Flexibility — A Key Ingredient

'The Australian' newspaper reported research carried out for IAG by Aeques Partners under the headline "give workers an inch and they will give back a mile". Workplace flexibility is about focusing on business outcomes and deliverables rather than total hours worked or when work is done.

Employees who are given the flexibility to juggle the needs of their families and careers respond by being more flexible to meet business needs. This is the conclusion from research carried out for leading companies including IAG and IBM by Aequus Partners, and reported in 'The Australian' on July 23, 2007 under the headline "give workers an inch and they'll give back a mile".

IAG's turnover rates remain a challenge in pockets of our business, which imposes a significant business cost. Offering employees flexible working arrangements is just one way we're working to address the problem. Effectively implementing flexible work practices is critical if IAG wants to attract, engage and retain the workforce of the future.

At IAG flexibility means focusing on outcomes and deliverables rather than hours worked. In practice, this means flexibility in when work is done (e.g. varying start and finish times and part time work), where work is done (e.g. working from home), and how work is done (e.g. sharing jobs, restructuring jobs to meet different timing), as well as providing different career paths and opportunities for development.

Louise Wilson, Senior Specialist in Sustainable Business Practices at IAG, has experienced IAG's flexible approach for herself. "When I had a baby I was sure that I only wanted to return to work two days a week. I wasn't sure how this might work, but IAG has been great in supporting me to come back to work on these terms. I feel like I have a good balance in my life right now, and the flexibility that IAG has been able to provide makes me more interested in developing my career with IAG in the long term," said Louise.

Implementing flexible work practices is not easy, and people require different types of flexibility at different stages of their lives. As a result IAG conducted an organisation-wide Work & Life Taskforce Flexibility study, and found that employees who are given the flexibility to juggle the needs of their families and careers respond by being more flexible to meet business needs.

Moreover, employees who feel they have job flexibility are the same employees who have more trust and commitment to the organisation. The survey found that 74% of IAG employees with flexibility in their work conditions rated their personal wellbeing as high, compared to 56% of those who did not have flexibility. In terms of satisfaction with work-life balance the numbers were starker at 75% compared to 45%.

Sara Rasmussen, IAG's Diversity Manager, said this showed that employees who had flexibility in their working arrangements were also flexible in meeting the needs of the business when an extra effort was required. "This is certainly what we see in the workplace," said Sara.

The business rationale for offering flexible working arrangements to employees is clear. "Over the longer term, we know the workforce is shrinking," said Sara Rasmussen. "To put it into perspective, currently 170,000 new people enter the workforce each year. From 2020, this will reduce by over 90% to 12,500 new entrants.* Managers who are able to lead a flexible workforce experience less turnover and can attract talent in new areas like emerging generations, women returning from maternity leave and mature aged workers. This means managers can spend less time recruiting and more time leading teams who are engaged and committed to achieving outcomes. Flexibility is an important tool in building a sustainable business."

*Access Economics, Population Ageing and the Economy, January 2001.

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