How UK Employers Can Make Sure They Treat Part Time Staff Fairly

As an employer, chances are you employ some part time staff. Depending on the sector you are working in, you could even have more part time staff than those working full time hours.

Part time employees play an important role in the UK workforce and people work part time for many different reasons including childcare, caring responsibilities, education, health and wellbeing, phased retirement or simply because they prefer a better balance between work and personal life.

If you employ students who are looking for work while they are completing their studies, for a lot of the time, they are likely to be working for you on a part time basis.

And for you as an employer, part time staff can provide valuable flexibility and give you the opportunity to attract young talent who are not currently in a position to work full-time hours.

However, as an employer, you need to make sure that part time employees are not treated less favourably simply because they work fewer hours.

The principle of fair treatment is not just good employment practice. UK employers also have legal obligations towards part time workers. The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 are designed to prevent part time employees from being treated less favourably than comparable full-time employees because they work fewer hours.

So, how can you make sure your approach is fair?

Understand The Rights Of Part Time Employees

Especially if you are a new employer who is intending to employ young, part time staff, the first step is understanding that being part time does not mean having fewer employment rights.

Your part time employees will generally have the same employment rights as full time employees, although some rights and benefits can be calculated on a pro-rata basis according to the hours they work.

For example, if a full time employee receives a particular number of days of annual leave, a part time employee should normally receive an equivalent entitlement calculated proportionately.

This is particularly important when dealing with benefits, bonuses, holidays, training opportunities, overtime arrangements and other contractual terms.

Apply The Pro-rata Principle Properly

One of the simplest ways to promote fairness is to apply the pro-rata principle consistently.

If a full-time employee working five days a week receives a particular benefit, a part time employee working fewer days could be entitled to an equivalent benefit adjusted to reflect their working pattern.

The calculation is not always as straightforward as simply dividing everything by hours worked, however. Some benefits might relate to working days, shifts or other factors.

Review your benefits carefully rather than applying a blanket rule for all of them.

Do Not Exclude Part Time Staff From Benefits Without Good Reason

A common problem can arise when a company might introduce a benefit but then makes it available only to employees who work above a particular number of hours.

There could sometimes be a legitimate reason for a distinction. However, as an employer, don’t assume that excluding part time workers is automatically lawful.

Ask yourself, "Would we make the same decision if the employee worked full time?"

If the answer is no, look deeper into the reason for the difference and be sure to seek professional HR or legal advice where the position is unclear.

Give Part Time Employees Equal Access To Opportunities

Fair treatment is about much more than pay.

Your part time employees should have genuine opportunities to access training, professional development, promotion and career progression. This is a win win situation. If you employ students, they get valuable work experience and you get highly trained, motivated staff.

If you are doing training sessions in the workplace, for example, make sure they are scheduled at times when your part time employees can attend.

When this isn’t always possible, you could consider flexible approaches to training, such as:

• Offering the same session on multiple days
• Providing online training
• Allowing staff to complete training during their normal working hours
• Recording appropriate training sessions
• Asking your part time staff about their availability for particular training session

Also make sure part time employees are considered for promotion and development opportunities on the same basis as your full time colleagues so that you avoid creating a "second-class" part time workforce where those part time staff can feel overlooked.

Sometimes unfair treatment is not written into company policy. It develops through workplace culture.

Your part time staff can become marginalised if important meetings are consistently scheduled outside their working hours or if more senior staff members communicate important information informally to full time staff.

This can also include social and networking opportunities that are structured around the full time workforce. Your young part time staff can feel left out of the loop and marginalised rather than a valued part of the team.

Make An Effort To Ensure That Part Time Staff Remain Included

This could involve providing meeting notes, using shared communication systems and making sure important announcements reach everyone.

Also, make sure your team leaders avoid language suggesting that your part time members of staff are less committed simply because they work fewer hours.

Working fewer hours does not necessarily mean contributing less value.

Make Sure Annual Leave Is Calculated Fairly

Holiday entitlement is another area where you might need to be particularly careful.

Part time employees are entitled to paid statutory annual leave, with the entitlement calculated according to their working arrangements.

For employees who work regular hours throughout the year, make sure their holiday entitlement is calculated correctly and that they are not disadvantaged because they work part time.

This means you will need to take extra care when dealing with staff who work different numbers of hours on different days. Make sure your payroll and HR systems are calculating this correctly.

Treat Pay & Overtime Fairly

Pay is another obvious area where you will need to avoid discrimination against part time employees.

Your part time staff should receive the appropriate rate of pay for the work they perform.

Take care with how overtime and additional hours are handled.

Make sure you have clear policies in place explaining when additional hours become overtime, how overtime is paid and whether different arrangements apply to different categories of employee.

The key here is consistency and transparency so that everyone knows what they will be paid for their extra hours and why..

Be Careful With Bonuses & Performance Related Pay

Bonuses can create complicated issues for you as an employer.

In some industries, bonuses and performance-related pay make up a big part of what a member of staff can earn. If your full time employees receive a bonus based on their contribution or performance, you need to think about whether part time employees should receive the same bonus on a pro-rata basis.

