A Flexible Working Standard for Scotland

We’re developing Scotland’s first good practice standard for flexible working. We’re busy working on the detail right now but this will be an accreditation style scheme that will provide a supportive framework for employers to increase their flexible offer and showcase their flexible culture.

Why do we need a flexible working standard?

We think flexible working can transform people’s lives and enable organisations to thrive. But a lack of clarity around what ‘good’ flexible working really looks like means flex can be patchy depending on your employer, or even your line manager.

As a social business, we are also interested in how flex can benefit lower income workers, and play a part in reducing poverty by helping people get into work and stay in work. Creating better flex in all roles, includes those that are traditionally low paid, can help with this.

How will a flexible working standard help?

We hope our accreditation scheme will definitively show employers what ‘good’ flexible working looks like and encourage more employers to adopt and normalise flexible working. This will create more flexible working opportunities for workers including those who are low paid, and it will deliver benefits for business too, such as improved recruitment and retention, reduced staff sickness and absence and higher productivity.

What are we doing now?

Thanks to funding from the Robertson Trust, we’re now working with two accreditation specialists, Bonnie Clarke and Simon Kujawa, both at consultancy Taylor Clarke, who have a wealth of experience in developing and designing frameworks, as well as organisational design and cultural change.

An important part of our scheme will be staff feedback and we’re designing in ways to hear from a wide range of workers on whether the company is genuinely flexible, rather than managers being able to ‘self-certify’. Any organisation taking part will benefit from rich employee data and insights alongside practical recommendations from our experts.

What’s your timeline?

We plan to pilot the scheme with a small group of employers later in 2024, before officially launching our new programme to Scottish employers in 2025. It’s important to us that we include a range of companies, of different sizes and from different sectors, and crucially include not only desk-based roles, but frontline workers too.

What our funder said

Lyndsay Fraser Robertson, Programmes and Practice Officer at the Robertson Trust, said: “We know a lack of flexibility can be a key barrier to getting into and on in work and can keep specific population groups trapped in a cycle of low pay and limited progression opportunities. By piloting this accreditation for employers to create flexible working practices, there is scope to not only draw more people into the labour market, but also to encourage culture change in the highest priority sectors for those population groups most vulnerable to in-work poverty.

“We look forward to seeing how this innovative work develops and adding to the support available to employers to provide greater protections from poverty to their employees.”

The Robertson Trust’s Programme Awards aim to support projects with the potential to deliver big change that lasts on poverty and trauma in Scotland.