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Jennifer Mills: Employment Expert on the new work from home guidelines for the public service · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So post pandemic is certainly the issue for employers and
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: employees to a certain degree work from home. We started
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: working from home and then of course the pandemic ended
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and we kept on working from home. And some people
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: are really against that. Elon Musk is going to crack
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: down in America, and much to the dismay of public
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: servants in New Zealand, the Public Service Commissioner yesterday issued
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: new guidance on working from home.
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  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: The new guidelines make it clear working from home isn't
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  Speaker 1: an entitlement and all flexible work arrangements must be agreed
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  Speaker 1: and managed to support a high performance culture. So Jennifer
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  Speaker 1: Mills is an employment specialist at Jennifer Mills and Associates,
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  Speaker 1: and she joins me, Now, morning.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Jennifer, Good morning, Andrew.
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  Speaker 1: What do you think of the guidance. I think it's
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: pretty good.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, well, you're right to identify that the guidelines don't
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: override any existing contectual arrangements or statutes, and it gives
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: the agencies guidance in terms of what they need to
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: do now. And the whole idea behind the guidelines is
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: just to ensure that there's an alignment between agencies, fexible
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  Speaker 2: working policies and government's expectations. So they've made it very
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: clear that working from home in the public service isn't
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: an entitlement and there needs to be an express agreement
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  Speaker 2: between the parties. Working from home arrangements can only be
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: agreed where they won't compromise performance of employees, teams and
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: the agencies as a whole. And as you've identified, agencies
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: are now required to monitor and report on these arrangements
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: that are in place.
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  Speaker 1: And this is a good lesson for every employer and
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  Speaker 1: every employee. I mean, too many people these days have gone, well,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: I don't feel like going and I think I might
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: do a little bit of the WFH. And they do
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: it without telling their managers, without telling anybody, and so
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: it's a bit add hoc. You know, if you want
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: to do this, fine, do it, but make sure that
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: you are set up to do it properly, which means
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: agreement between your employer and yourself and everybody you're working
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  Speaker 1: on projects with.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that's exactly right, Andrew. So as long as there's transparency.
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  Speaker 2: The idea is that these guidelines won't cut across those arrangements,
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  Speaker 2: but there does need to be express agreement, transparency, and
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  Speaker 2: just another check if you like that these ongoing arrangements
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: are suitable. And we've seen great employee resistance on the
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: return to office directive, although this guideline doesn't go that far,
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  Speaker 2: and in the private space we've seen employees are reluctant
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: to return back to work full time. But it seems
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: that the hybrid model is one that is working well
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: and studies show that there is no productivity issue between
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: those in the office full time and hybrid workers. But
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: the productivity issues arise where employees work from home full time,
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  Speaker 2: and I suspect the driver beIN this guidance is to
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: have better integration between employee and employer in the public
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  Speaker 2: sector and perhaps to stamp out those one hundred percent
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: workers from home as opposed to the hybrid model.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Good stuff, good stuff. Thank you Jennifer Mills for taking
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  Speaker 1: our time well us today it is five twenty six,
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  Speaker 1: and I would suggest possibly, if you're an employer, just
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: part of copying what the public service has done and
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: perhaps thinking about instituting it in your workplace as well.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: For more from early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live
• 3:30
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• 3:33
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