Back to work call is up to businesses, not the government, CIPD boss says
The back to work call is up to businesses, not the government, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) chief has said today.
After Covid-19 completely overhauled traditional workplace life, the question of whether working from home should become a legal right has emerged now that the end to restrictions is on the horizon.
“I don’t think this is about the government, at any level, getting involved in what practices businesses should be employing or how they should think about recruitment or whatever,” the chief executive of industry group the CIPD, Peter Cheese, said in an interview with Politico.
“Those are things for businesses to resolve.”
Cheese criticised the “mixed messaging” from MPs over whether employees should return to the workplace or maintain a level of flexibility.
“These different forms of working should be seen as part of the norm,” Cheese said, suggesting the UK should “move away” from nine-to-five culture now it has the opportunity.
“There are a variety of mechanisms by which you can support people in these more flexible ways of working, which can be helpful in terms of inclusion and wellbeing and balance of life.”
The shift to flexible working could mark the transition towards a four-day work week, Cheese added, but businesses would have to lead the way.
The transition would have to come from “emergent practice” over newly imposed law. He continued: “In other words, organisations starting to do things like that, rather than government edicts.”