The plan’s focus on flexible working marks another step forward – now the NHS needs to take action to turn its commitments into reality. Here’s how to do it.
By Melissa Buntine, Principal Consultant, Timewise
The launch of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is a hugely welcome development. The staffing crisis has been an ongoing issue within the service, with the RCN seeking legislation to protect safe staffing levels as far back as 2017. And in the intervening years, organisations within and outside the medical sphere – including Parliament’s cross-party Health and Social Care Committee – have warned that the number of unfilled posts (currently standing at 112,000) is a risk to patient safety.
The NHS took a big step towards tackling the problem with the publication of its People Plan 2020/21, which recognised the importance of flexible working as an attraction and retention tool, and committed to encouraging its employers to offer it from day one. And here at Timewise, we’ve also been focusing on this issue, working with 93 English NHS organisations last year on the Flex for the Future programme, to support the transition to more flexible working practices.
So we’re delighted that the Workforce Plan puts flexible working in the NHS at the heart of its measures, and recognises the impact it can have on staff shortages. But we also know that it will take a concerted effort to bring these commitments to life.
The plan’s commitment to “highlighting the flexibility and autonomy that NHS staff enjoy” is hugely positive, but making sure that this flexibility is fit for purpose is something else entirely. And while the People Plan’s day one flex commitment put the NHS ahead of the flexible working curve, the new legislation that makes this a UK-wide right softens that edge – and increases the likelihood of potential employees finding better-paid flexible opportunities elsewhere.
The NHS therefore needs to not just offer and highlight flexible working, but to champion it, from top to bottom, and make sure it works in practice. Here are four actions that the service could take to make this a reality.
1. Be more proactive about designing part-time and flexible roles
As in many organisations, there’s a tendency within the NHS to wait until people are about to leave, panic, then try to work out how to persuade them to stay. Flexible working is a brilliant retention tool – but instead of waiting until people have had enough, it makes more sense to offer it proactively, and to work with each individual to explore what kind of flexible working matches their needs.
We know from experience that there’s a real lack of confidence within the service about flexible job design, but it isn’t rocket science; at its core, it involves looking at when, where and how much people want or need to work, and designing the job to match. We can help.
2. Offer alternatives to the 12.5-hour shift norm
Again, as in many longstanding organisations, there’s a feeling across the NHS of “It’s always been done this way… if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The length of a standard shift – a back-breaking 12.5 hours – is a perfect example of something that could merit a fresh look.
Leaders need to have the confidence to challenge this norm, and explore whether other alternatives could also work. Would it be possible to offer 6-hour shifts instead, which might be easier for people who are juggling family or caring responsibilities, or with health conditions? What would be the impact on staffing levels if they did?
3. Embrace self-rostering to give staff a say in when they work
The NHS has a high proportion of frontline staff, who work on a 24/7 shift pattern. Historically, these employees have had shifts imposed on them, and have needed to be available at any time, which is not helpful for anyone’s work-life balance. But thanks to developments in technology, it’s now possible to build rosters which take people’s preferences about when they do and don’t work into account.
We’ve previously piloted a team-based approach to rostering within nursing, using our ‘shift-life balance’ model, and found that it increased the feeling that work-life preferences were being met (from 39% to 51%), and improved the sense of a strong collective responsibility (from 16% to 36%). Both of which, clearly, are key to creating an environment in which people want to stay.
And right now, we’re working with several clients, including UCLH and Guys & St Thomas’, to introduce a self-rostering model. This allows team members to input their preferences into a roster, with ward managers then making final decisions to ensure safe staffing levels and the right skills mix. It’s a win-win, with staff really valuing the chance to have some input, and managers finding it can make the roster building and approval process much more efficient.
4. Make sure that all training can be done flexibly
The plan rightly places a big emphasis on training, both in terms of growing and upskilling the workforce. But in both cases, this training needs to be delivered in a way that is accessible to those who need to work flexibly. Otherwise, key groups who need flexibility to work – including, but not restricted to, parents, carers and those with health conditions – will fall behind their peers and potentially fall out of the workforce, or be prevented from joining it in the first place.
Clearly, changes like these take time to implement – and they won’t happen without board-level buy-in. So the NHS needs its leaders to step up now, and lead from the top, driving the behaviour change that the service needs, and even incorporating flexibility around ways of working as a design principle for their services. Professor Joe Harrison and his leadership team at Milton Keynes University Hospital are great examples of what can be achieved when leaders are vocal about the benefits of flexible working within the NHS.
It also needs to make sure that managers and HR teams have the skills they need to design and implement flexible roles. That means teaching them about the benefits of flexible working for the organisation and its staff; upskilling them in flexible job design; and training them in how to manage flexible teams. Our Flex for the Future programme set out how this can be done.
And finally, for all these recommendations to really take hold, they need to be applied across NHS systems, rather than on a trust-by-trust basis. We’re currently working with three systems –Lincolnshire, Kent & Medway, and Hampshire & the Isle of Wight – and are already seeing the value of bringing together the different parts of a local health and care system to collaborate on strategy, resources and learning. Implementing flexible working across the NHS in this way could be transformational.
