Flexible Working Policy

The Trust is committed to improving the working lives of staff and believes that supporting and valuing staff, will likewise support the delivery of patient care. Work Life balance is not just about families, childcare or care to dependents it is about having reasonable influence and flexibility over when, where and how you work. It’s about having the energy to enjoy both work and home life.

As part of Humber Teaching NHS Foundation Trust’s Health and Wellbeing agenda, the Trust is committed to ensuring that staff are able to achieve a balance between the demands of work and their domestic, personal and family circumstances, in order to maintain work performance. The Trust also recognises that the emphasis will shift as individual circumstances change and careers develop.

What are the benefits of flexible working?

It is recognised that people are at their most productive when they are able to effectively balance their professional and personal commitments and responsibilities. Effective healthcare provision depends upon having sufficient numbers of appropriately qualified, well-motivated and competent staff to look after service users and provide support services. The Trust recognises the importance of workplace flexibility to support all employees who may have a variety of commitments outside of work. The Trust also recognises that staff commitments may chance throughout their employment with the Trust.

Although the hours that a staff member works may not be the typical ‘9 to 5’, productivity of the staff will increase due to the improvement in work-life balance. It also provides a level of flexibility for departments and managers, enabling them to tailor the requirements of their areas to the arrangements of their staff hours. Although this may not be a blanket approach depending on the needs of the business, there must be some level of compromise and acceptance that this cannot always be accommodated.

FAQs

What are some examples or options of flexible working?

Flexi-time; is where employees, with agreement from their manager, can choose their start and finish time around fixed core hours depending on the needs of the service
Working from home; It might be possible to do some or all of the work from home or anywhere else other than the normal place of work
Part-time working; any hours worked which is less than the normal hours of a comparable full-time worker
Job-Share; where two or more people share the duties and responsibilities of one full-time post with the hours, salary and other entitlements being divided between them
Reduced hours; Reducing the hours worked may enable people to continue their working life even though they are unable to fulfil the demands of full-time work due to other responsibilities.
Annualised hours; From the outset you agree total number of hours and when they will be worked during the year. This can give extra flexibility to vary working patterns during the year
Condensed Hours; so that they are worked over fewer days is a way to attain flexibility for both staff and service delivery

What if multiple staff in one department have a flexible working arrangement? All arrangements must be reviewed at regular intervals (maximum of 12 months). Managers will need to review the needs or the business and the impact on the wider team when making a decision.

Are flexible working requests just for staff with children? All employees have the legal right to request flexible working - not just parents and carers.

Will a flexible working arrangement affect my pay or holiday entitlement? If your hours are reduced, this may mean that your pay and holiday entitlement is calculated on a pro rata basis, however we have created this salary calculator for you to see what your earnings would be.

Does my manager have to accept my request? Employers must deal with requests in a ‘reasonable manner’. Examples of handling requests in a reasonable manner include:

Assessing the advantages and disadvantages of the application for both employee and employer.
Holding a meeting to discuss the request with the employee to ensure both parties fully understand the circumstances and discuss options.
Offering an appeal process, if the request is refused.
Refusing an application only when there is a good business reason for doing so. E.g. where there is a detrimental effect on patient safety, patient service, departmental service, upon colleagues or where the change would result in an unreasonable cost.