How Flexible Working is unlocking part-time talent and reducing costs

For many organisations, productivity challenges are no longer just about technology or headcounts. They are increasingly tied to whether businesses can attract and retain the workforce they need in a changing labour market.

A growing number of employees are choosing part-time work to achieve better balance, manage caring responsibilities, pursue education, or reduce stress and commuting costs. At the same time, many organisations are facing pressure to improve productivity, optimise operational costs, and maintain workforce resilience in uncertain economic conditions.

New research from IWG’s latest white paper, The Flex Factor: How Hybrid Work Attracts Part-Time Workers and Boosts Productivity, highlights an important shift for CFOs and senior business leaders: hybrid and flexible work models are becoming a strategic advantage in attracting and retaining part-time talent — while also supporting measurable productivity gains.

The findings reinforce a broader trend of reshaping workforce and real estate strategy alike. Businesses that offer employees greater flexibility over how and where they work are increasingly better positioned to access talent, improve engagement, and align operational costs more closely with actual business demand.

The Workforce Opportunity Many Businesses Are Overlooking

Part-time workers now represent a significant and growing share of the labour market across major economies.

By the end of 2025, 50 000 new part-time jobs were created, which is a 4,6% quarter-on-quarter increase – from 1,094,000 in June to 1,144,000 in September, according to Stats SA

This matters commercially because research consistently shows that part-time employees can positively impact business performance when supported effectively. Academic studies cited in IWG’s latest white paper found that increasing the proportion of part-time workers can drive measurable productivity improvements, particularly across knowledge-based sectors.

For finance leaders balancing margin pressure, rising operational costs, and workforce shortages, this creates an important strategic question:

How can organisations attract and retain skilled part-time talent without increasing fixed overhead or operational complexity?

Increasingly, the answer is flexibility.

Flexibility Is Becoming a Financial Strategy

Traditional office models often create friction for part-time workers.

Daily commuting costs, rigid schedules, and long journeys into city centres can make employment financially or personally unsustainable for many employees working reduced hours. IWG’s research found that nearly half of former part-time workers would actively consider returning to work if hybrid working options were available.

At the same time:

• 63% of current part-time workers say they would increase their hours if they could work more flexibly

• Four in five say mandatory daily commuting would push them to leave the workforce entirely

• Rising commuting costs are making continued employment harder to justify financially for many workers

For CFOs, these findings are significant because they connect workplace flexibility directly to workforce participation, productivity, and operational resilience.

Flexible workspace models help organisations align workspace costs more closely with actual business demand while also improving access to talent.

Rather than maintaining excess real estate capacity for peak occupancy, businesses can provide employees with access to professional workspaces closer to where they live through distributed workspace networks.

This reduces unnecessary commuting, supports employee wellbeing, and helps organisations optimise portfolio utilisation at the same time.

Productivity Gains Beyond Cost Reduction

The financial conversation around hybrid work is often centred on reducing real estate costs. But the broader business value may be even more important.

Employees working in more flexible ways frequently report:

• Higher engagement

• Lower stress levels

• Improved motivation

• Better work-life balance

• Increased productivity

This is particularly relevant as businesses invest heavily in AI, automation, and productivity transformation initiatives. Technology alone does not drive performance. Organisations also need workforce models that enable people to work effectively and sustainably.

Hybrid work supported by flexible workspace networks can help businesses improve both operational efficiency and workforce performance simultaneously.

For CFOs under pressure to do more with less, this creates a compelling opportunity: reduce fixed overhead while improving access to productive talent.

Flexible work strategies also support broader workforce and business resilience goals.

By enabling employees to work closer to home, organisations can access wider and more diverse talent pools, including:

• Parents and caregivers

• Older professionals delaying retirement

• Individuals with disabilities or health considerations

• Skilled workers outside major urban centres

This broader access to talent becomes increasingly valuable as labour markets tighten and competition for skilled professionals intensifies.

From a financial perspective, distributed workforce models can also support:

• Lower long-term lease exposure

• Reduced unused office space

• Greater operational scalability

• Faster regional expansion

• Improved portfolio efficiency

• Reduced capital expenditure requirements

In other words, flexibility is no longer simply an HR initiative. It is becoming a core lever for financial agility.

The Shift from Fixed Real Estate to Flexible Infrastructure

For decades, many organisations viewed office space primarily as a fixed operational requirement.

That mindset is changing.

Forward-thinking CFOs are increasingly rethinking workspace as flexible infrastructure that can scale with business demand, workforce behaviour, and economic conditions.

Instead of overcommitting to long-term space requirements based on outdated utilisation models, businesses are exploring ways to:

• Convert fixed real estate costs into variable operating costs

• Improve utilisation across distributed teams

• Support hybrid work without excessive overhead

• Preserve capital for innovation and growth initiatives

• Build greater resilience into workforce strategies

Flexible workspace networks provide a way to maintain professional environments, collaboration capability, and geographic reach without the same level of balance sheet exposure.

As organisations continue adapting to hybrid work, AI-driven transformation, and changing employee expectations, workforce flexibility is becoming closely tied to financial performance.

Businesses that can successfully combine flexibility, productivity, and cost efficiency are likely to be better positioned for long-term resilience and growth.

The companies gaining advantage are not simply reducing office space. They are redesigning how work is delivered, how talent is accessed, and how operational costs align with real business demand.

IWG’s latest research suggests that part-time workers may represent one of the largest untapped opportunities within that shift.

And for CFOs, the implications extend far beyond workplace strategy alone.