A guide to flexible working

Business Benefits of Flexible Working

Any organisation's people are a valuable and expensive resource. Consequently successfully managed, flexible working arrangements can result in enormous benefits to the business, managers and staff alike. They include:

Cost Savings and Higher Returns

• There is a reduction in overheads and running costs through more efficient use of facilities
• A motivated workforce achieves a demonstrably higher level of productivity, which is then reflected in the organisation's success

Improved Service Delivery

• Extended business hours can be covered with flexible work schedules
• The ability to tailor the working day to fit in with personal commitments releases extra energy to be channelled into work
• Reduced stress means reduced sickness absence, while personal commitments can be fulfilled in one's own, flexible, time

Recruitment and Retention of Quality Staff

• Good work-life balance encourages employees to stay with the organisation and not seek work elsewhere
• The increased retention of highly skilled staff cuts down the need for and the cost of taking on new employees as well as transfer of skills and experience to competitor organisations
• Flexible working offers a greater ability to attract high calibre, new staff in an increasingly competitive labour market. Organisations which show that they value their employees as whole people gain or enhance an enviable reputation as "Employers of Choice"
• An ever-changing composition of the labour pool over the next few decades means that older people, carers and groups with special needs will form a major part of the future labour market. Flexible working attracts such employees

Legislative Compliance

As well as the "Right to Request" legislation, and along with the Sex Discrimination Act, long-standing legislation relating to employees and their ability to balance their work and home lives include the:

• Employment Relations Act
• Working Time Regulations
• Part-Time Workers Regulations
• Health & Safety At Work Act
• Race Relations Act
• Disability Discrimination Act