Employment law has had a major shake-up in England, Scotland and Wales this year. As of 6 April 2024, these changes affect employees and employers, with long-lasting ramifications yet to be seen.
Of course, for employees, these changes protect vulnerability, promote inclusion and are welcome in most cases. However, for some employers and human resources departments in the real estate industry, there is more pressure to conform and be accountable to a more flexible working method, which has historically not been the case. Where flexible working and paternity leave may have once been seen as more of a tick-box exercise, this may no longer be a sufficient way of dealing with an issue which threatens the diversity and inclusion of a whole sector in the British economy. In reality, though, how will these changes play out and will real estate employers be able to run their businesses in line with these new laws?
The changes, introduced under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, pertain to flexible working, carer’s leave, increased protection against redundancy for pregnant employees and more flexibility for paternity leave. In terms of flexible working, employees can now make two requests per year rather than one, and the deadline for employers to respond to requests has been reduced to two months from three. Employers will have to explain the reasons for denying any request, as before. However, the list of reasons employers can use to deny requests remains the same, including factors such as cost to the business or impact on quality, performance or ability to meet customer demand. It is this that almost gives the real estate industry a “get-out-of-jail-free” card.
Flexible working
For women in deal-based and fee-earning structured roles, it is harder to find the balance between working and family. This is why we see far fewer females in these roles. In my capacity as a recruiter, I deal with clients of all different sizes. The size of the company doesn’t necessarily dictate how flexible they are. Larger organisations will have larger HR teams, often with a rewards and benefits manager who can check in with those on flexible working contracts and implement those policies effectively – though there will always be larger companies that don’t do so well. Some smaller companies, without a large HR team and sometimes male-dominated, fail to implement flexible working policies and they can be a lonely place for a working mother. It also comes down to culture. If you have a smaller company with a strong diversity culture, the opposite is likely to apply.
The issue with treating flexible working as a mere tick-box exercise is that you move away from the aim of improving the diversity and inclusivity of our workforce and, in particular, the retention of top-class female talent within our still heavily male-dominated real estate industry.
We know the built environment must reflect the society we live in. Without female decision-makers in the industry, our developments and buildings won’t reflect society as a whole. However, the lack of flexibility we currently see means many women are having to run down the back staircase to pick up their children so they are not seen leaving.
Women want to return to work after their maternity leave to stay on the career ladder, but with crippling and rising childcare costs, that can mean they are only breaking even and not seeing their children. This is not feasible for them and the lack of flexibility in real estate means they are often forced out of the industry.
By truly offering an inclusive flexible working environment, companies enable males to bear some of the childcare responsibilities. Otherwise, with childcare costs as much as some London mortgages per month, one parent must step out of the workplace for four years.
Parental leave
The law has changed regarding employees taking statutory paternity leave. They can now split their two weeks’ entitlement into two separate one-week blocks, rather than having to take them both together. They can also take their two weeks at any time within the first year after their child’s birth, rather than within only the first eight weeks, as previously required. The notice to do this has been reduced from 15 weeks to 28 days.
Many larger real estate organisations already offer shared parental leave. However, in some cases, men who want to take shared parental leave feel there is a negative culture and stigma within their organisation. Another issue regarding flexible working is returning mothers being offered lower wages to accommodate a more flexible working arrangement. Quite often, we are approached when a wage review has gone wrong and a person has been offered flexible working in place of a wage increase.
The industry must find tangible solutions for working parents where childcare provisions and flexible working are a non-negotiable standard part of a role rather than “a nice to have”. We need to work harder at flexibility – and not just because the law has changed. Let’s not use cost to the business or impact on quality, performance or ability to meet customer demand as excuses to keep our industry stagnant.
Clare Coe is co-founder of Madison Berkeley