The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has launched a new campaign, Flex From 1st, encouraging employers to make the right to request flexible working a day one right for all employees.
The campaign aims to make access to flexible arrangements more equal, address inequality and promote fairness, inclusion and wellbeing at work.
What is flexible working?
Before the pandemic, only around 5% of the workforce worked mainly from home. The pandemic has certainly vastly accelerated the growth in home working, but this is only one form of flexible working. Other options include flexi-time, job shares, term-time working, compressed or annualised hours, staggered start and finish times and part time working.
Research shows that as much as 87% of us would like to work flexibility, with a strong demand from both men and women, and across all age ranges.
Organisations of all sizes are reaping the benefits of offering flexible working to their employees. The CIPD has compiled a series of case studies in organisations from different sectors and industries of different sizes, including roles and areas of organisations that are not traditionally seen as suitable for flexible working.
What is the current law on requesting flexible working?
Currently, employees can only submit a request for flexible working after 26 weeks of employment, and this is limited to one request every 12 months.
The CIPD would like employees to have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment, but to change this would require changes to employment law in Northern Ireland.
Lee Ann Panglea, Head of CIPD Scotland and Northern Ireland, has written to Diane Dodds MLA, Economy Minister, calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to make changes to employment law that would see the right to request flexible working from day one become a reality for Northern Ireland’s employees.
How has the pandemic impacted on flexible working?
While COVID-19 has driven an increase in remote working, recent CIPD research has shown that 46% of employees do not have access to flexible working. This is particularly true of people in essential and lower-paid roles who aren’t able to work remotely.
While employees may not always be able to change where they work, they should have more choice and a say in when and how they work, therefore it’s crucial that employers look at the range of flexible working options so employees who can’t work from home don’t feel they are being treated differently.
What are the benefits of flexible working?
Flexible working has benefits for both employers and employees. For employers it can mean improved employee engagement and job satisfaction, reduced absenteeism and increased productivity.
For employees it can mean improved wellbeing, better job satisfaction and work-life balance. CIPD research has shown that those without access to flexible working are around twice as likely to be dissatisfied in their job compared to those who do.
The CIPD Flexible Working Hub is a great source of information, with a range of practical tools, guides, podcasts and resources to help organisations to embed flexible working and make it a reality for all.
What can employers do?
Ultimately fairness of opportunity in working flexibly ensures organisations do not end up with divisions or a two-tier workforce, and the CIPD hopes that employers across Northern Ireland will get behind Flex From 1st.
Employers can show their support for the CIPD campaign by sharing the pledge banner on social media.
The CIPD also wants to encourage employers to highlight that they are open to discussing different forms of flexible working up front in job adverts. Putting ‘happy to talk flexible’ will help employers to attract a more diverse pool of candidates, including those who need to be able to work flexibly.
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