Jennifer Mills: Employment Expert on the new work from home guidelines for the public service

An employment expert says the Government's new directive against public servants working from home makes sense. 

The Public Service Commission has issued new guidance confirming all flexible work arrangements should be monitored and workers are not entitled to work from home. 

It's sparked legal action from a major public sector union. 

Employment expert Jennifer Mills told Andrew Dickens workers on flexible arrangements are likely not the main target of this move. 

She says studies show there's no productivity issues with hybrid workers, but there is with people working solely from home. 

Mills says hybrid models are still well within the current rules, but there does need to be express agreement and transparency to ensure it’s suitable. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So post pandemic is certainly the issue for employers and
employees to a certain degree work from home. We started
working from home and then of course the pandemic ended
and we kept on working from home. And some people
are really against that. Elon Musk is going to crack
down in America, and much to the dismay of public
servants in New Zealand, the Public Service Commissioner yesterday issued
new guidance on working from home.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
The new guidelines make it clear working from home isn't
an entitlement and all flexible work arrangements must be agreed
and managed to support a high performance culture. So Jennifer
Mills is an employment specialist at Jennifer Mills and Associates,
and she joins me, Now, morning.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
Jennifer, Good morning, Andrew.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
What do you think of the guidance. I think it's
pretty good.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
Oh, well, you're right to identify that the guidelines don't
override any existing contectual arrangements or statutes, and it gives
the agencies guidance in terms of what they need to
do now. And the whole idea behind the guidelines is
just to ensure that there's an alignment between agencies, fexible

(01:07):
working policies and government's expectations. So they've made it very
clear that working from home in the public service isn't
an entitlement and there needs to be an express agreement
between the parties. Working from home arrangements can only be
agreed where they won't compromise performance of employees, teams and

(01:32):
the agencies as a whole. And as you've identified, agencies
are now required to monitor and report on these arrangements
that are in place.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
And this is a good lesson for every employer and
every employee. I mean, too many people these days have gone, well,
I don't feel like going and I think I might
do a little bit of the WFH. And they do
it without telling their managers, without telling anybody, and so
it's a bit add hoc. You know, if you want
to do this, fine, do it, but make sure that
you are set up to do it properly, which means
agreement between your employer and yourself and everybody you're working

(02:04):
on projects with.

Speaker 2 (02:06):
Well, that's exactly right, Andrew. So as long as there's transparency.
The idea is that these guidelines won't cut across those arrangements,
but there does need to be express agreement, transparency, and
just another check if you like that these ongoing arrangements
are suitable. And we've seen great employee resistance on the

(02:28):
return to office directive, although this guideline doesn't go that far,
and in the private space we've seen employees are reluctant
to return back to work full time. But it seems
that the hybrid model is one that is working well
and studies show that there is no productivity issue between

(02:48):
those in the office full time and hybrid workers. But
the productivity issues arise where employees work from home full time,
and I suspect the driver beIN this guidance is to
have better integration between employee and employer in the public
sector and perhaps to stamp out those one hundred percent

(03:11):
workers from home as opposed to the hybrid model.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Good stuff, good stuff. Thank you Jennifer Mills for taking
our time well us today it is five twenty six,
and I would suggest possibly, if you're an employer, just
part of copying what the public service has done and
perhaps thinking about instituting it in your workplace as well.
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