It's All About People - 14th November 2024

READ TIME - 3 minute read

Welcome Back

This week’s It’s All About People covers:

📜Legislation Changes
💰️ How Flexibility Benefits Organisations (all research backed)]

🛠️What are the options for flexibility?
🗓️ Events coming up

Last week I really enjoyed running our quarterly HR Masterclass on the value of values. Clearly our delegates did too as we got our 108th Google Review :-)

In the next few weeks we will hopefully be welcoming a new team member (at final stages of recruitment now) and so I will be sharing our values with them in their induction.

This week, we’re diving into why flexible working isn’t just a nice-to-have but a business game-changer! 🚀

Let’s go…

Flexible working laws changed significantly in April 2024, and are set to change again in 2026.

Yesterday I ran our monthly employment law update webinar where we looked in this in more detail, so today’s email is a summary of what we covered.

📜 Legislation Changes (April 2024) - all the below happened in April so you should have made the changes by now.

• Day-One Right to Request: Employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of their employment (previously 26 weeks service) 🗓️.

• Increased Flexibility on Requests: Employees can make two requests a year, with responses required within two months instead of three 🔄.

• Decision Timeframe: now two months (previously 3 months)

• Employee Details: removal of need for employee to included effect of change and options to address these

The proposed changes for 2026 is that flexible working will be the default option - what this means in practice we have to wait and see.

But here’s the thing – you don’t have to wait until 2026 to see the benefits of flexibility in your workplace! 💼 Offering flexible options now can help you save on costs, reduce absenteeism, and boost employee satisfaction and retention. 🎉 Read on to find out more.

How Flexibility Benefits Organisations 💰(all research backed)

• 🤝  Recruitment: 9 in 10 employees want to work flexible, but only 3 in 10 jobs are advertised as this. 30% of business that include this in their ads saw an increase in applicants. 

  58% of older workers (50-65) rate flexibility as most important consideration when looking for a job.

  92% of young workers want to work flexibly.

• 😃 Retention: 6% of employees who left their roles, and 12% who left their profession in 2022 cited lack of flexibility as key reason.

• Diverse Team: by offering flexible working you appeal to a larger demographic and again research shows that more diverse teams deliver better results

  Engagement: high levels of engagement, driven by flexibility, can reduce staff turnover by 87%

• Reduced Absence 😷 due to better work-life balance for team members and also being able to manage their time

• 📈 Increased Productivity : 9 in 10 employees consider flexible working to be a key motivator to their productivity

What are the options for flexibility? 🛠️

Thinking of adding more flexibility to your workplace? Consider options like:

• Hybrid Work 🏠+🏢: A mix of in-office and remote work.

• Remote Working: working from home 🏠️ 

• Flexible Hours ⏰: Let your team choose start and end times.

• Compressed Weeks 📅: Work more hours in fewer days. Like at Gateway HR we do the 4 day week, but actually with no more hours. So our team are paid for 5 but work 4.

• Part Time 📆 

• Job Shares 🧑‍🤝‍🧑 

• Seasonal Flexibility / Annualised hours ☀️ 🎄 

Stay flexible and see the difference it makes! 🏆

Until next time, have a great week.

Emma

P.S. If you're a member of our HR Hub, there are LOADS of resources to help you with all of the above topics.

 P.P.S.  If you are not a Hub member why not give it a try for only £7 for 7 days membership. You can do that here.

P.P.P.S If we have not connected on LinkedIn yet, I would love to connect

Events to Join in the coming weeks (click on the links to join us)

HR Clinic (free to all, come and ask your HR questions) - 19th November 12-1pm

Lunch and Learn - Creating Your 2025 People Plan (free to all clients, £35+VAT for non-clients) - 10th December 12 - 1pm

Make Work Pay – Labour’s 100 Day Plan for HR & Leaders (Free Webinar) - 11th December 12-1pm

HR Clinic (free to all, come and ask your HR questions) - 18th December 12-1pm