Workplace Flexibility Training

Workplace flexibility training is often delivered as a culture topic. The part managers most need is procedural, because that is where refusals come unstuck.

An eligible employee can request a change to hours, patterns or location. The employer must respond in writing within the required period, can only refuse on reasonable business grounds, and must have genuinely discussed the request and tried to reach agreement first.

The common failures are all procedural. Refusing verbally. Not responding at all. Refusing without discussing alternatives. Treating the request as a favour to be granted rather than a process to be followed.

Each is a defect even where the underlying business reason was sound, which is the point worth making in training. A manager can decline a request and still get it badly wrong.

The Fair Work Ombudsman sets out the process and the grounds. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s diversity and flexibility course and EEO training course.