Workplace Flexibility

For the employer

Happy and satisfied employees, who have a greater sense of trust and loyalty, create many business benefits:

• Attracting skilled and motivated employees - particularly those who wouldn't normally apply. For example mature aged workers, those with family/carer responsibilities and those seeking greater balance between work and personal interests
• Keeping skilled and motivated employees - effective flexibility can reduce unwanted staff losses by up to 25%. A huge cost saving in terms of retaining knowledge, maintaining customer relationships and in re-training, advertising and administration costs
• Motivating and energising staff - resulting in increased productivity and greater profits, as employees focus more on business success, are more flexible to meet its needs and driven to work harder
• Increasing employee satisfaction - creating a happier workplace, with greater teamwork, collaboration and sharing of knowledge
• Lower staff absences - employees are less stressed about meeting their job and outside/family commitments and have a greater sense of well-being, reducing unplanned absences
• Increasing skills and creativity of your managers - managers are challenged to look outside the square, develop leadership skills and manage a more diverse workforce
• Improving customer service and retention - more committed employees, greater employee retention and a better match between peaks and troughs in workflows and staffing will allow you to more closely meet customers' needs
• Becoming an Employer of Choice - which expands the pool of talented workers that an advertisement will attract.

The costs

Apart from missing out on all the benefits, businesses may face legal consequences if workplace flexibility needs are ignored.

Which laws cover flexibility? *

In Australia we have laws about an employer’s legal obligations to implement flexible work practices for workers with caring responsibilities.

Nature of obligations

There are two key aspects to legal obligations and flexible work practices, those that relate to discrimination law and those that relate to industrial “right to request” law (there may also be obligations under contracts, Awards and Agreements). Neither law compels an employer to accept every request made by an employee to use a flexible work practice, but acceptance may be the right decision once these legal obligations are considered.

Discrimination laws

Discrimination laws provide that employers must not discriminate against an employee with “caring” or “family” responsibilities. This means that decisions made about employment (e.g. who to offer a job, who to promote) should not unfairly disadvantage workers with caring responsibilities and that may mean accommodating a person's caring responsibilities, e.g. by enabling them to work flexibly. Discrimination Tribunals have an expectation that:

• Flexibility will be provided to employees - Tribunals accept that flexibility benefits employees and businesses
• The employee and employer will be reasonable - exploring all options with an open mind
• Some initial adjustment will be needed - with some give and take
• A trial period will help an employer see how effective the arrangement is
• Employers must provide strong evidence if they think their business can't operate with flexibility.

New changes: Equal Opportunity Amendment (Family) Responsibilities Act 2008 (Vic) - Employers (in Victoria) must not unreasonably refuse to agree to an employee's request to work flexibly so that they can meet their caring responsibilities. The law requires an employer to really consider whether flexible work practices can work for a specific employee doing a specific job, and demonstrate reasons for a refusal.

Industrial laws

From 1 January 2010, all employers are now required to comply with the National Employment Standards. One of the Standards provides employees with (i) children under school-age, or (ii) children under 18 with a disability, a “right to request” a flexible work arrangement.
The request must be in writing and include information about (i) the details of the change sought; and (ii) the reasons for the change. An employer must provide a written response to the employee within 21 days (i.e. acceptance or refusal).
A refusal can only be on “reasonable business grounds” and the employer must detail those reasons in the written response.

Note that in New Zealand in July 2008 all employees were given the right to request flexibility to enable them to meet their caring responsibilities. It doesn't mean that the request will be granted, but an employer must think about the request, try to make it work, and if not, give good reasons for refusal.