If a member of your staff has a legitimate reason for requesting a change to their working pattern, you are obliged to consider it and wherever possible, work to make that change for your employee either permanent or for a set period of time. The Flexible Working Regulations was originally developed to support Mums or the primary care giver returning to work after their maternity (or adoption) leave but from 2014 the Flexible Working Regulations have been opened up to include whole work force. To clarify, a flexible working request means any adjustment to an employee’s set hours of work.

Just wanting time to catch up on GoT isn’t a good reason, and an employee should have at least 26 weeks service to have a statutory right to make the request. Below are some reasons that Flexible Working Arrangements could be considered legitimate and should be properly considered.

Caring for a friend or relative….
Perhaps someone needs to make a visit each morning, or take a dependent to a weekly appointment; Flexible Working doesn’t have to be about taking a whole day, or even half, it might just be a couple of hours.

Homeworking…

You may receive a flexible working request for an employee to work from home.

Working another job…
Though not an immediately obvious reason for allowing an employee to change their hours, there can be some positives in allowing this, provided there are no conflicts of interest, for example, developing other transferrable skills.

Volunteering…
If an employee is involved with a charity and wants to dedicate a few hours a week to the cause, this is a good way for a company to be seen supporting local charities as well as enabling employees to actively participate in the community.

Therapy….
Not just counselling, although that would be a reasonable request, there are other activities to support mental health, not least volunteering as above. This might well be a way to support an employee returning to work after a period of absence.

Gearing up to retirement….
If a person is regularly working above their contracted hours, sometimes out of habit more than need, this can be a way to make a first move towards reducing hours in the run-up to retirement without affecting salary.

Bear in mind that as an Employer, you are only obliged to consider the application. You will want to consider the needs of the business and how work can be covered if needed. Requests must be considered and responded to in a reasonable time, within a maximum of three months. You can usually only refuse a flexible working request if there is a legitimate business reasons for doing so, which may include the following;
• the burden of additional costs
• an inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
• an inability to recruit additional staff
• a detrimental impact on quality
• a detrimental impact on performance
• detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work
• a planned structural changes to the business.

Although the request might be easy to decline, be prepared to negotiate, be flexible in your approach to the Flexible Working Request; maybe a half day would be adequate, or perhaps you can think of another way to help.  Supporting staff to manage their busy lives, creates a positive sense of responsibility for each other, which in turn encourages engagement and commitment from the whole team. Be fair, be consistent, and be open to the advantages of applying Flexible Working Time.

For any assistance with Flexible Working or an HR support or advice please get in contact at
info@qbhsolutions.co.uk
07795 564089 / 01303 891803