March 2024
Welcome to your latest issue of HR Gamechangers, spotlighting creative people managers, sharing knowledge and providing updates on the fast-moving world of flex. In this issue, we have interviewed Dr Jasmine Kelland from the University of Plymouth, whose passion has taken her from HR management to teaching, research and being a respected author.
The new flexible working legislation is coming into force on the 6th April - only 8 days to go… Although the legislation could go further still, we think it’s a great opportunity to review flexible working policies and make sure they are well communicated. Approaching this in the right way can be an excellent tool for greater diversity and inclusion in your hiring processes. Our quick checklist is a great way to ensure see how ready you are.
We’ve undertaken some research in partnership with abrdn Financial Fairness Trust to find out if the new legislation goes far enough for frontline staff. Focusing on construction, transport and logistics, retail and health and social care, all with complex staff scheduling needs, it is clear that there are significant challenges. But with the right support, it could make a real difference to millions of workers. Read more below.
We know 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. This is particularly the case when you have a large frontline, or location-based team as part of your workforce. A number of clients have come to us with questions around the four-day week - see the 6 questions we get asked the most here , and our answers.
A huge thank you to those who have nominated themselves or colleagues to be featured in our future newsletters – please join the movement and nominate anyone you think we should be speaking to .
SPOTLIGHT ON
Dr Jasmine Kelland , Lecturer in Human Resource Management and Programme Leader, University of Plymouth
We have noticed that there is a certain quality shared in common by our Spotlight interviewees so far. A certain spark or energy – perhaps a pre-requisite to have the confidence to challenge the status quo.
Energy is something Dr Jasmine Kelland has in spades. Prior to feeling that ‘tug’ towards the lecture theatre and world of academia, she had a successful career in HR Management, working for ITV, the NHS and Boots the Chemist.
Dr Kelland’s research focuses on the ‘fatherhood forfeit’ concept, which has been widely cited in the press. Her research has been published by the House of Commons Women and Equalities Select Committee, she has presented her research to the UK Parliament All-Party Parliamentary Group on Fatherhood and at various conferences. Maybe you have seen or heard her talking about it, on Sky or heard her on BBC radio. Her book: “Caregiving Fathers in the Workplace: Organisational Experiences and the Fatherhood Forfeit” was published last summer.
Please summarise your research for us
My research looks at caregiving fathers in the workplace and their experiences – I call it the ‘fatherhood forfeit’. There are four main elements to this. Number one, dads are far less likely to get a job that combines work and care. Two, they are also far less likely to be supported by their employer when they do work and care. For example, my research found that when a child is sick and the father goes to collect them, that father tends to get asked a lot of questions, such as: ‘Where is your wife?’. One of my respondents was questioned on where nearly every female member of his family was before he was ‘allowed’ to go: ‘Where is your partner?’, ‘Where is your own mum?’, ‘What about an aunty?’, etc. My research finds dads to be consistently considered as the secondary carer, expected to align with the behaviours of ‘the breadwinner’ - regardless of the working patterns of the family. Finally, fathers face a forfeit of social ?mistreatment. Respondents in the research talked about being mocked, people assuming they were work-shy and idle. Male caregivers are viewed quite suspiciously – ?it’s assumed something is wrong with you, your partner or your set-up. This is stalling gender equality for mums, dads and everyone – on a social level it keeps pushing women back into the primary carer position, which has significant impacts on gender equality for both parents. Which makes no sense, as all families are different and half of all parents have been working full-time since the pandemic (50.4%, ONS data from 2021 .)
What inspired to you to look at this?
When I chose my PhD topic I challenged myself to cover something I care deeply about – this is it. My husband and I work full-time and always have. We have 3 girls, aged 20, 17 and 15. I returned to work full-time after having each baby and found there was so much gendered expectation upon us. Facing those inward gasps when you say you work full-time with a young child. When I had my eldest it was rarer for both parents to work full-time. My husband really felt the stigma - particularly when a child was sick, for example, and someone needed to collect them, the phrase we widely used was : ‘it’s just easier if I/you go’, to avoid the endless questions. I’m not just talking about in work, but from everyone.
You would assume that this stigma would have been made obsolete by the pandemic, with more women increasingly moving into full-time (but very flexible) work as it came to an end ?– but no. These attitudes push women further into gendered roles – they create a trap. Culture change lags enormously behind actual change in working norms. The access to flexibility, and to talk about it, has increased. But the social mistreatment of fathers remains – it has just changed slightly in nature. The only plus is that employers know dads are likely to vote with their feet if they don’t get the flex they need.
What is the change you want to see re: fatherhood and the stigma?
