Changes in work: flexible working as a default Day One right

By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director

In October this year, the Government published its Employment Bill including the commitment to make flexible working a default right. This builds on the changes made in April this year which made it possible for employees to make a request on day one of their employment.

In terms of how this will be delivered, the Government has essentially tightened up the previous policy, putting more onus on the employer to accept any ‘reasonable’ request. Supporting guidance is expected to make it clear what the consideration process needs to be and to help employers understand how to apply the ‘reasonableness’ assessment.

In terms of supporting organisations to make this change, the key is to make sure it supports employers in delivering their business, as well as supporting individuals.  It also important to reference all types of flexible working to ensure that the flexibility can be found which suits the role.  This isn’t just about hybrid working.  There will be more work to do to support employers to identify the flex that will work in each role and to support teams with multiple people working flexibly.

If delivered correctly, this change could enable thousands more people to access and stay in work. It will also benefit employers in terms of improving wellbeing and morale, and reducing sickness and turnover.

Moving to flex by default

At Timewise, we’ve supported hundreds of organisations to transform their approach and attitudes towards flexible working. And as we’ve proved in our innovation work, there are ways to improve the options and choice someone has, even in shift- based and site-based roles. 

Our work focuses on finding the ‘win-win’ where the needs of the organisation and the needs of individuals can be achieved.  It involves being willing to look afresh at working practices and being willing to try something new.  Being familiar with a whole range of ways to make jobs more flexible.  And co-designing solutions with managers and teams. 

5 ways employer brands can get ahead of the legislation

1. Get your leaders on side. Highlight the business benefits of supporting flexible working – in terms of retention, wellbeing, productivity and inclusion. There are tangible benefits if you do this properly and systemically, rather than focused on individual requests.

2. Identify your flex framework, for every role. The options may well look different for different types of role and that’s fine, when it’s linked to what that team or service deliver. But it should be possible to find some flex options which can be supported and which you can offer. Highlighting these in your advert helps.

3. Identify any systems and policies which work against being a flexible organisation. For example, counting heads instead of FTE, not having the tech to enable remote working or systems which default to everyone working 9 to 5. Addressing these will make things easier for managers to enable flexibility.

4. Support managers to start from a ‘Yes, how?’ response, rather than fear flex working requests.  Managers often feel exposed and left to pick up all the gaps when other people work flexibly so supporting them to take a whole team approach can be helpful and relieve the pressure.

5. Make it a regular conversation. Ask team members regularly about their working patterns. Get teams talking about how they’re working together. Create safe spaces for managers to discuss the challenges. Like any culture change, there will be pockets of resistance and there will be times you didn’t get it right. So make sure to keep checking in and tweak if necessary.

Now that we know that this change will be happening, we encourage employers to look at their organisational culture and processes to ensure that flexible working is really integrated into how they work.  The demand is there, so to reap the benefits of improved attraction and retention, ensure flexible working can be supported in every team and be part of your ways of working.

Published October 2024

Changes in work: zero hours contracts

Changes in work: the right to switch off