Impact of Coronavirus on Flexible Working
All employers have now likely been affected by the impact of Coronavirus in some way and subsequently forced to adopt new working practices and adapt to a very different working landscape.
Large numbers of staff have been forced to work from home as a result of Coronavirus and employers who need to remain operational during this period have been left with no choice other than to make these new working arrangements work.
Flexible Working Post Coronavirus
Before the Pandemic, an employer may have dismissed the idea of working from home, on the basis that this would not be as effective and would, therefore, have a resulting detrimental impact on quality and performance.
increase in flexible working requests?
We expect there to be an increase in the number of flexible working requests following the easing of the Pandemic situation, and issues employers may face at this time is resulting requests from staff to work from home under the flexible working procedures.
This could cause difficulties for employers in that if the role has worked and operated effectively from home during this period, it would be increasingly difficult to now suggest otherwise.
fair reasoning
Therefore, some other fair reasoning would be required to reject such request and employers should take some care and thought in these scenarios.
Read our Employers guide on Flexible Working here for more information on the process.
