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As you may already know, Cullen Scholefield has always been a strong supporter of flexible working and has been offering flexible contracts for decades now! You can imagine our excitement then, when we found out that come 30th June flexible working will be a viable option for all workers.
At the moment you are able to apply for flexible working if you have 26 weeks of continuous service and have a child or children under the age of 17 (18 if they are disabled). As of 30th June, all employees with 26 weeks of service will be afforded the opportunity to apply for flexible working and their employers will have a duty to reasonably consider their application.
This news might equally invoke feelings of excitement and fear in some people. For those feeling the stress of their commute, their dreams of working in pyjamas is that bit closer, but for those in management you might fear that your workforce will be racing for the door and there is nothing you can do to stop it. Well have no fear, employers have to reasonably consider all applications, but if your business truly won’t survive with a remote workforce, then you are within your rights to say no. It is important though to understand exactly what flexible working entails and consider all the options, as you may not have realised the benefits that it could bring you.
Flexible working offers a lot of options. It can mean working from home or another remote location, or it can mean a change in hours or even a contract change from full-time to part-time. The important thing to realise is that it is not about working less, but about changing patterns of working to ensure that employees are at their most productive.
For example, Cullen Scholefield’s Gina has her own flexible contract to allow her to fit childcare around her working life. This means that Gina finishes her day earlier and requires time off during school holidays. Cullen Scholefield has granted her this flexibility and in return her children make up her lost hours… Only joking! In return Gina completes some of her duties from home and is happy to be on hand during those school holidays when we just can’t function without her! She puts in 110% because her working patterns now work best for her.
Similarly Tom, who is the man behind all of Cullen Scholefield’s videos, works on a flexible basis. Tom trades his expertise in video editing and graphic design for experience and has also wrangled a nice shiny camera for all of his hard work! He works in his own time and at his own pace and because of this flexible understanding, both him and Cullen Scholefield benefit from the relationship.
Our most flexible worker by far though is Nicola, fondly known as the database scrubber. Her responsibility is to keep the database clean, which can be quite a tiresome and tedious job so she is at liberty to decide her own hours. I asked her a few questions about what flexible working means to her and she said:
“It is great for me because I don’t have to work set hours and I can mainly focus on the outcomes. This works well for me regarding my health issues which require me to be at doctor’s appointments a lot of the time and a full time job would not allow me this flexibility; it would just bring more stress.”
She went on to say that she feels like part of the team despite working remotely and that it is a game of give and take:
“Flexibility works both ways. I am able to choose the best hours for me, but if something urgent comes up I don’t mind focusing my full attention on it.”
You may be thinking that flexible working is not groundbreaking news. After all, organisations have been embracing flexible working for years and I’ve just shown this with a few of our own examples. What is good and new about these changes is that it improves the dynamic for flexible working. Where some people might have only thought it an option for parents with children, now they can consider it for themselves. Also employers can consider the benefits of letting some of their staff change their working patterns.
The important thing to remember about flexible working is that there needs to be a large level of trust between the employer and employee. The employer has to trust that the employee is doing their work and focus on that, not how they do it. A remote worker cannot be micromanaged. If you call your employee every hour on the hour then they will realise you don’t trust them and their productivity and happiness will decrease. Focus on outcomes, not hours put in. A small sign of good faith will go a long way and you won’t regret it!
Resources:
CIPD – Zero-hours contract: myth and reality
CIPD – Future proofing business resilience through flexible working
CIPD – Flexible working provision and uptake: a survey report
ACAS – Handling requests in a reasonable manner to work flexibly
ACAS- Draft code of practice on handling in a reasonable manner requests to work flexibly