There are a number of reasons why employees are opting to work flexibly, and with figures showing four out of five mothers opted for part-time roles when they started or returned to work after having a child, the conversation is especially important around International Women’s Day.
To me flexibility looked very different two years ago than it does now, but it was still just as important for different reasons.
Two years ago, I had my son. It was an exciting time, not only being a new mum, but one week prior to the birth of my son I had been promoted into a new role. The support that the business provided to me during and upon my return from parental leave was incredible, and illustrates how our company promotes and supports careers.
Now that my son’s a little older, flexibility is still about spending quality time with him, but it is also about balancing my role and looking after my health. That might mean I won’t schedule a work meeting at 8.30am because I will be with my (very new) personal trainer, but I will work a bit later to make up the time.
I am just one example, but what PepsiCo has recognised is that people have lives outside of work, and that is not only a good thing but actually makes for more productive employees. It isn’t just mothers who need flexible working, though they of course are a prime example, the simple fact is that everyone has a life outside of work.
I am very passionate about ensuring a tone is set from the top down that encourages flexible working. This year’s International Women’s Day is all about ‘be bold for change’ and I am proud of how bold we are in our approach to flexible working. We are encouraging people to thrive both at work and externally and we recognise that this is the way forward to retain and attract good talent and to reward our employees for all the work they do.
Part of setting the tone is ensuring leaders are vocal and take a lead. This forms an important part of our conversations as an Executive Leadership Team and we are collectively focussed on the concept of ‘leaders leaving loudly’, which encourages managers and leaders to actively communicate when they are leaving the office and why. For example, one of our leaders is quite vocal about raising a young family and has made it known he is unavailable from 4pm until 6pm.
Another leader plays on the PepsiCo soccer team and is passionate about it. If he is in a meeting that is going to run over into soccer time he’ll let them know at the beginning that he has to leave at a certain time. For him, being a team player and being active and healthy is an important signal to communicate.
We also have departments that encourage team members to ensure they work from home one day a week and our consumer services department is entirely made up of employees working part time.
In summer we have summer hours, allowing employees to leave early one day a week to enjoy our great outdoors.
Companies need to encourage their leaders to be visible about how flexibility works for them and to communicate that flex working isn’t just an option; it is an essential part of the culture.
We need to trust employees to deliver on their roles and we need to make flexible working more flexible! That means cutting out applications and instead encouraging people to have conversations with their managers to determine how flex working can be implemented into their role.
We are trying to foster diversity and create an all-inclusive, supportive work environment for everyone and believe this will go a long way to creating change for women and ensuring parity.