Category Archives: Flexible Working

Increasing flexible working and offering shared parental leave will lead to a more motivated workforce, says minister

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More employers in the UK need to offer flexible working and promote shared parental leave if we want “total equality” across the UK workforce, according to employment relations minister, Jo Swinson.

Speaking at an ACAS and the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) briefing in London yesterday, Swinson said more businesses must start to “change traditional working cultures”.

“I believe [flexible working and shared parental leave] will be economically beneficial to employers,” Swinson said. “With these measures workers are more likely to be happy in work, you’ll see reduced sickness absence, improvement in mental health issues and will result in more motivated and healthy workers.”

Swinson added: “We need to change working cultures to reflect a modern workforce. We are still stuck in the 1950s – all these old stereotypes are a thing of the past.”

Also speaking at the event was Anne Sharp chief executive of ACAS, who echoed Swinson’s thoughts. “Flexible working is about modernising the workforce,” she said.

Sharp said these proposals present “great opportunities” for business to get the best out of their workforce and will give them the “ability to recruit and retain the most talented employees”.

She said: “It used to be seen as a perk and for years companies used to say ‘it will work there but not in my company’, but we’ve seen it can work.”

“Offering flexible working can also help plug the large skills gap we have in the UK.”

The changes are scheduled to come into force in 2014 for the extended right to request flexible working and 2015 for shared parental leave.

Any employee who has been with the company for 26 weeks or more will have the right to request flexible working and an employer will have to consider every request.

Internal memo sparks debate on working from home

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How important is it for employees to work together physically in the same place? Very, according to Marissa Mayer, the Chief Executive Officer of Yahoo! Inc.

Last week Ms Mayer sent round an internal memo which set out that from June this year Yahoo employees with work from home arrangements will be required to come into the office. Apparently, the memo said:

“Some of the best decisions and insights come from hallway and cafeteria discussions, meeting new people, and impromptu team meetings. Speed and quality are often sacrificed when we work from home.”

This has sparked a debate on whether remote working leads to greater productivity and job satisfaction, or whether it kills creativity and is a chance to slack off.

Advocates of flexible working argue that it can lead to real estate savings, increased productivity and reduced sickness absence. It is also especially important for those with young families or caring responsibilities. Ironically, Ms Mayer returned to work only two weeks after the birth of her first child, yet some are already labelling this as a step back for women in the workplace.

Employers should think carefully before implementing similar policies in the UK. There is no direct obligation in the UK to allow employees to work from home, but discrimination issues could arise as a result. For example, generally more women request to work from home than men do, so an outright ban could amount to indirect sex discrimination.

It will be interesting to see whether this has any impact on the ACAS consultation launched this week on the extension of the right to request flexible working.

The content of this article does not constitute legal advice and it should not be relied upon. Specific legal advice may be required to address your specific circumstance.

Acas launches consultation on code of practice for flexible working

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Acas has launched a consultation on a draft code of practice for the right to request flexible working.

Under the government’s proposals, announced in November last year, the right to request flexible working will be extended to all employees who have worked for their employer for 26 weeks or more.

Employers are obliged to consider all requests in a reasonable manner.

The current statutory procedure will be repealed and the government has asked Acas to produce a code of practice to help businesses manage this new extended right.

Acas will also produce a non statutory good practice guide with practical examples of managing this in the workplace. This will be published alongside the final Code.

Acas is seeking views from employees and employers, particularly small businesses who often don’t have HR support and may face challenges in managing flexible working requests.

The draft Code is designed to offer short, practical advice to make it as easy as possible for employers to handle requests and fit them to their specific circumstances and procedures.

Chair of Acas Ed Sweeney (pictured) said: “This draft Code builds on our knowledge and expertise across all workplace issues. It will make it easier for employers to be fair in considering requests to work flexibly which helps to maintain good working relationships and minimise discrimination.

“We’re very keen to hear views on the draft Code from anyone who has an interest in flexible working.”

The consultation closes on 20 May 2013.

Nick Clegg to confirm flexible parental leave

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The deputy prime minister will announce today that from 2015 a flexible system of parental leave will be introduced. It’s aimed at driving more women back into the workforce and giving men the option to care for their child.

The proposals were first outlined last month but in a speech in London today, Clegg is set to confirm the plans.

