Flexible working means thinking afresh about the way you and your staff work, making the most of advances in I.T. to help you achieve both business and personal objectives.

At a very simple level, examples could include:

making more use of teleconferencing rather than spending time and money travelling to meetings
enabling your staff to carry out some of their work from home rather than travel into the office every day
adopting a more flexible approach to when work is done. Perhaps it would suit some of your staff and the business better if some of the work were carried out in the early morning, in the evening or at weekends?

Some businesses will want to invest in technology to realise even greater benefits from flexible working. Examples include:

installing a Virtual Private Network so that your staff can all work from home just as efficiently as they could in the office
supplying staff with wireless enabled laptops so they can use broadband hotspots as they travel around and so minimise downtime
having staff working from a number of different locations around the UK - or even around the globe - connected together by broadband
using Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony to save on the costs of calls between employees working remotely and the office

Some businesses even decide that they no longer need a permanent office at all - with dramatic cost savings!

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1.02 What are the benefits of flexible working?

Today many people have to combine work with family care commitments. And, of course, in Cornwall and across the South West, many people live in remote locations and have a long journey to the office. If you can help employees to work from home or stagger their journey, they can enjoy more flexibility in their lives, saving time, money and stress - and your business will gain as a result:

some of the time saved on traveling to the office can be spent productively
if several of your staff work flexibly you could share desk space and reduce your overheads or expand without the need for more office space
you can attract higher caliber staff by offering a good work-life balance or allowing them to work remotely without having to move house
motivated staff are more productive and less likely to take sick leave
staff retention is increased, as is the proportion of women who return to work after maternity leave.

In today's business world, true competitive advantage is the ability to anticipate change, react quickly and be available 24/7. With flexible working in place, you can do just that.

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1.03 What technology do I need?

You may need no new technology - flexible working could just mean coming into the office later or using existing equipment such as laptops and mobile phones.

At a simple level, you could just save in travel time and costs by making use of teleconferencing instead of physically going to a meeting.

Applications sharing allows two or more people to view and edit the same file or document on screen at the same time from different locations.

Secure remote access or use of a Virtual Private Network (VPN) gives employees access to files on your network from a remote location, so they can work from home as easily as they do from the office.

Terminal services is an advancement to VPNs, where the software application being used runs on a remote server and the person just sees a screen image of what is running remotely. This allows quicker access to work and processing at speeds exactly as if working in the office.

For more information on the technology you'll need, see our working from home or working on the move pages under IT advice.

You can also save the costs of phone calls and allow seemless transfer of calls between employees working from home and the office by communicating over the Internet.

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1.04 How much does it cost to implement?

Obviously the costs depend very much on your individual flexible working situation and the technology you choose, but as a rough guide, the main types of technology cost in the region of the following:

conference calls £10's
applications sharing £10's
secure remote access (VPNs) £100's
terminal services £1000's

actnow can advise you on your particular situation - contact us to find out more.

2.01. What equipment will I need to supply for the employee's home?

If you would like a member of your team to work flexibly from home then you may consider providing some or all of the necessary equipment - this is something for you to decide. It's worth noting early on that you are responsible for your employee's health and safety whilst they are working (wherever they are located), so it may be easier to meet your health and safety responsibilities if you do provide suitable equipment.

Some things you may consider contributing towards could be paying a proportion of broadband costs and/or a contribution to an adjustable chair. Of course, if your employee needs a computer to work from home, this will often be provided (a laptop is usual, to give true mobility).

A separate telephone line in the employee's home may be considered appropriate to manage bills effectively, but some companies may opt for more extensive use of a mobile phone or the flexibility and potential cost savings of a VoIP internet telephony system.

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2.02. How will I manage the purchasing and supply of consumables such as print cartridges and stationery?

If a member of your staff requires stationery or consumables then there are a number of ways to manage this. You could carry on stocking any stationery in the same way as you would if they were based in the office. This way when the staff come in for meetings etc they can pick up anything they need, or contact you in advance to order in the necessary items for them. This way you would be in control of what's being used and be able to budget accordingly.

You may alternatively like to open an account with a local stationers so that your staff can keep themselves stocked up and you simply receive a monthly invoice. Or, you may prefer to ask your staff to buy stationery and consumables as and when they need it, keep the receipts and claim it back on expenses (however you may be unable to claim the VAT back if you choose this option). The disadvantage of these options of course is that an element of cost control is taken away from you - again, it really comes down to your individual business and how trustworthy your staff are!

