Flexible working

Introduction

Agile Collective is committed to promoting and maintaining the wellbeing of all of our employees. We recognise that balancing work and home life is important and that you might sometimes need to adjust your working conditions to help you to do this.

Use this policy to understand about flexible working and how it might work for you; if you have any questions or would like more information please speak to the People Circle.

This policy isn’t about taking family leave or being able to take time off at short notice; please see our family friendly and special leave policies for more information on those arrangements.

Everyone who works for Agile Collective may apply to work flexibly. We will always review any request for flexible working carefully and won’t ever unreasonably reject a request. We might not always be able to agree but we will always work with you to try to find a solution that works for both you and Agile Collective.

Types of flexible working

Flexible working can come in many different forms, but it usually has to do with a change to the number or pattern of hours that you work or a request to work from a different location. You may apply for any form of flexible working while working for Agile Collective and we will always review this carefully; whether or not we can agree to your request will depend on the specific circumstances.

Working from home

Agile Collective is a distributed organisation where employees can work from home.

You will need to make sure that you have the correct equipment if you are going to work from home, such as a desk, chair and computer. Agile Collective will provide this equipment for you.

If you have any questions please contact the People Circle.

Information security and data protection

If you ever work away from the office, either from home or another location, you will need to make sure that you safeguard sensitive business or personal information, whether it is about colleagues, clients or Agile Collective. If you do need to take it with you please take extra precautions to make sure that it is kept safe.

You must also take care of any Agile Collective equipment, such as laptop or mobile phone that might contain sensitive business or personal information. If you lose any equipment or information that belongs to Agile Collective or you have anything stolen, you must let the Members Circle know as soon as possible by emailing members@agile.coop and posting in #members channel on Rocket.

If we’re concerned that you haven’t taken sufficient precautions to protect sensitive information or equipment, or if you fail to report an incident promptly, we may investigate this under the disciplinary procedure. There is more information on information security and data protection in the Agile Collective data protection policy.

The procedure to follow

Requesting an informal change

You do not need to request an ad-hoc change to your working conditions if you like to work from home occasionally or you need to start or finish work earlier or later than usual.

We leave people’s time management up to themselves provided they are able to meet their working commitments and fit in with team / project meetings.

If you are working from home or your working day is different from normal then let people know via Rocket chat as soon as possible so that everyone is aware of your situation and availability.

Requesting a formal change

Members may formally change their working hours or working pattern as long as the proposed hours fall between the minimum to be eligible to be a Member and full-time hours*. Before you make your decision please discuss the effect of your change of hours with those colleagues directly affected - project teams and circle members - and consider how it will affect your capacity.

Please give at least one clear month’s notice, and be aware that changes will take place at the beginning of the following full calendar month**.

Process for changing hours

  1. Bring your proposal to the People Circle outlining your proposed change of hours, and the effects of changing your hours.
  2. After the proposal has been passed, Finance and People Circles will update the relevant information in payroll, forecast etc.

** eg. if there is a proposal in March, it would take effect at the beginning of May (though in effect we might be able to bring it forward to April)

Trial periods

Before making a formal change to your terms and conditions of employment you might want to have a trial period to make sure that the changes work for you and the organisation. This will usually last for around a month although you could agree on a shorter or longer timeframe with the People Circle.

Appealing

If the People Circle hasn’t accepted your flexible working request you may choose to submit an appeal. You should explain in writing why you’re not happy and the People Circle will meet with you to discuss this. Remember that you can also be accompanied to this meeting by a work colleague if you wish. The People Circle will let you have their decision in writing after the meeting.

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