Employment lawyers

Flexible working

Flexible working is the future of the workplace.

Although flexible and agile working have been buzzwords in employment law for a few years now, the pandemic has forced it onto the agenda of all organisations, whatever their size, structure, sector or location.

Despite the lockdowns and restrictions placing unprecedented demands on both employers and employees, many have adapted very well and are now looking to continue with a more hybrid working model, despite the end of the restrictions.

As well as the obvious benefits to both employers and employees of continuing to combine working from home with going into the office and more flexible hours, there are employment law and other legal implications that employers will need to consider.

Each organisation’s requirements will be slightly different and Collyer Bristow’s employment team can work with you to ensure that you have the relevant policies and procedures in place to avoid any pitfalls. Unlike other law firms we do not offer a ‘one-size-fits-all’ Hybrid working package but can provide you with bespoke guidance that suits your specific needs, including:

Managing requests for flexible working and managing a remote workforce.
Guidance on how to implement changes to employment contracts in ways that minimise litigation risk.
How to avoid redundancies and practical methods to reduce expenditure, and how to manage redundancies and restructures which are unavoidable.
Handling sickness and unauthorised absences, and the effects of ‘long Covid’ on your workforce.
Health and safety and government guidance on maintaining Covid secure workspaces.
Data protection issues, particularly around monitoring and recording vaccination status, testing results and sickness.
Key managerial training including managing internal procedures whilst still working remotely, and dealing with inter-staff conflicts.

A reform of flexible working regulations

On 23 September the government opened a consultation to take views from individuals and businesses on its proposals to reform flexible working regulations. The government is consulting on five proposals which generally are designed to make flexible working the default for most. The consultation closed on 01 December 2021. The government states it is still analysing responses and is yet to publish its findings. It’s therefore not likely that any changes will be introduced for some time.

Meanwhile, the existing flexible working regulations remain in force, and businesses are being encouraged by the government to accept flexible working.

Employee expectations to work flexible and agilely have exploded and nearly half of all employers are reported to offer flexible working in 2021.

Support for employees

We advise employees on how to make statutory requests for flexible working and what your rights are if your employer unreasonably refuses a request or doesn’t respond within the decision period.

We can assist with preparing a formal request; guide you through the process; and where requests are not accepted by employers, assist you with submitting an appeal, grievance or Employment Tribunal claim if necessary.

We can also advise your flexible working rights as a parent or if you require reasonable adjustments.

Issues for employers in 2022 and beyond

COVID-19 has caused the greatest shift in UK employment law for a decade. The government launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) which introduced the concept of furlough to UK for the first time. Many businesses had to, almost overnight, set staff up to work from home and figure out new policies and procedures to ensure proper and adequate (and sometimes legally required) monitoring and supervision were in place. Whatever the challenge during the pandemic, most employers have met it head-on and managed spectacularly.

However now, with the restrictions lifted and the requirement to work from home removed the nation is learning to live and work alongside COVID-19, which has brought its own set of challenges. For example, dealing with staff shortages and recruitment during the ‘pingdemic’; managing large amounts of accrued and rolled-forward annual leave and flexible working requests; effective monitoring supervision of staff performance and conduct whilst working remotely, and ensuring sufficient transparency, communication and continuity to keep up staff morale; dealing with a return to the workplace and the need to alter contracts of employment, and managing staff resistance to both; dealing with employees who moved out of the area, city or country during lockdown and contingency planning.

One particularly difficult area is managing inter-staff relationships and conflicts, particularly around sensitive or controversial subjects such as vaccination.

We have developed detailed training that deals with all these practical issues and more, with a selection listed below. We are able to provide simple guides for dealing with thorny issues and long-term challenges. We are happy to tailor our training to suit your particular needs, especially if you’re facing a particular workplace issue that we can help with.

For the latest updates on hybrid working listen to our Employment podcasts and read our articles.

Training workshops and seminars:

A tool for employers

Helping employers manage statutory flexible working requests

The disruption to business operations caused by the pandemic has meant many employers are receiving flexible working requests from staff, who now prefer working from home. What are the Employment law requirements on employers to grant these requests?

