IQ-Magazine-Issue-7

HOW TO INTRODUCE FLEXIBLE WORKING
The Government proposes to extend the right to request
Flexible working to all employees at some stage in 2014
IQ employment
Flexible Working - The Law
The current law allows parents with
children under 17 (or 18 if disabled)
and carers to request a change to
their working hours, the times they
work or where they work. This
includes the right to request to work
from home.
The Benefits of Flexible Working
Studies have found that employers
offering flexible contracts to all
workers tend to have employees
who are more emotionally engaged,
more satisfied with their work, more
likely to speak positively about their
employer and less likely to quit.
Helping Managers Adapt to
Flexible Working
At some stage the law will change,
which means that unless managers
adapt, they may have a negative
approach to anyone working flexibly
which is not good for business -
consider the cost of a claim for
constructive dismissal. So, how can
you help your managers to change
the way they think about flexible
working?
8 STEPS TO INTRODUCING FLEXIBLE WORKING
1 Draft your policy and procedure for handling requests.
2 Inform your managers about the legislation. Lunch and
learn sessions are great for keeping managers aware of new
policies and procedures, and for getting buy-in.
3 Listen: don’t presume to know what managers are thinking.
Using a lunch and learn session to listen to what your
managers’ concerns are, will give you insights into what your
potential issues will be. This is not a time to be dismissive of
the concerns raised; they are genuine concerns.
4 Encourage open exploration of the issues; if a manager is
worried about reduced productivity, talk about how you
currently measure productivity, and whether that would
need to change? Don’t dismiss their concerns or give all the
answers; you don’t need a sledgehammer to crack this nut,
just a bit of patience.
5 Respond to feedback: be open to making adjustments to the
policy and procedure. You never know, managers may have
ideas for other ways of working flexibly that may not be part
of the legislation that you may like to consider.
6 Create the final policy: you may decide that another short
meeting with managers is needed before publishing the
policy. Be prepared to meet again, especially if there was a
lot of resistance at first; some people just need a little bit of
time to reflect, and you may be surprised at the difference at
a second meeting.
7 Publish the policy and inform staff in your usual way.
more information
AboutHR can help to ensure that your managers
have the skills to meet the challenges faced by
the demands of the modern workforce.
Call today on 01954 715406.
8 Support managers to implement changes.
The fact is, you are not going to receive hundreds of requests
to work from home. The businesses which currently offer
flexible working to all employees enjoy the benefits of closer
working relationships – you can too!
issue 7 | page 15