In April, the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill 2023 came into effect, meaning UK workers now have the right to request flexible working from day one of a new job.
While employers aren’t obliged to grant requests for flexible working arrangements, they are now legally required to formally consider any requests and must provide a reason before rejecting an application.
Additionally, employees are not required to explain the effect flexible working may have on the business.
Flexibility in the workplace has many guises—working from home for all or part of the week in a hybrid model, fully remote working or not following conventional 9-to-5 business hours and instead working towards goals and targets.
As a result, the legislation reflects this, acknowledging that “flexible” is a broad term.
With this in mind, we asked business leaders from across the UK for their view on what the legislation means for workers and employers alike.
“Flexible work is an important factor in attracting and retaining talent, but it has to work for the business as well. That means being really intentional about how and when teams come together, whether that’s to forge relationships for learning or for more creative tasks like brainstorming that work better in person.
“It also means being really thoughtful about how you use technology to connect, to make it easy to share and find information, and to automate tasks to free people to focus on higher value work.
“That last part is an area we will see accelerated by the next chapter for work: AI. And similarly to AI, provided organisations have the right tools and processes in place to create trusted foundations, flexible work is something that can boost productivity for organisations rather than being something to be feared.”
“To navigate these new rules effectively, businesses will require a deep understanding of their workforce’s needs. To achieve this at scale, companies can leverage real-time analytics which enable them to track requests, assess the impact of flexible initiatives and gauge workforce sentiment. These insights will play an essential role in implementing flexibility in a way that optimises employee satisfaction, retention, and collaboration in today’s competitive marketplace.
“There may be concerns that this will create added work––but this need not be the case. AI has a potential role to play, for instance, by matching worker availability preferences with business demands, AI can help create transparent, flexible and trusted schedules that work for everyone.”
“In the past few years, work has transformed. However, many businesses that shifted to remote and flexible work in 2020 are regressing back to traditional office-centric 9-to-5 structures. This feels like a misstep.
“In a world of remote work and global talent pipelines, if return-to-office mandates are draconian, UK businesses risk losing access to the best people for the job. Flexible work policies should also now be a strong consideration for companies that want to ensure they are attracting and retaining talent such as working mothers, who are statistically more likely to be balancing caregiving responsibilities around their employment.
“Improving flexible working rights is a crucial component of the drive for workplace equity.”
“For Generation Z in particular, flexible working is becoming a non-negotiable. According to a recent survey we conducted, ‘flexible work’ was the most common factor influencing UK 16–26 year olds’ decisions about how or where they are choosing to work this year.
“Offering the option of working from home is now the bare minimum. In fact, only 22% of Gen Z workers said working from home has a bearing on where they choose to work. What these workers are really looking for are flexible hours, four day weeks and the opportunities to work from anywhere in the world. It’s for this reason that nearly 70% of UK 16–26 year olds say they’re planning to work for themselves in the future.
“To attract and retain this generation, businesses must be prepared to move away from full-time, 9-to-5 employees and start diversifying their workforce to become more flexible and agile.”
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Blackhawk Network, a leader in global branded payment technologies, is hiring a Staff Program Manager to work across its portfolio of products including gift cards, egift products, and rewards and incentives.
In this role you will partner with Product and Engineering leads and teams to define roadmaps, multi-sprint plans, and help deliver on those roadmaps. You will also be required to collaborate with other internal/external stakeholders, organise planning sessions, and lead critical programs associated with one or more technology areas. If this sounds like the kind of job you’ve been looking for, find more information here.
Aviva Global Corporate & Specialty (GCS) manages large and complex business risks through the London market and its UK Regional Branch network. As GCS Head of Construction & Latent Defects you will lead a team of 12 underwriters in London as well as two underwriters outside of London to develop and implement the Construction & Latent Defects strategy and act as the technical underwriting referral point for Construction & Latent Defects.
If you have a proven track record on managing the P&L for a construction account including leading performance management and have a strong technical knowledge of Construction & Latent Defects and broker relationships this could be the ideal role for you. Interested? Apply here.
Carrot Pharma Recruitment is working with a medical communications company that is part of a larger family of creative strategy and communication agencies that deliver innovative and impactful work for their pharmaceutical, healthcare and wellness clients globally.
It currently has an opportunity for an Account Director to lead tactical delivery across accounts, act as a day-to-day account lead and project lead for large and complex projects. You will also input into and implement client strategic programmes and review all account content to ensure alignment with client brief/objectives and account/product strategy. Want to know more? You can access additional details here.
