Collaborative flexibility: The importance of asking
Belinda Morgan
Flexible Work Specialist (Hybrid Working + Part-Time & Job-Share) 🧩 | Leadership Coach 🎯 | Speaker 🎤
Welcome to another Flexible Success newsletter. Each fortnight I share a tip, a quote, a question and an interesting read - all related to flexible work. It's designed to be quick and easy to digest, and to provide you with some food for thought for the week ahead.
A TIP
As we all take part in the grand flexible working experiment, organisations are very quickly learning that flexible working practices designed and implemented from the top down are unlikely to succeed.
This is partly because there is a big disconnect between what executives want from flexible working vs what other employees want. For example, a research group backed by Slack has found that executives are more than twice as likely to want to get back to the office full time than their employees.
It's also because flexible working is all about helping individuals adapt the way they work to suit their unique circumstances. Which means it's impossible to design work practices that do this without finding out what these individuals actually need!
A QUOTE
‘The very best [employers] are engaging their people in designing what the future of work looks like, experimenting and adjusting policies as they go.'
– Roland Wee, MD of Great Place to Work
A QUESTION
Do you know what kind of flexibility each of your team members need most, to support them be their best at work and in the rest of their lives?
AN INTERESTING READ
This article on Australia's Great Places to Work for 2022 provides some interesting insights on the increasing importance of workplace flexibility, with case studies from Atlassian and SafetyCulture.
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Commercialisation Capability Hub @ Department of Industry, Science and Resources | Bachelor of Commerce
2yGreat shout Belinda Morgan! Everyone needs and wants flex for different reasons. It's about having conversations and developing a shared understanding.
Founder JD Scott & Co Chartered Accountants | Helping SMEs make more and pay less | SME and Private client Tax | | IFRS Advisory
2yToo true Bel. Your bosses can’t read your mind and won’t ask the personal questions needed to get your work environment right. You need to ask yourself.