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Director and Head of Employment Jo Mackie comments on the recent changes to flexible working rules, and analyses the impact these will have on small businesses and employers.

Jo’s comments were published in Raconteur, 27 July 2023, and can be found here.

“This is a big change and it’s going to have quite an impact on smaller businesses which don’t have large HR teams.

“People will then have the ability to ask for a flexible working request as soon as they arrive at a business and they can do it twice a year. That could result in an awful lot of requests that will need processing.

“There’s a very strict process for flexible working requests and, if employers take too long to make their decision or give their appeal, they will automatically incur a penalty. This legislation has a few teeth if you get the process wrong.”