Flexible and hybrid working: Guidance for people professionals on planning and managing

Research shows that many of us would like to work more flexibly. Lack of flexibility can even prompt some employees to look for a new job or even leave a sector altogether. Quality flexible working can help:

address skills shortages
attract and retain talent and support diversity
narrow the gender pay gap
improve employee job satisfaction and loyalty
support employee wellbeing and work-life balance
empower organisations to be more agile and responsive to change.

While there is no single formally agreed definition of flexible working, the CIPD defines flexible working as giving flexibility over where, when and the hours people work. Flexibility can be an individual arrangement for an employee, or it can be a way of working embedded into organisational culture.

In addition to this guide, the CIPD offers a range of flexible, hybrid and remote working tools to help people professionals implement, manage and monitor models that work for different organisations.

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The term flexible working is used to cover a wide range of working arrangements, including (but not limited to):

part-time working
job-sharing
flexitime
compressed hours
annualised hours
term-time working
working from home
non-linear working days
remote or hybrid working.

With high demands for flexible working arrangements from employees, it’s vital that people professionals can plan and manage flexible working in a way that meets demand, follows current employment legislation and suits business needs.

This guide gives advice on how to implement different types of flexible working and how to measure and evaluate those arrangements.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will introduce flexible working as a default day one right (apart from when it is not reasonably feasible). This change is expected to take effect in 2027. Keep up to date with the latest on these changes with our Tracker of potential law changes. This legislation applies to individual, formal requests for changes to terms and conditions of employment.

This page outlines the current legislation that should still be followed until any changes come into force. We will update this page once any changes are enforced.

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