Businesses that allow their staff to work from home and at times that suit them on an informal basis have been urged to make their policies toward flexible working more clearly defined.

According to research commissioned by telecoms company Orange, close to a quarter of staff in the UK have a degree of professional flexibility, but without the clarity of a specific contract or agreement.

The recent study concludes that tolerating flexible working in this way, but failing to implement formal arrangements across a business, could lead to "unforeseen issues".

"Informal systems for flexibility can cause inconsistency across the business, where potentially two people in similar roles have different levels of flexibility," Simon Kingsnorth, human resources business partner at First Direct Bank said.

"Formal procedures offer clarity – staff know what they are getting into and managers know what coverage they will get in the office."

A report the TechCentral recently made clear that working from home is becoming increasingly popular among employees in a number of Chinese cities.