BT Business Essence of the Entrepreneur awards
Burden or boon?
New legislation on flexible working hours has been welcomed by employees in a recent Equal Opportunities Commission survey, which found that 73 per cent supported it. So, do employers also welcome flexible working with open arms, or do they view it as a costly, complicated procedure?
The party line
Patricia Hewitt, Trade and Industry Secretary, sees the new legislation, allowing employees to formally request flexible working hours, as the beginning of effective communication between employer and employee. She says: "The sensible way to make progress on this is to get employees and employers sitting down and agreeing not only what is going to work for that individual employee in that job but also what is going to work for that business."
A happy work force makes business sense
Some high profile companies have been quick to state their satisfaction with the changes, and assert that they were already adopting the practices before this act came about.
Caroline Waters from BT says, "Flexitime, part-time and home-working are just some of the patterns enjoyed by BT people, allowing them the freedom to balance their personal and professional lives. Increased flexibility has enabled BT to recruit more effectively and our retention rate has improved with some employees turning down offers of more highly paid employment in favour of the flexibility we offer."
It costs, on average, £3000 to recruit someone new to a job, so it makes good business sense for employers to hang on to employees who, in their turn, will be loyal and motivated.
Big versus small
Despite the benefits, the act has not been without problems for employers. While large organisations have adapted relatively easily, small businesses have struggled to take on the changes. There are 3.7 million businesses in the UK, of which 99.9 per cent are small businesses. Of these, 97 per cent have fewer than 10 employees. Juliana Leonard, Head of Employment Policy at the Federation Of Small Businesses, says that although flexible working practices do occur in small businesses, they tend to have much less formalised procedures.
A lack of resources in small businesses
"The reason why employment legislation is so difficult for small businesses is because they do not have Human Resources departments to cope with these types of issues," says Juliana Leonard, "The person in charge of a company tends to have sole responsibility for being aware of the legislation. On the whole, it is not a lack of willingness to embrace these changes, more a lack of resources and knowledge of the facts."
For some businesses, offering flexible work isn't realistic. If you run a village shop, for instance, you need someone behind the till between certain hours.
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Created: 25/06/2003 Updated: 02/07/2003
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