And a transformational approach is what’s needed; as the Workforce Plan acknowledges, “Inaction in the face of demographic change is forecast to leave us with a shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2036/37.” Patient safety is already at risk with today’s shortfall, and we can’t afford to let it get worse. The plan is an important step in the right direction; now let’s act on it.
Published October 2023
By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director
It’s no secret that frontline and shift-based jobs are harder to make flexible than office-based ones. From the obvious barriers around working from home to the requirement to have a balance of skills on a shift or site, there’s just less room to manoeuvre when a frontline employee needs flexibility.
Here at Timewise, we see this as a challenge, not a barrier; we’re working with employers across the frontline, including NHS trusts, construction companies, schools and retailers, to level the flexible playing field.
But although the dial is starting to shift on access to formal flexible arrangements, most frontline staff are still missing out on something else that many office-based workers take for granted – ad-hoc flexibility.
Sometimes, life happens in a way that requires flex at short notice; an hour here, or a morning there, in a way that can’t be planned in. It might be a child’s school assembly, or an elderly relative’s doctor’s appointment; it might be something as seemingly trivial as a tiny window in which to book tickets for a favourite band’s farewell tour.
Faced with these scenarios, most office-based workers would simply come in late, or take a bit of time out, and make it up later; but for a frontline employee, that’s not an option. Rosters are often created months in advance, and while colleagues might be willing to swap shifts or cover for each other, it’s not a given – and puts the onus on the employee to call in a favour. So as well as exploring more formal flexible arrangements, proactive employers are also looking at ways to give their frontline and shift-based staff access to this more informal, ad-hoc flexibility.
The Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (RFL) employs 11,000 people across 74 wards spread over multiple sites, including 3 major hospitals. Approximately 3 in 4 of the workforce are women; it’s a highly multigenerational group and half are midwives and nurses.
What unites them all is the desire to do a brilliant job – to put patients first and to have some kind of work-life balance. The RFL’s concerted efforts around work-life balance have been critical in retention, talent attraction and by consequence, patient experience. The working environment is intense, they work hard, but the RFL’s HR team remain committed to building a supportive culture for staff. Here’s how they’ve done it for flexible working – led by our first ever Gamechanger, Head of Workforce Programmes, Michelle Hickson.
Michelle Hickson, Head of Workforce Programmes, Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust (RFL)
“We want our colleagues to come to work feeling looked after and in control of their lives – this means our patients have better experiences and that’s the goal,” says Michelle. “We have a very progressive policy on flexible working, developed in partnership with trade unions, managers and all our stakeholders,” she continues. Collaboration has been key: “Managers need to feel empowered to trial the new approaches they think will work. Then, we support the managers with their decisions. For example, we recently ran a series of webinars to engage people and challenge existing thinking. We also always provide case studies. Seeing how someone else does something, is what has the real impact.”
RFL have rolled-out self-rostering to all wards. This allows and encourages staff to input their preferences for shifts, so they have more control over their own work life balance through choice, stability, and predictability.
A team-based approach is encouraged, individuals submit their work-life preferences, and work together to grant requests and cover gaps in the scheduling, months in advance. This approach helps to create a sense of fairness within the roster.
Michelle says, “We are proud to have this equitably available across all wards – self-rostering is a great tool.”
Michelle stresses the importance of reviewing and monitoring once policies and procedures are in place. She explains, “Some wards are using self-rostering more than others. We are looking at how to increase the number of teams using it and encouraging the team-based rather than individual approach.”
We asked Michelle what drives her. She said: “Equity, social mobility, and opportunity. I want patients to have the best experience. They should have consistency of care and know who they are being treated by. You can only do that by building the workforce.” Michelle continues: “I feel at my most proud when I can see that we have helped people to fulfil the multiple roles they have in their own lives – for example, we had a healthcare support worker join us, she was a mum to a young child and balance was paramount. But she really wanted to be a nurse. That was her dream. We helped her access education and she works part-time – she’ll soon be a nurse and knows which ward she wants to work on when qualified. That kind of thing makes my day. And it gives the NHS a really strong, really diverse workforce. It’s about removing as many barriers to progress for people as you can.”
She adds: “I’m really proud that we recruit extensively from within the local community. In population health, a big factor is to support your communities. Part of helping them to maintain good health means offering access to good employment. Making jobs flexible opens more doors.”
Michelle, a self-described problem solver, says: “My strengths are staying positive, and focused on the future. In health, there are lots of challenges because of the nature of what we do. It’s very hard, we have to make sure shifts are covered and safety is paramount.”
“Against the backdrop of all this, and some of the most challenging years known to the NHS, we have identified what flexible working could look like for nurses and midwives, and for HCAs. You come to work for us in these roles and you can trust that we’ll do what we can to help you find balance in your life. We are excited to be looking at our medical workforce next, our doctors and consultants.”
“It’s timely we are talking about these things just as the new NHS Workforce Plan is announced and I am delighted that flexible working has been established as a key pillar of retention. It all adds to our very strong EVP. I feel really proud that we continue to be very progressive on that agenda and I am happy to share any of our thinking with anyone who has questions.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we didn’t have to talk about flex, because it was simply the norm. One for the history books. In the way that we say: ‘do you know, they used to work 6 days a week in the 1930s.”
