Flexible working myths
So, the CIPD has found that talk of the red tape burden of flexible working legislation is greatly exaggerated. Apparently, of a total 218,100 employment tribunal claims in 2010/11, just 277 alleged that employers had failed to observe flexible working regulations. Most of these claims were successfully conciliated by ACAS or settled out of court and, of the 48 that actually reached tribunal, just 10 were successful.
On the other hand, the business advantages of offering flexible working are fairly clear from all the research and polls done recently, including Workingmums.co.uk's own annual survey. In terms of the bottom line, flexible working saves money on recruitment as workers tend to stay with the same employer longer, saves money on office overheads and travel costs as many work from home, at least occasionally, saves money caused by absence [flexible workers take less time off] and delivers a more flexible service to customers.
Yet many employers still can't see the benefits or get their minds around doing something in a different way than they have done before. It can't work for small organisations, they say [not so - read our SME Top Employer Award winners' stories]. It can't work for us. True, managing flexible workers requires different skills than traditional forms of management. But it can allow for more creativity and dynamism in the office. I was talking to a diversity expert this week about how you make the most of all employees' skills, including younger workers who seem almost to be born able to use smart phones and computers [in my family I fear my six year old is surpassing me already in her ability to find her way around my iphone; my 11 year old has her own website and blog; and the eight year old makes mini-videos of her different hairstyles...Just waiting for the baby to have a go. He is already showing a rather obsessive interest in the Wii remote].
Managing all the huge diversity of talents in an organisation and understanding how they work best will surely make for a more dynamic, more productive team. It also makes management, to my mind, a much more interesting job. But it does require a change in the way managers are trained or supported. MBAs, for one, seem to be a bit slow, for instance, in coming to terms with modern ways of working. Providing forums for managers to share good practice and get ideas is an ideal place to start. The Workingmums.co.uk Top Employer Awards Q & A was really interesting in terms of the kind of nitty gritty issues that were being debated. Of course, what works for one organisation may not work for another, but getting managers talking about the practical issues can prompt new ideas and lead to solutions they might not have thought about before.
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