Flexible working guidance

It’s a common misconception that flexible working within the veterinary practice is reserved for women juggling family life. In fact, since 2010, the largest increase in those requesting flexible working has been in men. In the past 13 years, the number of men requesting flexible working has more than doubled from 8% to 17% (RCVS Workforce Summit 2022). Whereas the number of women working flexibly has remained fairly constant at around 30%. However, 77% of new practising registrants in 2019 were female (RCVS Survey of the Profession), so with the increasing feminisation of the profession, the drive towards flexible working in practice will continue.

The most common reasons given for vets requesting flexible working in a BVA Survey (2021) were:

1. to allow more time for leisure activities (56%)
2. to fit with lifestyle needs (50%)
3. for caregiving responsibilities (28%)
4. for health reasons (28%)
5. to allow time for professional development (22%)

Flexible working means something different to everyone, there is no one size fits all. Essentially it encompasses everything outside of the traditional, 9 to 5 model, impacting everything from where, when and/or what hours an employee works. 

Where:

This refers to remote or hybrid roles and may include working from home (paper or admin time), working from a different location or remote working (teleconsulting). It may be that an alternative location is agreed for some of the hours, or duties, a person works - not necessarily all of them.

When:

For example a 4 day compressed week, on a rota, or personalised start and finish times. 

What hours:

This includes working less than full time, job sharing, annualised hours contracts or fewer days or hours per week.

Flexible working can be arranged both formally or informally. A formal flexible working application involves contractual changes, which requires a statutory flexible working application. Informal arrangements might encompass occasional late starts or early finishes, shift swapping. These might typically be arranged directly with line managers on an ad hoc basis. However, please be aware that if an informal arrangement occurs on a regular basis, it can become contractual.

Types of flexible working:

There are many different types of flexible working. Here are some of the commonest:

• Full-time
• Part-time / less than full time
• Job sharing 
• Compressed hours: working full time weekly hours but over fewer days
•  Flexitime: employee chooses when to start and end work but must work certain ’core hours’ 
• Term-time work 
• Out-of-hours only 
• Working from home 
• Hybrid working 
• Annualised hours: certain number of hours over the year need to be worked, but these will typically vary week by week or month by month.
• Personalised hours: employee has different start, finish and break times from other workers
• Self-rostering: employee puts forward preferred times; once staff levels and skills are accounted for, shift pattern is drawn up to match employee preferences as closely as possible
• Shift-working
• Teleworking

If you are considering making a request for an alternative working arrangement it is important to be realistic and recognise the needs of the practice - not all flexible working options will be appropriate for all roles.

However, more and more practices are choosing to create, and recruit for, roles that are not worked in a traditional working pattern because the flexibility it gives also suits the practice.

The veterinary profession is in the midst of a recruitment and retention crisis. The reduction in EU registered practising vets in the UK due to Brexit, together with a rise in the number of practising vets leaving the profession, has left veterinary professionals thin on the ground, especially in the equine sector.

According to the RCVS Survey of the Profession 2020, there are 26,805 practising veterinary surgeons in the UK, however the net number of vets joining the UK practising category (total vets joining, minus retirement, long term leave and those leaving the profession) in 2022 was only 268 (RCVS Workforce Summit 2022). That is less than 1% of the total UK practising vets and far below attrition. 

In addition:

• 74% of vets worry about burn out (BVA 2020)
• 43.7% of vets / vet nurses want to leave the profession (Hagen et al 2020)
• 65% of vets feel there is a conflict between their professional roles (RCVS Survey of the Profession 2019)

In the RCVS Survey of the Veterinary Profession the most common reasons given by those stating they intend to leave the profession in the were poor work-life balance (60%), not feeling rewarded or valued (55%), chronic stress (49%), long or unsociable hours (48%), and pay (44%) (RCVS Facts, 2022).

Hagen et al found the number one thing veterinary professionals want to change about their job is working hours (Hagen et al, 2020), which falls under the umbrella of flexible working. In a BVA survey, 44% of vets stated that they would like to work more flexibly, 56% of those who don’t currently work flexibly would like to start and 36% of those who are currently working flexibly would like to work more flexibly (BVA 2021).

Improved work life balance positively impacts physical, mental and social well being. It also improves job satisfaction and career success, due to reduced burnout and absenteeism. But WLB doesn’t just benefit the individual. A survey specifically of veterinary professionals found that 61% of vets see flexible working as a way of attracting and retaining talent. (Flexee Report, 2020). Other organisational benefits included improved commitment to the team and enhanced workplace culture (Flexee Report 2020).

