Flexible working requests can be denied
Businesses should consider their setup before allowing flexible working, argues Robert Rutherford
New laws will from April seal the rights of employees to request flexible working from their employer. For many, the right to choose when and where they can work is an idea that sits well with contemporary business thinking and has grown in popularity over the past few years.
Businesses in all sectors are likely to see more petitions for remote and flexible working, a demand that many of them will be ill equipped to deny.
For many companies - and their IT departments in particular - this will be a concern, and rightly so. A large scale take-up of flexible working can change the dynamic of a workplace in many ways.
Employees spending increasing amounts of time working at different locations and on different devices can be difficult to keep track of when it comes to efficiency, productivity and behaviour, for instance.
It's therefore important to have the right systems and processes, and to familiarise an office-centric team with new infrastructure early on.
Companies introducing flexible working must first consider their business objectives, not only in terms of end results, but also the various working practices that help generate those results.
A company needs to know its minimum requirements for optimum team performance. What does it need when it comes to communications, operations and workflows? And how much of this is effective and available remotely? Can non-online processes be moved online?
There are many tools available, including collaboration tools like Lync and Sharepoint, which in my view can go a long way towards keeping staff that work from home engaged and involved.
However, it's very easy for companies to be seduced by advertising and marketing for tools that aren't always best for them. A strong business case should always be used to determine the technology requirements; it can't be the other way around.
The security issues will also demand change across the IT operations. The threat landscape will diversify quickly once personal devices, dual-purpose devices and multiple locations are introduced.
Flexible working can pick holes in a well established security infrastructure, often in ways that are not obvious until they cause a crisis.
Security is also the hardest area to test thoroughly, so there is no substitute for expertise and experience.
Depending on the nature of the business, flexible working can and often does provide advantages in terms of productivity and cost. It is also a valuable fall-back strategy if employees are unable to work from the office for any reason.
Every business will have its own objectives, though, and should think carefully before implementing flexible working.
It's worth noting that the right to request flexible working is not the same as the right to flexible working. So if the business model offers strong enough arguments against it, businesses should be able to refuse the request.
Meanwhile, the sooner the business understands the change, the less likely it will face a crisis once the new rules take effect.
Robert Rutherford is chief executive officer of Quostar