Preparing for the latest flexible working legislation

In May a government-commissioned review of flexible working recommended an extension to the current laws regarding the right to request variable hours or opportunities to work at home from their employers.

The independent review, which was headed by Sainsbury's human resources director Imelda Walsh, concluded that parents with children aged 16 or under should have the option to request flexibility.

Flexible working is a catch-all term to describe any working pattern that is adapted to suit the needs of the employee. Common types of flexible working include part-time or flexi-time working through annualized, compressed or staggered hours, job sharing or homeworking. Any of these can be combined to produce a pattern that works for both the employee and the employer. Legislation regarding flexible working currently comes under the Flexible Working (Procedural Requirements) Regulations of 2002, which came into effect in 2003.

Currently, the law states that working parents with children aged six or under, or up to 18 if the child is disabled, have the right to request flexible working and to have that request seriously considered by their employer. The government has accepted the Walsh group's recommendation, and in fact has gone further, stating that the right to request flexible working will apply to all parents with children aged 17 or under. The new interpretation could kick in as early as April 2009. This could benefit 4.5 million parents and cause a big headache to unprepared organizations.

From setting up a telephone and internet connection for part-time workers to installing videoconferencing facilities, it's clear that ICT will play a large role in developing flexible working practices, leaving CIOs with the choice of either dealing with the problem as and when it occurs, or taking a more proactive stance.

One company that's gone for the latter option is BT. The telecoms giant's BT Workstyle is one of the biggest flexible working projects in Europe, involving almost 80,000 staff, 14,000 of whom work from home. The company uses an impressive list of technologies to enable its employees to take up flexible working, with everything from dial-up to 3G and Wi-Fi connections supported and all traffic carried using advanced encryption standard (AES) and triple data encryption standard (3DES) to ensure security. Home-based employees can plug into the BT network using the BT iDisk platform which requires an ActivCard remote access token. The token confirms a user's identity and gives access to permitted applications. BlackBerry devices, VoIP, hotdesking and on-premise laptop access are also granted.

Establishing a relationship with key stakeholders was important. David Dunbar, head of Workstyle at BT Global Services, says: "By taking a holistic approach across IT, HR and property, we delivered some impressive benefits."

One of these benefits was bringing the BT intranet to remote workers. Access to information is crucial to any business and making employees feel they remain part of the organization is a key element of successful homeworking. Dunbar says: "The intranet was critical, not only in ensuring that people could keep in contact with colleagues but also in communicating with the heart of the business and reinforcing BT values, so that remote employees still felt part of the BT family."