The ‘Ticket of Trust’ – The End of the Formal Employment Contract?

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Employees have a right to a written statement of particulars on or before their first day of employment. There is a very specific list of elements that this must contain, with ACAS providing clarity for employers on best practice.

How Flexible Can an Employment Contract Be?

While the key components of the written statement are non-negotiable, how they are presented is up to you as the employer. The employment contract is where most employers include these components and this provides one of the first insights into the culture of an organisation for a new employee. The employee will be seeking to understand the expectations they can have of you as their new employer and, equally, your expectations of them.

Traditionally, the employment contract has been an extremely formal document using terminology we would not use in a normal discussion at work. The text has been presented as black font on a white background, a format that can be difficult to digest for neurodiverse employees. Research has shown that for neurodiverse people, using a sepia or pastel coloured background with dark coloured text can help make documents easier to process.

Getting Creative

Some employers are starting to innovate, attempting to mirror their creative approaches to business within their employment contracts. Tony’s Chocolonely, a values driven chocolate company based in the Netherlands, has introduced what they call their ‘ticket of trust’ in place of a traditional contract of employment. While the specific provisions of the contract are not tailored to suit our legal system, the infographic, minimalist style gives an intriguing introduction to the organisation while still covering off the key components required of a written statement. One particular talking point, is the offer of unlimited annual leave.

While your organisation might not be quite ready for an infographic style or unlimited annual leave, it is important to ensure your contract is aligned to your current culture and written and presented in an accessible way. Don’t forget that if you wish to make changes to the terms and conditions of employment for existing employees, a consultation is likely to be required.

For a discussion on how NQHR can support you reinvigorate your current employment contract for new employees, or on consulting with your present employees to agree changes, contact Kathryn Chidzey-Jones, HR Consultant in our team on 07881 092524.

Is Hybrid Working Here to Stay?

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Recent headlines suggest that there may be a ‘big return to the office’, whilst others promote the success of flexible working schemes, such as the successful outcome of the four day working week trial.

Since the pandemic there have been changes in working practices, attitudes and expectations for many and the conversation around hybrid working continues.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that 28% of working adults are working on a hybrid basis in 2023 and that 16% work solely from home. Home or hybrid workers are more likely to be in professional roles, degree educated or above and be in the highest income band.

Why Offer Hybrid or Flexible Working?

According to the ONS:

  • 78% of hybrid workers say they have an improved work life balance
  • 52% say they complete work more quickly at home
  • 53% say there are fewer distractions at home
  • 47% report improved wellbeing

Research also suggests that job applicants and employees are motivated by flexibility, which is considered the most important motivator in keeping employees in their jobs – valued even more so than salary.

How Can Employers Manage Requests for Hybrid or Flexible Working?

The right to request flexible working is of course well established, and is set to widen as a result of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill. Alternatively, employers may decide that a formal request under their flexible working policy is not required, and there can be some advantages to dealing with requests outside the formal regime. Some employers have introduced hybrid working policies, allowing them to consider how their approach to hybrid working can meet their commercial needs. However employers decide to deal with requests for flexible or hybrid working, they should be mindful of any risks associated with how they deal with the request, particularly around possible discrimination risks if they decide to reject a request.

What Are the Potential Challenges?


Is hybrid working offered equally across the organisation? What are the consequences for different protected characteristics ie are there more women working in a hybrid capacity than men?

There can be challenges around how to effectively manage and supervise staff who are working remotely, and a different approach may be required to measuring performance. Employers need to be aware of the risk of ‘proximity bias’ – the idea that managers may perceive those employees who they see onsite as working more effectively than those who are working remotely.

There may be practical issues around the working environments of those staff working at home, around the need to ensure confidentiality and manage data protection effectively and around health and safety requirements.

There may also be some challenges around staff who need to balance caring responsibilities and working remotely, or those who request to work abroad. Finally, there can be a divide between groups of staff who can work remotely and those who can’t.

