Flexible Family-Friendly Working: What Does New Best Practice Look Like?

06/22/21 • 45 min

Irish HR and Employment Law Developments

Q2 has marked a new chapter in life and work, with several steps forward. Coronavirus restrictions began easing, and the vaccination programme speeded up, just after a new official code of practice came into place on the right to disconnect from work.

Around the same time, the Tánaiste also invited submissions on putting the right to seek remote working into law.

In this context, Legal Island discuss what the next phase holds for employers, with a focus on work-life balance, particularly in relation to working families.

Over the previous year, the pandemic had fundamentally transformed our work-life dynamic, further blurring the lines between work and family. The Department of Enterprise and Employment described both new public policy initiatives as part of Leo Varadkar’s plan “to create more flexible family-friendly working arrangements, including working from home and working more flexible hours”.

Learn what Ireland’s leading employers are doing now, and next, to engage their workforces and enable work-life balance in a new hybrid working world
Focus in on how to help working parents and carers meet the novel challenges ahead as we move towards the summer, and then the Autumn.
Identify the lessons worth keeping from how working parents and carers coped with periodic lockdowns, and the school-free world. What can employers continue to do to provide practical support with care.

In this podcast, Legal Island is joined by Oliver Daniels, Client Services Manager and Oliver Black, Commercial Director, Bright Horizons to consider what it means to be a family-friendly employer in Ireland in – and after - the ‘Time of Covid’ and in a new world of work-life balance.

Around the same time, the Tánaiste also invited submissions on putting the right to seek remote working into law.

In this context, Legal Island discuss what the next phase holds for employers, with a focus on work-life balance, particularly in relation to working families.

Learn what Ireland’s leading employers are doing now, and next, to engage their workforces and enable work-life balance in a new hybrid working world
Focus in on how to help working parents and carers meet the novel challenges ahead as we move towards the summer, and then the Autumn.
Identify the lessons worth keeping from how working parents and carers coped with periodic lockdowns, and the school-free world. What can employers continue to do to provide practical support with care.

Previous Episode

Dealing with Absence Management

In this podcast, Caroline Reidy, Managing Director of The HR Suite and HR and Employment Law Expert, outlines some tips for managing both short and long-term absence. This includes:

Absence Policy
Dealing with Long Term absence
Dealing with sporadic Short-Term Absence
Reasonable Accommodation

Next Episode

New Statutory Sick Pay Scheme & Its Implications for Absence Management

The government has committed to bringing statutory sick pay into legislation by the end of 2021. This will be a major change for Irish employers in terms of costs and absence management.

The governments statutory sick pay scheme is due to be phased in over a 4-year period. It is hoped to begin with 3 paid sick days per year for each employee starting in 2022, rising to 5 days in 2023 and 7 days in 2024. It is hoped that employers will cover the cost of 10 sick days per year by 2025. The government intend to introduce a phased approach to allow employers to prepare and adjust for the scheme and its associated costs.

In this podcast (extracted from a live webinar), Caroline Reidy discusses this new introduction and answers listeners questions live.