It starts with the conversations that are had in work, when a child is expected. Start them early, start them with both parents, and when they come back after maternity / paternity / adoption leave - make it a standard conversation. After a child arrives, as parents you are very much in it together for a couple of weeks. Then – usually – the father returns to work and the woman becomes the expert in that baby. All the baby-related decisions start getting deferred to her. And it never stops.
To make change happen, firstly – paternity leave should be extended. Secondly – employers need to pay attention to the conversations they are having with men, particularly when they return from leave. Managers need to be trained to speak to dads in the same way that they do to mums. Dads should be asked if they want to change or reduce their working pattern. Every so often, they should proactively be asked if they want to change their pattern, as children’s needs change. Not be given a gift basket, then told to crack on.
We also need to call out the social mistreatment – the ‘where’s your wife’ or ‘under the thumb’ comments get played down as just banter or just a joke. This needs to stop. Make it part of unconscious bias training, make it identifiable and stamp down on it. This is how we kickstart the social change. We are all responsible for changing the semantics around this.
Roots and shoots
I am HR through and through! I did work experience in an HR department when I was 14, because I had seen someone with a job in HR in Brookside trying to resolve strikes, and I thought it looked interesting. I gained my CIPD qualifications as an undergrad, then worked for numerous organisations at an HR manager level before moving into teaching – I lecture to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Covid has created so much change, and thrown up so many workplace tensions and issues. It’s all so interesting.
What are you most proud of, across your whole career?
There are a few things. Firstly, I was an HR Manager for ITV many years ago. I set up a centralised HR service in the west country for a whole ITV group. I was proud because I was new and it was really, really difficult - and I made it work. I wonder if they are still using it now! Secondly, when I worked in the NHS, right at the start of my career in HR, a lot of what I did was around redeployment. A lady working as a healthcare assistant developed a latex allergy. We were able to find her a role as a junior ward clerk. She wanted to continue her service in the NHS. ?Many years ago, by chance I saw her on a ward – and she was still in that job. I nearly cried. Finally, hearing the fatherhood forfeit referred to in a House of Commons debate was just amazing – I was cock-a-hoop!
Personal flex
My three girls live at home and I am a carer for my dad who lives with us. I work from home around 2 days a week. These tend to be my days when I work on my research. If dad has an appointment, sometimes I am able to take him to that and will make up my time in the evening to catch up. Such a 3rd shift pattern is common for working parents during and post covid . Naturally, there is less flexibility in the teaching schedule – we are assigned lectures and I work all the rest out.
Dr Jasmine Kelland welcomes questions about her research – feel free to email her at [email protected] , or visit her website: www.fatherhoodforfeits.com .
领英推荐
Will the government’s new flexible working rights make a difference?
Sector-wide action is required to ensure that new flexible working legislation leads to real improvements in work-life balance for frontline staff.
As of 6th April, employers will be legally required to consider requests to work flexibly from day one of employment – effectively extending current flexible working rights from existing to new staff.
The new legislation is just one of a series of measures on the horizon seeking to improve the control workers have over the hours they work. Later this year people working irregular hours will gain a new right to request predictable working patterns. And if Labour wins the next election, the party have pledged to convert these ‘rights to request’ into default rights for all workers and end the use of zero-hours contracts, among other measures.
If successful, these measures could help reduce the well-documented gap between the high number of people seeking to work flexibly, and the limited number of high quality, part-time and flexible jobs in the economy. They could help achieve wider goals such as boosting employment rates, and helping parents, older people and those with health conditions and disabilities to participate in work.
Interesting Reads
Heads Up
6 April 2024: From 6 April 2024, employees will be able to request flexible working from their first day in a new job
16 April 2024: CMI event in partnership with Timewise, Making hybrid work for you and your team
16 April 2024: Flexible working and the new Acas Code of Practice event , with Timewise’s Claire Campbell as a keynote speaker
23-24 April 2024: SME XPO - hear Timewise’s Claire Campbell on the panel, “Finding - and keeping - the best talent: recruitment in a difficult market”
23-24 April 2024: The Watercooler Conference - join Timewise’s Amy Butterworth and previous HR Gamechanger, Jane O’Mahoney, at this employee health, wellbeing & workplace culture event
12-13 June 2024: CIPD Festival of Work - a journey into the future of work, exploring topics such as explore topics such as AI, hybrid working and ethics
Over to you
We welcome your feedback and thoughts on this newsletter - is there anything you would particularly like to see in the next newsletter? Let us know!
With best wishes,
The Timewise Team
e. [email protected] | ?t. 020 7633 4444
Featuring: CIPD, Chartered Management Institute, Acas, Trades Union Congress (The TUC), Heejung Chung, Dr Jasmine Kelland, The Watercooler & The Office 2024.