Vitalstatistics

Flexible work patterns
Communication is cited as the biggest pitfall of flexible working in a study of the attitudes of human resources professionals to flexible working by The Industrial Society. While 43 per cent of the 516 personnel specialists surveyed cited communication, 31 per cent cited management difficulties and 27 per cent, resentment from staff on standard hours.

Around one in three said their organisation had a flexible working policy, a figure that has remained unchanged since a similar survey carried out by The Industrial Society in 1998. The vast majority — 91 per cent — said they have flexible working practices in their organisation — seven per cent more than in 1998.

Most believe their organisation's flexible working practices developed out of employee needs, such as child and elder care responsibilities (67 per cent) and as an aid to retention (50 per cent).
Flexible Work Patterns, Managing Best Practice, The Industrial Society, Tel: 020 7479 2111.

Capital costs — where the money goes
Services make up 38 per cent of the cost of building a 25 m swimming pool, the latest figures from the BCIS Average Group Element Study show. The superstructure meanwhile amounts to 32 per cent of the cost while fittings make up just five percent.

The BCIS study allows the identification of the cost of significant elements in construction projects.
BCIS, Average Group Element Prices, November 2001, Tel: 020 7222 7000.

Executive pay in construction
The job market for high flyers in the construction sector has remained relatively static over the past 12 months according to the 2001 Hays Montrose/building executives' salary guide. Executive pay rates in the building, housing and civil engineering sectors have increased by an average of just 3.5 per cent since 2000 — only just ahead of inflation. In the building sector top directors' salaries range from £207,000, the typical salary paid to a chief executive of a company with a minimum £101m turnover, to £59,500 for a director of a company with a turnover of no more than £25m.
2001 Hays Montrose/Building executive salary guide, Building, 9 November 2001.