additional costs.

Henderson says: "The grounds for refusal are very wide and employers will easily be able to use them. The flexible working right is a matter of form over substance, a means of encouraging debate more than anything else."

But it seems to be having a practical impact. Banks want to be seen to be following the spirit of the law as much the letter, and would not want to be thought to be turning away requests unreasonably.

At Citigroup, for example, all employees with more than six months' service have been able to apply to work flexibly since last May. The bank is reminding staff about this programme this week and points out that its initiative, which is not restricted to staff with young children, is more wide-ranging than the new law requires.

Other financial services firms are offering staff leeway over the hours they work. Karen Janman, a director of Flexexecutive, a UK consultancy providing advice on working practices, says banks account for a growing proportion of her clients.

"Banking is one of the more challenging environments in which to implement flexible working practices, but this does not mean it's impossible," says Janman.

Flexible hours are most easily established in back offices. Last year, Ian Barnard, a manager at Cogent Investment Operations, was declared Britain's best boss by the charity Parents At Work. Barnard allows members of his team, which undertakes back-office functions for fund managers, to work nine days in every 10. To compensate for their day off, they work an extra hour each day.

Barnard says the scheme benefits everyone. "People are more motivated: they are happier and work better. It also means we have staff in the office from 8am until 6pm where previously they were only in from 9am to 5pm."

The scheme has intrigued some fund management clients who are interested in using flexible working practices themselves, says Barnard.

There is no reason why they should not. Janman says flexible work can be implemented across front offices.

This includes traditionally inflexible jobs such as trading, where staff need to stay in touch with markets. She says: "We work with two traders who are part of a job share. They work their socks off and spend a proportion of their days away from the floor preparing for the days when they are there, but it works."

Debbie McGregor, a human resources manager at investment bank UBS Warburg, says flexible working is more viable than it may seem. "There is some form of flexible work in almost every area of UBS. We have part-time equity analysts and a part-time managing director in corporate finance," she says.

The impetus for working flexibly may partly be coming from Wall Street, where such practices are more ingrained. Working Woman magazine ranked banks such as Citigroup, Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan among the top 100 companies for working mothers last year. It said that at Merrill Lynch 20% of US staff work flexibly, up from 7% in 2001.

In an economic downturn, there can be obvious commercial benefits from working flexibly At the German company Oppenheim Research, researchers work four-day weeks twice a month. Wolfgang Sawazki, head of research, says the programme is a response to the fall in the equity markets; the firm has reduced capacity without making redundancies.

Similar considerations apply in London. Janman says some investment banks see flexible work as a means of cutting costs, as they can pay staff less if they work fewer hours. Other banks are encouraging staff to work from home as a means of reducing office expenses.

Commercial benefits aside, it appears that people enjoy working flexibly. A survey last year by the UK Department of Trade and Industry found that nearly 50% of UK employees considered flexible hours the most desirable form of workplace benefit, eclipsing company cars and gym membership.

One way or another, it seems that banks will be taking requests for flexible working more seriously from now on.