Don’t Forget Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Research suggest that hybrid/flexible working is popular amongst underrepresented groups, with research suggesting that:

  • employees with disabilities were 11% more likely to opt for hybrid working than those without disabilities
  • those who identify as non-binary were 14% more likely to prefer hybrid working and LGBTQ+
  • employees were 13% more likely to choose hybrid working over their heterosexual colleagues

Employers should also be mindful not to unintentionally exclude particular groups where hybrid/remote working is imposed, such as those without suitable home working space or those who would benefit from working alongside colleagues in order to aid their development.

How Can Narrow Quay HR Support You and Your Organisation?

Narrow Quay HR can work with you to review your hybrid and flexible working arrangements, work with you to implement hybrid working policies and provide training for managers on managing and engaging remote/hybrid teams.

For more information on managing staff who are working remotely or dealing with hybrid/remote working requests, please contact Caitlin Anniss in our team on 07909 683 938.

International Women’s Day and Beyond – Champion Equity All Year Round

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Having celebrated International Women’s Day (IWD) on 8 March, we want to consider how employers maintain momentum and have a continuous focus on equity, diversity and inclusion all year round.

Not Just a One-Off Event

Whilst IWD has become the significant focus for celebration, March has, for many years, been recognised as ‘Women’s History Month’ with individuals and organisations using this time to pay particular attention to women’s achievements and to continue raising awareness of work still to be done.

This year, the IWD campaign theme was #EmbraceEquity, aimed at getting the world talking about why equal opportunities aren’t enough – that although used interchangeably, equality and equity are not the same.

One definition the campaign uses really helps to provide that distinction:

  • Equality is giving everyone a shoe.
  • Equity is giving everyone a shoe that fits.

What Actions Can You Take?

The following are ideas that can be part of your celebrations for IWD itself, can be organised throughout March and beyond:

  • Celebrate the accomplishments of women in your workplace to inspire further women to achieve their full potential.
  • Showcase women throughout history to remind staff of the importance of their contribution and to encourage internal recognition of your own staff’s achievements.
  • Fundraise for a female-focused charity or organisation.
  • Create an equity, diversity and inclusion forum of staff and managers to provide regular discussion on key EDI topics and create momentum for actionable change.

International Women’s Day provides a key moment to celebrate women’s achievements in the workplace and showcase employer initiatives and support.

Using this month as the impetus, you can review your recruitment practices, promotion and development opportunities, to consider how equitable they really are. View them through the lens of the IWD example definition above.

Consider how your culture is reflective of this ambition – is equity role-modelled by senior leaders and line managers? Are your values in line with this?

Celebrating IWD is a great way for you to demonstrate the value all of your staff play in your organisation. Taking it beyond that day (and month) to promote further action – progressive policies, practices, benefits, and support mechanisms so women’s careers can thrive – will drive higher engagement and can lead to increased production and retention in your workplace – something every employer can get behind.

For specialist HR support with any issues regarding equity in the workplace, please contact Sue Meehan Boyes in our team on 07384 468797.

Fire and Re-Hire: What’s All the Fuss About?

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A Contract of Employment ensures both the employer and employee understand the expectations of the employment relationship. The terms are clear, set out in black and white. But what happens if an employer wants to change their employees’ contractual terms – can it be done?

One option open to employers is ‘termination and re-engagement’, more colloquially known as ‘fire and re-hire’. This is where an employer terminates the employees contract and offers them employment on new terms, which contain the new term.

Is Fire and Re-Hire a Fair Option?

The moral question could be debated for a long time! Legally, this option is potentially fair provided you (the employer) have done three things:

  • Firstly, you must show a fair reason/rationale for the change. 
  • Secondly, you must show a fair procedure has been followed – this would include an attempt to first seek agreement via consultation, offering the right of appeal, and warning staff that, as a last resort, ‘fire and re-hire’ might happen. 
  • Thirdly, you mitigated losses by offering re-engagement on the new terms. Essentially, it can be a possible option but should be used very much as a last resort, where there is a deadlock and all other options have been exhausted. 

Why Is Fire and Re-Hire Viewed So Negatively?

Cases hit the press from time to time which highlight the less scrupulous ways that employers can misuse the fire and re-hire option in an excessively severe way, or which tips the balance significantly in favour of employers. 

P&O Ferries faced much criticism in March 2022 due to a system which allowed them to evade UK employment law by sacking 786 employees without carrying out the legally required collective consultation or negotiation, and replacing them with a cheaper, non-unionised workforce.

