Who pays for flexible working?

"Flexible working has enormous benefits for employees but it is not cost-free - and it's businesses and workers who are paying the price, says Len Shackleton It is clear that flexible working opportunities, particularly 'working from home' but also compressed hours, flexitime, job shares and more, can be highly valued by both individuals and companies. If not, we would have seen a sharp decrease in their use once we were allowed to return to the office post-Covid - but we haven't."

"Where decisions are left to employers and employees to reach agreement, these consequences can be discussed and weighed up, and a mutually beneficial arrangement arrived at. This is how a free market works. If this leads to greater flexibility, that's dandy. But if some forms of flexibility are inappropriate to a particular organisation, legal compulsion and concomitant tribunal penalties are not the answer."

"There has been an increasing mission creep of the "right to request" flexible working. Initially intended to protect economically disadvantaged workers with health issues or caring responsibilities, it now covers a broader belief that all employees should be able to request a change to their working arrangements from day one on the new job. The government's new Employment Rights Act strengthens this right to request, and makes it very difficult for organisations to resist such requests."

Flexible working offers significant benefits such as working from home, compressed hours, flexitime, and job shares, and remains popular post-Covid. However, flexible arrangements generate hidden knock-on effects and unintended consequences that impose costs on businesses and employees. When employers and employees negotiate changes voluntarily, the parties can weigh benefits against organisational suitability and reach mutually beneficial arrangements. Legal compulsion to grant flexible working removes that negotiated balance and forces organisations to absorb mismatches and potential productivity losses. The expanding "right to request" has extended from protecting disadvantaged workers to encompassing all employees, and recent legislation makes resisting requests increasingly difficult, effectively normalising flexibility as the default.

Read at City AM