Moves towards flexible working welcomed

Monday 12 February 2018

A recruitment consultant has welcomed moves by the States of Guernsey to encourage "flexible working practices" but he says it has to work for both the employee and their employer.

Chris Gnapp of Leapfrog recruitment spoke to Express following last week's States debate which saw Guernsey's politicians commit to working towards encouraging 'longer working lives'.

This decision included a promise to encourage flexible working with comments made during the States debate regarding working parents, working grandparents and grandparents helping with childcare.

 Point 3 of the Policy Letter which was approved states:

"To agree that the Committee for Employment & Social Security will return to the States with detailed proposals for the enactment of legislation to provide employees in Guernsey with a right to request flexible working as outlined in section 6.3 of this Policy Letter."

You can read the Policy Letter in full here.

The news that flexible working is to be encouraged was welcomed by Mr Gnapp, but he said it would be difficult to write it down in law formally:

"Where do you draw the line at things like that? I think they can give some guidance and some instruction but i don't think it will ever be written down in law as such. There may be certain elements of it which can be written down in law.

"I think to be honest the States have got other priorities to focus on before this; look at some employment legislation over here which is way behind the UK and for me that is probably the focus before any laws about flexible working."

Pictured: Chris Gnapp, MD of Leapfrog Recruitment 

Mr Gnapp told Express that most businesses he deals with are already very good at offering flexible working:

"Pretty much all of the clients we have will offer some sort of flexible working and there tends to be no sort of set rules. It's just on a case by case basis.

"We have a couple of guys here doing flexible hours that fit around their lifestyles, be it childcare or other commitments they have. So yes, companies do offer it, but it's important to get a balance there in terms of the number of full time staff you have, because obviously there are clients to service in most industries so it's balancing that off with the number of people you can allow on flexible working hours."

Mr Gnapp said the States got one very important topic right when they touched on flexible working during last week's States debate, agreeing it can't be available to mothers only, as fathers and grandparents share family responsibilities, including childcare:

"Absolutely, not just mums. It's dads as well and even extended families through grandparents, and even uncles and aunties, but most of the time it is immediate families, and speaking honestly, most of the time it is mums, but it is open to dads and the wider family beyond that."

Mr Gnapp said offering flexible working hours will benefit companies as well as those employees, so he would encourage it where possible:

"As a business it is a good selling point that if you can encourage flexible working hours where you can, then you're more likely to attract that good quality staff member than if you're perhaps being completely rigid and saying no, we just need full time for this particular role. 

"A lot of our clients will advertise a full time role with us, but we'll speak to them and say we've got this person and they want either flexible or slightly reduced working hours and then they'll meet them, and find out how good they are, and actually bend their role to match that person. Suddenly, they've got a good person on board, and the person is happy because they've got the hours that they would like to do."