Govt announcement on flexible working and multi-employment

I don’t believe the government should be getting involved here. It should be down to the employer to set their flexible working policies, if their trade allows for it. Quite simply, if they don’t have attractive policies, they won’t attract the best talent. Whilst flexible working is here to stay, Gen-Z professionals especially need to begin their career knowing what is required to succeed in their role, rather than searching for the perfect job based on flexibility alone. This sort of policy doesn’t encourage this.

On the face of it, this looks like a major improvement for employees. But most small employers won’t like this announcement. They’ll have to deal with flexible working requests from day one. In my experience, most flexible working requests are denied because they don’t meet the business requirements and the exceptions and get-outs for a business will remain. That means more requests and more rejections. Businesses have to be careful not to be discriminatory when dealing with flexible working requests or they’ll have employment tribunal claims on their hands from day one, too. They’ll also have to work a bit harder to reach a compromise on what would be acceptable to the business. The right for low paid workers to do more than one job, removing exclusivity clauses, is a sensible move and stops the sharp practice of employing someone giving them no or low hours and stopping them working elsewhere.

These laws are good news for working people. Unlike other announcements, such as trials on the 4-day week, this goes someway to improving work for low paid shift workers on the front line. For shift-working industries, though, these proposed laws pose a massive challenge. When scheduling your staff, the rota only fits one way, and constant claims for flexible working, now backed up by this proposed legislation, will put yet more strain on staffing in those industries. For us as a platform, we welcome the banning of draconian exclusivity clauses. It will mean more access to more income streams for more people, which will be crucial during a recession. And it will enable platforms like ours to continue to offer people a way to work that is flexible, varied and fulfilling.

The right to request flexibility from day one is much of a muchness, as loopholes for those businesses hoping to avoid making these changes still exist. However, a shift to outcomes and the ability to work for multiple employers synchronously is the exciting part of this announcement. Businesses that adopt multi-portfolio workers will benefit from a new found agility and sustainability and will be well positioned to adapt quickly to the future and whatever it holds. The Mutable Business model and a Flexible Resource Architecture that are designed to help businesses acclimatise to these new working options will be vital for companies in embracing a new future of work. Exciting times ahead.

This is an Emperor’s New Clothes story, politically repackaged hyperbole to garner media coverage. The legislative proposals simply tinker around the edges of current practice. The bill does not create an absolute right to flexible working. The political soundbites fail to mention it's still a case of a right to request and a duty to consider. The final decision will still rest in the hand of the employer, and as previously can be refused on one or more of eight business grounds. The bill also needs to progress through three additional House of Commons stages, the House of Lords, and Royal Assent. So, the fat lady is not even close to warming up her tonsils. In summary, everyone should keep calm and move along. Nothing to see here.