Flexible working definitions and explanations

Flexible working is work designed to suit the unique needs of a specific employee. It is an arrangement that caters to an employee's chosen style of working and can involve changes to:

• Working hours – e.g. starting earlier or later, compressed hours

• Working location – e.g home, co-working space, hybrid

• Work patterns – e.g job sharing, phased retirement

In the UK, employees have a statutory right to request flexible working – and with hybrid models now the norm for many industries, it’s more than just a “perk”.

Employees have a right to request flexible working to change how, when and where they work.

Before 2020, such requests were relatively rare. Now, demand has surged with 57% of employees working in a hybrid model, while 37% are fully office-based and 6% work remotely.

Recent legislative changes have redefined and strengthened employees’ rights under the Employment Rights Act of 1996, including:

• Consultation before rejection – Employers must discuss a request before refusing it

• Two requests per year – Employees can now make two statutory requests in a 12-month period, an increase from one

• Faster decisions – Response time has been reduced from three to two months

• No requirement to explain impact – Employees don’t need to outline how the change will affect the business

• Day one eligibility – Flexible working requests can be made from the first day of employment

With hybrid models now embedded in most industries, these updates bring legislation in line with the reality of the modern workplace and employee expectations. 

Common flexible working arrangements include:

These flexible working arrangements can apply to both full-time and part-time jobs, making them accessible to a wide range of employees.

Flexible jobs and work arrangements offer tangible benefits for both employers and employees. Workforce Pulse Report data shows it can increase productivity, reduce turnover, and strengthen trust.

• Access to a larger talent pool, unrestricted by geography

• Lower overhead costs through reduced office space

• Higher retention – employees with flexible options are 25% less likely to be job-hunting

• Reduced commuting time and costs

• Better work-life balance and employee wellbeing

• There is often greater employee engagement, less absenteeism and turnover

Trust plays a crucial role in performance. Among employees who feel trusted to work remotely, 69% report high productivity compared to just 42% who don’t. Similarly, those who work flexibly are more than twice as likely (52% vs. 23%) to feel highly motivated.

The drawbacks of flexible working are finding the time for HR to:

• Coordinate schedules across flexible teams

• Training managers for remote leadership

• Ensuring fairness between in-office and remote staff

However, many of these can be mitigated through clear policies, HR software tools, and regular communication.

HR plays a leading role in making flexible working successful. From setting clear policies to supporting managers, HR must provide structure, tools, and communication to ensure flexible arrangements benefit both employees and the organisation.

Here’s a roundup of best practices we’d recommend:

Start with an organisational assessment to see where things stand. Especially when it comes to a back-to-the-office policy or a phased return to work, it helps to take the temperature of your organisation.

Use an employee pulse survey to understand preferences around:

• Number of office days per week

• Interest in remote or hybrid work

• Demand for compressed hours (e.g. four-day work week)

• Desire for a simple, flexible working request process

Depending on the size and culture of your company, this insight helps to shape a policy that supports both employee wellbeing and business goals.

Regardless of how your organisation feels, you need to provide clarity to every worker. That means having a flexible working policy and process to provide clear guidelines and procedures for how these arrangements ‘work.’

For example, you should consider stating:

• Who is eligible for flexible working hours or part-time roles

• How the policy complies with UK employment law

Flexible working hours let employees adjust their schedules to balance work and personal needs, while still meeting the goals of the business. This can include flexi-time, compressed hours, part-time schedules, or job sharing.

• To make flexible hours successful:

• Define core hours when everyone should be available

• Ensure workloads are measurable and outcome-based

• Provide a clear process for requesting flexible working hours

Managing flexible workers or managing remote teams is crucial to the success of a policy. But it’s different from managing people in a traditional work setting and requires new skills. Provide training for managers on topics like:

• Leading remote or hybrid teams

• Tracking and evaluating the performance of remote employees fairly

• Building trust and accountability

Give your managers and leads the opportunity to be just as successful with flexible work. After all, it is definitely going to influence the way they work and how productive they feel, so HR should be there to fully support them, too.

The perception of fairness is sometimes a concern with flexible working policies. How can organisations ensure that home-based, part-time or full-time employees with flexible working hours are really doing their jobs? By making attendance tracking easy and accessible, employees can log their attendance and absences so managers can keep track of this data. This will not only empower employees to track their time but also result in accurate HR reporting and analytics.

Tools, like Slack, Teams, or Zoom, are staples of modern workplace communication. So, make sure that everyone has access to team collaboration software for instant messaging, remote conferencing, project management, and document sharing.

Encourage managers to set up communication rules to keep everyone in touch, on point and accountable. These could be daily or weekly "check-ins” with individual employees, and monthly team meetings, either virtual or in-person.

Finally, HR needs to raise awareness among staff of their right to request flexible working hours or location, and the advantages that this policy brings. You should also highlight this benefit as part of your employer branding strategy and employer value proposition.

It truly depends. Flexible working may bring with it a huge number of benefits, but if you don't have a way to truly manage your workforce, it will never succeed. Personio is an all-in-one HR software solution designed to help upgrade your people operations.

Personio can help recruit, onboard, manage, develop and pay your employees more easily. Click here for the full breakdown of the Personio advantage.

A flexible working arrangement is any setup that allows employees to vary when, where, or how they work. This could mean remote working, compressed hours, phased retirement, or flexible jobs tailored to individual needs.

Part-time roles are one of the most common types of flexible jobs. Many employers allow part-time staff to request flexible working arrangements, like adjusted hours, hybrid options or job sharing.

If you are a working parent, a caregiver, or returning from maternity leave, every employee (within the 26-week rule) has the right to make a flexible working request.