Under the new set of proposals, a mother will still be entitled to 52 weeks’ maternity leave – three-quarters of it paid, but will be able to trigger flexible leave at any point after the first two weeks. This can be done by sharing the time, taking it in turns with her partner or taking time off together. The only rule will be that no more than 12 months can be taken in total, with no more than nine at guaranteed pay.

Clegg will say: “You won’t get to 30 and suddenly have to choose motherhood or work because we’re making the changes that will give you a route back.”

He will add: “These are major reforms and at a time of continuing economic difficulty it is sensible to do them in a number of steps rather than one giant leap. More and more men are taking on childcare duties or want to and flexible leave builds on that.”

Responding to the proposals, TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said: “The reforms announced today will make it easier for parents to choose how they want to share their leave to look after newborn children. It’s great that parents who want to adopt will be given more support too.

“Allowing all staff to ask to work flexibly is common sense to good employers. But we know that too many businesses are still reluctant to modernise working practices so the government is right to give them a nudge with this new universal right to request flexible working.”

Barber added: “These reforms will make life easier for millions of working parents. Businesses will also benefit from a more engaged workforce and a larger pool of people to recruit from.”

All employees to be given the right to flexible working, says Clegg

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Deputy prime minister Nick Clegg (pictured) will announce this week the extension of the right to request flexible working hours to all employees.

Clegg believes changes to working practices will encourage more women back into employment.

In a keynote speech in London tomorrow, he will encourage a culture in which people feel confident to ask employers to change their working hours.

The Right to Request scheme, which only applies to those with children under 17, relatives and some carers, would allow everyone to ask their employer for flexible hours if they wish to help others with childcare.

Employers would be forced to consider all requests ‘in a reasonable way’. Clegg believes new legislation, expected by 2014, would “drive a culture shift in the workplace”, to fit a modern economy.

Clegg will say: “If we had the same proportion of female entrepreneurs as the US, then the economy would be better off by £42 billion.”

He will also say: “While women in this country are now better qualified than men and more girls go to university, they lag behind in the workplace. That requires sweeping away the clapped-out rules that make no sense for modern families.”

UK work-life balance organisation, Working Families, has supported the reforms and believes it will be “good for business”.

Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, said: “Many businesses already offer the right to all employees because it leads to performance gains.

“The Government’s own assessment shows the extension will bring a net benefit of £222.5 million to employers through increased productivity and through savings from reduced sickness, absenteeism and recruitment costs. Flexible working is an essential tool for business success.”

Jackson added: “Families too will benefit when more workplaces adopt flexible working as the norm. There has been great progress since the introduction of flexible working rights, but in many areas there is a reality gap between good intentions and the facts of family life.

“There could not be a better time to boost the UK’s performance by changing the way we work to enable all employees to perform at their best. What we need from the Government is a consistent positive message about the value of flexible working to promoting economic growth.”

Number of stressed employees trebles if they have inflexible hours, according to Kenexa High Performance Institute

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The number of workers reporting unreasonable levels of stress is more than three times higher if their working hours were inflexible, according to research by the Kenexa High Performance Institute (KHPI).

Key findings of the KHPI research reveal 68% of respondents with inflexible work schedules reported unreasonable work stress and just 20% of respondents with flexible work schedules reported unreasonable stress.

The KHPI research also showed that a lack of flexibility in the workplace is having an impact on intentions to leave; 59% of respondents with inflexible work schedules claimed they were looking to leave in the next 12 months, compared to just 22% of respondents with flexible work schedules.

This research indicates that organisations providing more flexibility around work schedules will see benefits in terms of reduced stress in the workplace.

“With 57% of businesses planning to adapt their working hours during the Olympics, we’re likely to see an overall reduction in stress levels. This is contrary to reports that workers in London will see stress levels rise from the Olympics,” said Rena Rasch, research director of KHPI.

“Stress is associated with a wide range of health problems, which can increase absenteeism and reduce an employee’s ability to focus. Flexing work schedules should be possible in the vast majority of cases, particularly with the technology we have today to keep in touch.”

Technology is one of the three key pillars that have contributed to the success of flexible working at Unilever.

Chris Raia, Unilever’s global agile working practices leader, said: “We’ve implemented a lot of new technologies in two categories: the first we call advanced mobility, which means the ability to get your data from anywhere and get your job done, this includes great laptops or smartphone devices.

“The second technology group is called virtual collaboration technology, which is things like Microsoft Lync, Skype, Communicator – the technologies that allow people to communicate virtually from distributed sites.”

