Employers ought to be flexible with millennials
Emma Burns, employment law partner at law firm Hugh James, explains why the millennials’ entry into the workplace means flexible working is a must if employers are to attract and retain the best talent
What is flexible working? Flexible working is a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, such as having a flexible start and finish time or working from home.
In practice, it can mean, most commonly, working from home or in other remote ways, working parttime or compressed hours, flexitime, as well as annualised or staggered hours and, of course, job-sharing, where two people do one job and split the hours. Why is it important for employers to have a flexible working policy in place? Working practices have evolved over recent years, causing the boundaries between work time and personal time to become increasingly blurred.
As millennials start to dominate the workplace – by 2050 they will become 75% of the global workforce – employers need to adapt to meet their expectations and attitude to work.
This new workforce has different demands to the Baby Boomers and Generation X and will be much more likely to leave a job if they are unhappy with their working environment or if their boss does not offer flexible working.
The Modern Families Index 2017 offered interesting insights into the working patterns of parents. According to its figures, only a third of parents manage to leave on time every day and many reported that work pressures are having a negative impact on their family relationships.
Almost three-quarters (72%) of parents questioned said they catch up with work at home at night and over the weekend, with one in five feeling they don’t have enough time to spend with each other or enough income to see their family thrive.
The reality is that a significant proportion of families have two working parents who make childcare arrangements so they can both work. Almost half of couple families and 57% of single-parent families work full-time, with more women in employment than ever before.
Dads are requesting flexible working too. Thirty-eight per cent of fathers surveyed said they would take a pay cut if that would mean a better life balance, and seven out of 10 fathers would consider childcare before taking a new job or promotion, which demonstrates the difficulty they face in reconciling work and home life.
More than half of respondents said an understanding and supportive boss makes them happier and more likely to stay with their employer – so it is clear that promoting flexible working creates a more motivated, loyal and productive workforce. So what are employers’ responsibilities and what is best practice for introducing flexible working? All staff who have worked continuously for 26 weeks have the right to request flexible working. Until June 30, 2014, the right applied only to those employees with caring responsibilities – parents and those with caring responsibilities for adults.
Since June 30, 2014, the right has been extended to all employees with the requisite period of service, whatever the reason for their request.
The law states that employers have a duty to deal with requests in a “reasonable manner” within a threemonth decision period, and give acceptable reasons for refusal.
The process starts with the employee making a written request. An employer can only refuse a request for one or more of eight reasons: the burden of additional costs; detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand;
inability to reorganise among existing staff; inability to recruit additional staff; detrimental impact on quality; detrimental impact on performance;
insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; or planned structural changes. Employers need to be careful about relying on this list to refuse requests, though, because in some cases, the refusal can also give rise to a discrimination claim. This could occur if the employee making the request is disabled or wants to change their working pattern for religious reasons or because they are a carer, or where the request is made for childcare reasons.
Employers should hold a meeting with the employee which gives both parties the chance to discuss how flexible working will benefit everyone and ensure there are no misunderstandings.
Given the mutual benefits of flexible working for an organisation and its staff, employers should create a flexible working policy to ensure requests are dealt with consistently and in accordance with the Acas Code of Practice.
It is within the employer’s interest to ensure staff are committed and productive, so if a business is to retain valuable staff, a flexible approach is a must, especially to attract and retain the millennials. work