John Hutton warns of employer backlash over flexible work rights
Business secretary John Hutton has warned of a backlash from employers if the right to ask for flexible working is extended.
Hutton said in a speech last night that putting too much expectation on firms could lead them to turn down any requests from part-time workers.
Imelda Walsh, human resources director at supermarket giant Sainsbury's, is leading an independent review into how the current right to request flexible working can be extended to all those with children up to 17 years old.
However, Hutton cautioned: "We want to avoid a situation where employers are so overwhelmed with requests from newly-eligible groups that they feel they have to say no to everyone."
He said that the right to request flexible working has brought significant gains to employees who have negotiated new working patterns with their employers. "But the right to request has been successful precisely because it has been well targeted, weighing up the needs of business with employees who stood to benefit."
Hutton added that Walsh is tasked with deciding the appropriate age to recommend. "But equally importantly, she is also weighing up the effect any further extension will have on those who are already benefiting from the right to request. Put simply, the more people that have the right - the harder many businesses may find to prioritise those whose needs are greatest," he said.
Brendan Barber, TUC general secretary, said: "The business lobby has opposed the right to request flexible working at every stage, despite the fact that millions of parents and carers have benefited without any cost to employers.
"At the very least, the government should match the Conservative Party pledge to extend the right to request flexible working to all parents. But it should be more ambitious and extend it to all workers."
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COMMENTS
I find it exasperating that the issue relating to flexibility is STILL being argued. Will Hutton said "We want to avoid a situation where employers are so overwhelmed with requests from newly-eligible groups that they feel they have to say no to everyone." What a lot of unsubstantiated dross! Whilst I respect and honour Will's support of flexible working, I am incensed by the lack of employer awareness about the benefits and outcomes related to flexibility. How much more PROOF do these employers need? Mind you, when I have worked in this arena for over 20 years, I have supported companies large and small and my data and research shows that when flexible working is introduced, 72% of employees are quite happy with the way they currently work and don't want change. People need flexible working for "reasons and seasons" and I explain these in my keynote presentations, and reassure employers that they WILL NOT be opening floodgates. I have worked with many organisations that, having implemented flexible working for parents and carers, realised such business benefits that they moved to the next stage of what I refer to as 'work-life evolution', and adopted a REASON NEUTRAL approach. This too has had business benefits and kept those flodgates tightly in tact.
I would like to congratulate the Conservative Party on their push towards flexibility for all and I fully support it. However, I would like to challenge all of those HR managers out there to start thinking differently. We are in a changing world and the traditionalist, baby-boomer approach to running a business and managing people is soon to bite them in the recruitment and retention bottom! It is out of date. Gen Y's and most X's demand flexibility in the way they work and they way they operate their lives - if you don't provide it in your culture, they will go somewhere that will. New research is about to be launched by talentsmoothie, which will blow these old fashioned ways of working right out of the water and good riddance to all of you that are still steeped in a policing and personnel approach. You cannot afford not to do something about your approaches to flexibility!
It is time to view work differently; rip up the rule book on time, place, diversity and old fashioned HR practices that are oppressive and controlling to say the least! Employers who are already enlightened to this are moving ahead and it is time for the rest to catch up or get out of the game.
Flexible working is not some fearsome dragon that you need to throw rocks at! Flexible working releases potential, builds trust, changes cultures and has a measurable impact on the bottom line. Whether someone has children, elderly parents, a sport, a community project or even a horse to look after, it hardly matters! In fact it doesn't matter at all! If they have the choice to manage their work and their life in a way that provides CHOICE, then employers will only gain. It is when people feel as they have NO CHOICE that resentment, taking advantage and poor people practices creep in. Great companies say to their people "Here's what I need you to help me achieve, when you do it and where is irrelvant!" They get the job done. Reason neutral flexible working just works.
Finally, in a culture of long hours, exhausted employees, few women at the top of organisations, HR still excluded from the Boardroom, and a serious war for talent, isn't it about time you all stopped re-arranging deckchairs on the Titanic and begin looking at the massive ice-berg that you are heading towards? A new, and innovative approach is required now if you are to survive the changes that are coming. Get off the deck and make it happen!
Lynne Copp
Managing Director, The Worklife Co.
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