Following the change in legislation to give all employees the right to ask for flexible working, and considering the surge of self-employed entrepreneurs launching their own companies, is there anyone still working 9-5?

There can be a multitude of reasons why people want to work outside what we consider 'traditional hours', and given that technology supports such flexibility, is there any reason why they should conform to what could be argued as outdated working patterns?

Devices and applications are always ready to work 24/7, and only a small corner is needed to facilitate output; can flexible working be the future?

People Per Hour founder, Xenios Thrasyvoulou, suggests another plus – that employers could gauge a candidate's skill and worth by trialling them on an ad-hoc basis. And another benefit of such flexibility is that it often doesn't warrant formal contracts, or the payment of legislative benefits, like holiday pay, etc.

But just because an employee asks to work flexibly doesn't mean they'll have their wish granted. Perhaps it wouldn't suit how the business operates – whatever the reasoning behind rejecting such requests, there's no denying flexible working is becoming ingrained in our society. According to The Timewise Foundation, the potential market for this sort of work is huge: the number of full-time workers who say they would like a more flexible job stands at around 8.7million.

Though temporary opportunities are part of most recruitment agencies' strategies, can they also offer their clients support with ad-hoc, 'hyper flexible' opportunities? Being able to assemble a skilled team for specific projects could be a lucrative service, but the operational challenges to deliver such a solution may counteract financial benefit.

Gabe Miano, vice president of product management at OnForce predicts that the interest and need for freelance, ad-hoc or flexible workers will grow over the coming year, and so will the competition for suitable roles. Employers win out, as they will have more choice; and recruitment agencies should also benefit if they choose to help their clients whittle the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. However, Gabe warns, "they mustn't lose sight of the bigger picture."

Open all hours? As long as it's 'open for business', should the hours a business' employees work actually matter that much? Does your agency support this flexible trend, or ignore it completely?

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