Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the co-owner of Manchester United football club, has stated that employees who are not willing to come to the club’s premises to work should seek ¬‘alternative employment.’
Ratcliffe, who also owns the chemicals giant Ineos, said that productivity falls when people work from home. He cited a 20% drop in email traffic at one of his companies when it trialled work-from-home Fridays.
Since the Covid pandemic, Manchester United has had a flexible work-from-home policy but at a staff meeting held in person and online video last week he announced a reversal of this and told employees: “If you don’t like it, please seek ¬alternative employment.” He said working together in person would strengthen unity and collaboration.
With 4 in 10 companies returning to a full-time office week in 2023, the Great Office Return appears to be continuing in 2024 as the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday Era slowly dwindles.
Trying to get employees to step back into an office sparks mixed emotions. These differing attitudes on remote working can cause employees to quickly divide into camps of pro-home and pro-office.
The balance between the normalisation of working from home during COVID and the increase in loneliness amongst remote workers can be a tricky balancing act for recruiters and HR teams.
Whilst it is very unlikely all staff will be going back to the office full-time, businesses making plans to increase office time are best to develop clear and fair policies to avoid employee friction.
Can an employer ask an employee to return to the office?
Employers are entitled to ask employees to return to work to their normal place of work as a “reasonable management request” if the original employment contract specified that the employee would be office-based and no longer-term change was agreed.
Unfortunately, if clear parameters about expectations and contractual obligations were not set out at the outset, it may be difficult to force an employee to return to the office by relying on a contractual term.
Potential legal issues of making staff return to office working
There may be legal issues if working from home or hybrid working was contractually agreed with employees. It may also have become an implied term of their employment. Employers will then need to consider whether contracts and/or policies need changing under a formal process.
Can an employee request hybrid working?
A request for employees to return to their place of work may lead to an increase in flexible working requests under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act, new regulations in force from 6 April 2024.
The new regulations include provisions for hybrid working as a definition of flexible working and allow employees to make a request from day one and up to two requests per year. Employers are required to consider all requests in an open-minded conversation with the employee about what flexible working arrangements might be possible.
Can an employer refuse a request for hybrid working?
An employer does not have to necessarily agree to the request (the business reasons for refusal remain the same under the new regulations).
However, refusing flexible working requests for hybrid or home working has risks for the employer and may give rise to grievances, claims for constructive unfair dismissal or a breach of flexible working legislation. It is important that employers treat similar requests in the same way to avoid complaints of unfairness and discrimination claims where an employee has a protected characteristic. Employers should therefore keep a record of all flexible working requests, responses and reasons given to assist in decision making.
Carrots (within reason) may be more effective than sticks!
Mandating employees to return to the office can result in unhappiness, resignations and overall reduced employee loyalty and so employers may be wise to consider a carrot approach – within reason.
Employers are noticing that with mixed emotions and outside pressures, some employees are reluctant to return to the office, whilst others are eagerly embracing returning to their office.
Here are a few examples of encouraging staff to come back into the office:
• offer in-person professional development
• set up in-person social and learning opportunities
• create meaningful team building activities
• offer transport subsidies
• encourage use of EAP programmes
Further, when considering a strategy to get employees back to office, employers need to consider the following:
1. increases in commuting costs
2. travel disruptions and strikes
3. increase in childcare costs
4. flexibility for personal schedules in family time, exercise classes or simple errands.
A balance should be made between employers’ and employees’ needs as ignoring either is likely to result in an unwelcomed response, and possible claims of discrimination arising.
For assistance with a hybrid working policy or any questions on this topic do email nicola.goodridge@goodhr.co.uk or call +44 7917 878384