More than a third of British workers feel flexible working can mitigate the toughest jobs, according to research by Samsung UK.

The electronics company polled workers on what makes a job tough, and found that respondents ranked emotional demands as significantly as physical challenges.

Of the top five factors that make a job tough, long hours (69%) and low pay (64%) top the list but dealing with difficult people (58%) and having demanding bosses (52%)  both score higher than working in dangerous environments.

When it came to factors that might ease the strain of a tough job, almost half (47%) said that having a supportive team to work with would be a benefit. Nearly 4 in 10 cited having the backing of their boss (39%) and flexible working hours (38%), and over a quarter of respondents (27%) agreed having new or better working equipment would help make their jobs easier.

Graham Long, vice president of the Enterprise Business Team at Samsung, said: “There are many factors that contribute to what workers define as making their job tough – while it may be hard to change factors dictated by the market such as hours and pay, there are steps businesses can take to support employees and help them be productive when they face challenging situations.

“Having the right support in place to overcome the emotional strain of tough jobs – whether that’s on a personal level or through team and leadership structures – really helps. Many businesses we work with are also deploying technology to help frontline workers access information and deal with situations more confidently. Whether they are an engineer working in a hostile environment, emergency worker attending an incident in the field or frontline service provider dealing with customer queries.”

Richard Shea, MD EMEA Search at recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) provider Futurestep, added that organisations need to think about how they can reward their current workforce for their continued loyalty whilst providing incentives to keep them engaged through potentially challenging times ahead.

“Financial benefits should not be seen as the only way to incentivise employees. Whilst bonuses and pay increases will always be valued, today’s workforce is increasingly receptive to other kinds of rewards. Flexible working schemes for a better work-life balance, leveraging mobile platforms and concepts such as “Bring Your Own Device” (BYOD) are a prime example of this,” he said.

Image credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/jdhancock/

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