Is flexible working the way of the future?

By Emma Clark, Senior Associate, Fox Lawyers

The UK government has recommenced its fight to prevent Europe from making employees work less than 48 hours per week. Trade unions and employer organisations are trying to reach an agreement on working time issues by September 2012.

The main debate in Europe relating to the Working Time Regulations 1998 which implement the European Working Time Directive is whether Europe will still allow the UK to ask its middle management and junior staff to sign a document, often attached to an employment contract, in which they agree to opt out of the 48-hour working week.

Although it is often hard to exceed the 48-hour working week (as it applies over a rolling 17-week reference period), the fundamental aim of the restriction is to protect workers from the health and safety consequences of overworking.

Rather than rely on this stringent 48-hour working week or lose sleep over the health and safety liabilities that might arise if these hours are exceeded, employers should start to focus less on potential loopholes and instead consider offering employees the right to work flexibly and remotely.

Meeting clients and colleagues '¨face-to-face is hard to beat and should always be encouraged. However, all employers, whether large or small, should think imaginatively.

A strategic business decision that is led by members of management who want to move out of the Victorian era and embrace the benefits of ever-changing technology could change the workforce of the future. Employees should be judged by the results they achieve and not '¨by presenteeism.

Business benefits

The law currently restricts the right to request flexible working to parents with children under 17 (or 18 if the child is disabled), or to carers. Sometimes such a request can stall or, at worst, end careers.

An employer is fully entitled to refuse such a request on the basis of a “genuine business ground”, such as the negative effect on client demand, quality, performance or existing staff. However, refusing these requests can result in an unnecessary loss of talent.

Flexible working can instil immense loyalty in workers and improve staff morale. Remote working can also have an enormous benefit in reducing sick days. According to a study of 24,000 IBM staff worldwide, employees who worked flexibly were able to work an additional 19 hours a week before they experienced the same levels of stress as those who did not '¨work flexibly.

Remote working can also manage the increasing high percentage of office space that employers fail to utilise. Companies like BT allow staff to vary their hours for a range of different reasons. This has resulted in the need for less office space and BT claims to have saved £500m.

Remote working also reduces what is often considered to be dead commuting time, especially when individuals need to change their mode of transportation a number of times in one journey in order to reach the office.

Balancing demands

As an employment lawyer in the City and the mother of two young children, I have balanced the competing demands on my time over the past four years by spending every Thursday in my children’s world.

Wherever possible, I try to leave the office at work in good time to spend an hour or so with my children, before logging on again from my office at home. I often work remotely from my office at home and my work telephone diverts to my work mobile, which is with me at all times.

This pattern has worked equally well in a magic circle firm as it has in a boutique City practice. Law is a service industry and clients expect 24/7 attention. In my experience, clients do not notice and are not concerned where their advisers are based, as long as their advisers are able to respond to their queries.

eclark@foxlawyers.com