Be really clear about what flexible working means in your organisation: break this down by how, when and where the work is done.
Can shifts for frontline workers have more predictability built in? How much advance notice do they get? Can you increase it?
Create clear definitions of flexible working options by role-type. Where you can, give people a range of flex options to choose from. It isn’t one size fits all.
Give yourself a top 5 list to kickstart change. For example, securing top-level buy-in, running focus groups to see what others think.
“My first experience with flex involved reducing my days to fit work alongside studying for my CIPD qualification. The second time was when my Dad spent 3 months in ICU. I was able to reduce my hours temporarily, so I could travel one day a week to visit and read him a book. After we lost him I was able to continue this to support my mum. The third time, I met a French man, and was able to work abroad briefly and reduce my hours. Yes, for love! And now, I work a hybrid pattern as I live on the other side of London and have a long commute. Four life stages, all supported by flex.”
Published July 2023
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Ever since the final lockdown ended, some business leaders – and even government ministers – have been popping up to insist that the WFH era is over. From the Goldman Sachs CEO who described WFH as ‘an aberration that we’re going to correct as quickly as possible’ way back in May 2021, to the June 2023 announcement by Google that they will be tracking in-office attendance, the sense from the media is that employers want everyone back in for the majority of the week.
And the narrative around employees’ views seems to suggest that they’re in the opposite camp – that they are determined to hang on to their WFH arrangements and, as with 30,000 Amazon USA employees, fighting back when employers try to change them.
The impression given by all this coverage is one of employers and employees being poles apart; of companies having to get tough to get what they want, and employees digging their heels in. But is internal warfare around WFH and hybrid really inevitable – or is there a way to make these arrangements work for everyone?
The first thing to note is that WFH is neither all good or all bad; it creates challenges and benefits for both employers and employees. The lack of commute and home environment can boost wellbeing for some, but leave others feel isolated. Having peace and quiet to get your head down can be beneficial, but the accompanying email overload less so.
Similarly, while WFH allows companies to recruit employees from a wider geographic area, or employ great candidates with health conditions that require them to stay at home, it also makes it harder to create connections and build relationships.
But, as all organisational leaders know, change happens in stages, and involves careful management of the transition from old to new; ‘It’s too hard’ isn’t a reason to stop trying. And going back to the pre-pandemic, ‘everyone in’ approach just won’t wash in today’s tight jobs market.
In a June 2023 CIPD report, 53% of employees said remote working is key when looking for a new role, and 46% of employers said the number of people wanting to WFH has increased over the last 12 months. The same report also noted that 38% of organisations say that more home/hybrid working has increased productivity (compared to 13% who say that it has decreased) and that 38% of employees think that working from home or in a hybrid way makes people more productive.
The implication is clear; offering the option to work from home, for at least part of the week, is likely to encourage people to join your company, stay there longer and thrive while they’re there. But these benefits will only materialise if you get the implementation right. And for that to happen you need to avoid the battles, and go for a balanced, team-led approach that brings everyone with you.
The starting point is to remember that any arrangements have to work for both the individual and the team. It’s not realistic to try and give everyone exactly what they want – and that’s OK. Instead, prioritise collaboration; setting some company-wide principles, and then devolving implementation to individual teams, is more likely to create workable solutions.
Additionally, as we identified in our research, Beyond the Hype of Hybrid, there are three core areas that organisations should focus on when exploring WFH and hybrid options: upskilling leaders and managers; enabling connections and cultural cohesion; and ensuring fairness and inclusion. Getting these right is critical – and will help you make sure that employees get the choice and autonomy they want, within a framework that works for the organisation.
And it’s important not to take some of the myths that are floating around at face value; for example, the concept that all new joiners want to work in the office and all parents want to WFH, or that the office is the only place where creativity can thrive. Be clear about what the office is for, and use this as your base to work out how and when people should use it.
All of this makes sense, of course; but it can still be hard to stand out against a prevailing narrative. For example, if you’re in a sector like finance, in which some loud voices are calling for an end to WFH, it can feel all the harder to go your own way. But that is exactly what one of our clients, Phoenix Group, the UK’s largest long-term savings and retirement business, has decided to do.
Having implemented homeworking during the pandemic, and subsequently taken part in our Flex Positive Programme, the leadership team are adamant about continuing with a hybrid approach as part of ‘Phoenix Flex’ approach. They want to support a truly inclusive workforce, enabling people to work in a way that allows each colleague to perform to their best. With an approach that puts customers and colleagues at the heart of all flexible working patterns, Phoenix believe that it’s a framework for flexibility that looks at where, when and how you work, and offers everyone the best possible experience and balance. They are proud of their approach and are working to increase flexibility further.
Or to put it in their words, “We’re paddling our own canoe.”
And that, in a nutshell, is what needs to happen. Instead of getting overexcited about the brilliance or awfulness of WFH, employers and employees need to work collaboratively to explore the options, and find ways of working that work for everyone. In today’s environment, going backwards isn’t really an option; the answer is to go forwards, together.