This, and similar practices by employers, have attracted much criticism, prompting the Government to draft a nine point plan (including primary legislation), to tackle the issue. They published a draft Fire and Rehire Code of Conduct on 24 January 2023 which, subject to consultation, tells employers not to use threats of dismissal to pressure employees into accepting new terms.

How Can This Be Managed Better?

It is possible to lawfully fire and re-hire, but it must be thought of as a last resort.

The draft Code proposes responsibilities for employers, focusing on the importance of meaningful consultation. The guidance advises that:

  • where possible, changes (especially if numerous) should be introduced over time
  • employers should reassure employees that they will keep changes under review
  • employers should re-examine their strategy if agreement cannot be reached

Adhering to the guidance should help to reduce scope for disagreements which, in turn, should reduce industrial action, reputational damage, management time and associated legal costs, whilst at the same time improving trust and confidence, recruitment and retention, and an employer’s reputation.

The Code won’t be legally binding, but Employment Tribunals will reflect on any unreasonable failure to comply, and should it come into being, it will include a provision allowing employment tribunals to adjust compensation awards upwards by up to 25% in an employer adopts a fire and re-hire approach without prior consultation.

The consultation period on the new draft Code remains open until 18 April 2023.

Are You Considering Making Changes?

Employers will need to make contractual changes from time to time for various strategic, economic or other reasons. 

If you are contemplating changes and would like support with your approach for effective implementation, please contact Jo Bradbury in our team on 07570 372118.

Another Change to Holiday Pay?

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An important judgment last year, in the case known as Harpur Trust, confirmed that part-year workers (those who don’t work all year round) are entitled to a larger holiday entitlement than part-time workers who work the same total number of hours across the year. 

This has caused anxiety for particular employers where workers might be employed to work part of the year only, for example in hospitality during busy times such as Christmas or over the Summer.

If this does impact you, then you’ll be interested to know that the Government have just announced a consultation to try to ensure that holiday pay and entitlement received by workers is proportionate to the time they spend working. 

As the law currently stands when you are calculating holiday pay you need to count back 52 weeks to work out average pay, but crucially you must skip any weeks when no pay is earned. 

The Government’s proposal is that employers can just count back 52 weeks, whether or not anything is earned in those weeks. This will almost certainly reduce the amount of holiday pay for part year workers. The Government’s impact assessment calculated that this change will save businesses £113m per annum.

The consultation runs till early March and we will let you know what the result is. We suggest you take legal advice about what, if anything, you should do about holiday pay for part year workers until we know the outcome of the consultation. 

If there is anything you would like to discuss about holiday pay queries please contact Sarah Martin in our team on 07799 136091.

Teacher Strikes – What Options Are Available for Working Parents? 

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With planned strike action in England and Wales in the coming months, many working parents and carers will face challenges with childcare provisions. How can employers support their affected employees?

Union members are not required to share their intention to strike in advance, so it is very challenging for schools to anticipate the impact on their staffing levels and attempt to source adequate cover.

While the impact within early years settings is hoped to be less significant than within schools, some may also need to close as a result of employee absence. For some employees, particularly those with young children, it may not be possible to continue to work at all if their childcare provider or school is closed and they have no alternative support. 

How Can Employers Support?

During the pandemic, employers had to think creatively about how some employees could continue to work whilst juggling childcare responsibilities. Now is a good time for managers and working parents to revisit these contingency plans. This might include flexibility on when they work, for example, working during the evenings or swapping a working day, or temporary home working.

It may help to start the conversation early, reminding parents of local strike action dates. Some may have support with childcare available from family members, which may enable them to continue to work. For others, there may not be a ‘Plan B’ so it is important to be clear on how absence will be managed on these dates.