Flexible working, either perceived or formal flexibility, has been shown to improve work life balance. Simply by giving an employee the ability to choose their start or finish time, helps them feel as though they have a better work life balance, even when the hours they work are the same. (OECD) Interestingly, working from home has no significant effect on this perception.

A recent global study trialled a 4 day working week (a type of flexible working) in 2900 employees, in 62 companies across varying industries, over 6 months from June to December 2022. The results were pretty compelling.

From a business perspective, organisations reported that revenue increased by, on average, 35%. The number of staff leaving the company fell by 57% over the trial period. Additionally, absenteeism decreased, with resignations and sick days falling when compared to the same period from the previous year (4-day Week 2022).

From an employee perspective, 71% of employees had reduced levels of burnout by the end of the trial, 39% were less stressed, 43% felt an improvement in mental health, and 37% of employees saw improvements in physical health (4-day Week 2022).

Additionally, 60% of employees found it easier to combine paid work with care responsibilities, 62% reported it was easier to combine work with social life and the time men spent looking after children increased by more than double that of women (4-day Week 2022).

Needless to say, 92% of the organisations in the pilot are continuing with a 4 day week. You can read the full report here.

The Flexee Report 2020 found that 54% of vets surveyed felt that rota complexity was the biggest barrier to adopting flexible working. At SPVS Congress 2024, a panel discussed their learnings from adopting a “jigsaw approach” to flexible working. A jigsaw practice is one where clinical and/or non-clinical employees are working a wide variety of working patterns, hours, locations and even roles (the 'jigsaw pieces') - the majority of which are non-standard. They concluded that despite the associated costs involved with complicated rostering, jigsaw arrangements proved more cost effective than paying overtime, locum hiring or frequent recruitment. It is estimated that recruiting a single vet costs the business between £20 - £40,000 by the time you add the visible costs (advertising, time, loss of productivity during notice period) and the invisible costs (training, loss of clients, impact on turnover, team integration) (SHRM, Enrich).

You can read a summary of the SPVS panel discussion here. discussion here.

A common theme when discussing flexible working is fairness. But what is fair? Contrary to popular belief, in order for a system to be fair, not everyone has to do the same. Flexible working is all about individualisation, aiming for equity (recognises individual circumstances and needs. Resources and opportunities are allocated accordingly in order to reach an equal outcome) alongside equality (everyone allocated the same resources and opportunities, irrespective of individual circumstances or need).

Proactive communication throughout the practice can help alleviate any feelings of unfairness and prevent downstream resentment. Engaging employees in decision making processes surrounding how the practice is best staffed will pay dividends. Hold regular team meetings or one-on-one discussions to address concerns and explore potential solutions.

In addition to flexible working requests, parents also have the right to take unpaid time off working when they need to look after children, referred to as “ordinary parental leave” or unpaid parental leave. This provision is separate to maternity / paternity / adoption / shared parental leave or paid holiday allowance.

Examples of reasons for parental leave are:

• To provide care when usual childcare arrangements are disrupted eg nursery closure
• Spend more time with children
•  Look after children during school holidays 
• Care for them when they’re sick 
• Go to school open days or events with them 
• Settle them into new childcare arrangements
• Visit family members or relatives

In order to be eligible for parental leave, the parent must:

• Be legally classed as an employee 
• Have worked for the employer for 1 year or more
• Have parental responsibility for the child (named on birth certificate, adoption certificate, parental order for surrogacy or named as legal guardian)
• Step parents can also have parental responsibility where it’s agreed by all parents

Each parent can take up to a total of 18 weeks of parental leave, for each child, until the child is 18 years old. This does not affect your holiday entitlement.

The leave must be:

• Taken in blocks of a week
• Up to a maximum of 4 weeks, per year, per child
• Provide exact start and finish dates at least 21 days prior to when you wish to start

An employer cannot refuse or completely cancel parental leave. However, they can postpone it for up to 6 months if the timing is going to cause problems at work. To do this an employer needs to respond to the request, in writing, within 7 days of the request explaining why the leave needs to be postponed and offer other suitable dates.

If you need to take maybe one of two days off to care for a child in an unplanned situation or emergency, you can use “time off for dependents”. This type of leave is unpaid and is to help a close family member (someone who depends on you) with an emergency - such as needing to make alternative arrangements for care at very short notice. The law does not say how much time the employee can take off, however it does state it must be reasonable.