Published July 2023
New legislation, which includes the right to ask for flexible working from day one in a new job (informally known as Day One Flex), is likely to come into play in early 2024. And while common sense suggests that this will be a popular change, and we and other campaigners have long believed that it’s necessary, there’s not really been the data to back this up – until now. As part of a substantial new programme of research to better understand workers’ attitudes towards part-time, we have partnered with Opinium to survey 4,000 workers. And among the questions around access to flexible working in general, we asked if they knew about the new legislation and if they’d take advantage of it – whether in a new role or in their current one.
Half of respondents would consider asking for flex from day one When asked whether they would consider taking advantage of the new Day One Flex rights in a new role, almost half of our 4,000 respondents (49%) said yes. Additionally, 30% said they weren’t sure – which may partly be because over two-thirds of respondents weren’t aware of the change in the rules before taking our survey. And only 21% said no.
The research also dug into the detail of who would be most likely to consider using the new rights, and this threw up some significant variations, with three determining factors emerging:
The government has confirmed that the right to request flexible working should be a day-one right for all employees. The legislation also:
Interestingly, and unusually for the flexible working arena, one area in which there isn’t a sizeable discrepancy is gender, with 51% of women answering yes compared to 48% of men.
We’re undertaking further research to deepen our understanding of the variations among different groups, and will be exploring the intersection of a number of factors, especially ethnicity, age, class and caring responsibilities. We’ll be launching our report in the autumn.
Remember – this isn’t just about new hires
While this part of the legislation focuses on the right to request being available from the first day in a new job, it’s important to remember that it won’t just affect new recruits. Currently, the right to ask only kicks in at 26 weeks, so the change would directly affect anyone who has joined more recently than that.
And while respondents were more likely to use the new rights in a new role than in a current one, our findings also show a strong interest in using them to change existing working arrangements, especially among those who are less comfortable having informal conversations about flexibility with their manager. 40% of all workers said they would consider using the new rights in an existing role, in comparison to 29% who wouldn’t. And again, this figure rises among workers who are from a black ethnic background, young (aged 18-34) or have caring responsibilities.
It’s also worth noting that, despite all the talk about the pandemic driving a shift in flexible working, our research shows that this hasn’t been the case for the majority of workers – especially those in routine occupations. 41% of workers in managerial and professional occupations gained flexible working during the crisis and say they have maintained those arrangements, whereas only 9% of those in routine occupations said the same. So in many organisations, there is likely to be a pool of employees who will want to take advantage of the new right to request.
What does this mean for employers?
So if this is what the data is telling us, what should you do about it? It’s simple really; you need to be prepared to manage an increase in flexible working requests, and to respond to them fairly and consistently.
This means building capability within your organisation on the different types of flexibility that are available, and evaluating how they could be incorporated into different roles. It means equipping your line managers to respond to requests in a constructive way, which balances the needs of the individual with those of their team and your organisation.
It also means taking a proactive approach to ensure that open and transparent conversations about flexible working are possible for all workers, regardless of their role, and that the onus isn’t on the individual to have the confidence to request, whether formally or informally. We’ve explored seven ways that employers can get ready for Day One Flex here.
But as well as creating requirements for employers, the new legislation also creates opportunities. Yes, you need to comply with the legislation – but a much more powerful option would be to embrace it fully, and shift to a proactive approach.
One example would be to offer flexible working for all new candidates, and say so openly in your job adverts. As our previous research has shown, doing so is likely to widen the pool of candidates both numerically and from a diversity perspective, which would in turn have a positive impact on your organisational culture and employer brand. Of course, this will need to be backed up by flexible options for existing staff too.
So are you ready? The data says you need to be, and the clock is ticking; it’s time to get started. If you’re not sure how, we can help; feel free to get in touch.
Published June 2023
By Claire Campbell, Consultancy Director
There’s no question that the four-day week is a hot topic right now. Every time we host a webinar, or meet a client, it’s one of the first things we’re asked about – and apparently, many employees are asking about it too. And as an organisation focused on how flexibility can help people thrive in their work and home lives, we’re very much on board with the concept.
But it’s becoming clearer with every conversation that there is a lot of uncertainty around the four-day week; firstly, about what it actually looks like in practice, and secondly, about the best way to implement it. So we thought it would be helpful to share some of the questions that we’re being asked, and our suggestions for how to answer them.
One of the most common questions people have about the four-day week is what it actually is – and this is important, because it’s not what many people think. Specifically, it doesn’t mean employees just get a free day off each week with no impact on the other four days. The leaders of the 4 Day Week Global campaign have worked hard to clarify this, but the misconception remains.
So if it isn’t that, what is it?
At a basic level, it’s a pattern that expects employees to do 100% of their job, in 80% of the time, for 100% of their pay. How? Essentially, by being more efficient; by improving productivity in a way that allows them to achieve the same in less time. So it’s about reducing your hours, but not your outputs.
This is another big question – and the answer is, it depends on the organisation. If you are considering implementing the four-day week, you will need to work with your teams to explore how they can deliver the same levels of service or productivity more efficiently.
Examples that are often cited include reducing unnecessary meetings, automating certain processes and redesigning others to involve fewer people. There was also a suggestion from the UK pilot programme that some people picked up their working pace – 62% of employees who took part said it increased, with 36% saying it stayed the same. And a couple of the participant companies took strategic decisions to reduce overall workload – such as letting go of minor clients or cancelling a couple of non-core projects.
