Flexible Working Arrangements

In this episode of the My HR Partner podcast, host Karen Hillen explores the increasingly essential topic of flexible work arrangements in today's business environment. Discover the legal rights of employees to request flexibility, the practicalities of implementing flexible hours, remote work, and even a four-day workweek. Karen offers practical advice for employers on how to balance business needs with employee satisfaction, ultimately enhancing productivity and retention. Tune in to learn how to make your workplace more adaptable and supportive. 

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 This podcast is brought to you by Podpro Australia. Hi, I'm Karen Hillen. Welcome to the My HR Partner podcast. We talk about all things HR from recruitment to ending employment. If you'd like support with your HR, check out our website, www. myhrp. com. au. Welcome back to our HR educational journey with Karen Hillen from the My HR Partner podcast.

Today we're looking into a topic that's become a lot more common in today's modern workplace, implementing flexible COVID, this has really become a big thing for employers. I mean, we all crave that work life balance and Karen's here to show us how flexibility can be a win win for both companies and their teams.

So grab your notepad and let's uncover how to make your workplace more adaptable, supportive and ultimately more productive. Karen, let's start with the basics. Can you explain what flexible work arrangements actually are and why they're becoming. I must have in today's business world. Yeah. So there's probably two parts of flexible working.

So there's the, the right to flexible work arrangements and, you know, there are some rules that Um, in relation to who can apply for flexible working arrangements. So parents with school aged or younger children, carers, and there's a definition of carers in the Act. People over 55, people that are suffering from family and domestic violence, or somebody who's caring for somebody who is a victim of family and domestic violence.

Domestic violence. So those people have an actual right to request flexible working arrangements. realise that. Yeah, so if you're an employer and you've got an employee that fits into one of those categories and they apply for flexible working arrangements. You've got to try and do your best to accommodate those.

So that could be altering hours. So it could be a temporary reduction in hours, for instance, or it could be a change to start and finish times. You know, it could be, you know, like a, a staggered way of starting and finishing to accommodate childcare arrangements or, or things like that. And it could also be just.

general flexibility in relation to when the hours are worked. So if you're a business and you do have somebody that asks for flexible working arrangements under those circumstances, they should apply in writing and you need to respond to them in writing within 21 days. Right. So you can refuse a request if it doesn't suit the business, but you'd have to have a pretty good valid reason of how it doesn't suit the business and let people know how and why.

When the person's making application, they also have to give the details of what they want and, and the reason. So that's the sort of official side of flexible working arrangements. Also, if someone's pregnant, they also fit into that category. But in saying that there will be sometimes where a business just can't accommodate it.

And that could be a small business or a large business. If it doesn't suit the business and you can't make You know, reasonable adjustments to make it work. You may have to decline that and you would need to do that in writing. Sure. Then there's really the more sort of flexible approach in relation to flexible working arrangements that a lot of the time are.

Uh, a decision of the business. It's not something that somebody comes and asks for. It's a business decision that might be made with all of your employees or some of your employees. Uh, a very common one at the moment, and I think we've spoken about this before as well, is, uh, you know, some businesses are going to a four day week.

So sometimes, you know, there'll be discussions with the team. The business, the business will see how that's going to work. Do, does everybody just work four days a week and you have every Friday off or how is that going to work? So there's lots of those sorts of arrangements happening now. And of course the big ones working from home.

So again, you know, in COVID it was a necessity. People had to act quickly and come up with ways that people could work from home. A lot of people have got very used to that and want to continue to do it. But then you've got some businesses who are wanting their employees to come back into the office. So there's probably a combination of all of those things.

And I think, you know, we, we talk a lot about retention. We talk about making our employees happy, making sure that they're happy to stay. Flexible working arrangements can be a big factor in those things. So I think it's really important as a business owner to look at those things and see, is it possible in my business?

And it may not be. For instance, if you are on a construction site and you've got carpenters, plumbers, electricians, tradies, obviously they can't work from home. If you own a restaurant and you've got people, um, serving drinks, serving food, They can't work from home. So there are going to be lots of positions where it's just not practical and it's just not going to happen.

So, but there might be other ways that you can be flexible for those types of workers and it could be somebody wants to finish early every day to pick up their kids from school or it might be somebody who's transitioning to retirement and wants to start working less hours or less days. So I think the thing is.

being able to look at all of those things to make your employee happy, to keep them productive. It's a good idea to see what you can do to accommodate those things. And sometimes it won't be possible. So, you know, I think we need to be clear about that. There will be some times where you'll want to as a person and as a business owner, but if it's absolutely not possible in your business, you have to explain that.

Of course. And I think that's the main thing is it's like. everything in, you know, HR and business communications key. So if somebody asks for a reduction in hours for a period of time, or they want to start early, finish early, start late, finish late, whatever it might be, if you're not able to do it, explain it.

So as well as putting your response in writing, which you have to do within 21 days, don't just flick them off something in writing, have a meeting, explain it. See if you can come up with any compromise or any variation of what an employee's asked for, and you might be able to meet halfway. You may not be able to either.

I think that the key is here in the word, being flexible. Yep. Yeah, absolutely. We recently, it was the last episode I believe we did on employee retention. And this really fits very closely with that, that I think if you are flexible, if you can work with your employees, especially, you know, the ones. You know, you really want to retain and be able to mix things up a little bit in order to accommodate them and their lives.