Flexible working also requires a high degree of trust between employer and employee. Cirkle PR chairman, Caroline Kinsey, offers all her workers completely flexible hours: “Flexibility and trust is at the heart of our agency. People can shift their working day to the hours that suit them in order to minimise stress levels. To fit in with family commitments or to avoid the rush-hour traffic, for example, some people come in at 7am and leave at 4pm without any guilt.

“The majority of staff works at home on a Friday to eliminate the stress of commuting altogether. We are just as committed to delivering for our clients as any other business, the difference is that we don’t believe it should be about the hours you put into work, but rather the work you put into the hours. An impressive financial track record and outstanding staff and client retention levels are tribute to how successfully this works for us.”

Queen’s speech: CIPD urges Government to extend the right to request flexible working

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As reports suggest the Government is poised to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees, the CIPD has found only 4% of employers have had difficulties complying with the current right to request flexible working since it was introduced nearly 10 years ago.

In response the CIPD has called on the Government to hold its nerve and go ahead with the extension in the Queen’s speech, later this morning.

With 96% of employers providing flexible working arrangement to at least some employees, the research finds that seven out of ten employers report that flexible working supports employee retention, motivation and engagement. Almost two thirds of employers believe flexible working supports their recruitment activities and half believe it has a positive impact on reducing absence as well as on boosting productivity.

The study, Flexible working: provision and uptake, finds that small employers are least likely to report difficulties with the right to request legislation, and in all, three quarters of employees make use of flexible working of some type. People working for micro-and small firms are more likely to be working flexibly in some way (90% and 78% respectively) than those working for medium (67%) or large-sized employers (29%).

However the study, based on a survey of more than a 1,000 employers and a survey of more than 2,000 employees, shows the type of flexibility commonly used is quite limited.

While the use of part-time working (32%), ‘flexitime’ (25%), home working (20%) and mobile working (14%) is comparatively common, other types of flexible working are hardly used. Just 5% of workers use compressed hours, 2% use term-time working, and 1% job share.

Flexible working among non managerial employees is largely limited to part-time working (39%) and flexi-time (28%) with just 14% of such staff working from home and 10% mobile working. About one in three employees working for medium sized and large organisations have no access to flexible working. Six in 10 employees with no managerial responsibility who don’t work flexibly would like to do so.

Ben Willmott, CIPD head of public policy, said: ”The CIPD has long been calling for the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees, despite claims from some quarters that the legislation is burdensome for businesses. Similar concerns were raised over a decade ago about the plans to introduce the statutory right to request flexible working for parents. Those fears have proved unfounded – regardless of size of organisation.

“Our report finds that just 3% of micro businesses and small businesses, 4% of medium-sized businesses and 5% of large businesses have reported problems complying with the existing right to request flexible working. Micro and small employers are more likely than larger organisations to manage flexible working informally rather than through formal policies and procedures, which appears to more than compensate for any lack of formal HR support.

“The argument for extending the right to request to all employees is based on a broad business case. More than seven out of ten employers report that flexible working supports employee retention, motivation and engagement. Almost two third of employers believe flexible working supports their recruitment activities, while half believe it has a positive impact on reducing absence as well as on boosting productivity.

“From the employee perspective, flexible working is linked to higher levels of employee engagement and wellbeing. Our report finds that employees satisfied with their work-life balance are more likely to be engaged and less likely to say they are under excessive pressure.”

“This report shows that a significant proportion of those employees who don’t work flexibly would want to do so – particularly those below management level. It also finds that many flexible working solutions are not widely used, for example job sharing or the use of annualised hours – or are only available to more senior staff. Managers are much more likely to be able to work from home or benefit from mobile working than other members of staff and while, this is partly likely to be because of differences in the nature of the work between managers and their employees, in some organisations, it is because of culture and ingrained attitudes.”

“Our report also shows that wild claims about risk that extending the light-touch right to request legislation would lead to large numbers of tribunal claims are unfounded. The right to request flexible working has not contributed to any significant increase in employment tribunal claims. For example, since 2006, the period for which we have figures, the most number of tribunal claims generated by the flexible working regulations in any one year has been 344, with the vast majority of such claims in all years either resulting in an Acas conciliated settlement, withdrawn or settled privately between the parties. Put simply, flexible working works for business, and the Government should hold its nerve and go ahead with the extension to all employees. The result will be good news for business, employers and the wider economy.”