The key point is that there isn’t a one-size-fits all solution for this. Your teams will need to work collaboratively to identify where efficiencies can be made, and then design working arrangements that work within the new parameters.
That might mean everyone gets a full day off each week, or it might mean people working five shorter days, or even an annualised arrangement. The ideal scenario would be to offer your employees options on how they spread their 80% of hours across the week, so they can find a pattern that fits with the rest of their lives.
It’s much harder to see how the four-day week can be made to work through efficiencies within roles in which there is a really strong correlation between the hours worked and the service provided, such as patient-facing, customer-facing and contact centre roles. So organisations with these roles, who believe in the concept, may have to invest in making it happen, on the basis that this will have a positive impact over time.
That’s certainly the approach taken by Citizens Advice in Gateshead, who took part in the UK pilot. Their solution was to hire extra staff to cover the extra hours, in the hope that the investment will be offset by a reduction in recruitment, retention and sickness costs; at the time of writing, this is a work in progress.
There is also an argument that, for industries that rely on agency staff, hiring more permanent staff to allow everyone to work fewer hours for the same pay could be offset by the savings on both agency costs and sickness absence. One to watch is South Cambridgeshire District Council, who took part in the initial UK pilot, and is now trialling a four-day week for refuse loaders and drivers. This will cost £339,000 extra over two years in increased staff and new lorries, but the council believe savings will be made through using fewer agency workers, as well as rationalising bin routes to reduce wasted time.
Right now, the ‘payback’ data on frontline four-day weeks is limited, although our own research has highlighted a more general correlation between flexible working and people taking fewer sick days. But companies with some frontline staff will need to give some thought to how they make it work for their roles, to avoid exacerbating the gap between flex haves and have-nots.
This is another real challenge thrown up by the four-day week, and one which organisations with part-time employees are working to tackle. During a discussion about the pilot, South Cambridgeshire District Council’s Liz Watts noted that “In terms of part-time hours, this was the trickiest bit.”
One solution is to reduce the part-timers’ hours in line with the reduction for full-time staff, but it’s arguably a stretch for someone who is working less than a full week to compress their hours even further without affecting outputs. This is particularly true if their part-time job was never properly designed to match the decreased hours – we know anecdotally that many part-timers are already squeezing a full-time job into fewer days.
As with turning a five-day job into a four-day one, the answer lies in collaborative discussion and job design; exploring what efficiencies can be made and looking at how to make the role and its outputs achievable within the available time. It’s certainly not a good idea to expect the part-time or compressed hours employee to continue on the same hours for the same pay while everyone else around them is seeing their hours reduced.
The short answer to this is yes – and if it’s implemented well, it’s likely to help you keep the staff you have, too. Why wouldn’t it? But there are a couple of things to be aware of here.
Firstly, if you think that offering a four-day week will help you recruit great people, you’ll need to tell candidates about it; there’s anecdotal evidence of companies not wanting to promote this working pattern in case it attracts ‘the wrong kind of candidates’. This is based on an (outdated, in our view) assumption that only slackers want to work fewer hours, and it doesn’t really make sense; you certainly won’t be able to attract candidates through the four-day week if you keep it quiet.
And secondly, if you’re recruiting at a time when you’re piloting the four-day week, you’ll need to make that clear – otherwise, if you decide to revert to a more traditional working week, you’re highly likely to lose your new recruits.
This is a great question – and one we don’t feel qualified to answer, yet. The recency of the four-day week pilots, and the lack of large organisations taking part, mean that the data is in its infancy, and it’s just too early to call.
It’s certainly fair to say that there’s a risk of increases in individual productivity and retention reversing if people start to slip back into old habits. But it’s equally possible that the long-term health and wellbeing impact of working fewer days could lead to sustainable and quantifiable benefits for companies.
So we hope that the organisations which are piloting and implementing the four-day week have robust tracking in place, and are willing to share the outcomes, so we can all learn what the real impact of this new working pattern is.
Published June 2023
New legislation giving employees the right to request flexible working from the first day in a new job (informally known as Day One Flex) will be in place from next year. It is a sign of huge progress for those of us who have long championed flexible working, and is set to shake up HR practices across the jobs market.
However, it’s important to reflect that the legislation is in some ways just the start of the journey. The changes it ushers in will be made tangible by the way that employers respond. And it’s becoming clear from conversations we’re having that many employers – and particularly those with frontline employees – feel they will need more support to both implement these changes and access their potential benefits.
With this in mind, we hosted a Timewise expert panel discussion to explore the Day One Flex questions that many employers are currently asking. Our speakers were:
Over 200 people attended the webinar, and before we began we sense-checked their views by asking two questions:
The session began with an address from Minister Hollinrake. He began by saying his 30 years of experience as an employer before becoming an MP have led him to believe that having good relationships with employees, as well as open dialogue and a considerate approach to the rest of their lives, is good for workplaces and so for employers.
He also noted that flexible working is a high priority for people who are thinking of returning to the workforce, and that with 8.7 million people of working age currently economically inactive, and business representatives desperate for skills and labour, increasing access to flexible working is a key focus of his department.
