The recent Queen's Speech saw the government once again focus on changes to the law over flexible working, namely the right for some employees to ask for more family-friendly working arrangements. Now, up to 4.5 million employees, anyone with children under the age of 17, will have the right to request options like flexi-time and working from home as part of their conditions of employment. But what does flexible working really mean? Who is entitled to it, and what exactly are they entitled to? Will it always be a burden for business, or can it be a benefit?
Flexible work patterns
Essentially, flexible working means work patterns that are tailored to suit the needs of the individual and their family circumstances, rather than solely being set around the needs of their organisation. This could mean part-time or flexible hours, working the same number of hours over fewer days, job sharing or working from home. The idea is that by allowing employees to work in a way that suits their family circumstances, they will be able to improve their work/life balance.
The right to request flexible work is currently restricted to parents with children under the age of 6 and those who care for elderly or disabled relatives. However, under new government proposals*, this could extend the right of parents to request flexible employment for those with children up to the age of 17. The request has to be seriously considered and if it is denied, there has to be a suitable business reason for this decision. These reasons have to be applied on a case-by-case basis, so a company can't, for example, simply say that there is a company policy not to allow flexible working.
Benefits to employers
Given that this right is so new, many employers may well look for reasons to turn flexible working requests down. However, there are several reasons why you should look favourably on such requests, rather than trying to resist them.
The first is retention. A 2005 study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development** found that nearly half of the employees surveyed believed that flexible working had a positive effect on the ability to retain staff. More than two thirds of HR staff - 70% - also believed that flexible working increased employee motivation at work. And more than half found that offering flexible working had a positive effect on recruitment too.
There are other benefits too. Allowing staff to work at home can mean less commuting, which may have a positive effect on your carbon footprint, important if your company has an environmental policy. If some of your staff work at home regularly, you could also implement a hot desking scheme which reduces your need for expensive office space.
Equipment, health and safety
Home working is one of the cornerstones of a flexible working policy. Allowing employees to spend part of their working week at home means they can more easily deal with child care arrangements, as well as being able to avoid the occasionally awful experience of the commute to work!
If you're considering allowing home working as part of a flexible working package, there are a few things to consider. The first is health and safety. The Health and Safety at Work Act, perhaps unsurprisingly, does not talk about employers’ responsibilities when an employee is working at home. However, there is a general duty of care towards employees, no matter where they work, which should reasonably be extended to the home when someone works from there.
Obviously, it is both impractical and undesirable for you to do the kind of workplace health and safety inspection you would do in the office inside an employee’s home. However, you should ensure that any employee working at home has had proper training and guidance about key aspects of their health, such as how to ensure they sit correcting when working on a PC, and so on. If possible, you should also supply appropriate furniture, such as desks and chairs, of equivalent standard to the ones in your office.
You'll also need to ensure that they have all the tools they need to work as effectively in their home as in the office, including a phone, computer and broadband connection. Don't expect the employee to supply their own equipment if working from home is a regular part of their job. Not only is this likely to irritate the employee, but it means that you have less control over their working environment, and it may end up costing you more. If you supply both a phone and broadband connection they can be directly billed back to your company, which not only allows you to take advantage of any deals your telecoms supplier has, but avoids the need for these costs to be processed through your expenses system.
In summary
Making flexible working available to your employees isn't always possible, but if you can do it then you can enjoy real tangible business benefits. However, whatever you do, don't simply announce that people can work from home without considering the implications first. Talk to your IT suppliers to see what they can offer in terms of equipment designed to support flexible working and make sure that the home working environment is as healthy and safe as the office. By doing this, should help you to implement flexible working and avoid the potential pitfalls.
* http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article2821198.ece
** Flexible Working: Impact and Implementation CIPD, 2005. http://www.cipd.co.uk/NR/rdonlyres/257CE4EE-356B-43F5-8927-5C86203D7AA1/0/flexworksurv0205.pdf