October 2023 Parenta magazine

Are you struggling with your recruitment
like many early years settings and other
businesses?
Would you love to know how to recruit
more and better-trained employees into
your business?
Did you know…
National Work Life
Week
⚙ 8 in 10 parents would apply for a job
with flexible working options listed
in the advert but only 3 in 10 parents
would apply if the job did NOT have
flexible working options?
⚙ 30% of working parents in the UK are
working in jobs below their skill level
simply because they offer greater job
flexibility?
⚙ About National Work Life Week?
National Work Life Week (NWLW) is an
annual campaign set up by Working
Families, a national UK charity for working
parents and carers. Their mission is
to “remove the barriers that people
with caring responsibilities face in the
workplace”, and they aim to “achieve a
society in which everyone can fully meet
their work and caring responsibilities,
where all parents and carers have an
equal opportunity to find and progress in
secure, paid work.”
The organisers understand what being
a working parent really means and
some of the barriers that people face
when returning to work after having a
family, and are working actively with UK
employers to bring about change. The
event is run in partnership with another
work and family charity called Bright
Horizons which is sponsoring the week.
They say that this year’s campaign is
designed “to help your employees to
combine work and family better. It’s
good for people and good for business.
Everybody wins.”
Our changing working
lives
Our working patterns underwent a
massive transformation during the recent
COVID-19 pandemic. People were in
lockdown, unable to go to work by order
of the Government, and yet, we needed
our economy and business sector to keep
working in whatever way it could. People
began working from home, and offices
that were once filled with employees stood
empty, but the businesses continued
under a new model. Most of us remember
learning how to use Zoom for the first time
to talk to colleagues and family members
across the country, and indeed the world.
Since the end of the pandemic, working in
Britain has far from returned to ‘normal’.
Many companies chose to stop paying
high rents and have set-up remote offices.
More of us work from home permanently,
and those companies who have insisted
their employees return to the office have
struggled with recruitment and retention.
A study in 2022 showed how working
parents are rethinking their work-life
balance after the pandemic. Working in
an organisation that has access to flexible
working can help retain staff according to
the survey, as 55% of those questioned
said they would likely consider leaving
their job if they found another one that
offered more flexible options. Change has
already happened, and UK employers
need to catch up.
For all UK parents, flexibility (66%) was
second only to pay (73%) in terms of
priorities when people were looking for a
new job. However, for mothers, flexibility
and pay are tied as the top priority.
What are the issues
families face?
Some of the issues that families face when
seeking or deciding whether to stay in
work include:
⚙ Opportunities for flexible hours
⚙ Childcare issues such as drop-off and
pick-up times
⚙ High cost for childcare compared to
the high cost-of-living
⚙ Time off to accompany children to
medical or other appointments
⚙ Trying to manage work with other
caring responsibilities (e.g. parents/
family members)
⚙ Stress caused by trying to maintain a
work/life balance
What is flexible
working?
According to the Gov.uk website, flexible
working is “a way of working that suits an
employee’s needs, for example having
flexible start and finish times, or working
from home.”
Flexible working practices may include:
⚙ Job sharing: two or more people fill
the full-time role by each working
part-time hours
⚙ Part-time working
⚙ Term-time working: a worker remains
on a permanent contract but takes
leave during school holidays
⚙ Flexitime: this is where employees can
choose, within reasonable set limits,
when to begin and end their working
day but need to fulfil an agreed
number of hours per week
⚙ Working from home/remote working
⚙ Compressed hours: where people
work full-time hours but over fewer
days, e.g. 35 hours/week over 4 days
⚙ Annual hours: employees are
contracted to work a set number
of hours over the year but this can
be split out differently to allow for
variation in the business
⚙ Career breaks: extended periods of
leave which can be paid or unpaid of
up to five years or more
⚙ Staggered hours: where employees
may have different start/end times to
cover shifts/opening hours
What is the legal
position?
All employees in most parts of the UK have
the legal right to request flexible working -
not just parents and carers. Rules differ in
Northern Ireland. This is known as “making
a statutory application” - however,
employees must have worked for the
same employer for at least 26 weeks to be
eligible.
If an employee requests flexible working,
the employers must deal with requests in
a ‘reasonable manner’ which includes:
⚙ Assessing the advantages and
disadvantages of the application
⚙ Holding a meeting to discuss the
request with the employee
⚙ Offering an appeal process
If the employee feels their request has
not been handled reasonably, they can
request an employment tribunal. However,
an employer can refuse an application
if they have a good business reason for
doing so.
Things to do in your
setting to mark the
NWLW
⚙ Have open discussions with your
team about flexible working if you
have not got this as a policy already
⚙ Visit the NWLW website and check
out their resources and ideas which
include a free toolkit, webinars and
training
⚙ Sign up for regular updates by email
⚙ Drop in on their ‘Lunch and Learn’
session
⚙ Use the ‘Happy to Talk Flexible
Working’ logo and strapline on job
vacancies
⚙ Run a questionnaire among your staff
to canvas their opinions
⚙ Introduce a pilot scheme to see what
the take up would be in your setting
for offering more flexible working
⚙ Review and reconsider your policies
affecting training and recruitment as
well as parental leave
More information
⚙ workingfamilies.org.uk/
nationalworklifeweek
⚙ www.gov.uk/flexible-working
⚙ solutions.brighthorizons.co.uk
Scan here for
more references
& information:
22 October 2023 | parenta.com
parenta.com | October 2023 23