How will the UK flexible working bill impact flexible space?

In light of recent news that the UK government is considering a new flexible working policy, Kate Tattersfield at AllWork.Space sat down with CEO and Co-Founder of OSiT, Giles Fuchs, to discuss how the new proposal could affect the UK flex space industry.

Giles’ view is that forward thinking businesses will offer flexible working if they are able to. However, he points out “to insist that someone should offer flexible working seems the wrong way to go about it. I’m a big believer in small government, not big government — and this definitely feels like the edge of where it should be involved. In a free market economy businesses generally find the best way of operating. As such, one would think that enlightened companies who are in a position to be able to offer flexible working conditions do so already because they know that it’ll enable them to attract the best staff.”

The flexible working bill was put before parliament by MP Helen Whately, who believes flexible working should be offered by default and all companies should comply unless they have a sound reason not to.

Giles acknowledged that although it is not necessarily viable to include flexible working as part of an employee contracts, nonetheless Office Space in Town do their best to meet individual requests, stating that “if any member of staff comes to us and they have a request that’s reasonable, we’ll give it to them”.

Modern flexible workspaces already include several design features to support more flexible working patterns – be that break out areas for informal meetings  or private pods for quiet reflection, pet friendly offices, creche facilities and gyms – which are valued by clients.

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