Stretching Out

TIm Holden considers the extension to flexible working rights and the likely impacts on reward.

The term flexibility can be used in a variety of different contexts with respect to work. These include the concept of flexible labour market adapting to peaks and troughs (or numerical flexibility which involves altering the size of the workforce using temporary, fixed-term and generally and agency staff), functional flexibility (training employees so they are able to perform a wider range of tasks) and place or time-of-work flexibility which seeks to achieve a mutually desirable worl-life balance.

Flexible working practices
I April 2003 the UK Government introduced the right for a parent to request flexible working. This gave parents with a child aged under six (or parents of a disabled child under the age of 18) the right to request flexible working arrangements from their employer. The employer has to "seriuosly consider" requests but is not required to grant permission, although rejection must be based on "good business reasons". These rights were extended from April 2007 to the carers of certain categories of adults, and from April 2009 to the parents of children aged under 16.

Research by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and Acas identified the following flexible working practices that can achieve place and/or time-of-work flexibility:

• part-time working: Work is generally considered part-time when employers are contracted to work anything less than average full-time hours.
• term-time working: A worker remains on a permanent contract but can take paid/unpaid leave during school holidays.
• job-sharing: A form of part-time working where two (or occasionally more) people share the responsibility for a job between them.
• flexitime: Allows employees to choose, eith certain core hours or rules, when to begin and end their working day.

- compressed hours: Compressed working weeks (also known as nineday fortnights) don't necessarily involve a reduction in total hours or an extension in individual choice over which hours are worked. The central feature is rellocation of work into fewer and longer blocks during the week. A nine-day fortnight can achieve a 10 per cent reduction in office running costs, such as security, cleaning and catering.

• annual hours: The period within which full-time employees must work is defined over a whole year.
• working from home on a regular basis: Workers regularly spend time working from home.
• mobile working/teleworking: This permits employees to work all or part of their working week at a location remote from the employer's workplace.
• career breaks: Career breaks, or sabbaticals, are extended periods of leave - normally unpaid - of up to five years or more.

Reasons for change
Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, said mothers often "tear their hair out" while bringing up children and tring to earn a living.

A recent Government survey of 1,000 parents suggested half believed their relationship with their child would improve if their work hours were more flexible. A total of two-thirds said it would be helpful to work flexibly as their children became older, and half of parents whose children were aged between 11 and 16 said they would help with homework if they could find the time.

The extension of flexible working provisions has made 4.5 million more employees eligable, at a time when six million parents and carers were already covered by the legislation. More than 95 per cent of requests for flexible working conditions from working parents and carers are now accepted, according to Government figures.

The Government insists that flexible working has business benefits as well, including increased productivity and reduced costs for recruitment due to increased staff loyalty.

"The business benefits of flexible working are well documented and this remains the case in tougher economic times," said Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden.

How an application works
To be eligable to make a statutory flexible working request, a person must: be an employee (as agency workers do not qualify), have worked for the organisation in question for at least 26 weeks on the date they make their request and have not made another statutory request during the previous 12 months.

The employee can only make an application to care for: a child aged 16 or under, a disabled child who is under 18 and who is in receipt of dissability living allowance, or certain adults who require care.

A parent can request flexible working if they are: the mother, farther, adopter, guardian, special guardian, foster parent or private foster carer of the child or a person who has been granted a residence order; married to or the partner or civil partner of the child's mother, father, adopter, guardian, special guardian, foster parent or private foster carer or of a person who has been granted a residence order.

A carer can request flexible working if they care, or expect to be caring, for either: a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative; or someone who lives at the carer's address.

A relative is a mother, father, adopter, adoptee, guardian, special guardian, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter, daughter-in-law, brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt or grandparent. Step-relatives, adoptive relationships and half-blood relatives are also included.

Employees can make oneapplication every 12 months - even if the second request is for a different caring responsibility. Each year runs from the date the first application was made. Before making a subsequent request, the employee must - at the date of application - still meet the eligibility criteria. Eligible employees can make a request to change the hours they work/change the times when they are required to work or work from another location of the business or from home (wheter for all or part of the week).

Applications may be received from employees with caring responsibilities that are incomplete in one form or another. When this occurs the employer should ask the employee to resubmit the request and advise them it will not be considered until the new application has been received. Where an employee refuses to provide employers with the information needed, the application can then be treated as withdrawn and in this case the employee will not be able to make another application for another 12 months.

Upon receipt of a complete application an acknowledgement should be issued, and employers should hold a meeting within 28 days with the employee to discuss their request (this period can be extended with the employee's agreement). Failure to hold a meeting within the 28-day period or any extension, without the employee's agreement, is considered to be a breach of the procedure. The meeting should be arranged at an appropriate time and place that is conveinient for all.

The employee has the right to be accompanied by a work colleague or certified trade union representative who works at any other premises which forms part of the business, with time off for the meeting paid by the employer.

To download forms for the flexible working process visit www.berr.gov.uk and www.businesslink.gov.uk. The normal applications normally commence with form FW (A) which should set out their desired working pattern and how the employer can accommodate it. Employers are expected to accept the information they give is true unless there is good reason to doubt it, and proof is not expected of the parental/caring relationship.

Where the request is approved then form FW (B) should be completed and the employee notified accordingley, while form FW (C) is used if the request is declined outright. Such a refusal can only be set on grounds that adversely affect the organisation as follows:

• planned structural changes
• the burden of additional costs
• a detrimental inpact on quality
• the inability to recruit additional staff members
• a detrimental impact on performance
• the inability to reorganise work among existing staffa detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• lack of work during the periods the employee proposes to work.

Within 14 days of the refusal being received the employee can appeal against the decision using form FW (D) and a subsequent appeal meeting must take place within 14 days of the appeal request being received. Forms FW (E) and FW (F) are available for employers to use when responding to an employee's appeal or where more time is required. Where employers feel it is impossible to accommodate the requested working pattern, they may still wish to explore alternatives to find a working pattern suitable to both parties.

If the employee wishes to withdraw their request for flexible working then FW (G) needs to be submitted to the employer.

Considerations for the employer
Some employers feel that the extension of flexible working is an excessive burden to manage during these dark days of economic gloom, believing that there may be a negative effect on productivity and that costs will rise. However, when benefits are being squeezed and pay cut or frozen, flexible working may well be a low-cost option to improve levels of employee engagement, labour turnover and stress/absence. In a addition, a recent project we have completed used flexible working for all employees as a tool for the attraction of key talent when publicised on the organisation's website and discussed positively throughout the hiring process.

Increase in requests
With modern technology such as high-speed broadband and wi-fi, and rising fuel prices and train fares, there has been a noticeable increase in flexible working requests that invlolve an element of home working. This has a significant beneficial impact on work-life balance and coupled with Government initiatives to encourage a family-friendly approach to work, this trend isn't showing any signs of stopping during the recession, although it will be interesting to see if a culture of "presenteeism" returns as the recession deepens. As forward-thinking employers identify that committed employees are crucial to their survival in the recession, issues around trust in respect of flexible working are likely to slowly improve in the next few months.

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