Employee guide to workstyle personalisation

Once you have found out which of the four workstyles your role at ECC falls into, you might want to explore ways to do your job in a way that suits your individual circumstances.

The four workstyles are:

• anywhere worker
• fixed-based worker
• community-based worker
• operational field-based worker

Before you do this it's important you understand how we consider requests for workstyle personalisation at the council.

Personalising your workstyle

Depending on your personal circumstances, you might find you work better with some flexibility to your working hours or location.

You might want to:

• work from home on some days
• work from a different location, such as a coffee shop or local library
• work outside of usual office hours
• take a longer lunch break

How flexibly you can work depends on the type of role you do. Some roles allow for greater flexibility than others. This can be affected by several factors,​ including whether the majority of the role needs to be performed at a specific location or during certain hours.

Any workstyle personalisation options that may be available for your role will need to be agreed between you and your manager. They will take into consideration the needs of your team, the council, our residents and service users. 

Not all workers in a particular role will work in exactly the same way.

Agree workstyle personalisation

Workstyle personalisation is an informal and voluntary amendment to your contractual working arrangements. This means that your contract of employment will not automatically change to include any new working arrangements.

You and your manager will keep a record of any agreed workstyle personalisation adjustments and review them on a regular basis to ensure that they are working for everyone.

Sometimes your role, work activities or personal circumstances might mean that your preferred working arrangements may not be suitable. If your manager is not able to agree to your preferences, they will explain the reasons for their decision and discuss possible alternative solutions.

Your situation could be reviewed at a later date if your work or personal circumstances change, and any informal arrangements may be amended or withdrawn.

Manage your workstyle personalisation

Your workstyle personalisation may need to change over time to meet our service delivery needs.

They might need to be reviewed if you or your manager feel that they aren't working well. If this happens, your manager will explore alternative options with you.

Change your hours permanently

You cannot change the total number of hours you work using workstyle personalisation.

If you want to change the number of hours you work per week (such as working part time) or request a permanent change to your working pattern or place of work, you'll need to do this through the council's right to request flexible working guidance.

Help and support

If you have a question about workstyle personalisation or your role, please speak to your line manager.

If you have a specific question about your contractual terms and conditions, or your employment status, you can contact People Support by using the Assyst portal.

You may wish to contact the Employee Assistan​ce Programme (EAP) for independent, free and confidential advice.​

All personal flexibility requests will be dealt with in a fair and non-discriminatory way and in accordance with our Diversity and equality in employment policy (PDF, 238KB)