We think that there are few confusing / conflicting messages coming out of government at the moment when it comes to small businesses and legislation.
One of the key mantras of the coalition has been about cutting red tape and allowing business owners to get down to doing business rather than faffing with rules and regs all the time. We've even had talk of a two year period during which employers would effectively been able to hire and fire at will, as opposed to the current one year.
Ultimately - the more flexible the workplace can become, then the better for the country surely in terms of giving employers the flexibility to grow their businesses and thereby steering us out of these dark recessionary times?
Well maybe. Flexibility comes at a price - take it too far, and it has the opposite effect. Take the announcement yesterday on parents mixing maternity and paternity entitlements. Sounds great for the parents, and for large employers with plenty of staff to mop up workloads its likely to work well.
Take the small employer though - if mum decides she's going back to work 3 months early, and dad wants the balance of her time off as paternity, then dad's employer has to find cover at short notice for 3 months. Realistically, for a small employer, that will be unworkable, and you'll end up with a small company struggling financially to get expensive short term cover in - businesses will fail.
We think flexibility is great, but only within a framework that is workable for everyone.
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