Manager's guide to workstyle personalisation

When workstyle personalisation cannot be agreed

Sometimes the employee's role, work activities or personal circumstances may mean that their preferred workstyle personalisation options are not suitable.

In this case, you should have an open and honest discussion with your employee about why their workplace personalisation request cannot be approved.

Try to offer possible solutions and let them know that the request can be reviewed in the future if their work or personal situation changes.

You may find it useful to explore these training modules on My Learning:

• preparing for a difficult conversation
• conflict resolution
• persuasion: overcoming resistance
• the playlist for difficult conversations

If the employee is dissatisfied with your decision, you can advise them that they can contact the head of service, who will review their request.

The employee retains the right to keep to, or return to, their contractual terms of employment at any time, meaning that they can work from their Essex County Council location if or when they need to.

Respond confidently when workstyle personalisation is not working well

You may find that some working arrangements don't work out as you had hoped.

If the employee is having difficulties working from home or is not meeting their required performance targets, help them to recognise and understand why their personalisation arrangements haven't been​ successful. 

Ask the employee to work with you to explore other options that may work better, which could include making changes to their working pattern or returning to their previous working arrangements.​​