Emma Clark urges charities to seize the initiative and make flexible working the way of the future.

In a recent speech, deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg said that the government wanted to examine the option of extending flexible working beyond mums and dads.

The law currently restricts the right to request flexible working to parents with children under the age of 17 (or 18 if the child is disabled), or to carers. An employer is fully entitled to refuse such a request on the basis of a “genuine business ground” such as the negative effect on customer demand, or the effect on existing staff.

As has been written many times before, flexible working can instil immense loyalty in employees and improve staff morale, and nowhere more so than within charities. Now is the time to consider extending the option of flexible working beyond the current legal mimimum.

Trust

Remote working does not mean working from a kitchen table surrounded by noisy children and builders. It means working anywhere that is not the organisation’s physical office, assisted by the use of skype and video-conferencing to discuss matters with colleagues and external contacts.

Employers often argue that they cannot be certain their employees are working hard, but there should be an element of trust in every employment relationship. Unproductive people will find ways to waste time, irrespective of whether they are remote working or gossiping with colleagues in the office. These issues should be managed through appropriate HR procedures.

Remote working can also have an enormous benefit in reducing sick days. According to a study of 24,000 IBM staff worldwide, employees who worked flexibly were able to work more hours a week before they experienced the same levels of stress as those who did not work flexibly.

Reducing current levels of sickness is key for any employer, and the positive effects of flexible and remote working could therefore result in a win-win situation.

Another advantage of remote working is that it can free up expensive office space, and how about the environmental impact? 22 per cent of UK domestic carbon emissions are from traffic. The government is currently considering legislation to reduce parking spaces at work with Nottingham leading the way and imposing a workplace parking levy.

With the ongoing focus on reducing carbon emission, remote working is a pragmatic solution and is certain to impress many charity employees, volunteers and other stakeholders.

The government has re-commenced the fight to prevent the European Commission from making our employees work less than 48 hours per week. Trade unions and employer organisations (collectively called the ‘social partners’) are trying to reach an agreement on ‘working-time’ issues by September 2012.

The main debate in Europe relating to the UK Working Time Regulations 1998, is whether or not Europe will continue to allow the UK to ask staff to sign a document, often attached to an employment contract, in which they agree to ‘opt out’ of the 48-hour working week.

Although it is often hard to exceed the 48-hour working week (as it applies over a rolling 17-week reference period), the fundamental aim of the restriction is to protect workers from the health and safety consequences of overworking.

Think imaginatively

Rather than rely on this stringent 48-hour working week, or lose sleep over the health and safety liabilities that might arise if these hours are exceeded, employers could start to focus less on potential loopholes and consider offering employees the right to work flexibly and remotely.

Meeting colleagues, as well as service users and donors, face-toface is hard to beat and should always be encouraged. However, all charity employers, whether large or small, should think imaginatively.

A strategic business decision, that is led by members of management who want to move out of the Victorian era and embrace the benefits of ever-changing technology, could change the workforce conventions of the future.

I urge charities to consider the fact that their employees should be judged by the results they achieve and not by presenteeism.

Emma Clark is a senior associate at Fox Solicitors