Briefing | Flexible and hybrid working practices in Scotland in 2025

Employer perspectives

The findings presented here are based on the Scotland sub-sample of 141 in the employer survey that underpinned the report. They are broadly similar to the UK-wide findings. 

Flexible working

• Wide availability of flexible working. The vast majority of employers (92%) say they offer some kind of flexible working arrangement. Most common were part-time hours (59%), regular working from home/remotely (54%) and informal flexibility (45%).

• Advertising a role's flexibility is important for attraction. 52% of employers believe it is important for them to provide flexible working as an option when advertising jobs to attract staff and address skills or labour shortages.
• Opportunities to work flexibly can be unequal. 61% of respondents say that all (30%) or most (31%) employees were able to work flexibly in their organisation. But that left nearly two-fifths (37%) who say that just some (23%) or only a few (15%) employees were able to work flexibly.
• Most don’t believe seniority affects flexible working availability. 68% of organisations believe that seniority didn’t affect the ability to work flexibly in their organisation. However, a fifth say that senior employees were more likely to be able to work flexibly than more junior employees.
• A majority of employers offer flexibility for frontline workers. Three in five (59%) offered some kind of flexibility, with the most popular forms being: flexibility in start and finish times (33%); the ability to swap shifts with colleagues (32%); and flexibility in scheduling shifts/rotas (27%). A tenth also offered the option of buying and selling holidays.
• Small impact of legislative changes and gaps in awareness. 14% of employers have experienced an increase in flexible working requests since the introduction of the day one right to request flexible working. More than two fifths (44%) though, say the levels of requests have remained the same.
• Before the survey, three-fifths were aware that the UK Government is planning on strengthening the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 through the Employment Rights Bill. The rest were unaware.

Hybrid working

• Positive and negative impacts of hybrid working. 66% of organisations say they have hybrid working in place. When looking at the wider impact of hybrid working, employers were most likely to say it had brought a positive impact for:
  • attraction and retention of talent
  • the ability to recruit from a wider geography in the UK
  • employee financial wellbeing
  • the environment. 
• Employers were most likely to say hybrid had brought a negative impact for:
  • the ability of managers to lead teams effectively 
  • employee connection to organisation purpose
  • the culture of the organisation. 
• Most organisations mandate workplace attendance to some extent. 55% of organisations required employees to be in the workplace a minimum number of days per week/month. Overall, 10% of all employers that allowed hybrid working were planning to either introduce or increase the number of mandatory days in the workplace over the next 12 months. 
• More than two fifths (44%) of organisations that allow hybrid working have put in place incentives to encourage employees to be in the workplace more often. Organisations were most likely to reference incentives such as an improved working environment, team-building activities, greater flexibility in hours worked, more food/drinks and in-person professional development programmes.
• Perceptions of organisational productivity remain positive. 30% of employers believe that an increase in home/hybrid working had led to increased productivity/efficiency in their organisation, although 15% believe it had decreased productivity/efficiency. 55% believe there had been no changes.

Employee perspectives

Data on employees’ perspectives were taken from the survey underpinning the Working Lives Scotland 2025 report. Total sample size was 1,018 Scottish working adults. The figures have been weighted and are representative of all Scottish working adults (aged 18+). 

Flexible working

• Gaps in flexible working availability and use remain. Employees say they were most likely to make use of working from home in normal working hours (43%) and flexi-time (30%). Working Lives Scotland 2025 includes a full breakdown.
• There is unmet demand for some types of flexible working. When asked about the types of flexible working arrangements they would use if available to them, employees pointed to a range of options, particularly the 4-day week (without a reduction in pay) (45%), compressed hours (26%) and flexi-time (21%).
• Working flexibly has had a positive impact on quality of life and career prospects. 76% of employees say that working flexibly has had a positive impact on their quality of life while 29% believe that working flexibly has had a positive impact on their career (with 58% reporting no career impact).
• Lack of flexibility is prompting job changes for some. 3% of employees say they have left a job in the last year (since January 2024) due to a lack of flexible working. This represents around 80,000 Scottish workers in total.
• Despite legislative changes, 29% of employees say they wouldn’t feel comfortable requesting formal flexible working (a change to a contract), and the same proportion (29%) say the same about requesting informal flexibility (without a change to contract).   

Hybrid working

• Home and hybrid working patterns have stabilised. Around 7% of all Scottish employees work fully from home, with another 42% working from home some of the time. The majority (51%) do not work from home at all. These patterns differ considerably by occupation and by extension, income bands.

• Nearly half of employees believe there was either a great deal (23%) or a fair amount (24%) of pressure for employees to spend more time in the physical workplace, while 39% say there was no or not very much pressure.
• Most (58%) believe this pressure was coming from senior leaders, with under a third pointing to line managers (29%), 12% pointing to customers/clients and 8% feeling that pressure from themselves.
• Employees feel the pressure to spend time in the workplace was primarily to improve collaboration (40%) and relationships (37%). But 18% believe that the pressure came from not trusting employees to work from home. 

Conclusions

Flexible working is pivotal to the attraction and retention of talent, as evidenced by both our employer and employee surveys. Employers recognise its importance and it is valued by employees for its positive impact on their quality of life. 

But access to flexible working is not equal. Most Scottish organisations provide some kind of flexible working arrangements, but a fifth believed senior employees were more likely to work flexibly than more junior staff. Gaps in flexible working availability continue to be reported by employees, with unmet demand for certain arrangements. 

Hybrid working practices remain common, with around two-thirds of Scottish employers having some kind of provision. Employers say the advantages of hybrid include the attraction and retention of a broader, more diverse talent pool, as well as increased employee wellbeing and business resilience. But key challenges remain. Particularly, the ability of managers to lead hybrid teams effectively, employees’ connection to organisational purpose and the impact on culture. 

For a list of CIPD recommendations for organisations and policy-makers, explore the full, explore the full Flexible and hybrid working practices in 2025 report.