Can changes to employment practices spark recovery after COVID-19?
Businesses in New Zealand are slowly coming back to life, but the path to recovery won’t be easy, says Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
As the country prepares to rebuild itself post-crisis, one question remains for HR leaders: can changes to employment practices during the pandemic now spark recovery after COVID-19?
These changes are diverse – from remote working and flexible scheduling to the shift to a four-day work week and the increased reliance on fixed-term workers.
The bottom line is to secure your employees’ consent first before introducing any change, advises Elizabeth Coats, a partner at Bell Gully and speaker at the HRD Employment Law Masterclass.
“It is important that the employer thinks carefully about their rationale for making this change,” she shares in an exclusive interview with HRD.
Employers need to provide workers with relevant information as part of the consultation process, discussing the intricacies of a possible new arrangement with them – whether it’s about working from home or shifting to a part-time basis as a result of the downturn.
Having this discussion is “consistent with the law and also likely to offer practical advantages in aiding employees to understand why this is considered necessary in the circumstances,” Coats says.
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Telecommuting, for example, has forced organisations to rethink how they monitor the productivity, engagement and wellbeing of a distributed or remote staff without becoming intrusive.
But the arrangement also poses a challenge to managers. Outside the shared environment of an office, most managers lack visibility into the official activities of their staff. As such, companies have increasingly turned to employee monitoring software to track the progress of their remote teams.
Flexible scheduling, meanwhile, considers the push and pull between an employee’s professional and personal obligations, and how the employee can make the most of their time online and off.
The point of flexible scheduling is to build a person’s work hours around their life – not the other way around. In theory, flexible working enables them to log in and accomplish tasks during their peak productivity, then power down and enjoy life outside work.
Just recently, Ardern also floated the concept of a four-day work week to give New Zealanders more time to unwind while helping domestic tourism get back on its feet. While the decision ultimately rests between employers and employees, the prime minister urges companies to explore the option.
The idea of a compact work week gained prominence years before the pandemic, when Auckland-based company Perpetual Guardian adopted it permanently in 2018, as reported by HRD.
READ MORE: Should employers push for a four-day work week?
But, as Coats recommends, there are two key legal considerations to keep in mind when making the shift: good faith and agreement.
“Moving to a four-day week may well have lots of advantages, but if it is not something that can be achieved within the employee’s current agreement, the employer will need to consult – in good faith – about any proposed change,” Coats suggests.
“Employers are seeking increased flexibility from their employees, in terms of hours and pay, with a view to putting off having to implement wider-scale (and permanent) redundancies,” she says.
However, good faith considerations apply. Coats says companies that successfully implement innovative work options, even as a temporary strategy, have gained enough “breathing room” to let them reassess how business conditions change over time and readjust accordingly.