It’s been over a year since flexible working was extended to all employees. The hope at the time was that the legislation might contribute to the normalisation of flexible working.
There is no doubt that flexible working is forging ahead, enabled by technology, and moving into sectors traditionally associated with long hours, such as law. But Workingmums.co.uk’s annual survey shows that a significant number of women are still being forced to leave their jobs because a flexiblity request was turned down, with over half saying they felt the reasons given were unjustified.
The flexible working legislation has always allowed for requests to be turned down on eight different grounds and it is still only possible to make a request after six months in a job. This means those who are looking for a new job have to judge when it is best to bring up the subject of flexibility at interview or apply for the relatively few openly advertised flexible jobs.
However, under the extension of flexible working there are some new rules. There is, for instance, no longer a statutory right of appeal, although it is recommended by Acas. Just over a tenth of respondents to the Workingmums.co.uk survey who appealed were successful. However, 77% didn’t appeal.
There is also a less structured timetable under the new legislation. Whereas before, employers had to respond to request within a certain number of days and there was a timetable set out for appeal, they now just have to process a request within three months.
When people formally apply for flexible working they now have to explain how they think flexible working might affect the business and how this could be dealt with, for instance, if they’re not at work on certain days.
Many of those who work flexibly support this approach and agree that flexible working is more effective if there are mutual benefits, but there is often limited support available for those looking to make this business case.
Some organisations do support employees - mainly new mums or dads - through the flexible working process. There are also external organisations who provide free advice on how to write a flexible work letter. But the demand for such support is much greater than the support available.
Tania Jones runs an HR business and offers free workshops to parents in Bristol about their employment rights. She gets a lot of questions about flexible working. “It’s important to present a request from a business perspective”, she says. “If there are additional costs involved they should admit and justify them.”
Other experts advise showing how your work can successfully be carried out under the proposed new working pattern, demonstrating that it will not harm the business and may even have business advantages. This may involve sounding out colleagues beforehand to ensure they are on side. If requesting remote working, it may be that there are parts of a job that can be done more effectively from home without distraction, such as analysis, reading, strategic thinking or writing reports.
For job shares, it is worth putting forward how this might work in terms of handovers, communication with team members or clients and so forth and researching examples of successful job share partnerships. For part-time work, it is important to think through whether there are certain days or hours which need less cover. Are there certain tasks that could be delegated allowing other staff the chance to act up? If managers are dubious, it might be worth suggesting a trial period, but ensure there is a proper review process.
It is important to methodically think through the tasks a job involves and whether they can be done differently, from a different location, at different times and so forth.
It is also good to have a compromise solution, since the flexible working process is a negotiation. It may be, for instance, that with some homeworking a person who requests part-time could work full-time, or that they could work less at certain less busy times of the year.
When her children were small, Christina Leafe, now director, land and environment consultancy at Atkins, managed to negotiate part-time working in what was advertised as a full-time position. She was available on the mobile or laptop for urgent issues and could work in the office or at home. As she rose up the ranks and her children got older, term time working seemed a good idea.
She presented this to her manager as a 93% contract involving two weeks off at Christmas, two weeks at Easter, school inset days and four weeks over the summer. She knew that summer was a quiet time business-wise, but agreed to take a laptop with her during the holidays in case of emergencies. She reported back on its success so head office could see it was possible. She worked that pattern for several years until her children were older and there were no longer the same kind of family summer holidays. However, she continues to work flexibly.
A Workingmums.co.uk survey asking employers about the extension of flexible working earlier this year, found a number of respondents felt they would be more cautious about granting flexible requests for fear of creating a precedent.
Dave Dunbar, head of digital workplace at Nationwide Building Society, says: “A lot of companies, particularly smaller ones, are really struggling to get a handle on how they can progress flexible working. They know they need to do it and they know the benefits, but they do not have the skills and time to make it happen.”
One of the things they worry about is that technology is moving so fast it is difficult to keep up. For Dunbar, though, the most important thing is getting the vision right and communicating that to employees. The technology can then support that.
Andy Lake, editor of Flexibility.co.uk, is working with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development on a maturity assessment tool to measure progress in smart working. The Smart Working Handbook, which Flexibility.co.uk publishes, forms the basis of new British standards guidance on smart working, to be published shortly. Lake wants to support organisations to take a more holistic view to flexible working rather than agreeing requests on a case by case basis - something he calls “inflexible flexibility”.
There have been more than 10,000 downloads of the handbook since it was first published in 2011. It contains best practice case studies and a step by step timeline for how to implement smart working as well as advice on everything from creating a vision to managing remote teams.
The book states: “It is too easy to say, on the basis of traditional practices, ‘This sort of job can’t be done flexibly’.” It adds that more and more jobs have knowledge-based components that can be “untethered” from physical resources. “This requires new thinking about how, where and when work can be done,” it explains.states.
It’s this kind of new thinking that employees need to use to make their case. If both employers and employees do their research and work together, the normalisation of smart working - as opposed to ad hoc flexible working - will take one big step forward.