The following types of leave can be considered:

  • Annual leave – If the employee has sufficient annual leave, they may wish to request this according to your policy. However, it’s important to remember that annual leave is limited and if there are a significant number of days where strike action will disrupt their childcare provision they may be left with minimal annual leave to take holidays later in the year.
  • Taking time off for dependents – In most cases this is unlikely to be appropriate as the strike dates have been communicated some way in advance. However, employees have a right to absence to care for dependents where their care has broken down unexpectedly. The statutory right is to unpaid leave in these circumstances, although some organisations have now chosen to provide pay in support of working parents/carers.
  • Time off in lieu (TOIL) – Where an employee has worked a number of additional hours without pay, you may allow them to take this time ‘back’ as TOIL. As an employer, you may already have a policy on how TOIL is managed in your organisation and employees would need to follow the requirements for recording and requesting this leave.
  • Parental leave – Employees have a right to request unpaid parental leave up to a maximum of 18 weeks in total, before the child’s 18th birthday. Ordinarily, 21 days’ notice of the intention to take parental leave is required and it is usually taken in blocks of one week. Where only one day is required, this is recorded as a full week of the entitlement.
  • Unpaid leave – A final option to consider is to allow parents or carers to request unpaid leave. You may have a policy regarding unpaid leave that needs to be followed. 

We would encourage employers to be as flexible as possible. Working parents or carers may find this situation particularly stressful and disruptive both at work and at home. You may wish to remind your employees of any workplace sources of support that you offer, for example, via an Employee Assistance Programme.

For support on how you can best support your working parents and carers during the teacher strikes, or how to navigate more complex situations, please contact Kathryn Chidzey-Jones in our team on 07881 092524.

How to Embrace Neurodiversity at Work and Maximise Your Talent Pool

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There is a vast pool of neurodiverse candidates seeking employment in the UK. However, many organisations are missing out on talented individuals due to stigma, or by not maximising opportunities with their recruitment strategy.

There is a long history of negative stigma around employing neurodiverse people, as many employers fear that those with neurological differences, such as Autism and Dyslexia, would not be able to do the job as well as other neurotypical employees.

This stigma can leave neurodivergent colleagues feeling misjudged. According to recent research, 6 out of 10 neurodivergent individuals have experienced stigma or felt misunderstood during their careers. This could be due to feeling unsupported at work, or feeling judged by their diagnosis and any accommodations they have in the workplace.

Thankfully, this is changing. Today, many organisations now understand that this isn’t the case and there has been an uptake of training in the topic and increasing engagement to learn more. However, we’ve still got a long way to go to reduce the impact of these negative misconceptions.

Why Is It Important to Attract Neurodiverse Talent?

By identifying ideal roles for neurodivergent staff and limiting potential barriers, organisations can create a neurodiverse workplace with increased creativity, new ideas and fresh perspectives.

As well as their individual strengths, neurodivergent employees often possess highly desirable skills and attributes, such as:

  • reliability, conscientiousness and persistence
  • high levels of concentration
  • detailed factual knowledge and an excellent memory
  • attention to detail and the ability to identify errors
  • strong technical abilities in their specialist areas
  • creativity, especially in visual or spatial or process activities
  • high levels of intellect
  • the ability to look at the bigger picture and think laterally

Top Tips for Attracting Neurodiverse Talent

When considering your recruitment strategy for attracting a more neurodiverse workforce we suggest you implement these top tips:

Promote Disclosure

Make sure you offer candidates the opportunity to disclose any conditions that they may have, throughout the recruitment process. This may be by using open questions in your application forms for example. Ensure any disclosures are met with a supportive response, with a discussion around adjustments and support they would need in order to give the best account of themselves.

Make an Informed Recruitment Decision

By offering multiple opportunities for candidates to demonstrate their competence and being flexible in the ways you gather information you can make an informed recruitment decision.

Be Objective 

Ensure you have a panel of interviewers or have multiple stages in the recruitment process to reduce any unconscious bias and ensure decision making is fair and objective. 

Consider Language

Questions asked during interviews may be interpreted differently between candidates. Ensure that your questions are clear and re-phrase them if there is any confusion to ensure a level playing field. You may need to adapt your communication style for candidates, as a manager would in any team environment. 

Increase Knowledge

Training is helpful for all staff, but particularly for those involved in recruitment, neurodiversity awareness training we can highlight the strengths that come from different thinking, and reduce the impact of stigma in the workplace. It also helps those with line management responsibilities to understand how to better support neurodivergent staff, and what support they can offer to make the workplace more inclusive for all.

If you would like to discuss neurodiversity awareness training for your organisation feel free to contact Helen Couchman in our team on 07799 901669. 

