18 HR, Recruitment & Training


22ND APRIL 2024 BUSINESS GUIDE DISTRIBUTED WITH


“89% of UK desk workers don’t want to work in the office full time anymore,” says Chris Mills, global head of customer success at Slack. So, it’s likely to come as great


news to employees across the UK that the law around flexible working has now changed. Workers are now permitted to request flexible working from the very first day of their new job. But what does this mean for employers and employees? Chris gives us the lowdown, as well as his top tips on making flexibility work for you.


So, what’s actually going to change? Until now, new employees had to wait until they’d been in post for 26 weeks or longer before requesting a move over to a flexible working pattern. Now, they don’t need to wait at all. Also, before now, employees would only be allowed to request one such change in a year — now they can ask up to twice a year.


MAN WORKING ON LAPTOP AT HOME OFFICE/ALAMY


Flexible working: how to adapt to the change


There are some new laws in town, and it’s important for business leaders to know what’s what. So, we spoke to an expert to find out exactly that. Words: Andy Hill


Doing diversity differently


Doing diversity work is no longer a choice for the few, who see the bene- fits often irrespective of limited time and budgets. Despite the rhetoric, EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclu- sion) work is here to stay and now more than ever, it’s important that businesses start on this journey before their car packs in and fails on its service delivery. How busi- nesses go about doing this, in an authentic way, without coercion and with genuine buy-in from their people, is of paramount impor- tance — after all, there’s no point of picking up passengers in a car, washing the body, not oiling the engine, then driving in an area full of potholes, expecting to get to your destination on time. Like businesses and their workforces, if you don’t get the conditions right, more and more EDI initiatives will be used, without achieving the desired outcomes. Pre-Image Learning and Action


THE INTERVIEW/IMAGE CREDIT: PILAA


Book your Inclusive Welcome CPD for Front of House teams or applicants looking to work in visitor attractions. £299 — quote offer code INCLUSIVE to get a 20% discount. Offer valid until 31 July 2024. For more information, email info@pilaa.co.uk


(PILAA) have seen many people fall into the trap of equating the term ‘diversity’ with racial difference, or organisations will use phrases such as ‘looking for diverse candidates’ or hiring diverse leaders’. When using such statements in recruitment, businesses need to ask, ‘but diverse from what?’ What is a diverse candi- date or a diverse leader, and if you are looking for them, then what consti- tutes the non-diverse? What would ‘looking for non-diverse candidates’ or ‘hiring non-diverse leaders’ look like and entail? Diversity, as a broad term, is about difference and variety, rather than racial difference.


DR OPE LORI, FOUNDER AND CEO OF PRE-IMAGE LEARNING AND ACTION/IMAGE CREDIT: DEXTER MCLEAN


PILAA is a creative consultancy,


that helps drive organisations in the right direction. It creates mean- ingful change through training and education, interactive workshops, team building, EDI away days, crea- tive campaigns, ongoing profes- sional development and PILAA Friend Membership plans. Part- nering with it will provide you with an accountability friend without judgement, offering everything from EDI health checks to helping to facil- itate difficult dialogues and empow- ering people to do so. Whatever the size of your organisa-


tion, get in touch with PILAA, and the team will be happy to join you on your EDI journey.


Is this bad news for employers? Bosses don’t have to accept every request, but they do have to offer a proper consultation with their employees and respond to each request within two months. In a world where flexible working is increasingly the norm, an employer can actually attract better quality talent and gain a competitive advantage by showing how keen they are to adopt flexible patterns and cater to the needs of their staff.


What about employees? Research shows that people overwhelmingly prefer flexible working. However, this doesn’t necessarily work for every type


of job. To help make a case to an employer, employees should demonstrate how moving to a more flexible pattern won’t affect their output. Under the new law, employees are no longer required to lay out how such a request will impact the employer, but it’s still a good idea to at least show an understanding of their side of the equation and explain that the level of work being done won’t be affected.


Can flexible working be as productive? Yes. For decades, as a society, we measured productivity as essentially a function of how long you’re sat at a desk — the classic 9-to-5 scenario. Nowadays, smart employers — and employees — are far more interested in output.


How can companies foster productivity in this new era of flexible working? Tey can use AI tools, some of which are native in Slack, to summarise meeting transcripts, or long communication threads. It’s a great time saver. Some tasks are clearly better carried out in person (collaboration and brainstorming, for example) so it’s not about eliminating in-person hours. It’s about making those hours count.


What’s one piece of advice for employers? Trust is a vital part of setting employees up for success. When employees are trusted with flexible work patterns, their levels of focus and productivity can double, and their overall job satisfaction increases almost fivefold. Tat’s a really powerful message.


E: info@pilaa.co.uk, pilaa.co.uk


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