Who approves flexible working requests? HR or managers?

[KellyJellyfish]

After Covid my office switched us all to hybrid working - 3 days at home and 2 in the office, with Wednesday being a mandatory day and the other day being decided by department managers for their teams needs (although this is fairly flexible).

This worked pretty well for me, LO is at nursery Monday and Tuesday, I do pick ups on Monday and my MIL is able to do Tuesdays (my other day in the office).

Disappointingly our CEO just announced we’re moving up to 3 days. The reasons he gave were pretty rubbish - other companies are doing it and more ‘in person collaboration’.

This is a problem for me, we live in a remote village and only have the one car, my husband currently gets Wednesdays off for his first year back after paternity leave (his company pays for this and is very generous with parental leave), and I have been booking Thursdays off as holiday to look after LO (with managers approval), Friday her grandparents have her.

Thursday is the day my husband is offsite so no car for me, plus I’ve block booked Thursdays off until the winter (30 hours funding comes in and my mother is retiring so I’ll get extra help and an extra day at nursery).

Mondays I have to do nursery drop off/collection and she’s not yet in for full days (only 12 months and finding full days a challenge so we do 11-4) so that day won’t work either. Tues/Wed I’m already in the office. Fridays are a possibility as her grandparents look after her, but they have a long commute (2 hrs) so can’t get here in time for me to leave for work so, like Monday, I’d be looking at a short day in the office.

My commute is 45 mins long at least, so it’s a lot of driving for a job I’ve successfully been doing mostly at home for 5 years now. And if I did somehow make Monday or Friday work, I’d literally be the only person in there as my dept is coming in on Thursday, as are most of the rest of the company, so much for ‘in person collaboration’.

Anyway, I’ve had a discussion with my manager, who isn’t happy about the additional office day and completely understand that I and a couple others in our dept will really struggle to make this work. I’ve explained to him that this is only a temporary problem for me as I’m about to get additional childcare from winter onwards.

He contacted HR, they said I’d need to fill out a flexible working request form and have a meeting with them so discuss it. I’m now really starting to worry HR will deny it, I’m sure they’re preparing for a lot of requests to come in and the CEO won’t be happy if people just opt out of this new rule.

So my question is, for those who have applied and been granted flexible working requests - who had final say? Could HR overrule your line manager? Or do they just have to do what he says if he okays it?

Google isn’t helpful, it simply says ‘your employer’ which is very vague.

It was both HR and manager. I fitted into the policy (lived further then a certain distance from the office) and it was approved by HR and my manager. Our company is now back 2 days a week and as they have signed off my remote working they can not rescind it.

how long would your commute be otherwise? Mines about 45 mins presently but there’s now major long term roadworks on the motorway that’s making it even longer. We also have fully remote workers on our team, but they live over 3 hours away so it’s understandable.

Manager following HR guidance / advice. There are only set reasons in law that can be used to turn down a request. But that doesn’t mean they have to accept them all. Where I work permanent home working is only available if needed as a reasonable adjustment (for a disability).

If it’s a company wide policy from the CEO it doesn’t matter if it’s your manager or HR. The CEO has said go back three days a week so that is what you have to do.

If you submit a flexible working form it is HR that ultimately decides as it is a change to your contract which I’m sure was written before covid and said you should be in five days a week.

While your family life is important to you and your employer should want you to have a work life balance I would prepare yourself for a denial based on you used to be in five days a week before COVID and it is in your contact, the CEO has mandated returning to the office (whether you personally think his reasons are reasonable or not he is running the business and it is proven collaboration is better face to face) and as you say they will be inundated so they can’t say yes to one person and no to another (unless good reasons - medical
for example - your childcare doesn’t count).

Three days in the office is normal for most companies now and despite your managers support, will they really be willing to call on their sword to HR to go against a CEO mandate?

By all means try as if you don’t ask you don’t get but I think you should prepare for a no.

Maybe, if they decline your request, as for it on a purely temporary basis until mum retires etc.

My flexible working plan was to reduce my hours

I submitted it to my line manager who approved it. It then went to the department that authorise leave/overtime & manning levels. They had to purely say if we would still have enough staff in to accommodate me. It then went to senior management who had the final say

Despite the previous approvals it could have been rejected at that point.

Basically any one of the 3 could have said no.

No it depends on your company. A flex working request is assessed against a prescribed set of criteria . So if members of my team ask then I assess and agree it or not usually run it by my boss as well. If we say yes then the contract gets amended (this bit by hr) and holidays recalculated. If not then they can appeal but hr wouldn’t overturn the decision unless we were being discriminatory as they don’t care and they aren’t there for staff they are there to protect the company.

Totally right and I have done many cases and evaluated forms in my time but HR is the one who may feel they have to amend the contract. But then I guess my point about a manager falling on their sword to go against a CEO dictate covers this?

Generally the manager decides and HR make sure the rules are followed

also how practical is booking every Thursday off .that was stopped at my old work as it fucks the leave Callander for everyone else as if they want to book a weeks leave there’s a day missing and someone has booked a single day off

Your car, commute, childcare are not the problems of your employer. I'm a line manager and a formal flexible working request comes to me first, then to the people team for contractual changes. It has to be viable for the business.

I mean they are in the sense that the job was advertised as 2 days in office and myself and others were hired that usually live outside of the area this company would usually recruit from.

Doesn’t really matter in my line of work, I work on projects not shifts, if I’m off at the same time as someone else on my team it doesn’t matter.

If anyone’s curious what the other flexible working arrangements are within my team - we have 2 full time remote (after Covid) 3 on flexible hours, and now 2 of us putting in this wfh request as well, so it’s not like it’s unusual within the company.

during the presentation the CEO even said he’s aware this won’t work for everyone and to discuss options with your manager, so I’m hopeful.

HR are supposed to advice and guide, not make final decisions on these kinds of things (I wish we could, job would be a lot easier) but the department/managers should be the ones who know if it's a reasonable request and provide the reasons for refusal. However I think hr varies massively between organisations

This is correct. However, where it is an organisation wide policy HR can be asked to provide guidance to ensure consistent application. Additionally, I have known HR be asked to consider all applications, again to be consistent.

As the job advert specified two days in the office this is your starting point.