Flexible working – Burden? What burden?

Conflicting advice has emerged from the Coalition Government on the future of flexible working in the workplace.

 

With rumours of scaling back flexible working rights or giving everyone the right to request flexible working, there is a message that is being missed. We have preached about maintaining a work/life balance and how important it is for fathers to take an active role in their child’s upbringing and then we are surprised when people want to do it.

 

The right to request flexible working is available to anyone who has a child under the age of 17, or 18 for a disabled child or is caring for an adult dependant. With an ageing population, that covers a lot of people.

 

The employee must have 26 weeks continuous service to request a variation to their working pattern. The business may deny the request if it demonstrates that it is not workable for a justifiable business reason – real not imagined!

 

Dealing with flexible working requests can be daunting for small businesses. There are statutory rules on how to process these requests, and most small businesses do not understand the importance of responding within timescales.

 

While there were only 277 cases relating to flexible working out of over 218,000 claims in 2010, most are settled out of court because of the cost of defence and the impact on the business. You cannot defend the indefensible when failing to follow a statutory procedure.

Simon Morgan, Director of The HR Dept (South East London and North Kent) says “If an employee is engaged, happy and spreading the word about your brand and delivering value to the business then flexible working can be a powerful resource. Unfortunately flexible working can be seen as a taboo subject, often because of the strict rules for handling requests and the fear of consequences as opposed to the benefits if a request is accepted and managed properly for the business.”

The HR Dept specialises in advising small and medium sized businesses on all employment issues.

http://www.hrdept.co.uk/se_london.htm