Menopause Not Set to Become a Protected Characteristic

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With just over 15 million women in the workplace, the last few years has seen a welcome focus on how the menopause can impact staff and what employers can do to best assist women through this stage.

Last week the Government responded to the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee report Menopause and the Workplace (July 2022). 

The report had made a number of recommendations, including:

  • introducing sex and age as a single dual protected characteristic under the Equalities Act 2010 to protect women going through menopause
  • launching a consultation on how to amend the Equalities Act 2010 to include ‘menopause’ as a new protected characteristic

What Are The Government’s Plans?

The Government’s response does not accept either of these recommendations, pointing to existing protections available for those experience menopause. This response was in many ways as expected and in accordance with previous government statements. 

However, the Government has, in part, accepted some of the Committee’s other recommendations, including the appointment of a Menopause Ambassador/Champion, a ministerial appointment within the Department for Work and Pensions; and, bringing forward legislation to make the right to request flexible working a day one employment right. 

No timetable has been announced in respect of introducing these provisions. We will keep you posted as and when the Government releases further details, and provide information of how they may affect your business.

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How Can You Best Support Staff Going Through Menopause?

You may want to consider how best to support any staff currently going through the menopause. This could include:

  • Introduce a Menopause Policy for staff. Many of you will have already done this, it is a useful way to show your support for staff, emphasise your commitment to addressing the impact of menopause and a useful way to channel any queries from staff.
  • Appoint a Menopause Champion to act as a central point of contact for staff.
  • Provide training for line managers on the symptoms of menopause and how to support and speak with staff who may be experiencing symptoms. This can be a sensitive subject and line managers are often the first point of contact for staff and may need guidance on how best to approach conversations such as this.
  • Consider what can be done to help staff experiencing the menopause, for example considering home working and adjusting working times.
  • Reviewing the working environment to ensure it is conducive to working if a member of staff is experiencing the menopause – for example, the room temperature and access to toilets.
  • Create an open and trusted environment for staff. Implementing the recommendations above will help you to do this. Menopausal symptoms can be managed in a way that supports staff to be able to continue to work in the best interests of your business.

For further information or to discuss how NQHR can help your business to support staff please contact Rachel Brodie in our team on 07881 092528.

Work Christmas Parties – How To Avoid a HR Headache

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Organising an office Christmas party and want to avoid any HR issues? Read our top tips for how to help everyone in your workplace have a positive office Christmas party experience. 

After years of a pandemic, economic downturns, cost of living crisis, political upheavals and concerning world events, employers are looking to their annual Christmas event to bring some much-needed cheer. It’s a great opportunity to celebrate with staff and thank them for their contribution over the past year. 

But could those plans go awry, leaving you haunted by the ghost of Christmas future (disciplinaries)?

Bah humbug I hear you cry! For who wants to be cast as Scrooge at this time, being seen as the killjoys to some harmless fun? But where there are company-wide parties, there can be alcohol and over-indulgence. Light-hearted banter can escalate into full scale arguments and those long-forgotten frustrations may resurrect themselves, causing tension around the dinner table.

Get the Balance Right

Getting the balance right is critical – allowing people to have fun, whilst looking after their wellbeing. With increased hybrid and remote working, it is also a chance to bring people together and maintain a strong team ethos and build a connection with the company. 

Similarly, hosting an event can make staff feel valued and recognised for their efforts over the past months, fostering higher levels of engagement.

However, it’s also important to be aware of the potential factors which may have a negative impact on employee wellbeing, and how you could best manage these.

Keep an Eye on Alcohol Consumption

Providing a free bar all night can encourage excessive drinking and increase the likelihood of staff behaving inappropriately. You can manage this by offering a set number of complimentary drinks instead and allocating a ‘drinks host’ per table, allowing for some control over the volume of alcohol consumed. It’s also important to make sure that everyone’s catered for, ensuring non-alcoholic drinks are also available.

Manage Anti-Social Behaviour

With the flow of alcohol in large gatherings, it can lead to some anti-social or unwanted behaviour which can have serious consequences. Even where parties are not on your company premises, they are still an extension of your workplace and therefore you may still be liable for any discriminatory behaviour such as sexual harassment or similar claims. Ensure staff are fully aware of your expectations by reminding them of your policies on dignity and respect and on drugs and alcohol misuse. 