Bonus schemes should clearly explain eligibility and how payments are calculated so that all of your staff are aware.

Offer Flexible Working Options Fairly

Flexible working and part time work are increasingly important features of the UK employment landscape.

Ensure you have clear processes for handling flexible working requests and make sure your managers and team leaders also understand them and how they work.

Employees may request changes to their working arrangements for many reasons and whilst you do not have to agree to every request, you need to listen to them and handle these requests properly and make decisions for legitimate business reasons.

Make Managers & Team Leaders Responsible For Fairness

HR policies alone cannot guarantee fair treatment.

Depending on the size of your company, managers and team leaders have a significant influence over the day-to-day experiences of staff. This means they need to understand the rights and needs of part time staff.

When managers and team leaders are undergoing training, the programme should cover topics such as:

• Part time workers' legal protections
• Pro-rata benefits
• Holiday entitlement
• Flexible working
• Performance management
• Promotion and development
• Scheduling and meetings
• Avoiding unconscious bias

Managers and team leaders should also understand that treating everyone identically is not always the same as treating everyone fairly.

For example, requiring every employee to attend a meeting at 9am might technically apply to everyone, but could disadvantage employees whose agreed working pattern starts later.

Fairness sometimes means taking different working arrangements into account.

Make Sure Your Part Time Staff Are Included In Performance Management

Where relevant, your part time employees should be subject to fair and realistic performance expectations. For example, performance cannot be judged simply by comparing the amount of work completed with that of a full time employee.

Make sure performance targets for your staff reflect contracted hours and responsibilities.

You should also avoid assuming that a part time employee should be available outside their agreed working hours.

If an employee works three days a week, their performance should be assessed against the work they are expected to complete within that arrangement.

Having clear objectives that are communicated to employees can help prevent misunderstandings.

Check Promotion & Progression Data

Are your part time employees progressing through the organisation at the same rate as comparable full-time employees?

If your part time staff rarely receive promotions or get access to leadership programmes or opportunities for additional responsibility, this may indicate a problem and it should be investigated.

It may be that some of your part time employees are genuinely less interested in progression, but do not assume this without evidence.

Make sure you haven’t created any unintentional structural barriers, such as training taking place outside their working hours or managers overlooking them for opportunities.

Listen To Your Part Time Employees

It will be an impossible task to improve fairness if you do not understand your employees' personal experiences.

You can learn this by doing regular employee surveys, holding one-to-one meetings and having feedback sessions. These can provide useful information about whether your part time employees feel included and supported.

Ask questions such as:

• Do you have equal access to training?
• Do you receive important information in good time?
• Do you feel included in team decisions?
• Do you believe promotion opportunities are available to you?
• Are meetings arranged around your agreed working pattern?
• Do you feel your contribution is valued?

The answers can reveal problems that may not be visible through HR data alone.

Review Workplace Policies Regularly

Employment law and workplace practices often change so you need to keep on top of this and regularly review policies affecting your part time workers.

Look at areas like:

• Contracts
• Holiday policies
• Benefits
• Bonus schemes,
• Overtime arrangements
• Training policies
• Promotion processes.

Depending on the size of your company, you should also check whether policies are being applied consistently across departments.

A policy that is fair in principle can still cause problems if individual managers interpret it differently.

Regular audits can help identify inconsistencies before they become employee relations problems.

Avoid Relying On "That's how we've always done it"

One of the biggest obstacles to fair treatment can be workplace tradition; this can especially be the case if your company has been around for many years.

It could be a case where you have always scheduled training at a particular time, always invited certain employees to particular meetings or always calculated a benefit in a particular way.

But historical practice does not necessarily make a policy fair or lawful.

If you think you have been doing things the same way for quite some time, question established practices and ask whether they still work for today's workforce.

This is particularly important as your part time staff increasingly work different shift patterns and flexible working hours..

Look at your company culture and build a culture where part time work is normal

Ultimately, fairness should become part of workplace culture rather than being treated as an administrative exercise.

Make sure your part time employees don’t feel that they are asking for any special treatment. They should feel that their working arrangement is a legitimate and respected way of working.

Normalising different working patterns can help you to retain young talent who might otherwise leave when it comes to applying for graduate jobs or apprenticeships. If they have had access to training and are working flexible hours, they might decide to stay on with your company on a permanent basis.

What Are The Benefits Of Treating Part Time Staff Fairly?

Fair treatment is not simply about avoiding legal problems. As we mentioned earlier, there can be a win-win situation for both your company and your young part time staff.

• Treating part time employees fairly means you can benefit from improved engagement, stronger retention and a wider talent pool.
• Flexible working can help you to attract young people who have responsibilities or circumstances that make full time work difficult. And if you are an employer in a sector that is facing skills shortages, excluding or marginalising part time workers makes little business sense.

A good part time employee should be judged on their contribution, skills and performance rather than the number of hours stated in their contract. And offering part time work to young people can give you access to talent that you could otherwise have missed out on.