Your action plan
Consider the following tips and suggestions to improve the way you promote, implement and manage flexibility in your workplace.
Awareness & framework
As a manager it’s important that you are aware of your employees’ rights and have a framework in place to handle flexibility requests. This means:
- knowing who has a legal right to request flexible working arrangements
- having a flexibility policy for your workplace
- having procedures in place for employees to request flexible working arrangements
- knowing how to respond to requests.
Culture of flexibility
Creating a workplace culture that supports and promotes flexibility will help your workplace realise the productivity, engagement and other benefits that flexibility brings. As a manager, you can help create this culture by:
- offering flexibility to all employees, not just for people with a legal right to request it
- role-modelling flexibility in the way you work and encouraging other senior staff to do the same
- speaking positively about flexible working arrangements and encouraging others to do the same
- openly discussing the different types of flexible working arrangements that are available and ensuring employees know how to apply for them.
Managing flexibility
To realise the full benefits of flexibility you need to actively and effectively manage the flexible working arrangements you have in place. This means:
- using trial periods to ‘try out’ some flexible work arrangements in your business
- recording the details of current arrangements in writing
- reviewing arrangements at regular intervals
- discussing current or proposed arrangements with affected staff, suppliers and customers.