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2.03. If a member of staff leaves employment and does not return the equipment I have supplied, what recourse do I have? Do I have right of entry to their house?

Legally, you wouldn't be able to access their house without permission, but it may well be prudent to have an agreement with your flexible workers that when they leave your employment any company equipment will be returned. This is something that a flexible working agreement would cover. An example agreement is included in the actnow flex toolkit.

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2.04. How can I assess whether a particular employee is suitable for working flexibly? (E.g. self motivation levels, time management skills, home environment.)

Flexible workers need to be self motivated people who are good communicators. The home should offer a suitable working environment both in terms of space and being free from distractions. Importantly, flexible working should never be imposed on employees - they must also have the desire to work flexibly.

One way to assess their suitability is to ask any employee who wants to work flexibly to fill out an 'employee application form'. This will ask them to think about things like the outputs of their job, the impact working flexibly will have on their colleagues and the extent to which they would like to work flexibly. An example form is available in the actnow flex toolkit.

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2.05. What are the insurance implications? For the company? For the employee?

If working from home, employees' contents and building insurance companies need to be informed. In addition, there are three areas that you will need to ensure are covered by suitable insurance. Firstly employee public liability, secondly any equipment in the home and finally people and equipment in transit.

These may be covered within by the employee's insurance, but of course any shortfalls will need to be covered by the company.

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2.06. Are there any other considerations?

For most businesses, the biggest factor in adopting flexible working practices is not the technology or costs, but the change in culture required to trust employees whilst they are not under direct supervision. Flexible working isn't for everyone - some employees enjoy the office environment and need the interaction with colleagues or would find it difficult to motivate themselves if they were at home.

One of the ways to overcome these challenges is to start gradually and take flexible working one step at a time.

Management focus needs to shift from hours worked to measurable outputs, and in this sense, employees productivity is more focussed towards achieving business objectives.

The important thing with flexible working is that both the employer and employee are committed to it and determined to make it work. If the cultural barriers can be overcome, the rewards for the business and the individual are substantial. See the Preston Goldburn case study.

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3.01. What are the health and safety implications?

You are still responsible for your staff whilst they work, be it at home or otherwise. Risk assessments should be carried out as normal for example on display screen equipment (DSE), and other provisions you may have for accident reporting, first aid, training, etc will still apply. A 'place of work' is usually designated in the home so that the employee is covered say in a certain room where home working normally takes place. It is worth noting that some businesses take the practical step of allowing employees to carry out their own self assessments and along with this is the simple further step of taking a photograph of the designated work area to add to the self assessment information. However whatever method you employ, remember you need to ensure that risk assessments are kept up to date so you should ensure that these are redone at least annually or earlier if there is any significant change in the home environment.

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3.02. Are there any legal risks?

All your legal responsibilities in the workplace are carried into a home working environment. So for example if your employee holds customer information at home, your responsibilities with regards to the Data Protection Act would still apply.

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3.03. If I allow staff to work from home, is the business legally liable if there is an accident or if an employee's heath suffers as a result? Could the company be sued? How can I avoid any such risk?

Yes. The company has the same duty of care to the employee whether they are working on the company's premises or from a remote location, including their home, and all Health & Safety Executive (HSE) legislation for the workplace includes workplaces in the home.

A good starting point to manage such a risk is to ensure the employee completes the homeworking self assessment checklist (available in the actnow flex toolkit) before they start home working with a review being done at 12 months or if there is a significant change that effects them. You should also book time after one month to review any possible impact that working remotely has had on the health of your employee. This way you can identify any health and safety risks, carry out the appropriate risk assessment and take measures to minimise or stop the risk.

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3.04. What do I need to do to comply with Health and Safety legislation? Do I need to check the working conditions at employees' homes?

You need to consider the health and safety of your employee when they are working from home as carefully as if they were working on your premises; all the same HSE legislation for the workplace applies equally to workplaces in the home.

You will therefore need a risk assessment for remote working to be done, but the basis of this can be a self assessment checklist to be completed by the employee. (This is available in the actnow flex toolkit.)

If your businesses has a policy of PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) electrical equipment, you should have home working equipment similarly tested.

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3.05. Will flexible working affect employee's tax or insurance positions?

There are normally no tax implications for employees that work less than 50% of their time remotely. If the employee is given equipment to work from home, say a laptop and this is also used for personal use this could incur a benefit in kind liability. As long as the equipment is only for business use, however, this liability would be removed.

