On Monday 6 April, an estimated 4.5 million extra requests for flexible working could, theoretically, swamp UK firms. New legislation is coming into effect that represents one of the biggest ever changes to working practices, with the right to request flexible working extended to all parents with children under the age of 16.

For employees, the procedure for requesting flexible working is easy ­ they only need to submit a simple two-page request.

But business support body Business Link offers advice that spells out what the new law means for employers: “If you receive such a request, you have a legal duty to give it serious consideration.”

So what should IT leaders do to prepare for the new regulations?

Understand the process

Firms have 28 days to arrange a discussion about a request from a member of staff, and a further 14 days to inform them about the result of that discussion. Employees can appeal against the decision within 14 days, and employers have 14 days to hear that appeal, plus another 14 days to inform the employee of the appeal decision. After this, workers can seek conciliation through ACAS or other similar bodies, if required.

Any companies that do not have procedures in place to deal with flexible working requests could find their human resources (HR) department hard pushed to deal with what could be a significant increase in requests from next week.

So the first thing firms need to do is be proactive, and set in place a defined workflow that guarantees that all employees who request flexible working are dealt with in a consistent way.

Use technology to improve trust

The main difficulty many employers have with flexible working arrangements is trust. A recent survey of 3,743 employees by BT Business and Nortel suggested that less than one in 10 UK small businesses trusts employees to work out of the office, despite 42 per cent of staff polled being confident that they could work better remotely.

Trust can also be an issue for larger companies, said Ollie Ross, director of research at blue-chip user group The Corporate IT Forum.

“I don’t think it has totally gone, but some people are more at ease
in some industries than in others,” she said.

The key to overcoming this problem is having proper communication with flexible workers and effective monitoring.

“People are becoming more comfortable with the idea of others working from home, possibly because these people are remunerated on output rather than time,” said Ross.

Technologies such as unified communications incorporating presence and instant messaging can help to allay such worries and increase the level of trust.

Another recent survey, by ISP Easynet Connect of 255 UK IT managers from firms with between 10 and 250 employees, suggested that 75 per cent of organisations are trying to reduce office costs by adopting remote working.

The study also found that 52 per cent of firms polled were looking to use videoconferencing to reduce business travel and a third were considering voice over IP to reduce telephone bills.

Ensure data security

There are plenty of IT challenges associated with flexible working, such as how best to protect business-critical data that is taken outside the office, and managing the network technology used by flexible workers to securely access back-office data.
Widespread flexible working could mean workers travelling with significant amounts of business-critical corporate data on laptops, PDAs or USB devices.

Such data allowed out of the office should be encrypted to the highest level, although some firms may already have policies in place to deal with workers who need to finish urgently required business tasks at home.

Network planning

The main network technology used for remote office access will be a broadband connection ­ but what type: residential or business? Residential connections may need to be secured using virtual private networks (VPNs), but with business broadband packages, VPNs often come as standard and such packages necessarily come with a service level agreement, along with further benefits such as lower contention ratios ­ which means fewer people sharing the connection to the local exchange, and hence higher speeds.

Flexible workers need reliable and robust broadband connections, but firms need to consider the possible implications for the corporate network too, said Quocirca communications analyst Rob Bamforth.

“Just like increased TV viewing online, pupils and teachers connecting back to education online, and remote healthcare, these things add to increased use, and more importantly, increased dependence on the network,” he said.

What about the helpdesk?

IT leaders also need to address the effect of greater remote working on the support and maintenance services they provide to the business ­ and consider that their own staff are just as likely to request flexibility.

Remote staff with greater freedom over their working hours often means people accessing systems outside normal office hours. As a result, IT experts, especially frontline helpdesk operators, may need changes to their working hours because IT support will start receiving calls at different times.

Equally, those helpdesk staff themselves may want the option of flexible working ­ and how would that change the working practices of the IT department?

Understand the effect of remote working on every job role

Changes to working hours in some areas could result in other roles in the company becoming less flexible. Plans would need to be drafted to assess the overall effect of a root-and-branch move to flexible working.

“Some firms are exploiting the extremes of how remote flexible working can bring benefits to their businesses, and most businesses seem to have an understanding of which roles are suitable for flexible working,” said Ross.

Firms should also consider how web-based self-service applications can support remote workers, for example HR activities such as booking leave or claiming expenses.

Assess the benefits

Although there is the potential for major process changes if firms fully embrace flexible working, the benefits accruing to those employers prepared to be proactive could be significant.

Ross highlights benefits such as better building use, fewer company cars being bought, and people not needing to commute. UK companies had a taste of the benefits and challenges of flexible working earlier this year when the biggest snowfall in nearly 20 years paralysed many transport routes.

“Some firms were quite alert to some quick and dirty remote working solutions that they could put in place,” said Ross.

And looking ahead, another important potential benefit for firms is that when the current downturn ends, and employers are competing again for the best workers, being able to offer flexible working by default will be a significant advantage.