Having a policy
As an employer, it's good practice to have a policy on flexible working.
A policy is a document that:
- outlines how things work in your organisation
- sets any limits
Your policy must follow the law as a minimum. You can offer more than the legal minimum in your policy. Read more about the legal right to request flexible working.
Reasons for having a policy
A policy can help:
- set expectations
- make your processes clear
- support managers to handle flexible working requests consistently, in line with the law
What to include
A flexible working policy should cover:
- what flexible working is
- types of flexible working
- the organisation's approach to flexible working
- who can make a flexible working request
- how to submit a request
- responding to a request
- appealing a decision
- next steps once a request is approved
- guidelines for flexible working arrangements – including how employees will be supervised, how performance will be measured, how the organisation and managers will communicate with employees
- how to raise and resolve issues with flexible working
You should work with any recognised trade unions your organisation has when developing and reviewing a policy. You should also check if your organisation has an agreement with the trade unions that requires you to do this.
Use our example flexible working policy
Reviewing your policies and processes
If you have a policy, you should review it regularly and keep it up-to-date.
Your flexible working policy might link to other policies and processes in your organisation.
For example, policies or processes relating to:
- working from home
- working remotely
- hybrid working
- hours of work
- reasonable adjustments
- maternity or family leave
- health and safety
- data protection
- risk assessments
You should review any linked policies to make sure they're up-to-date and consistent with each other.
Supporting and training managers
As an employer, you should support everyone to follow your flexible working policy.
You can support managers by:
- sharing your flexible working policy with the whole organisation
- making the procedure for handling requests clear in your policy
- training managers on how to handle flexible working requests if needed
- giving clear guidelines for flexible working arrangements – for example how managers will supervise and communicate with employees and measure performance
You can use your policy as the basis for any training for managers.
Acas offers training and webinars for managers and employers: