Flexibility and Staff Turnover

According to a CIPD report, approximately two million employees left their jobs, while another four million changed careers in the last year due to a lack of workplace flexibility.

The report, titled "Flexible and Hybrid Working Practices in 2023, revealed that 21% of employees with a disability or long-term illness claimed to have left a job due to a lack of flexible working.

This shows that by supporting employees that request alternative working arrangements, you are more likely to reduce staff turnover and keep a diverse workforce. There are additional benefits to embracing flexible working, such as reducing employee stress by allowing them to maintain a healthy work-life balance.

However, there are of course instances where a flexible working arrangement is not practical. If an employee makes a flexible working request that you are unable to honour, there are eight statutory reasons that you are able to turn them down. These reasons are:

• extra costs that will damage the business

• the work cannot be reorganised among other staff

• people cannot be recruited to do the work

• flexible working will affect quality and performance

• the business will not be able to meet customer demand

• there’s a lack of work to do during the proposed working times

• the business is planning changes to the workforce