It can work for everyone and you can even get a better outcome for the business as well. Yes, and people will be happier. People that are happy will, you know, Go the extra mile, you know, they will be more productive in different ways. You know, the four day week thing, for instance, there are some probably not many smaller businesses, but larger businesses, a lot of them are doing a four day week with, with no sort of spreading those 38 hours into four days.

They're actually doing four days for, you know, 7. 6 hour days or eight hour days, but they're still paying people a full time salary. Now. From what I've seen with some of those businesses, they're getting the same level, if not higher, of productivity. Productivity. Because people are happy. They're happy to fit more into those four days.

Other businesses, what they're doing is they're, they're, they might be working 10 hour days, four days a week. So they're still getting the hours in. But again, people are happy. If they're happy and that's what they want. I mean, that's surely got to be a good thing for everybody. Absolutely. And look, sometimes that's not going to work.

You know, we talked about, you know, parents and people transitioning into retirement, they might not want to work a 10 hour day. They, they're probably focused more on shorter days. So for. people in that position. It could be a temporary reduction in hours for a period of time until kids get to school.

There are other arrangements they can make, or sometimes it's just a person just decides that they don't want to work full time anymore and they might just want to work part time hours, or they might want to start at a six o'clock in the morning, get their day done and go for a surf in the afternoon.

Or it could be the other way around. People want to start late every day. They might want to go and do yoga or go to the gym in the morning. So there'll be lots of different reasons why people will value flexibility. So I think, again, it comes back to making sure you understand the difference between what the, the rights are in relation to people that have a right to ask for flexible working arrangements.

And then just generally what's going to be good to keep your employees happy and make sure your business can sustain it. Sure. So I think, you know, if I'm, I'm hearing you correctly, Karen, your advice to business owners is, especially in this, it's, it's new, we've got a new world of, of employment since, since COVID.

So wherever it's possible for a business to be flexible in what. Whatever way to accommodate good employees, you're going to get the benefit from it. And there would be no reason not to, as long as the business can cope and you're still, and you may, you know, should be getting the same level of productivity, if not possibly more.

Yeah. And I think, you know, if we use the example of working from home, if people like to work from home and they're more productive, and it really doesn't matter that they're not in the office, Then why not do it? At least trial it. And there are probably lots of businesses that still have people working from home, even though COVID, you know, the, the compulsory working from home is over.

If that person's still productive, they're doing a good job, they're happy. They might be saving an hour or two hours a day traveling backwards and forwards to work. You've got to consider all of those things. But then I know I've got other clients who are really wanting their employees to come back into the office.

And it could be because things just aren't working with having people work remotely. Yep. If you're a business and that's, that's the case, maybe come to a compromise and have people work a couple of days from home and a couple of days in the office. And again, like I said, there will be some jobs where it's just not practical at all.

And that could be an office job. If you've got a supervisor, probably makes sense. They need to be physically in the office with the team they manage. But then again, that with technology, there are ways around that. So I think it really is going to be individual businesses, individual employees, and how it's going to work.

Some people work better from home. Some people work better in the office. Through COVID, a lot of employees really struggled working from home, especially if they're extroverts and they like to be in a team, be around people. Other people love working from home because they're introverts and they like just to sit there and get the work done.

Being able to do that at home is better, and combinations of all of those things as well. Sure. Look, I think it's, it's pretty clear, flexible work arrangements isn't a trend, it's the future of employment. I'm guessing that any of your clients can reach out to you if they are considering that. Some kind of change in a, in a, a flexible working arrangement to talk to you about the ins and outs of that and compliance if they're working from home and what they need to consider when doing it.

Yeah, and I think that's important too, making sure that you have considered everything and it could be that you agree to it. But it's for a fixed period to see how it goes. You can put an individual flexibility agreement in writing in place to say, okay, these are the things that we're varying. So yeah, but I think the thing is, it's communication.

It's really having an honest look of what's possible. And Both sides might, might need to make a compromise to make it work. And, but yeah, I think number one, you, you're going to get people that are happier if, if they can see that, even if you can't agree that you've at least considered it for sure. So for all those employers out there listening, be flexible.

Be flexible. The days are gone of, you know, as the boss and the employer where it's my way or the highway, there aren't as many good employees out there anymore. It's a tough market to get great employees. When you've got them, be flexible where you can accommodate. You're going to have a much happier workforce that ultimately, produces more for you and your business and your bottom line.

Yep. And I, yeah, and that's really important. And if you can't explain why. Yeah. So you're not just saying no, and people think this isn't a very good place to work. I'm going to go and find somewhere else. So yeah, I think really the communication again with a lot of things in HR is key. Absolutely. Karen Hillen, thanks once again, another really insightful episode on, on a topic that I think is only going to become more and more apparent for all businesses.

So, once again, what is your website so that people can get in touch because, you know, why worry about all your HR problems and issues when they can just come to you and you've got all these wonderful packages that suits every level of business. It's www.my hrp.com au and as you said, there are lots of different options for businesses, whether you're small or medium, you just need some ad hoc advice or you need something on a more consistent basis.

We can cover all of those things. It just makes sense so that business owners and their managers can concentrate on what they do best, which is running the business and, and making money and let you look after the, the HR side of things. Yep, definitely. Excellent. Well, thanks once again. Look forward to chatting to you on our next episode.

Thanks and have a great day.