With the positive direction that the country seems to be going in (fingers crossed) staff at many businesses up and down the country are now returning to work in the office.
However, there are likely to be differing opinions for how your employees will want to return to work. There may be some workers who prefer to work from home fully, maybe work remotely part time and in the office part time, or even be happy to move back into the office as normal permanently.
The thing to highlight here is that every worker is an individual and may have different feelings towards this transition back to work. So as an employer, it is necessary at the moment to be flexible in order to make employees feel as comfortable as possible in their working environment. It also stands you in good stead for further recruitment as the option of flexible working is certainly a benefit which many employees will appreciate and be looking for in the coming years.
Some employers may feel uncomfortable with flexible working policies as it can be difficult to ensure every worker is doing what they should. However, it is important to remember that whether they have flexible starting and finish times or are working from home, employees will feel their feelings have been valued and that employers trust them to get everything done on their own terms. Felling, trusted, valued and appreciated boosts productivity and morale and produces a happy, healthy workforce.
All employees have the legal right to request a flexible working pattern – not just parents or carers – so it is certainly a useful document to have in your business whenever it may be needed. The only thing that is needed in order to make a statutory application is 26 weeks of continued employment with the same employer.
Employers must deal with requests reasonably by looking into advantages and disadvantages of the application. A meeting must then be held to discuss the request further with the employee with the offer of an appeal process if unsuccessful. If this request is not handled in a reasonable manner then an employee can take you to an employment tribunal.
Flexible working can come in many shapes and sizes. Some examples are:
- Job sharing – Two people doing one job and sharing the hours.
- Working from home – Doing some or all work from home or anywhere else that is not your normal place of work.
- Part time – Working less than full time hours, fewer days or shorter days.
- Compressed hours – Working full time hours but over fewer days.
- Flexitime – The employee chooses when to start and end work but works over core hours for example 10am to 4pm every day.
- Annualised hours – Working a certain amount of hours over the year but having flexibility of when to work.
- Staggered hours – The employee has different start and finish times as other workers.
- Phased retirement – Older workers can choose when they want to retire, they can reduce hours and work part time.
- Hybrid working – Working some days in the office and some days from home.
It seems likely that a high number of employees will opt for a hybrid, flexitime or working from home contract in the coming months so it will be imperative that businesses prepare for demand by setting out a structured procedure of how these requests will be dealt with, ensuring that decisions made are as fair and justified as is possible.
Any decisions of flexible working must be made within 3 months of the request. If it is accepted then the employer will have to draw up new terms and conditions for the employee within 28 days. If it is rejected, the employer must write to the employee giving business reasons for the refusal. Acceptable reasons for rejecting the request are as follows: extra costs that could damage the business, the work cannot be reorganised among other staff, people cannot be recruited to do the work, flexible working will affect quality and performance, the business will not be able to meet customer demand, there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times and the business is planning changes to the workforce.
One of our clients has just completed a fantastic hybrid working policy. It provides a number of options for their employees, whilst also ensuring that those who need to be on site are there to meet the needs of the business. The client has considered the demographic of the business and identified that one size doesn’t fit all.
For any help and advice about flexible working policies, procedures to follow, as well as drawing up new, hybrid or flexible working contracts please get in touch with Kate Appleyard at kate@applehr.co.uk.