The way we work doesn’t work for the life we lead. Anyone who’s ever had any kind of interest – or responsibility – outside of their office or place of work knows this.
As Diversity Council of Australia CEO Lisa Annese noted yesterday, we are on the cusp of a ‘fourth industrial revolution’ where technological, socio-economic and demographic shifts are transforming how we work. We can either grasp the opportunity to get more innovative and creative on job design, or we can simply miss out and keep doing what we’ve been doing, over and over again.
Despite the many, many technology advances that have come to us over the last couple of decades, we still all leave our homes around the same time every day, to congregate in the same place for the same number of hours, before all leaving at the same time in the afternoon. It’s a system of working that made sense when it was needed to support a factory line.
We know the way we work needs a makeover. We know it needs to move from being a place we go, to something we do.
While workplace flexibility is an option, and an option many large corporates are now actively promoting, it’s still too often an option that’s only taken up by ‘working mothers’ who actually have no other option but to work that way.
And that’s an issue. Because everyone needs flexibility, everyone benefits from it. But as long as it’s a ‘working mother’ thing, ‘working mothers’ will continue to be seen as an inconvenience.
I’ve heard and participated in many discussions on the need for mainstreaming flexible work, and just how far it could go in enabling workplace equality – if it truly became an option taken up by both women AND men.
This is a conversation we’ve been having for a long time, with plenty of leaders actively talking up flexibility (although rarely actively demonstrating it). The problem is the takeup of such flexibility is still very low. What’s holding some people back?
There are a few issues, the kind that get engrained and are tough to change. Culture. Tradition. Gender stereotypes. Job design. Mindsets regarding how work should be done.
So I was very happy to see the Diversity Council of Australia release a new report yesterday on how to redesign work to make flexibility standard business practice in Australian workplaces, with a set of guidelines to help managers and teams overcome some of the common barriers to offering true flexibility.
As Lisa Annese said on releasing the report: “Our members repeatedly request guidance on how they can build leaders’ ability to (re)design work and jobs. This is a critical obstacle to mainstreaming flexibility in their workplaces and experiencing the associated business benefits.”
The report Future-Flex, Mainstreaming Flexibility By Design (I can’t provide a link as it’s available to members only) promotes five basic features: that flexibility requires a new mindset, that it starts with the team, that it should be treated as a business tool, that it considers culture and that it challenges bias (especially regarding who flexible work is for). While these guidelines focus on the retail sector (including corporates offices and retail outlets), they still provide a good start on what can be done across any industry.
The DCA defines ‘Future-Flex’ as a new way of thinking about workplace flexibility that goes beyond accommodating an individual’s needs, to re-designing work or a team at the orgnaisational level to maximize wellbeing and performance. The goal is to create organisations where all roles can be flexible and for any reason – and offer flexibility in time, leave, place and choice. It then presents three ‘Future-Flex’ tools that can be used by anyone to start re-designing their workplaces, including tools to create flexible teams, flexible jobs and flexible organisations.
Work needs a makeover – one that’ll require a serious and sustained effort to change. But it’s not impossible. And there is help available.
