Finally, the eagerly awaited review of extending flexible working rights, by Sainsbury's HR director Imelda Walsh, is out in the open. And it certainly
makes a nice change that HR is in the spotlight for leading a government review rather than simply responding.
By now, you will have digested the fact that the right is set to be extended to staff with children up to the age of 16. And the outcome seems to be one that most parties and the HR community support.
But while HR legal eagles know only too well that the right is only to 'request' fl exible working, you may still have a job to do educating your workforce that it's not an automatic privilege to work flexibly.
Likewise, you'll have your work cut out ensuring that the line managers and colleagues involved are flexible in their approach to getting the balance right. As always, translating laudable intentions into practice will be easier said than done.
Is your HR team concerned at the prospect of being inundated with requests to work flexibly? Do you feel that there will be pressure to accept or reject more requests to work in different ways?
Perhaps your employees are still fearful of requesting flexible working, feeling they are jeopardising their careers by being a flexible worker. Critics say employers should not be the only people expected to help address work-life balance issues, and that we need a far wider debate about how society addresses issues such as eldercare that many employees are facing today.
One thing is clear: flexible working is a topic everyone has a view on - confirmed by the hundreds of related press releases, including some dubious commentators, that have been filling the Personnel Today team's in-boxes over the past few weeks.
But we'd much rather hear more of your views on the extension. And while we're on the subject of requests, we'd also like to hear your thoughts on the much less publicised proposed new right to request time off for training.
Post a comment or email personneltoday@rbi.co.uk