A statutory flexible working request from an Employee comes under the Employment Relations Act 2023. This act became law on 6th April 2024. Employees now have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment (previously 26 weeks). Under the new legislation, employees can now make up to two formal flexible working requests in a 12 month period. These changes are designed to make flexible working more accessible to employees.

The request must be in writing and must include the following information:

• The date of the application
• The change to working conditions they are seeking
• When they would like the changes to come into effect
• A statement that this is a statutory request
• If / when they have made a previous application

Employees are no longer required to demonstrate that they have considered how the change they are requesting will impact the business and explain how this could be dealt with. However, try to do this if you can. This shows that you’re thinking about the business and your colleagues’ needs, as well as your own. You could even suggest how any negative impacts could be mitigated or overcome.

Find a downloadable flexible working request letter template here.

As employees now have the right to request flexible working from day one, it’s advisable to think about how you advertise the role. If theoretically, an employee could start work and then formally request a change to their working pattern on day 2, better to explore different working patterns at the hiring stage as opposed to landing yourself with significant paperwork. Do not be tempted however to ask an interview candidate whether they intend on putting in a flexible working request, as if their application is unsuccessful, this could be grounds for discrimination.

Once an employer has received a written request, they must consider it. Arrange to talk to your employee as soon as possible after receiving the request. It is good practice to let the employee be accompanied by a work colleague to any meetings to discuss their request if they wish and they should inform you of this prior to the meeting.

Find a template of a flexible working application meeting request here.

Discuss the request with your employee in private. Aim to gain a better understanding of what changes they wish to make and the impact this might have on both the business and the employee.

Consider the request on an individual case-by-case basis, taking into account the needs of the employee, the clinic and the patients. Look carefully at the cost and the benefit of implementing the request, on both the employee and the practice. Once you’ve made your decision, inform your employee, in writing, as soon as possible.

The request may be granted in full, in part or refused. You may propose a modified version or you can propose adopting the flexible working arrangement for a trial period.

If you accept the request, discuss with your employee when these changes might be best implemented. A confirmation letter should then be sent including the details of the new arrangement which will become a permanent contractual change.

If you reject the request, it must be for one or more of the following business reasons only, as stipulated in the legislation:

• The burden of additional costs
• An inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
• An inability to recruit additional staff
• A detrimental impact on quality
• A detrimental impact on performance
• A detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
• Insufficient work for the periods the employee proposes to work
• A planned structural change to your business

Under the new legislation, if you plan to reject the request you must consult with the employee about this first. This means explaining to them your rationale, listening to any further suggestions or alternatives the employee might make, and giving them due consideration. If you reject the request, the employee is allowed to appeal the decision. This should be done in writing to another senior manager, clearly stating the grounds on which they are appealing.

All requests, including appeals, must be decided within a period of two months (previously 3 months) from the initial receipt of the request.

If the employee fails to attend a meeting to discuss the application, including any appeal, and then fails to attend a rearranged meeting, you can consider the request withdrawn.

Where there is some uncertainty - on either side - about whether the flexible working arrangement is practicable, a trial period may be agreed. If a trial period is arranged the practice should allow sufficient time for an employee and their manager to implement and become used to the new working practices before taking any decisions on the viability of a new arrangement.

Where flexible working practices are agreed as a permanent change, the employees contract will need to be amended.

Where a trial period has been arranged, provide the employee with a document that details their new working pattern and makes clear that it is only a temporary variation to the terms of the employee's contract. The employee must be informed in writing of the start and end dates of the trial period. At the end of the agreed trial period, if the new arrangement isn’t agreeable, you should explain this - citing the legitimate reason(s) for refusal on an ongoing basis and, from April 2024, consulting with the employee before drawing a final conclusion which may revert the employee to their previous working arrangement.

Find a link to help you draft your own practice’s flexible working policy here.

In summary, the legislation governing flexible working changed on 6th April 2024. The key take-home messages of The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 are:

• Flexible working applications will become a day one right (previously 26 weeks)
• It will allow employees to make 2 statutory flexible working requests within a 12-month period (previously 1 in a 12 month period)
• Employees will no longer have to set out how their flexible working request might be dealt with by their employer
• Employers will be required to respond to a flexible working request within 2 months
• Employers will have to consult with their employees before rejecting a flexible working request

If you are interested in further information on flexible working which is specific to veterinary practice, see Flexee.