The right to request flexible working is set to be extended to those with parental responsibility for children up to the age of 16. The right is currently available to those with children up to the age of 5 or disabled children under 18, as well as to the carers of adults.
The announcement of this future extension follows a review headed up by Imelda Walsh, HR Director of Sainsburys. One of Ms Walsh’s supplementary recommendations is that the age limit increase should happen in one fell swoop, rather than be introduced in stages.
In light of these developments, now would be a good time to review your flexible working arrangements, perhaps considering whether you want to retain the right to request as being open only to certain members of staff, or else, opening it up to all. The following ten top tips should help guide an internal review process:
- You will need to build a “business case” for the extension of flexible working arrangements. Potential benefits and cost savings include:
- Lower staff turnover, leading to a reduction in advertising, recruitment and training costs alongside management time saved interviewing, running inductions and supervising new starts;
- lower sick leave and absenteeism levels;
- potential office space savings;
- improved levels of employee commitment;
- workforce flexibility reflecting customer/client requirements; and
- an enhanced employer brand leading to increased numbers of skilled job applicants.
- Use your business case to gain buy-in to the idea of flexible working from all levels within the organisation. Consulting and including staff at an early stage will help with this process.
- Tailor policies to suit operational and employee needs, paying due attention to the impact on customers/clients of new ways of working, the management time and training needed to coordinate a more flexible approach, and the back-up arrangements required when employees are on leave.
- Pilot proposed arrangements so that you can evaluate the impact they might have and can make necessary adjustments before flexible working is rolled out across the organisation.
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