Flexible working webinars for local employers

Orkney’s businesses and wider community can both benefit from flexible working.

That’s the message from Orkney’s Employability Partnership, which is launching special online sessions this month for local employers looking at how flexible working can contribute to the local economy – whether that’s enabling individuals to join the work force, or the best practice employers can learn from to attract and retain staff.

The sessions come in the leadup to new Flexible Work Legislation that comes into play on 1st April 2024.

Led by experts in the flexible working field, Flexibility Works, sessions will be offered in two parts.

The first session on 21 March will cover best practice and real-world examples which can help businesses introduce flexible working fairly and consistently.

A follow up session on 28 March will be more targeted towards businesses and local employers where they can tease out any issues particular to them.

Kerry Spence is Service Manager of Community Learning, Development and Employability at Orkney Islands Council. She also chairs the Orkney Local Employability Partnership, which works with local employers, skills providers and individuals to help address barriers to work.

“One of the aims of the employability partnership is to ensure that no one is left behind when it comes to access to work.

“We know that there are sections of the Orkney community for whom the traditional ‘9 to 5’ office based employment is very difficult to fulfil, and equally we know local employers across many sectors are struggling to recruit and retain staff.

“This workshop aims to bring those loose ends closer together, by supporting employers to think about how offering flexible working could help, and how we can make work an option for more people in our community, benefitting everyone.”

Lindsey Johnson is OIC’s CLD Employability Team Manager and is heading up a small team within the Employability Partnership promoting inclusivity in the local economy:

“When we think about parents of young children, or people with caring commitments, or those with ongoing health issues, the structure of traditional working hours becomes a wider inclusivity issue – so we want to support local employers to think outside the box when it comes to working arrangements, and be able to tap into more people willing and ready to work – many of who have valuable skills and experience.

“Flexible working can be many things - it can involve simple adaptions such as tweaking start or finish times to fit in with public bus services, or different break times to enable a school run - through to flexibility to work from home or on different days or irregular hours to cater for personal commitments or health needs.

“What we hope these sessions will deliver is greater confidence amongst local employers to bring forward the option of flexible working in their business, and work through with their staff how it can be made to work for everyone.”

Places can be booked via Eventbrite:

To book Event 1 – 21st March 2024 (runs from 1.30-3pm):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flexibility-works-how-flexible-working-can-work-for-your-business-tickets-835695276067

To book Event 2 - 28th March 2024 (runs from 10 – 11.30):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/flexibility-works-follow-up-flexible-working-clinic-tickets-835853960697