Flexible working is an increasingly important tool for both businesses and employees, according to a new study.

The report, from the Orange Future Enterprise coalition (OFEc), says the opportunity to work from home or in the field is even becoming a determining factor in whether some jobseekers accept a role in different organisations.

Half of those surveyed identified flexible work as a factor in choosing their next job, while 85 per cent said they felt that the ability to better manage their work and leisure time would be a key benefit of flexible working.

However, it is not simply seen as a perk for employees, with more than 50 per cent of firms already using technology to help offer remote working, generating improvements in productivity as well as managing stress levels.

Three-quarters of UK employees reported that flexible work also enabled them to concentrate better, with Robert Ainger, director of communications and operations at Orange Business Services, welcoming the "positive move towards the adoption of flexible working practice".

However, Mr Ainger made clear that businesses needed to take care to ensure flexible working could be deployed effectively, saying clear and transparent criteria and rules for such work was essential.

The news comes as Citrix, a US IT firm, reported a marked uptake of flexible working technology across the other side of the pond, dramatically changing the business culture.

According to the firm the ability to work outside of the office and to utilise flexible tools meant that smaller high-growth businesses are now able to "compete on a par with large enterprises to win customers and deepen sales".

In a recent survey of SMEs for Connect, the two most important benefits of outsourcing were 'guaranteed response times' and 'allowing in-house IT staff to concentrate on more strategic issues'