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How to deal with a statutory flexible working request

Collyer Bristow’s Employment team has prepared a useful step-by-step flowchart for employers, guiding them through the complex process of dealing with a statutory flexible working request from an employee.

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Webinar
Running time: 59 minutes

The Future of Work & Managing a Hybrid Workforce

In our latest Employment webinar Tania Goodman, Sinead Kelly, Daniel Zona and Emma Burroughs discuss the future of work and the issues with managing a hybrid workforce, including hybrid, agile and flexible working; health and safety in a hybrid workplace; and employee monitoring.

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Training

Training workshops and seminars bespoke to your business.

Our employment team can provide tailored workshops and seminars to help you and your team navigate and manage the various implications of the post-Covid workplace. Like our advice, our training is bespoke, including case studies and scenarios tailored to your industry and the specific requirements and interests of your business. It can be delivered virtually or in person at your offices. Topics and areas covered are detailed further down the page, however, we welcome discussion on other specific areas of concern for your business and can work with you to meet your needs.

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Product

Book an Employment MOT

Our Employment MOT service will act as a health-check for your business. We review your employment and HR practices, contracts and policies to see if there are any areas of concern or risk of liability. We can advise you on actual or potential liability, and how to implement best practices to address these. We can also provide a suite of employment policies and contracts tailored to your business, and training on key areas of HR and employment practice.

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More information

Training on: Working patterns

Following the lifting of working from home restrictions, we’ve seen that many office-based businesses have faced the dilemma of how to structure future working patterns in the face of an improving, yet still somewhat fragile economy. Businesses have witnessed the benefits of a flexible and agile workforce. While the expectations of many individuals to work in less office-based environments has grown. Our training on working patterns covers how to implement and manage a workforce that is flexible or agile, or hybrid of both.

We will cover how to deal with statutory flexible working requests, and practical considerations when dealing with requests from staff who don’t have statutory rights yet; issues relating to monitoring staff activity and performance when they are out of the office; how to ensure compliance with your health and safety obligations when staff are working from home; how to keep morale up and deal with concerns swiftly; and an overview of the key practical considerations, how to avoid common pitfalls and to make the most out of a flexible and versatile workforce. We are happy to hear from you on what specific flexible working issues you are facing and how we can tailor our training to make it valuable to you.

Training on: Handling absences

One of the biggest challenges faced by employers in the last 18 months has been managing sickness, absences and staff shortages. Even as the country saw the number of new cases drop and restrictions lifted, the ‘pingdemic’ took hold and many sectors are now suffering staffing shortages. Our training will guide you through how to manage sickness absences; issues with long-covid and repeat absences; how to handle staff being ‘pinged’ and told to isolate; how to manage track and trace within your own premises as you return to the office; how to monitor and record necessary health information and vaccination records; and what impact all this sickness absence can have on your future plans such as restructures and redundancies.

We can also discuss with you what past issues you’ve faced with staff absences and what burning questions you have so we can tailor our training accordingly.

Training on: Health and Safety

Employers have had to grapple with a new and changing health and safety environment. Since the outset of the pandemic the government has issued numerous and regularly updated guidelines on how to make workplaces covid-safe. Employers have spent the last few months getting to grips with novelties like staff having to quarantine unexpectedly after being caught out by short-notice changes to the government’s traffic light system when travelling abroad, or indeed testing positive while away and having to quarantine there; implementing policies to maintain a covid-free workspace such as requiring regular testing; balancing data protection obligations with the need to keep accurate records of testing, sickness and vaccinations.

We can provide training on how to manage all these issues and how to ensure you remain compliant with a shifting health and safety environment. Each business has its own specific health and safety risks and requirements so we can tailor our training to ensure its relevant to your workplace.

More information

Training on: Working patterns

Training on: Handling absences

We can also discuss with you what past issues you’ve faced with staff absences and what burning questions you have so we can tailor our training accordingly.