BALANCE SOLUTIONS
Family friendly employment
for the new business age

Flexi-time
Flexitime schemes allow employees to choose, within limits, the hours that they start and finish work. They usually also allow any extra hours worked to be counted and taken as flexi-leave. Flexitime is a popular option and is very suitable for employees who have childcare or other domestic responsibilities. Often, the 'core' time which must be worked falls within school hours permitting parents to care for their children before and after school. By working extra hours parents can accrue leave which can be taken during school holidays, or can help offset time needed for special activities such as school events, open evenings, nursery outings, etc.

Term-time working
Term-time working gives permanent employees the opportunity to take unpaid leave of absence during the school holidays. Each year there are about 13 weeks of school holidays and so for an employee who is entitled to 5 weeks paid leave there will be a chance to take a further 8 weeks of unpaid leave.

Term time working arrangements can particularly help to attract women with school age children into employment as they will not have to arrange childcare cover during the school holidays.

Annual hours
In an annual hours scheme the period of time which employees must work is defined over a whole year. For example an average of a 37.5 hours per week becomes 1702.5 hours allowing for five weeks of holiday entitlement and 1.6 weeks of bank holidays. Annual hours schemes can be particularly suitable in industries where the workload is seasonal or spasmodic so that staffing levels can be high during periods of intense activity but reduced when demand drops. Often such schemes are administered by drawing up rotas which cover the whole year.

Job share
Job sharing is an arrangement between two (or more) permanent employees to share the responsibilities, pay, holidays and benefits of a job according to the number of hours worked. It has become an accepted way of introducing part-time working into jobs which have only been available on a full-time basis in the past. Many benefits arise from this arrangement e.g. employers find that the sharers bring two sets of skills to a job and during periods of illness or holidays part of the work continues to be done. Employees benefit from working at a more senior or skilled level on a part-time basis. Job sharers with children sometimes choose to share childcare arrangements with one carer, although this obviously depends on circumstances, needs and availability.

Part-time working
In government statistics a part-time worker is defined as someone who works for less than 30 hours per week. Part-time staff can provide the employer with flexibility, e.g. having some staff work only during peak hours. For the employee working part-time can reduce the need for childcare or give time to pursue other interests.

Part-time working has been associated with low pay, poor benefits and contractual rights, but this position is changing and more part-time options are becoming available at more senior and managerial levels. New directives from Europe have been introduced which offer greater protection to part-time workers. For more information on where you can check out your rights and responsibilities contact New Ways to Work on 020 7930 0093.

Working from home
In some sectors employers can arrange for employees to work from home for all or part of their working day. Obviously the feasibility of this option depends upon the nature of the work being undertaken. With the rapid development of communications technology many tasks can now be performed remotely. Employees can communicate with their workplace and clients via fax, e-mail and videoconference. Working from home can also give employees greater flexibility to organise the pattern of their working day. Visit the BT Working from Home website at www.wfh.co.uk for further guidance on home working, or the FLEXWORK site for more detailed case studies and advice.

Sabbaticals
A sabbatical is a period of time off work in addition to annual leave. Generally a sabbatical is given as a reward for long-service and the employee can choose to spend it as they wish. Increasingly this arrangement is being considered as a way to deal with employee stress as the consequences of over-stressed employees can be very expensive for employers.

The FOCUS TEC Family Friendly Pack for Employers is available from Islington Children's Information Service 020 7527 5959.

Carer or Special Leave Arrangements
Many employers recognise that special leave arrangements assist employees when unexpected circumstances require them to take time off work. Some employers also allow time off by arrangement for particular responsibilities such as hospital visits/health checks for dependents or school/nursery events. Cover/special leave systems usually involve entitlement to a specific amount of days per year. For careres, special leave arrangements are crucial if dependents become ill, childcare arrangements break down, or school/nursery closures occur. Carer/special leave arrangements offer reassurance to employees and can be monitored effectively by employers.