Give consideration to the inclusivity of your party arrangements: – whether that’s catering for all dietary requirements, being considerate of timings, venue and accessibility requirements too.

Don’t Exclude Anyone

Not all religions or faiths celebrate Christmas and not everyone likes a party, so attendance should be optional. Some individuals simply don’t like to mix work and social life so it’s important that those individuals are not put under pressure or harassed for non-attendance. Ensure that people’s decisions not to attend is respected and supported. 

Despite their repeated requests over many, many years, Wizzard have not been granted their wish for Christmas to come every day. Which means that employers usually only need to plan for and manage such wide-scale company celebrations on an annual basis.

Getting those plans and logistics right can ensure a joyful start to the New Year for everyone. But get it wrong and you could find the repercussions are felt throughout the year – whether that’s poor engagement scores, grievances or disciplinaries.

We can support you with a wide range of HR services. For specialist HR support with any of these issues, please contact Sue Meehan Boyes in our team on 07384 468797.

Fertility Workplace Pledge Offers Greater Workplace Support

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The new Workplace Fertility Pledge has been launched to give individuals and couples undergoing fertility treatment statutory time off work.

An estimated 3.5 million people in the UK struggle to conceive naturally and look to treatments like IVF to help them to conceive. 

Sarah Martin from the Narrow Quay HR team shares her personal journey with managing fertility treatments alongside work, and how this new pledge could make a huge difference to employees who are undergoing similar treatments.

Managing Work and IVF 

Between the ages of 29 and 34 I went through four cycles of IVF, so I can say first hand that it is a gruelling experience. The medication, the side effects, the multiple appointments and then the dreaded two week wait to see if it’s been successful, following by the crushing disappointment when it doesn’t work.

I took a couple of years off before we embarked on the fourth cycle, to mentally regroup and recharge. When we got to round four, with finances depleted and three unsuccessful rounds behind us, we decided it was time to take a slightly different approach. 

We decided that I would drop from working five days a week to four days to allow me to spend more time focussing on treatment and other holistic treatments, such as acupuncture. This was in 2013, so flexible and part time working was not really a thing for women in their early thirties with no children, especially in the legal sector. In addition, I hadn’t really shared with many of my work colleagues that I was having IVF treatment, something which is of course entirely personal to the individual.

My line manager was hugely supportive and because of the nature of my role at the time, I was able to make the adjustment. The only tricky part was how to communicate the change to the rest of the team, but when it came to it nobody really asked any questions.

What Is the New Fertility Workplace Pledge?

Fast forward to 2022 and the new Fertility Workplace Pledge, which has been launched by Nickie Aiken MP. Several major employers have now signed up to it, including Co-op, Natwest, Metro Bank and Channel 4.

By signing up, employers pledge to provide the following:

  • Accessible information: Having an accessible workplace fertility policy to create an open culture free from stigma, to make sure employees feel comfortable in the workplace, and to prevent the best talent from leaving.
  • Awareness in the workplace: Establishing the role of Fertility Ambassador to open conversations internally and make people aware of available support.
  • Staff training: Ensuring line managers understand the realities of treatment for employees including the physical, mental, and financial impact — and how they can support someone going through it.
  • Flexible working: Giving the right for employees to request flexible working, including reasonable working adjustments, so they can attend appointments.

These are simple, common sense pledges that have the potential to make a huge difference to employees undergoing treatment and to those supporting their partners going through treatment.

How Can Employers Sign Up to the Pledge?

Signing up to the pledge is entirely voluntary, but if employers are keen to do so, then can do so here. 

For those who are interested, but perhaps not sure about signing up, you can still think about how you might follow some or all of the steps highlighted above in order to make your workplace more fertility treatment friendly for your staff.

For me it was a happy ending, our fourth round of IVF treatment was successful and I gave birth to twins in September 2014. I can’t say if being able to work flexibly was a factor in that but it certainly made the process a lot easier. 

For further information on the Fertility Workplace Pledge or flexible working, contact Sarah Martin in our team on 07799 136091.