The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills claims that flexible working will bring economic benefits of £475million in 10 years, a figure which sounds suspiciously arbitrary, due to increased productivity, lower staff turnover and less absenteeism.
They also suggest that the improvement in employees' work/life balance would lead to better health in the long term. Clearly, the government department which introduced this scheme think it is a great idea, but is it?
A survey by Chess Media Group supports the claim that flexible working is a good idea. 85% of employees questioned stated that they felt their productivity had increased since they adopted flexible working; 77% reported feeling more satisfied with their work and 68% said they were happier. An article in Forbes magazine also points to this being a good development for employees as it states that 43% of employees would choose flexible working over a pay rise and that many have reported being very happy with just being allowed a few days a week of working at home or on reduced hours.
The New Statesman magazine goes so far as to say that flexible working was a “key factor in employee recruitment and retention.” They stress the importance of the right technology to support these working arrangements and claim that even sales staff could work from home with the right software.
Many of these publications have gone on to explain how this new law would be a good thing for small businesses as it would allow them to recruit and retain the best staff by offering these kinds of flexible arrangements. As mentioned by the BBC though, there are some problems which could arise with this new law particularly for smaller businesses. They suggest that some employers could be faced with dealing with “multiple conflicting requests” and, when some of them have to be denied, they would be vulnerable to accusations of discrimination which could end up at an employment tribunal.
Another concern, is that a negative atmosphere could occur when requests are refused. More day to day problems were anticipated by businesszone.co.uk who raised the point that some businesses might struggle to cover their opening times if staff are allowed to work flexible hours. They also suggested that some employees could struggle to work properly without supervision through either lack of personal motivation or initiative.
Communication and team working were other areas they thought could suffer from this new regulation. Any new regulations seem to come with its upsides and downsides but this one seems very dependent on the type of work a company do.
Clearly, working from home or working flexible hours is a very good thing for many creative industries as well as a great deal of office based professions. It is not such a good idea, however, for firms that offer services to the public or do any kind of workshop based work.
Common sense seems to be needed here as no one really expects a car mechanic to be able to work from home or a doctor to be able to go home when they wish. In addition, it has to be noted that the law gives employees the right to request flexible working but does not oblige the employer to give it to them.
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