Part-time working after the pandemic

Bookings are now closed. If you wish to attend please email alumni@cranfield.ac.uk. 

Alumni and students are invited to join Professor Clare Kelliher, Chair in Work and Organisation, Dr Charlotte Gascoigne, Principal Research Fellow and Pierre Walthery, Research Fellow, Cranfield School of Management for an online webinar enititled "Part-time working after the pandemic".  In this webinar you will learn what has led line managers to change their minds about the feasibility of part-time working, how they have dealt with gaps in service, and managing workload with available resources.  Professor Kelliher and Dr Gascoigne will also consider how this decision-making relates to decisions made in response to employee requests to work part-time.

Please do book onto this event to secure you place, we will share the Zoom link via email the day before the event.

If you are unable to attend the live event but still wish to receive the recording please book here and we will share the recording after the event.

If you are having any issues accessing your alumni account or booking onto the event please email alumni@cranfield.ac.uk and we will be happy to help

Programme & speakers

The research team

The Principal Investigator is Professor Clare Kelliher, renowned for her research on flexible working. Her work was cited, for example, by the Walsh Review examining the extension of the right to request flexible working legislation and she has collaborated on research projects with organisations including Working Families and the government sponsored Agile Future Forum. She is a specialist advisor on flexible working, including recently for the Department of Education, the Timewise Foundation’s Innovation Unit, Ipsos MORI’s Expert Study on Distributed Working and the Wellcome Trust.

Principal Research Fellow Dr Charlotte Gascoigne has worked for 20 years as a researcher and organisational consultant in flexible working. Her PhD explored how managers and professionals craft their part-time working arrangements. In 2021, she completed a nine-month research project for the CIPD: ‘Flexible working – lessons from the pandemic’. Previously, as Director of Research and Consultancy at the Timewise Foundation, she led research on flexible and part-time working, concentrating on the redesign of work in sectors including retail, social care, construction, nursing and teaching.

Webinar synopsis 

Flexible working became a hot topic for employers during the Covid-19 pandemic and there has been widespread discussion about the increasing importance of work-life balance.

Although much of the attention has been on working from home, there has been a parallel ‘natural experiment’ in part-time working, as some workers have been working part-time, while also being ‘part-furloughed’ through the flexible furlough scheme.

This Cranfield research project has explored what employers have learnt from their experiences during the pandemic and in particular the practical strategies they have used to deliver their business when employees were working part-time, but also part-furloughed.

In this session you will learn what has led line managers to change their minds about the feasibility of part-time working, how they have dealt with gaps in service, and managing workload with available resources.  We will also consider how this decision-making relates to decisions made in response to employee requests to work part-time.

Part-time working is of particular interest to employers who are looking to recruit and retain skilled staff. Many employers are using part-time working to attract different talent pools, and there is known to be unmet demand for part-time working among full-time workers: some estimates put this unmet demand as high as 25%. The expansion of part-time working can also help employers to meet diversity goals, particularly for women, carers, older workers and people with health issues or disabilities. 

This research project has been shaped by a Steering Group, chaired by former Employment Relations Minister Jo Swinson and with representatives from the Confederation of British Industry, Chartered Management Institute, Federation of Small Businesses, Trades Union Congress, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, Government Equalities Office and other government departments.

Location & travel details

Online via Zoom.

Who should attend

All alumni and students welcome. 

Cost & concessions

This event is free to attend.