I’m amazed to find that there are many organisations that only allow people to work flexibly once they have been employed for 6 months or more. They argue that people need to have settled into the job before they can be trusted to work from home or at times of their choice.
Yet one of the key benefits of offering flexible working is that you widen the pool of applicants when you are recruiting. So it makes sense to offer it from day one. Yes. there will be a need for people to be trained into their new roles and perhaps have to work alongside an experienced colleague, but that’s just part of the induction process.
People shouldn’t have to ‘earn’ the right to work flexibly. Just because the legislation doesn’t give the right to request flexible working for the first six months of employment, that’s no excuse for withholding it.
So if you want to access the best talent you’d better look at your flexible working practices and check you are offering true flexibility for new starters. This week is “R for Recruitment” week in the WiseWork “A to Z”. Make sure you are recruiting the best.