Important questions:
Important stats:
Covid-19 has revolutionised the way people work. Many staff have been trying new work patterns, including working from home or more flexible hours. Employers and employees alike have had to adapt to reduced customer demand and travel restrictions. Whilst employers can now request staff to return to the office where it is safe to do so, we expect it is unlikely we’ll see an immediate return to business as usual.
94% of employees want to work more flexibly going forward (Working Families survey – 1000+ employees). This will help them achieve a better work-life balance, especially if they have caring commitments.
Of course, some employees will be eager to get back into the workplace or to their normal hours. Others, though, are likely to use the right enshrined in the flexible working legislation to ask to keep working remotely, or on reduced hours or a different working pattern.
It is important to note that any employee with more than 26 weeks’ service can make a formal request for flexible working; as an employer you must make a reasonable decision within a reasonable time frame – usually 3 months.
What if you receive multiple requests all at once? You can, of course, refuse the request on a number of very specific grounds. Reasons to turn down a flexible working request include a valid business reason for doing so. Examples include, an unreasonable cost to implement the change, there will be a negative effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand or there are planned changes to the business, for example, plans to reorganise or change the business and thinks the request will not fit with these plans
However, as the COVID pandemic has demonstrated that people can work from home without negatively impacting on the business, this will be more difficult to justify so what can you do to be an employer who retains and develops talent, rather than having to recruits and replace, and deal with the invisible and visible costs of turnover.
Contact us today if you would like advice; enquiries@DandHRassociates.com
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