The responsibilities of line managers

opportunity : Flexible Workplace :
The responsibilities of line managers

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Model administrative arrangements: flexi-place

Model administrative arrangements:
flexible working hours

Tips for working at home

1 Line managers and supervisors are responsible for promoting a flexible workplace to their staff and facilitating its implementation.

2 Line managers and supervisors are expected to apply both Center policies and the Center’s underlying philosophy on flexible working conditions. This includes ensuring that they:

are personally aware of the various policy options;
promote these options to their staff;
take a positive approach to considering staff requests for flexible working conditions; and
seek advice from the HR Manager about options for accommodating legitimate needs when confronted with a request that has merit but appears not to be covered by existing policies.

Diversity alert:
Don’t wait for your staff to beg!
In many cases, requests for flexible working conditions will come directly from the staff member/s concerned – particularly where they are already aware of the Center’s policies.

However the line manager should not wait for staff to seek access to these conditions. Instead, an effective line manager should take the initiative to check whether her/his staff might need, or should consider, flexible working conditions, through such opportunities as:
• discussing individual work plans with new appointees – provides a good opportunity for reinforcing the Center’s policy and options;
• project planning meetings or service planning meetings – provide a good opportunity to enquire whether objectives could be met more effectively if staff considered flexible work options; and
• annual performance management reviews – provide an opportunity to consider the desirability of flexible work options.

By taking these initiatives, the line manager minimizes the chances that staff members will wait until they are desperate (and less able to present a well-reasoned, objective proposal) before seeking flexibility.

3 The successful application of flexible working conditions usually requires that the Center’s work units have reasonable work planning processes in place. A prerequisite for most flexible working conditions is that they do not impair long-term Center productivity. If work in a unit is undertaken essentially on a reactive, rather than planned, basis, productivity could well be impaired with the application of flexible working conditions.

4 This puts a greater onus on line managers to establish sound planning processes and, perhaps, to apply lateral thinking. This is quite possible even for service units (e.g. purchasing, library) whose day-to-day activities require responding to client needs.