Why the flexible work dream is out of reach

IT IS the dream scenario — flexible hours and a better work-life balance. We all want that. But for a huge number of people, it just doesn’t work.

FLEXIBLE working arrangements are slowly becoming the “new normal” but there’s one catch — men who take it up are actually less happy.

The surprising result was noted in the report The Power of Flexibility: A Key Enabler to Boost Gender Parity and Employee Engagement, which surveyed 1030 people including those that worked part time or from home.

The report found that despite strong interest from men in working more flexibly, those that did were less engaged and committed to their jobs and less likely to recommend their workplace to others.

And it looks like the attitudes of other colleagues have a lot to do with why.

The report reproduces a number of comments from men surveyed to highlight the issues:

“The arrangements worked as agreed, but I have felt judgment for using them,” one man said.

“My boss told me I wouldn’t be able to get promoted working part time,” said another.

This was in direct contrast to the experience for women, with those working flexibly more likely to recommend their organisation as a good place to work, than those who didn’t.

Women who work flexibly are equally, if not more, confident and committed to career progression than women who don’t. Source: The Power of Flexibility report

“They had stronger support for and enthusiasm for their workplace and to tell others what a great place it was to work,” report co-author Meredith Hellicar of Chief Executive Women, told news.com.au.

Ms Hellicar said the report, co-authored by Bain & Company, explored policies in large companies (with more than 100 employees) and debunked the myth that women who had flex jobs were less committed or less ambitious.

Instead it found they actually had more confidence about their ability to reach senior levels and their desire to do so was greater than women who had not used a flexible working arrangement.

Unfortunately, the opposite was true of men, who reported feeling less ambitious or confident.

Men who work flexibly express less confidence and ambition than those who don’t. Source: The Power of Flexibility report.

The results surprised Mirvac general construction foreman Adrian Corey who has been working flexible hours so he can spend more time with his daughter.

The 32-year-old leaves work early three days a week and loves it.

“I would feel hard pressed to find another arrangement like this so it has made me feel a lot more engaged that’s for sure,” Mr Corey told news.com.au.

His feelings seem to align more closely with other women who work flexible hours and illustrate how important it is for senior management to support the arrangements.

Unlike some men, Corey was encouraged to consider flex work after Mirvac sent around a company-wide message.

Adrian Corey picking up his daughter.

Ms Hellicar said the negative results for men could reflect the fact that they were 10 to 15 years behind women in taking up flex models and could be suffering from the stigma and biases that women had experienced earlier on.

This was in line with research done by the Australian Human Rights Commission, which found 27 per cent of fathers and partners complained of discrimination related to parental leave and return to work, despite taking very short periods of leave.

Men were also twice as likely as women to have their flexi work request rejected.

One man surveyed said he had been told “part time is traditionally only something we make work for women”, the report said.

This seemed to impact negatively on their confidence as to whether they would be able to become a senior leader or executive, as well as their commitment to their workplace.

“Unfortunately those that work flexibly ... were six times less engaged than men who don’t work flexibly,” Ms Hellicar said.

THE NEW NORMAL

Regardless of gender issues, Ms Hellicar believes the world is changing and businesses will eventually have to adopt more flexible arrangements.

“The requirements to work 24/7 are very real,” Ms Hellicar said.

She said globalisation was putting pressure on large companies and would drive them towards flexi work in order to facilitate operations after hours. Another push factor was that about 60 per cent of families were now dual income earners, which meant they needed to juggle caring for children and elderly parents.

“Millenials are also a driving force for work/life integration,” Ms Hellicar said, with many surveys identifying flexible work as being sought after by younger workers. These factors, combined with the development of new technology, will see flex models continue to grow.

“This is going to be the new normal,” she said.

As a case study, the report explored Telstra’s experience when it introduced a flexible work policy. The telco experienced a jump in women accepting job offers and about 30 per cent said they applied for the role because of Telstra’s openness to flexible arrangements, which gave employees some control over when, where and how they work.

It also managed to turn around a retention issue it had been grappling with for some time, with the number of women joining Telstra exceeding the number of women leaving for eight consecutive quarters.

When Telstra introduced a flexible work policy, it experienced a jump in women accepting job offers. Picture: Sam Mooy

RIGHT CULTURE, RIGHT SUPPORT

It seems businesses that embrace flexible working arrangements can be rewarded with engaged, loyal and productive employees. But just introducing a policy is not enough, to reap the full benefits they need to get behind the model 100 per cent.

“Businesses need to make it the norm, to encourage uptake and ensure that it works and creates a supportive culture,” Ms Hellicar said.

She said employees wanted to see absolute proof that they would not be damaging their career.

“They want to see people in flexible arrangements get promotions,” she said.

This was an important factor that both men and women suggested would improve their experience of flexi work. They also wanted strong support from senior leadership for the policy and for their boundaries to be respected, with some complaining about unrealistic work loads or meetings being scheduled on their days off.

“The work doesn’t reduce, just the hours you have to do the work in and the remuneration you receive for doing the work,” noted one respondent.

The report found that the most successful arrangements were those where people worked full time but with flexible hours or remotely. The least happy were those who worked part time.

But if businesses support their employees, they can become powerful advocates for their organisations and productivity may also improve.

An Ernst and Young report found women working in flexible roles, such as part-time, contract or casual, appeared to be the most productive in the workforce.

Ms Hellicar said businesses needed to get better at measuring outcomes than “face time”, to provide clear policies and set up enabling technology.

The biggest barrier to working flexibly seems to be social norms, not technical considerations.

“It’s about changing the culture, recognising that it’s OK,” Ms Hellicar said.

“In fact, the best way of working is to be agile, to be innovative, to have different ways of working and for the employer and employee to decide together what is the most productive way, of how, where and when to work.”

Very few people did not return to work after parental leave because they didn’t want to, she said. The main reasons reported were issues with childcare or flexible working options.

Childcare and flexible work options are key challenges for employees returning to work after parental leave. Source: The Power of Flexibility report.

Lack of suitable childcare stopped about 35 per cent of men and women working part time from returning full time, whereas 22 per cent said flexi work was an important factor in their decision to return to work.

Meanwhile, a Grattan Institute report in 2013 suggested Australia could increase the size of its economy by about $25 billion a year if it encouraged women to re-enter the workforce after having a child and improved participation to the same levels that women had in Canada.