Want to be an employer of choice? Be more creative with flexible working.

Let's talk about Flex Baby (Boomer and Gen X)

Saturday April 6th was such an exciting day in the UK as The Flexible Working Bill becomes law. I’ve been working in the Flexible Working space since the early 1990s and at last we are starting to see change and it's great to have a legislative change to reflect evolving work / life integration and the changing employment landscape in a post-pandemic world. It offers employees the right to request flexible working conditions from DAY ONE of employment (you had to have worked for 26 weeks before yesterday!) and also make 2 flexible working requests (it used to be 1) within a 12-month period and an employer will need to respond within 2 months rather than 3.

Giving employees more autonomy over their working arrangements means greater employee engagement, better work / life integration, greater productivity, reduced commuting stress, cost savings, lower stress and burnout. Employees who work flexibly are less likely to take time off for childcare or mental health issues for example. Employers can become an employer of choice and increase diversity and inclusion and retention too (there is a real risk to not offering flexible working, the CIPD estimates around 4m people have changed careers because of a lack of flexibility.) Enabling flexible working can help businesses narrow the gender pay and pensions gap.

?There have been so many campaigners and champions on a flexible working mission, but I wanted to thank Anna Whitehouse aka Mother Pukka and her amazing #FlexAppeal campaign and also Joeli Brearley and her fabulous Pregnant Then Screwed team. I'm absolutely delighted to know that the The Inclusive Workplace Conference (formerly known as Flexpo) is happening on the 20th and 21st November 2024, I look forward to seeing you there Ursula Tavender Madeleine Cole .

And we might need to decipher some of the terminology too.

Flexible Working is the overarching term given to non-traditional (traditional is 9 to 5, 5 days/week) employment situations designed to suit employees' needs and, more recently, employers' needs too. In recent times, it has been used as an employee benefit previously but lately, it has become and has become a powerful talent acquisition tool. Flexible working refers to WHERE, WHEN, HOW & WITH WHOM employees work. Historically, this was often, incorrectly, thought of as being for those who had children or other caring responsibilities; however, anyone can request flexible working, and flexible working is great for productivity, self-care, and happy employees.

Hybrid Working is often referred to as flexible working; however, this relates to an employee's work location. For example, hybrid working could be a combination of working from the office and home or a shared office location and home or even from the coffee shop and the office. So hybrid working is all about WHERE you work.

And remember part-time isn’t part-talented, part-capable, part-competent, part-brilliant, it means employers get extraordinary people for a fraction of the week which means they are great value for money, super-focused, loyal and present. We need to change the narrative, let’s talk fractional rather than part-time.

There are so many flexible working options, if you want incredible and diverse talent, it's time to start thinking outside of the box.

What about introducing a 3 or 6 month sabbatical, give a leader time to reset and reenergise, and return to work with enthusiasm and vigour?

What about 2 hour lunch breaks, so employees can go for a run or walk in the daylight (to get vitamin D) and don't need to run in the dark?

What about a none day fortnight?

What about job-sharing term time workers with students and young people, work experience is an absolute game changer for them?

Exciting times! Why not use this as an opportunity to think about reimagining talent and reengineering roles? What about putting more than one person into a role and integrating AI, what about job-sharing returning and phased retiring talent to reduce the female brain drain at 30 and 50, you’d have the complete resourcing solution you’d love and the employees would have the flex they crave.

Message me if you'd like a flexpert opinion? Creative flexible working options can reduce your FTE, help talent retention and attraction and improve diversity and inclusion.

#FlexibleWorking #Hybrid #FractionalWork #WorkLifeIntegration #FutureOfWork #JobRedesign #DiversityAndInclusion #EmployeeEngagement #AI #FlexibleWorkingBill #50+talent