Senior Lady WFH

Flexible working arrangements help your employees balance their work and personal lives.

Offering flexible work conditions can have benefits for your staff and business, including:

  • better productivity
  • increased morale and job satisfaction
  • less workplace stress
  • less absenteeism
  • reduced staff turnover
  • attracting new employees.

Types of flexible working arrangements

Flexible working arrangements are just that – flexible. Think about what sort of arrangements will work best for your business and employees.

Some common arrangements are:

  • flexible start and finish times
  • working from home or remote working (either part time or full time)
  • compressed hours: staff work longer each day to fit their full-time hours into fewer days a week
  • job sharing: 2 or more people on part-time hours share one full-time job
  • purchased leave: staff can ‘purchase’ extra paid leave by reducing their annual pay
  • extra unpaid leave
  • flextime or time off in lieu: employees work extra hours so they can take time off later
  • letting employees change between full-time and part-time work.

Who can ask for a flexible working arrangement?

Anyone can request a flexible working arrangement.

Good employers will consider all requests carefully and see if they can make the flexible arrangement work.

Legal requirements

Some employees have a legal right to request a flexible working arrangement under the Fair Work Act. There are rules around considering these requests and when you can reject them.

To request a flexible working arrangement under the Act, an employee must be either a:

  • permanent employee who has worked for you for at least 12 months
  • casual employee who has worked for you regularly for at least 12 months and expects to keep working for you.

The employee must also either:

  • be a parent or carer of a child who is school aged or younger
  • be a carer (for example, for someone with a disability or medical condition)
  • be pregnant
  • have a disability
  • be 55 or older
  • be experiencing family or domestic violence
  • care for or support a family or household member who is experiencing family or domestic violence.

If one of these employees asks for a flexible working arrangement under the Act, you must respond within 21 days. You can only refuse the request on reasonable business grounds.

Your award, enterprise agreement or employment contract may also have rules about flexible working arrangements.

Setting your business up for flexible work

Here are some things you can do to support flexible work in your business:

  • Have a policy for flexible work so that everyone understands what you offer. Make sure your staff know about and understand the policy.
  • Promote flexible working arrangements so that staff feel confident to ask for them.
  • Train managers and supervisors to understand and implement flexible working arrangements.
  • Have the right digital tools for staff to work from home or remotely.
  • Discuss and review flexible work arrangements regularly to make sure they’re working for everyone.

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