Employers may miss out on the business benefits of flexible working if they not use the extension of the right to request flexible working as an opportunity to rethink their work culture, says Gillian Nissim, Founder of Workingmums.co.uk, the UK's number one jobs and community site for working mums.
New legislation extending the right to request flexible working to all employees with at least 26 weeks of service comes in today.
Gillian Nissim, Founder of Workingmums.co.uk, said: "While we welcome the extension of the right to request flexible working to all employees - and the best employers already do this - we are concerned that many employers may not have used this opportunity to look holistically at their organisations and how they could benefit from a more flexible culture, rather than just considering individual requests as they come up. Surveys show many employers are unaware of the changes and their implications. Workingmums.co.uk is keen to share best practice so that employers can take advantage of all the benefits flexibilty may offer, including in sectors where there are particular challenges. To this end we have recently published a Best Practice Report which provides a whole host of examples of organisations big and small in a variety of sectors who can provide inspiring examples of how to make flexible working work for everyone - from employers to employees."