Coronavirus: Childcare key if remote, flexible working isn’t ‘a one-off wonder’

COVID-19 has shown we can work from home, but now corporates have to lock in best practice for flexible work

Sue Morphet working from home in Victoria. Picture: David Geraghty

COVID-19 has legitimised flexible and remote work but affordable childcare is vital if we are to get the economy back up to speed, ­according to the president of Chief Executive Women, Sue Morphet.

She said the “silver lining” of the pandemic was that people now knew working from home and ­incorporating family needs into working lives was doable.

“But that’s only if we take ­advantage of this so that remote working is something that continues and is not just a one-off wonder,” Ms Morphet said.

“We have all seen the photos of the chairman of the board working from home, the CEOs working from the dining room table, and we have understood that families are now part of the environment we are all working in.

“But remote working also needs flexible working to accommodate family needs, such as sharing the internet. We are all more comfortable doing that now, but working mothers have had to do that for a very long time.”

Ms Morphet was speaking in light of a report, Flex for Success, prepared by CEW, Bain & Company and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency to encourage businesses to lock in flexible work practices permanently.

“Some things don’t work and we need to understand why,” Ms Morphet said.

“Young kids need to be in the office, for example, they need to see office behaviour. Flexible work truly works if it works for the employee and the company. It’s a two-way street.”

Remote and flexible work would allow many people to work four or five days rather than settling for part-time work, but affordable childcare was essential.

“We need more women to be able to accept any jobs, any shifts, any extra days without the burden that extended childcare places on their take-home pay,” Ms Morphet said.

“We have looked at our frontline workers and the women in our economy ... and we have noticed for the first time publicly that childcare is a serious enabler for women to give their most.”

She was optimistic about changes to childcare because “for the first time the conversation is at the table ... with many organisations, many women and many men saying this is an important issue.

“In these next two years, household budgets will go up and down according to how business fortunes go up and down, and we will not get discretionary spend back, we will not get retail and hospitality and travel back till we get stability of discretionary household income … (people) need to maximise their income earning possibilities without the fear of the taxation system and the childcare system putting up disincentives and roadblocks.”

The report outlines strategies to normalise flexible work, including allowing workers to switch shifts without formal management approval and getting rid of the idea flexibility only applies to women.