The civil service’s chief people officer has revealed plans for a “refresh” of guidance on flexible working opportunities that aims to help managers and applicants better understand the range of options available.

The new approach will include changes to government’s jobs website to emphasise – for both managers and candidates – the availability of flexible working options.

In a blog post, Rupert McNeil said the move came against the backdrop of wider work led by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to promote flexible working across the whole economy.

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McNeil said flexible working had “an important role to play” in delivering the civil service’s commitment to become the UK’s most inclusive employer by 2020. He added that it also had recognised benefits in improving work-life balance for staff as well as enabling parents and carers to combine work with their other responsibilities.

McNeil said that in common with the organisations signed up to the BEIS task force on flexible working, the civil service was publicising its next steps to increase awareness of opportunities to both recruiters and potential employees.

“To further help job applicants, we are preparing a new page for GOV.UK setting out our approach to flexible working,” he said. “There will also be new guidance for vacancy holders on the refreshed Civil Service Jobs site, as well as a clearer menu of options, so that applicants know the types of flexible working available for each post advertised.”

McNeil did not specify when the online refresh of the Civil Service Jobs site would be complete. However, his blog post went on to detail other civil service initiatives aimed at highlighting flexible-working opportunities, including the Civil Service Returners Programme – which provides short-term opportunities for people looking to return to work after a career break, and the Civil Service Job Share Finder database.