Dive Brief:

• Longer hours but fewer days make the ideal work schedule, respondents in a new study by The Creative Group said. Half of the advertising and marketing hiring decision makers polled think productivity would increase if their organizations adopted a compressed work schedule, which would allow employees to work four 10-hour days a week, according to the report. Another 76% said they favor a policy that allows employees to do non-work-related tasks on company time to increase performance.
• More than half of respondents said they think employers and workers should work together to achieve work-life balance, while just 6% said they think that goal is the sole concern of the company.
• Diane Domeyer, The Creative Group​'s executive director, said that a flexible work environment in which employees have more control over where and when they work raises productivity, job satisfaction and creativity.

Dive Insight:

Employees and job seekers clearly favor flexible work schedules and the employers that offer them. One study found that 41% of respondents said they would accept a job offer only if the employer had flexible work schedules.  Even as companies like IBM, Aetna and Reddit shifted their remote work options, more employees than ever are working from home, according to a 2017 U.S. Bureau of Labor report.

Employers recognize that flexible work schedules, along with valued benefits packages, are becoming central to attracting and retaining talent. In a Yoh survey, half of respondents said they'd leave their current employer for one that offers remote work options. For some employees, especially those with caregiving responsibilities, flexibility is a top priority.

Employers may want to consider whether flexible work schedules will replace the standard 9-to-5 workday as the default option. To meet the growing demand for flexibility, employers may want to be ready to make that transition, if they haven't already done so.