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Despite workplace flexibility being a topic on employers’ agendas for the last decade, it’s only recently that we’ve seen a surge in Australian organisations ‘walking the walk’ so to speak – at least in terms of official policies. From conversations we’ve had with HR teams lately, flexibility is increasingly becoming an integral part of the onboarding process, with policies and processes in place to support both new and existing staff, as well as hiring managers through the changes involved with flexible working conditions. However, what does this mean in real terms and how should employers approach it?

What Flexibility Means to Employees

When we talk about flexibility at work what do we actually mean? For some employers, flexibility does prompt a sense of fear that it is entirely about remote working. However, the reality is that it means something different from employee to employee – remote working is just one factor!

While these types of initiatives can easily become focused on working mums and dads, the key here is not to alienate people who don’t have families. Some of the common flexibility options that candidates talk to us about include:

• Varied or flexible start/finish times (perhaps to beat the traffic!)
• The freedom to attend school events/activities e.g. to see a child’s show
• Giving employees the ability to fit study and professional development around work hours
• The ability to work out at the gym during the day. A common policy is providing an extra 15/30 minutes for lunch (for
• Whatever your flexibility policy look like, something to bear in mind is that people aren’t usually looking to replace their time in the office, but rather restructure it so that their schedule works better. We’re also finding that flexibility is becoming just as important as money. This isn’t to say that offering flexibility on its own is enough to woo potential recruits, but rather that it can be the deciding factor between two offers.
  

We do find that in the world of HR recruitment, workplace flexibility is an absolute winner in terms of attracting candidates, actually more a deal maker (or breaker, if organisations don’t have flexible practices) than anything else. We also find that it often comes down to the Hiring Manager as to how an organisation’s flexible working policy is applied. We have seen organisations, for example where in the HR function, flexible working practices are fairly non-existent versus other parts of the same business which have very strong flexible working rhythms.

The Importance of Communication

From a management point of view, the same two questions tend to come up regularly when considering its long-term viability: is it working for the organisation and is it working for our staff? Our best advice is to keep communication lines open, and it will soon be obvious whether your flexibility arrangements are the right thing for your employees and your organisation. Regular check-ins to see how new policies and patterns are working, if the technology supporting it is effective and challenges that affect productivity out of the office are a great way of touching base and keeping tabs on what is and isn’t working. A lot of the employers we speak to use performance reviews here – after all, these meetings provide a fantastic environment to talk about work/life balance and how it can be supported further.

It goes without saying that strong internal communication is key for HR teams who have policies in place. After all, it’s much easier to keep track of everything if everyone is on the same page. By ensuring hiring managers have a solid grasp and appreciation of flexible policies, they’ll be more likely to promote flexible working not just to potential hires, but existing team members too.

Leading From the Top

As with a lot of things, your organisation’s leaders need to demonstrate their commitment loudly and proudly – having a good flexibility programme in place is great, but if it isn’t championed from up top, it’s unlikely to have much chance of success.

Leaders should model the behavior they want to see and encourage others around them to do the same as well. Only then, will people feel comfortable coming in late, having that longer lunch break, or working remotely – whether that’s because they have a child’s show to attend, or to meet the plumber at home.

Final Thoughts

With flexibility in the workplace becoming increasingly important, Australian organisations must continue adapting their flexibility policies to these changing demands. How does your organisation approach flexibility working? We would love to hear your thoughts.