{"id":3045,"date":"2016-06-03T07:51:22","date_gmt":"2016-06-03T06:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/?p=3045"},"modified":"2016-06-06T12:40:25","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T11:40:25","slug":"everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything you need to know about flexible working"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>More than half of all UK office workers are now allowed to work remotely, and a third\u00a0report they are more productive when working outside of the usual workplace.<\/p>\n<p>Figures from the latest YouGov Omnibus research found over half (54%) of UK office workers are currently able to work remotely &#8211; just under a third (30%) found this increased their capacity to put a shift in, compared to just under a fifth (17%) who said the opposite was true.<\/p>\n<p>So what exactly does remote working entail? And is there a difference between that and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/category\/flexible-working\/\" target=\"_blank\">flexible working<\/a>? Let&#8217;s take a look&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2>What is remote working?<\/h2>\n<p>Remote working is a term usually associated with office work and is when \u00a0work is done from a location outside of the traditional office.<\/p>\n<p>Remote working may also be referred to as telecommuting, home working, mobile working, or virtual working.<\/p>\n<h2>What is flexible working?<\/h2>\n<p>Flexible working is when work patterns, shifts or hours are scheduled to fit round the needs of the employee. This is usually\u00a0in the form of flexible start and finish times, but can also include working from home or remote working.<\/p>\n<p>And <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/uks-new-flexible-working-laws\/\" target=\"_blank\">all UK employees now have the right to request flexible working from their employer<\/a> &#8211; it&#8217;s no longer just for parents and carers.<\/p>\n<p>So while remote working means you have the option to work away from the office, flexible working is a broader term that includes any works schedule outside of the normal work pattern, be that working hours, locations or anything in between.<\/p>\n<h2>What are the different types of flexible working on offer?<\/h2>\n<p>Flexible working is an umbrella term that can include any of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Part-time working<\/li>\n<li>Flexi-time \u2013 scope to change work hours outside of \u201ccore\u201d business periods<\/li>\n<li>Job-sharing<\/li>\n<li>Working from home or remotely<\/li>\n<li>Compressed hours \u2013 for example, fitting a five-day week into four days<\/li>\n<li>Term-time working \u2013 paid or unpaid leave during school holidays<\/li>\n<li>Annual hours \u2013 agreed hours split into \u201cset\u201d and \u201creserve\u201d shifts, worked as demand dictates<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How to make a request for flexible working<\/h2>\n<p>If you feel you&#8217;ve a legitimate reason to request flexible working, you need to inform your employer in writing and include evidence of the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The date of your application, the specific change to working conditions you want ( for example, flexi-time or remote working), and when you would like the change to come into effect<\/li>\n<li>What impact, if any, you think your request will have on the employer and how this might be dealt with<\/li>\n<li>A statement that this is a statutory request and the dates, if any, of any previous requests for flexible working.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the law on flexible working in the UK?<\/h2>\n<p>Almost all employees with at least 26 weeks&#8217; service under their belt have the right to ask for flexible working. Every request must be considered and can only be turned down on the basis of one of the following eight reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the burden of additional costs<\/li>\n<li>an inability to reorganise work among existing staff<\/li>\n<li>an inability to recruit additional staff<\/li>\n<li>a detrimental impact on quality<\/li>\n<li>a detrimental impact on performance<\/li>\n<li>detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand<\/li>\n<li>insuf\ufb01cient work for the periods the employee proposes to work<\/li>\n<li>a planned structural change to the business.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If an application\u00a0\u00a0turned down an appeal can be made. If an\u00a0appeal is\u00a0turned down, no further applications for flexible working can be made within the next 12 months.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/conference-call\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-1777 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/conference-call-banner.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"600\" height=\"118\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More than half of all UK office workers are now allowed to work remotely, and a third\u00a0report they are more productive when working outside of the usual workplace. Figures from<\/p>\n<div class=\"more-link-wrapper\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/\">Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Everything you need to know about flexible working<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14,7,27],"tags":[29,15,9,8,25],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Remote or flexible working? | ConferenceCall.co.uk Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flexible working can be requested by any employee in the UK who has accrued 26 weeks&#039; service. So what&#039;s the difference between remote and flexible working?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remote or flexible working? | ConferenceCall.co.uk Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ConferenceCall.co.uk blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/pages\/Conference-Call-UK\/178511498997826\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-03T06:51:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-06-06T11:40:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/flexible-working-yoga.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"559\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Les Roberts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ConfCallUK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ConfCallUK\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Les Roberts\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/everything-you-need-to-know-about-flexible-working\/\",\"name\":\"Remote or flexible working? | ConferenceCall.co.uk Blog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-03T06:51:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-06T11:40:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.conferencecall.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/7c9b498e80a769b5ec7361479fa9e4a1\"},\"description\":\"Flexible working can be requested by any employee in the UK who has accrued 26 weeks' service. 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