As he clarified, the change is a right to request, not a right to insist; and it is important to consider the needs of businesses and customers as well as of individuals. But the expectation is that an extra 2.2 million people will be brought into the scope of the legislation, which is an extremely positive development in today’s tight labour market.
A key aim of the legislation is to promote conversations between employers and employees, and other changes being introduced at the same time will improve this process. For example, making the employer responsible for consulting on the request before rejecting it will create space for a conversation about alternatives to take place.
Similarly, allowing two requests in a year instead of one, reducing the timescale for employers to respond to the request from three to two months, and removing the requirement for employees to set out the potential impact of their request, should all make the process easier to navigate.
Employers do still have the right to refuse a Day One Flex request. But the legislation prioritises quality conversation and consideration and aims to make the process fairer and to support best practice.
Dr Anne Sammon, a partner at Pinsent Masons, has many years of experience working with employers on the existing legislation in this area. She explored what the changes will mean in practice, and what employers should be thinking about.
Moving the right to request from 26 weeks to the first day in a new job is good for employees for many reasons. For example, in practice, candidates who are currently working flexibly may feel nervous about having to wait for 26 weeks into a new job to find out whether they will get the flexibility they want or need, and worry that putting in a request may disadvantage them.
It also brings clarity to employers; for example, with regard to issues around indirect discrimination. For example, not considering a request for flexible working from a working mother could count as indirect discrimination; so this legislation, with its requirement that the request is considered, could avoid issues of that kind.
A big change for employers will be the reduction in the time they can take to consider a request. Employers will need to look at how long their current processes are taking, and see whether this may cause any issues once the period is shortened from three months to two. It is possible for both parties to agree to a longer consideration period, but employers must make sure they are not pressuring employees to agree to one.
It’s also worth remembering that the quality of the reason for refusing a request can make a real difference. If an employee feels that the rationale they are given is fair, they are less likely to appeal. So the hope is that the new legislation will encourage employers to explain carefully why the request doesn’t work for the business, and engage with the issues at the heart of the request. Clarity and transparency will be vital.
Finally, while the legislation allows for two requests in a year, employers should be aiming to have conversations that balance the employee’s needs with those of the business, so they can find a compromise that works for both and avoids repeated requests.
Louise Tait leads an HR team which has spent the last few years working out what flexible working means at Wickes, and how it can be adapted for frontline employees. She believes the changes in legislation are welcome, but noted that challenges remain in terms of how to enable line managers to have better, open and transparent conversations about flexible working outside of a formal process, and to work out how to provide flexible options for all workers, including those on the frontline.
The majority of Wickes’ 8000 employees are in operational warehouse roles or customer-facing ones. The labour market within retail is highly competitive, and this has been exacerbated by the pandemic, with many women and people aged over 50 leaving the sector. Additionally, while 40% of Wickes’ employees are women, and 40% work part-time, these numbers drop significantly as people move through the leadership layers. So flexible working is seen to be a key way to attract, retain and progress talent across the organisation.
Having successfully adopted flexible working for office workers, Wickes have been working with Timewise to explore how to implement it for store leadership teams, and are currently embarking on a new approach within distribution centres. These experiences have provided four key learnings:
Aside from the obvious and proven business case, the pilot has thrown up powerful stories from colleagues who took part about the benefits that being able to work flexibly have had on their personal lives.
You can read more about how Timewise is supporting Wickes on their journey here.
Zurich is known within the flexible sphere for taking a new approach to flexible hiring with transformative results. They support the new legislation around Day One Flex, but have already started having these conversations earlier in the hiring process. Steve Collinson, their UK Chief HR Officer, shared his experiences of increasing access to flexible working and hiring.
In 2017, the company was approached by the Behavioural Insights Team (BIT) via the Cabinet Office, to explore whether a lack of access to specific flexible options was holding women back in their careers and contributing to the gender pay gap. The work involved using nudge psychology to deploy interventions derived from data, and then track the impact of these over time.
Using their own data, and working with psychologists and statisticians, Zurich created a hypothesis that a lack of consistent, explicit access to part-time and job share opportunities meant that fewer women were applying for promotions, or to join the firm, than might otherwise be the case.
BIT responded by asking them to switch their default to advertising all roles (internal and external) on a part-time, job share or full-time with flexibility basis, with the theory being that this would widen the pool of applicants. And the results speak for themselves: since switching their default advertising position:
The changes meant that Zurich reached a talent pool that they hadn’t previously been able to appeal to; they also discovered that people were starting to apply to them because their approach to flexibility gave a positive insight into their culture. Additionally, their gender pay gap has been reduced by 10% and they were placed in Glassdoor’s top 50 places to work in the UK.
Steve concluded by sharing four things to think about:
We ended the session by asking attendees to reflect on what they’d heard and how it would affect their approach going forwards:
Our panel then answered the following questions raised during the session:
Are you able to give us any more detail on when the legislation is likely to take effect?
Minister Hollinrake replied that the legislation should take full effect in 2024. This takes into account the parliamentary process that it needs to go through to become law, and also gives businesses time to prepare.
When you talk about ‘Day One Flex’, what exactly does that mean?
