Flexible work is a business benefit – and looks like it’s here to stay

Part-time employment has long been a feature of Australia’s labour market, providing employees with scope to balance paid employment with other commitments, such as caregiving, education, second jobs, or other pursuits.

This has opened up labour force participation to a broader group of workers, especially for women who make up three-quarters of the part-time workforce.

The rise in working from home has benefited some types of workers more than others.Credit: iStock

Part-time work has also enabled employers to balance fluctuations in demand and manage labour costs.

But the part-time work option also brings a number of disadvantages to those for whom a part-time arrangement is forced by circumstances or the nature of the job role, and even to those who work part-time out of preference.

Working part-time can limit pay and career progression, resulting in long-term economic disadvantages for women, including lower lifetime earnings and reduced retirement savings.

And there have long been concerns among those who work part-time that they will suffer a career penalty through lower rates of progression and promotion, or that their employers will think them less committed to their careers and organisations.

However, part-time work in Australia has evolved significantly in recent years.

The latest Gender Equity Insights report from the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency explores this.

It shows the incidence of part-time employment among women has dropped 3.2 percentage points to 29.7 per cent since 2016-17, with the share of women in full-time jobs increasing from 40.2 per cent to 42.5 per cent over the same period.

Just over a tenth of employed men work part-time, with the share increasing over the past decade – but only very gradually.

Australia still has one of the highest shares of part-time employment across OECD countries, with those workers accounting for around 22 per cent of total employment in 2023.

However, OECD data also show that the share of Australian women who work part-time has declined 4.5 percentage points between 2019 and 2023 – a pattern mirrored in the majority of OECD countries.

And since women are twice as likely to work part-time, this means that part-time work is necessarily a gendered issue, and any change in prevalence or outcomes for part-time workers will have a gendered impact.

But what seems to be driving this change?

The Fair Work Commission defines part-time employees as working less than 38 hours per week, with hours usually being regular each week and agreed between employer and employee.

However, we are seeing a growing demand for flexible work arrangements, with employees seeking more input into the structure of how, when and where they work including hybrid or remote work options.

Emerging practices and employee preferences attach increased value to flexibility, autonomy and the ability to work in a way that aligns to responsibilities at home.

Despite the reduced incidence of part-time employment, a rising share of those who work part-time do so because that is their preferred arrangement.

One conjecture is that increase in full-time employment is a response to the rising cost of living.

However, we also find a rising share of those workers who have transitioned from part-time to full-time have done so out of preference.

Taken together, these trends suggest an evolution of the Australian labour market is under way, with better matching of arrangements to employees’ preferences.

Not all business leaders are on board, of course.

Resistance to flexible and remote working has made headlines recently with Mineral Resources boss Chris Ellison banning working from home, and even expressing a desire to keep employees captive all day within the office.

But the data show that this antipathy to the notion of remote work and flexible arrangements, where appropriate, is the exception rather than the norm.

The COVID pandemic enforced a global working-from-home experiment that may have changed the attitudes of some employers towards non-traditional working models.

And it doesn’t look as though the sky has fallen for those businesses that have chosen to retain flexible work options.

Flexible work offers benefits to businesses from improved employee performance, greater access to talent pipelines, better mental health, increased loyalty and motivation, greater retention and reduced turnover.

There is a good justification for employers to ensure that part-time employment and other forms of flexible work arrangements are normalised within the organisational workplace culture.

Positive role modelling of flexible or remote working options by executive leadership and senior management helps with this normalisation.

Businesses should also be encouraged to rethink job specifications and the task content of roles to identify opportunities for part-time roles or job-share arrangements.

Australia’s labour market is highly competitive, and businesses that offer inclusive, equitable and flexible work arrangements to workers can give themselves a strong competitive advantage.

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