A recent survey has revealed that more than half of employers are unaware of changes to flexible working legislation, soon to come into effect, and of those who do know about it, a quarter have not thought about the impact the new rules will have on their business.
From June 30, all employees who have worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks will have the right to request flexible working in order to spend more time with their children or pursue a hobby.
Flexible working can take a number of forms, from describing a place of work, meaning that employees can ask to work from home instead of going into an office, or a type of contract, such as a temporary contract.
Employers will have a statutory duty to consider any applications made to them by eligible staff and, once agreed, the arrangement will become a permanent change to the contract of employment.
However only one application can be made in a 12-month period but the employee has the right to appeal if the employer turns their request down and can negotiate an agreement if the requested hours are not possible.
Meanwhile, employees also seem to be in the dark, as more than three-quarters of the workers polled in the same survey are unaware of the impending changes, although, having been told about them, more than 60 per cent would request flexible working.
Of those who would like to work flexibly, almost half cited wanting to spend more time with their children as the reason why, while more than a quarter said they would like to have time to focus on a hobby or to study.
Almost a third of the employees polled believed they would be more productive if they could work flexibly, although employers seemed less enthusiastic, with around a quarter being worried that they would be understaffed due to flexible working and a slightly smaller number being concerned that they would not be able to fulfil employees’ requests.