So….we came, we were shortlisted but we didn’t get the award – that was the headline for our Thursday evening last week. However, we had a bloomin’ fabulous night, truth be told much more wine consumed and giggles had than last year when we won our category and 2am – what the actual??!!! I haven’t seen that time for a loooong time…I blame Alex!!!
What am I talking about? The Business Masters Awards of course. Are we blue about it? A wee bit (competitive Emma alert) but do you know what, I didn’t think we stood a chance this year. Last year we won small business of the year (which, by the way is 50 employees and under so we did amazingly as a really baby business!) This year we knew we wouldn’t get shortlisted for that again, so we plumped for “Disrupter of the year” – what does that mean? Well, a business who is doing things differently. That is everything that we try to do at Precept and to even get shortlisted in this category was amazing. Such a display of recognition for what we are trying to do.
Our fellow short-listees (is that a word? Should be!) were mainly in tech – using technology to revolutionise how they operate in their field. Which is amazing, but we don’t have a magical tool to enable us to disrupt the legal market – it is just every one of our amazing staff and a super hero costume(!) and it is flippin’ doing what we say on the tin. We really are #doinglawdifferently and we have the nomination to prove it, as well as a few sore heads on Friday morning! Another fun fact – I actually went in my first Uber…yes I am really that backwards when it comes to life generally!!!!
Well, that is quite enough of that …
Our old friends at the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) are at it again! They’ve published some new guidance how managers can support disabled workers who work under hybrid working arrangements. That crafty EHRC being all helpful, grrr!
Hybrid working is something of a growing trend. It took off massively during the COVID-19 pandemic and has grown steadily more popular, it seems, since then. I mean look at us at Precept, we all work either fully remotely or on hybrid working basis. Plus, the new Labour government are wanting to increase flexibility options for workers, so it’s only going to continue to get more popular.
What is hybrid working?
Let me start with the basics.
Anybody who works under a hybrid arrangement will spend part of their working week in the office (or factory, or school, or other places of work are available) and the rest of their time working remotely (usually from home). This can be dealt with formally under contractual arrangements or informally through agreements with managers.
What does the guidance say?
Well, it should serve as a really useful tool for employers, reminding them of their obligations towards those workers who are or might be disabled, which sometimes get forgotten when the worker isn’t present in the traditional workplace.
In particular, as the guidance points out, the employer’s duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled workers to help them overcome any substantial disadvantage they face as a result of their disability continues to apply even where the worker is working remotely.
The EHRC reiterate that it’s important for reasonable adjustments to be an ongoing discussion between worker and organisation. Adjustments aren’t just static you know? They should be reviewed regularly with the worker, ideally through review meetings and where any change in circumstances is identified, the adjustments should be reconsidered.
We can’t give you the golden ticket of a definitive answer about what reasonable adjustments are required because each and every case needs to be looked at on it’s own merits. What adjustments are required varies from individual to individual and workplace to workplace and job role to job role.
But, when it comes to hybrid working, the areas you could and should be looking at might include:
- Thinking about whether the worker might need help with IT, for example, do they need any extra digital support or specialist IT equipment or software?
- Looking at how the individual travels to/from the workplace, for example, do you need to adjust start/finish times when they are in the workplace to account for their disability?
- Reminding all staff of online and hybrid meeting etiquette – manners sometimes forgotten when you’re at the end of a screen or phone.
- Remembering that face-to-face interactions can, and often will, be really helpful for staff but also factoring in that adjustments may need to be made to traditional workplaces.
As part of their guidance, the EHRC set out a suggested approach for how managers should hold discussions around adjustments with staff. This includes asking the following questions (which seems like common sense but can’t hurt to recap):
- Do you have any suggestions for adjustments in addition to those already discussed?
- Tell me about any adjustments that have worked for you before in similar situations.
- Are there any adjustments that did not work for you before?
- Are you aware that you may be able to get funding and support through Access to Work for support and adaptations? This is a government scheme and is provided to you, as the worker. Would you need support making an application?
As good as my guidance on this guidance is, nothing beats reading the full thing and you can find that here: Supporting disabled workers with hybrid working: Guidance for employers | EHRC (equalityhumanrights.com)
But if you find yourself struggling with what to do with hybrid workers, whether disabled or not, feel free to reach out to team Precept and we can talk you through what you should or shouldn’t be doing.
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