What flexible working is
Flexible working involves making a change to when, where or how an employee works.
Some form of flexibility can be built into almost all jobs, regardless of an organisation's size or sector.
Employees have a statutory (legal) right to request flexible working. Employers must follow the statutory procedure for statutory requests. Employees and employers can also agree flexible working arrangements without the statutory procedure.
There are many different types of flexible working.
For example:
- part-time hours
- staggered hours
- remote working
- working from home
- hybrid working
- flexitime
- job sharing
- compressed hours
While some might not be practical for every job, it's likely other types will work.
Find out about different types of flexible working
Flexible working in your organisation
As an employer, you should consider what flexible working means in your organisation.
It can help to consider:
- which types of flexible working could be used in your organisation
- how you could implement each type, including any restrictions
- how you will manage requests
- how you promote flexible working
It's good practice to have a policy on flexible working. This can help managers and employees discuss and agree flexible working in a consistent way.
Find out more about:
Benefits of flexible working
Flexible working can benefit both employees and employers.
For employees, it can help:
- balance work with other parts of their life
- them work at different times or locations
- improve health and wellbeing
- open up more jobs to them
For employers, it can help:
- attract and keep staff
- their employees be more productive
- keep employees happy and motivated
- recruit for jobs that are hard to fill
- improve diversity and inclusivity
- have staff available at different times
- reduce sickness and stress absences
These things can bring extra benefits. For example:
- having staff available at different times might allow you to extend your business hours or offer a service outside usual business hours
- extending working hours and having more engaged staff can help deliver a better service to your customers
- keeping employees motivated and reducing turnover can help retain experienced staff and reduce the costs of replacing, onboarding and training new staff
- reducing sickness, stress and absence can support your legal 'duty of care' for staff – find out more about legal duties