In terms of an official definition, the Minister noted that his department is drafting guidance to set this out clearly, and will be able to share this in the weeks ahead. And Anne agreed that having a specific definition of what Day One Flex means will be absolutely critical.
What would you like to see this legislation deliver for businesses and employees across the UK?
Anne referenced the hope that it will provide employers with the opportunity to move beyond the Day One right and look at building conversations about flexible working into the recruitment process. This will in turn help employers market themselves as flexible and allow candidates to be open and transparent during the interviews.
Steve agreed, explaining that at Zurich managers are encouraged to have conversations about flexible working during the hiring process, so there are no surprises later on. He believes that the legislation will create an expectation that employers will have a more open mindset, and that when they are able to be explicit about being open to a conversation before an employee joins the company, it will benefit everyone.
Louise noted that Wickes’ line managers are also encouraged to have these conversations at the point of hire. She hopes that, going forward, employers will shift their mindset further than the remit of the legislation and instead ask ‘What’s the right thing to do’ in terms of having conversations as early as possible.
Minister Hollinrake concluded by noting that work has changed dramatically from the old 9-5 model, and that the culture of work needs to change accordingly. There is a lot of talent locked up in people who can’t follow a traditional working pattern, and employers should not lock them out of their workplaces.
All members of the panel agreed that this is the future of the world of work, and that we are all on the change journey together.
Next steps for employers
If this panel discussion has raised questions about how your organisation will implement the new legislation, or inspired you to start thinking about offering flexible working even before Day One, we can help. You can find out more about the support we can provide on our website, including a diagnostic review of your readiness for the legislation, training for your HR teams and line managers, and an introduction to our team at Timewise Jobs, who are experts on flexible hiring.
Watch the Timewise Day One Flex webinar below:
Published June 2023
By Nicola Smith, Interim CEO, Timewise
Are you ready for ‘Day One Flex’? It’s likely that the right to ask for flexible working from the first day in a new role, which is included in Yasmin Qureshi MP’s Private Member’s Bill, will be on the statute books by the autumn, with a start date of early 2024. So the clock is already ticking for employers, and it’s certainly not too soon to start making plans.
Like most people in the flexible working sphere, we’re really encouraged about the changes this legislation will usher in (though, as we have said previously, we do hope that it’s just the start). And we believe that business leaders who see it as an opportunity, and are proactive about doing it well, will reap clear rewards, from attracting and keeping a diverse group of talented people, to boosting their employer brand.
But it’s important to recognise that being ready for Day One Flex is not just a case of tweaking your HR policies or being willing to listen to people’s requests. It will take some time, thought and planning to get right; and in a tight labour market with widespread skills shortages, that’s more important than ever.
Here are seven steps you can take to kickstart your planning and get on the right track for when Day One Flex becomes law.
1. Start by getting clear on the flexibility you can support. There really is no one-size-fits-all for flexible working, so you need to think through what kind of arrangements your organisation will be able to offer and maintain. If you’re not sure how to approach this, our four-step Flex Positive programme could help.
An important part of this process will be exploring what flexibility is already going on within your organisation – and what other options your staff would like to see. This could include surveying your staff body about existing arrangements, and asking managers to share what they think would and wouldn’t work.
This will not only allow you to build a set of parameters that could work for each team, but also give you time to work with any leaders who are intrinsically suspicious of flexible working. Remember, many successful flexible working arrangements are agreed informally between managers and their teams, and are no less valuable than more formal arrangements.
2. Make sure your hiring managers are equipped to answer candidates’ questions. This means thinking in advance about the different ways that flexibility could be incorporated into the roles they manage. To help them do this well, you may want to consider upskilling them in the principles of flexible job design, so they have a core understanding of what is likely to work within their team.
3. Refresh your flexible working policy and processes – with more than Day One Flex in mind. As well as the Day One right to request, the legislation also includes measures such as shortening the time employers have to respond to requests, and allowing employees to make more requests each year. So you will need to take a really good look at your current policies and processes, and make sure they’re fit for purpose.
4. Think about proactively discussing flexible working with candidates. Yes, the law will give candidates the right to ask – but once you’ve taken the time to think through what you could offer, why not be proactive and raise it yourselves? You’re far more likely to have a meaningful conversation if you do, and it will be much easier to onboard a new recruit whose flexibility has been agreed in advance than one who asks on the day they start.
5. Start spelling out the flexibility on offer in your recruitment ads. It’s also worth going a step further and highlighting the flexible options you could offer in your advertising. This will attract a wider talent pool, and give you a clear edge over other organisations which are less overtly welcoming towards flexible employees. Be specific though; as our research showed, vague references such as ‘Open to flexible working’ aren’t taken seriously and might put candidates off.
6. Consider how you’ll track the impact of your new approach. As mentioned above, embracing Day One Flex offers a real opportunity for employers to get ahead of the game on key business imperatives such as talent attraction, retention and D&I. So it makes sense to track the impact of a more proactive approach to flexible working, by capturing relevant information about working patterns during your recruitment and appraisal processes.
A valuable part of this process would be to capture qualitative examples of how the approach is working on the ground. This could include creating case studies by interviewing new recruits as they join the company, and exploring whether knowing that flexible working was available was a factor in them applying for the role.
