Until the private sector recognises the need for flexible working arrangements women will remain unrepresented at senior levels, say authors of a new Green Paper on the topic.
The Paper drafted by the Australian Institute of Management (AIM) says that flexible arrangements, which cover when, where and how women work, are integral to improving opportunities for them to advance through the leadership pipeline. “A major challenge to flexible work is workplace attitudes that see it as a curiosity, privilege, a nuisance or as an unnecessary cost,” said Dr Robyn Clough, AIM’s manager, public policy and thought leadership.
The Paper: Managing in a Flexible Work Environment, will be launched at a roundtable meeting hosted jointly by AIM and the University of Sydney Business School’s Women and Work Research Group (WWRG) later today (July 25). The Paper calls for flexible work options to be “mainstreamed” within a framework that recognises the business benefits of a flexible workplace which embraces the opportunities that the 21st century digital environment offers.
“Too many managers believe the ideal workplace leader is someone who is able to work full time and is solely committed to their job because they are supported by someone outside of the workplace who attends to their non-work needs,” Dr Clough said. “Such a worker may have been the norm in the past, but this is no longer the case.”
“Work is no longer neatly contained within set hours,” she added. “Workers have a multiplicity of non-work responsibilities and interests which they seek to balance against their work roles.”
The Paper also says that giving employees greater control over when, how and where they work results in “better human capital outcomes” which converts to “enhanced business outcomes” through improved productivity, finance performance and client satisfaction.
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