Flexible Friends

Following news from The Journal’s Business Barometer that confidence is high amongst the North East’s biggest businesses, despite concerns about labour skills and transport, it is now time for North East employers to seriously consider how to maximise their employees skills to ensure that they are equipped to meet the demands of an ever competitive and growing market place.

In order to do so it is imperative that employers examine the abilities of their current employees and discuss with them how to ensure that such skills are utilised to the full. There are some obvious starting points including:-

• Regular staff appraisals and feedback sessions.
• Accurate job descriptions to ensure that the right person is doing the right job.
• Providing focused in house and external training programmes.

Concurrently, employers should consider whether they could be getting more out of their employees if they encourage flexible working. This has traditionally been seen as a soft option. A rather dated perspective that if the person is not in the office then clearly they cannot be working to their full abilities can still be seen in many sectors. However, flexible working is something which is starting to gather momentum. We have seen a number of regional initiatives supporting this programme and this is to be welcomed.

Changes that have recently been implemented mean that from 1 April 2007, the right to make a request for flexible working has been extended to employees who have responsibilities as carers. It is still the case that an employer can turn down a request for flexible working if the employer can establish that it cannot agree to such a request on the grounds of the burden of additional costs; it could have a detrimental affect on ability to meet customer demand; there is an inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff or recruit additional staff; it could have a detrimental impact on quality of performance; or there is insufficient work during the period the employee proposes to work.

It is often seen as an “easy” option for an employer to turn down an application for flexible working to what they perceive to be an inappropriate request. There are two downfalls of adopting this approach, namely:-

• There is still a risk that an employer could face a claim for sex discrimination; and
• If a careful examination is made of what work an individual performs; where they perform those services and, how effective they are being, then it may be the case that an application for flexible working should be progressed. If individuals have outside commitments or requirements which are actually impinging on their effectiveness and flexibility to perform their contractual duties then important working time could be lost by not agreeing to the request.

It is time for organisations to lead the way in thinking laterally and seek new ways to organise their workforce which could lead to higher levels of productivity.

Please contact David Gibson for more information on 0191 233 9762.

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