7. Finally, don’t forget to think about communicating these changes to your current staff. The chances are they’ll be delighted to know that you’re taking the new legislation seriously – and will be keen to see what your new approach could mean for them. And that in turn will make it more likely that they’ll stay with you for longer.
Of course, these steps are just the start. You’ll also need to think about using flexible job design to create sustainably flexible roles, and training your managers in how to support and lead flexible teams (and if this is something you need advice with, we can help). But in the meantime, and with a change this fundamental, it’s important to get the planning right. Day One Flex isn’t just a legislative change; it’s also a brilliant opportunity for forward-looking employers who believe in fairer, more inclusive workplaces. I hope these steps will help you grab it with both hands.
Published May 2023
By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director
I’m sure few would disagree that an excellent line manager can make all the difference to an employee’s career. Those who feel supported to do their best work are likely to thrive; those who feel undermined or neglected may struggle (or vote with their feet).
So it seems sensible that, when workplace norms fundamentally change, organisations would make sure their line managers are trained to adapt their practice accordingly. And yet, despite the widespread uptake of hybrid working both during and since the pandemic, this hasn’t been the case.
Research from University of Birmingham has found that only 43% of managers had received any training in how to manage hybrid teams. It’s highly likely that these managers will be struggling to successfully implement hybrid arrangements, particularly more informal ones which they need to design, agree and monitor themselves. And this lack of training could certainly be a factor in the finding that 47% of line managers are finding work more stressful than pre-pandemic.
Both we and the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) believe that hybrid working is a hugely valuable tool in the flexible working toolkit, with the potential to support key workplace issues such as talent attraction, retention, diversity and wellbeing. And we both know from experience that, when line managers are supportive of flexible working, and role model it themselves, it makes employees feel significantly more comfortable about requesting it.
So we’ve come together to turn the knowledge gap on its head, by creating a programme of hybrid training that will build managers’ skills and confidence. This will not only enable them to support their teams to work in a hybrid way, but also help them think about how they could work flexibly themselves, which will have an impact across their organisation.
The training will be delivered as a six-week programme, and will focus on three core areas which our hybrid research identified as particular concerns: the role of a manager of a hybrid team; ensuring fairness and inclusion, and enabling connection and cultural cohesion. We’ll provide workshops for each area, supported by group clinics that will give participants the chance to come together and reflect on their learnings and practice.
All the sessions will be run by our expert consultants and will be backed up with helpful resources, case studies, tools and templates from both Timewise and the CMI’s libraries, which participants can take back to their workplaces and put into action.
We’re really excited about this partnership, which brings together two social businesses with a shared determination to make the world of work better for everyone. And because we also share a belief in the value of research, we’re running the first one as a pilot, with robust evaluation in place, so we can assess its impact on managers’ knowledge and confidence before rolling it out more widely.
The first programme will start in the autumn, and we’ll share our learnings from it once it’s complete, with the aim of refining and scaling up the training so that more companies can benefit. We can’t wait to get started and will let you know how we get on – watch this space.
Please click here to register your interest directly with the CMI: https://www.managers.org.uk/campaigns/making-hybrid-work-for-you/
Updated June 2023
By Nicola Smith, Interim CEO, Timewise
Though job vacancies are declining, we still have 1.1m unfilled vacancies in the UK and acute talent shortages across most sectors, and on average just one person applies for every full-time (a ratio of 1:1).
No wonder government & employers are looking to retirees & people managing long-term health conditions or disabilities to fill the gap.
Much discussion has been had around the benefits of offering flexible working possibilities, with the CBI stating in its most recent Future of Work conference that flexible working has finally ‘mainstreamed’.
But in reality, the UK’s jobs market is seriously lagging behind what’s actually happening in the world of work. According to our analysis of 6 million UK job ads, fewer than a third include ‘flex options’ of some kind. Within that, just 12% offer part-time work and 12% home-working, some or all the time.
Employers – please understand that many older workers and long-term sick are probably not even looking at jobs that don’t mention part-time work (which make up a whopping 88% of all vacancies).
You have to get yourself into the mindset and behavioural patterns of the person making the search. People who need part-time jobs, search for the part-time options they are looking for: 2 day marketing jobs, 3 day finance jobs etc.
If part-time isn’t mentioned in the ad, it simply won’t be found.
This is what we call ‘the unseen jobs’ problem.
If you want to appear in the searches and feeds of those who need flexible work: you must include part-time options in your job ad.
Doing so immediately upgrades your chances of filling a role. Remember my 1:1 stat in the beginning? Well, 4 people are chasing every available part-time job in the UK. Your odds of finding talent for a role, at all increase greatly, once part-time becomes a possibility.
And don’t forget – Day One Flex rights are on the horizon. Meaning that soon, any employee starting a new job with you can request part-time hours or a flexible pattern with you from day one in that new role with you. Stating flex possibilities in the job ad from Day One means you’ve taken control from the start, set out the parameters and made potential working patters clear to all.
Get this right now, and by the time the legislation comes around, you’ll be leaps & bounds ahead of competitors, and you’ll have transformed your power to attract talent from within these two pools and beyond.
Published March 2023
