From Monday April 6 an estimated 4.5 Million additional requests for flexible working could swamp UK businesses. New legislation comes into effect which gives all employees with children under 16 the right to request flexible working. Employers who receive such a request from an employee have a legal obligation to give the request “serious consideration”

Firms will have 28 days to discuss a request for flexible working with the employee concerned and another 14 days to give them a decision. Employees then have a further 14 days to appeal an unfavourable decision and employers then have a14 days in which to respond.

Companies need to be proactive and to put procedures in place that will ensure that all requests are dealt with in a fair and consistent way. Technology has a big part to play in this process. Data security is a major consideration when establishing flexible working practices. Companies need to consider how best to protect business critical data which is taken outwith the office, in fact they need to ask the question does the data ever need to be removed from the corporate network at all.

Data Security is one of the biggest challenges of remote working. In most cases remote workers can be given remote access to systems which allows them to login over the Internet without the need for them to down load subsets of data to local machines. Strong access controls and identity verification have a crucial part to play in allowing remote access. Tow factor authentication is an essential tool for companies who promote remote working. Celo, strong two factor authentication, allows remote access to systems anytime, anywhere by giving companies the ability to secure their systems whether they are available via VPN or the web. Users are provided with a simple intuitive system which utilises their mobile phone as the second factor device, and in doing so, cutting down on deployment and support costs compared with more traditional token based solutions.

Employers have the chance, with this change in legislation to adapt their working practices and embrace the advantages that providing flexible remote working can offer. Cost savings can be substantial with reduction in travel costs, reduced use of company cars etc. Earlier in the year when we suffered the heaviest snowfalls since the 1980’s those companies who had remote working solutions in place reaped the benefit of their investment.

Looking to the future when the current downturn ends and companies are once again looking to employ the best workers it will be those organisations that offer flexible working practices that will be in the best positioned to snap up the best candidates.

Tags: celo, two-factor authentication