There is also a potential Capital Gains liability upon sale of an employee's home if they claim tax relief on the space at home designated for office use.

Employees who work from home should inform their home insurer, especially if this means there is additional equipment of value kept in the home.

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3.06. What is benefit-in-kind and what are the taxation implications?

When a benefit is provided to an employee in lieu of money, it may be seen as a benefit-in-kind.

There may be benefit-in-kind' tax and National Insurance implications if you provide expenses payments to your employee for certain items or provide other non-cash benefits unless, as HM Revenue & Customs phrases it, any private use is 'not significant'. These can include things like a company car or private medical insurance, and depending on the level of private use could include providing a broadband connection for home employees.

Certain benefits, like using a company PC for personal use or childcare facilities, are exempt. Further guidance can be found on the HM Revenue & Customs site - http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/biks/ is a good starting point.

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3.07. Are there any other tax implications?

An employee can claim expenses against tax. The exact expenses available cannot be generalised and will probably need to be assessed on a case by case basis but as a general rule expenses are usually only paid against items (including rooms) that are exclusively for business use or where any private use is 'not significant'.

There can be significant implications if a home worker starts to claim things like a proportion of council tax, rates and décor against a home office, which could then become liable for capital gains tax when the property is sold. Advice should be sought on this

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3.08. Do I need to contribute towards expenses like heating and lighting at the employees' homes and if so, how much?

There is no legal requirement to contribute towards an employee's expenses when working from home. You may decide to contribute but such a contribution may be liable to tax. For full or part-time home workers, however, the employer can pay up to £104 p.a. tax free without the need for any supporting evidence of the additional costs.

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3.09. Will I have to change employees' contracts if they start working flexibly?

Not normally. This can be managed by providing a 'Flexible working agreement' that addresses matters like the initial extent of flexible working, the agreed ways in which an employee will be contactable when working flexibly, and whether or not this is a trial for a limited time. An example agreement is available in the actnow flex toolkit.

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3.10. If I offer flexible working to some employees, do I have to offer it to all?

The short answer is no! However any employee who is a parent of children under 6 or disabled children under 18 has the right to apply to work flexibly as do carers for adults (see question 3.13 below) and the employer has a duty to consider these requests seriously.

There are a number of ways in which you can manage the rollout of flexible working, for example initially offering the opportunity to specific employees only, or to employees in certain roles before opening it up to everyone across your business.

Offering flexible working based to employees in certain roles is a popular way of managing this. This means you can initially target the most appropriate roles, for example those with easily measurable outputs associated with them that require less on site presence.

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3.11. Some of the staff who would like to work from home live in houses where there is no space for a desk. What are the health and safety implications if they use their kitchen table as a desk?

If the staff are using Display Screen Equipment (DSE) at the table for a significant period each day, then the HSE regulations regarding DSE will apply. A good reference point is the HSE booklet "Working with VDUs". If the kitchen table is for general desk use then you should be ensuring that they can be comfortable when working at the table and in all cases look to reduce the possibility of upper limb disorders. See the HSE booklet 'Aching arms (or RSI) in small businesses'.

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3.12. What are the health and safety regulations regarding use of a laptop at home? (e.g. prolonged use, use on a sofa, etc)

It should be assessed in the same way as any other Display Screen Equipment (DSE). This is covered by HSE regulations and therefore is subject to specific guidance. Other staff who only need to make occasional use of DSE will still be covered under the more general Health & Safety at work legislation. A good starting point is the HSE booklet "Working with VDUs", which has a section specifically covering the use of laptops. In short, use of a laptop on a sofa for prolonged periods is very unlikely to comply with DSE guidelines!

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3.13. Who can request to work flexibly?

The amendment to the Work and Families Act in 2006 came into force on the 1st of April 2007 and extends who has a right to request flexible working. To be eligible to make a request under the legislation the employee must satisfy certain criteria including being either:

Responsible for the upbringing of a child aged under six , or under eighteen where disabled
Caring for an adult who is a spouse/partner, relative or civil partner or living at the same address as them

Full details can be found on the DTI web site under "Flexible Working - The right to request and the duty to consider" URN No: 06/2158

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Sounds too good to be true?

General FAQ's

Investigating flexible working

Implementing flexible working

Legal and contractual issues

1.01 What is flexible working?