FLEX WORKING REQUESTS MUST WORK FOR BUSINESSES AND EMPLOYEES Proposed changes to employee rights, to legalise flexible working requests on the first day of a new job, must work for businesses and employees alike, says The HR Dept.
Under the proposals, which were put out to consultation on Thursday, employees would no longer have to wait for six months before submitting requests for flexible working.
The SME human resources outsourcing expert has broadly welcomed a Government move to speed up the process of giving employees more flexibility around working hours and location.
In turn, employers would have to respond to requests more quickly than the current maximum of three months, and offer reasonable justification for refusing any requests.
But the company, which provides support to more than 6,500 SMEs around the UK, said the arrangement needs to work for businesses too. Arrangements such as job sharing, compacted hours, annualised hours or phased retirement may suit both male and female employees but may not be in the best interests of the business. The HR Dept suggested that smaller businesses in particular may struggle to absorb resulting costs of communications, contractual and policy changes. And it also raised concerns over productivity, retention and recruitment, which can disproportionately affect smaller businesses when compared to their larger competitors. 26
The consultation is part of the Government’s Good Work Plan programme, under which The HR Dept has represented the views of UK SMEs since it was set up in 2018. Stacey Mead, director The HR Dept Bristol, Bath and North Somerset, urged the Government to consider the implications for SMEs, which employ 60 per cent of the UK’s private sector staff. “My concern is the impact any new rules will have on the smaller businesses we represent in the Bristol area,” she said. “While we of course recognise the benefits to employees of proposals to support better work life balance, there are always knockon effects of new legislation and it is usually smaller businesses which feel those the most.
