The F Word
The F Word Are you ready to be flexible?
The impending changes to flexible working legislation could lead to an extra 4.5 million requests for reduced working hours. Pf’s Diana Spencer takes a look at the new rules and their possible impact on work-life balance policies as a whole.
From 1 April 2009 the right to request flexible working will be extended to all parents with children up to the age of 16, in accordance with the recommendations of a review led by Sainsbury’s HR Direcror Imelda Walsh. As a result, up to an extra 4.5 million workers will qualify, with a potentially huge impact on UK businesses.
The new legislation extends the previous ‘right to request’ established in April 2003, which included only parents of children six years and under, and it is expected that the procedure to be followed will be the same. Under the current guidance, a qualifying employee must submit their request in writing, stating the change they would like to their working hours, the date from which this would be effective and how the impact on their work, if any, will be managed.
Upon receipt of a request, an employer can reject it on several grounds, for example, the burden of additional costs, a detrimental impact on productivity or the impact on other staff. If a meeting is to be arranged, this must be done within 28 days of receiving the request.
If the employee believes their request has been rejected unreasonably, they may be able to pursue a tribunal claim.
The business case
Despite the employer’s right to reject requests for flexible working, evidence suggests that it may not be in their best interests to do so.
According to the latest Workplace Employee Relations Survey (WERS), the number of organisations offering flexible working has almost doubled in the last six years, and managers are beginning to show a greater appreciation for the home-life demands of their employees. So what has motivated this change of heart?
Research in this area has strongly indicated that there can be huge benefits to an employer in taking a more flexible approach.
The CIPD’s latest employee survey (carried out by Kingston University/Ipsos MORI) revealed that ‘workers on flexible contracts tend to be more emotionally engaged, more satisfied with their work, more likely to speak positively about their organisation and less likely to quit’.
This is also supported by research by Working Families and Cranfield, which found that flexible workers had improved motivation, commitment and performance levels, as well as lower stress levels and generally better health and wellbeing.
Employers are also beginning to recognise the benefits of flexible working as an aid to the recruitment of the best candidates. On top of this, the increased numbers of women in the workforce, the availability of new technology and the need to operate businesses on a 24-hour basis have meant that a more modern approach to working hours has become both possible and necessary.
This business case for a flexible approach puts both individual employers and groups in a strong position to suggest changes to working hours, either for individuals juggling parenthood and a career under the new legislation, or for the company as a whole.
Flexibility and the recession
Some employers may be dreading the increase in requests for flexible working, particularly given the current economic situation. However, conversely, this could be the best time to implement a new working hours policy.
As the tougher financial conditions started to take hold of businesses last summer, Channel 4 reported that many employers were looking for new incentives for staff while they were unable to offer pay rises.
Ros Oxley, Managing Director of Leaders in London (part of Informa), said: “Business leaders are increasingly finding that they’re at the sharp end of the credit crunch and need to take stock of how they run their organisations in order to get the best from their employees. In these tough financial times employers are facing a difficult challenge to keep their staff motivated, with many trying to find low-cost incentives to encourage and reward productivity.”
One such low-cost alternative was offering flexible hours. Working Families suggests that this benefit can be effective, not only for keeping good employees, but also for cutting overall business costs. In its briefing Flexible working in a challenging economic climate, the group argues that staff may be willing to accept reduced hours and reduced pay, and the need for less office space will cut costs due to job shares or home-working. Even if general costs are not reduced, the cost of redundancies and subsequent recruitment will be a lot less if talent can be retained for when the financial situation improves.
Deborah De’Ath, Director at PriceWaterhouseCoopers, said: “In a difficult job market, some people would rather keep their job under a different arrangement, such as with reduced hours, rather than be unemployed. Strategies like this also mean that when the market picks up it is easier, cheaper and quicker for companies to react.”
Pharma and work-life balance
Traditionally, the pharmaceutical sales industry has been good at making allowances for more flexible working hours, particularly for sales reps, who may need to visit customers outside the traditional nine-to-five day. Sales executives are also provided with the technology that allows them to work remotely from the office and at unusual hours.
In the early part of this century, many large pharmaceutical firms re-examined their flexible working policies to ensure they remained competitive. GlaxoSmithKline typifies the attitude of pharmaceutical companies when it states on its website: “Because we value your talent and commitment, we’ll do all we can to help you live the life you want.”
Even as early as the midnineties, pharma was ahead of the game in ensuring its worklife policies were attractive to prospective employees. Companies like Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly worked with the research consultancy the Work Foundation to overhaul their approach to working hours and flexibility. These projects mean that many pharma companies now offer benefits such as flexi-time, part-time working, home working, career breaks, special leave for religious holidays, parental (and adoption) leave, as well as well-being policies and healthy living initiatives.
Companies accept, however, that the ever-changing nature of modern lives means this will always be a work in progress. At the conclusion of its project with the Work Foundation, Lilly stated: “An organisation like Lilly UK must never be complacent about work-life balance and just because we have a good number of programmes on the shelf does not mean that we have a workforce that is able to balance work and personal life.
“Communication, walking the talk, role models, keeping the philosophy alive and being flexible are all important aspects of a true work-life balance culture.”
The flexible future
Despite being traditionally very good at acknowledging the need for a work-life balance, time will tell whether the pharmaceutical industry will live up to these ideals under changing conditions.
The impact of the economic crisis on the industry means that many companies have been forced to limit the number it employs and some have even had to make large numbers redundant. With smaller work forces, it may not be so easy for companies to offer such generous flexible working options, and it will be interesting to see how these organisations cope with the increased numbers of parents requesting changes to their working hours.
However, it seems likely that the increase in requests for more flexible working hours will force other industries to consider a new approach to the work-life balance of its employees and a move away from the current culture of ‘presenteeism’. It has also been predicted that the changes will result in more companies establishing a flexible-working policy for all employees.
The need to attract the best calibre candidates and retain talent is more pressing than ever in the current economic climate, so like other industries, pharma may turn to flexible working benefits to incentivise staff when money is tight. It will be policies like these that enable organisations to weather the storm of the recession and could mean good news for those parents who will soon have the right to request a better family life.