Being a parent at times is tough, being a working parent however can be a nightmare at times when it comes to childcare.
The government and companies have been able to go some way in to helping with this by being able to offer flexible working hours to parents and carers of under 17’s or a qualifying adult.
However are you aware that as of the 30th June 2014, everyone has become eligible to apply for flexible working?
Thanks to the government’s new changes, all employees are now able to apply for flexible working hours but your employer has the right to refuse your application just like they did before.
Peninsula Business Services have put together a great white paper on all the key facts for employers however as an employee it also makes a great read for you to find out where your employer stands on the whole issue.
They have also put together a chart which is perfect for quickly analysing the changes that have come into play.
The key one for me on this is the whole appeal process, before if a company tried to pull as fast one on an employee, you were able to appeal however this is no longer an option.
It is still the case for employees (all employees) that the business has to give a valid reason as to why they are declining the application which can be any of the following reasons:
- a burden of additional costs
- a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
- an inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- an inability to recruit extra staff
- a detrimental impact on quality
- a detrimental impact on performance
- insufficient work during the periods the employee proposes to work
- a planned structural change
I can see where companies come from on flexible working, lets face it, if you are a small firm that needs 5 full time employees but 4 of those want to do part time hours all over the place it makes it hard to recruit to back fill, lets face it if someone is doing 10 – 2 it will be hard to find someone to do 8-10 or 2-5 for example.
However I do believe that the key to a great business is happy employees.
Yes I know its not always possible but if you have hard working employees and they need to take time off to look after their little ones or would like to finish an hour early every day to do the school run but they gave 120% whilst they were at work.
I’d pick them any day over someone that only worked 50% of the time they were there 5 full days.
What are your views on flexible working and the new plans?
This is a sponsored post however all words and opinions are my own