Making Work 'Work' For You

The myth that flexibility around work only does or should apply to women having children is out of date and out of step with the wants and needs of people in 'the real world'.

There are some obvious times in our lives that impact how, when and even if we work including becoming pregnant and having children, but they may also include many other things such as having to care for another with an illness or disability, or indeed our own health issues may require us to take a change in tack. It may be around another choice we make to stu dy to attain or update our qualifications. We may have a sporting or recreational interest that fires our passion and needs more of our time, (or a different combination), than a traditional working week allows. We may be a member of a band or a wish to be involved in community service.

In fact, we might not even have what we consider to be a 'good excuse' - we might just simply know that what works best for us is to work fewer days with longer hours, fewer hours altogether, or work in two distinct blocks in the day and evening. You get the picture: there are almost limitless reasons and combinations for why and how we might work flexibly. And naturally, these apply to men and women: we all want to lead healthy and fulfil lin g lives.

The key to a flexible arrangement that works for you is firstly, ascertaining what it is that you want and need. Then, investigating what the various options are and what your preferences are within these options. Finally, it is then down to having the courage to ask for what you want. This involves flexibility on your part too, but even still, nothing will change, (and you won't know if things can change), unless you have the discussion.

It is also good to remember that some changes only suit a particular period of time anyway. Both parties need be prepared to discuss the arrangements regularly (three to six months) to ensure that they still work, or to discuss what can be tweaked to make things work better.

So let's look at some of the basic options for flexible working:

•  Hours of work : starting early, finishing late, working in two (or more) blocks in a day, working sometime in 'normal' business hours and some time outside of these. For example, someone with a school age child might start at 7am and finish at 3pm . Or a sportsperson might train for two hours in the middle of the day thus breaking their working day into two halves. (In fact, there's some good evidence to support working in blocks as being healthier, more productive and sustainable.*)

•  Compressing the load : for example, working longer hours over four days rather than over five days.

•  Working remotely : this could be from home or another location. It could involve any mix of office work and working remotely. Many call-centres now allow staff to work from home some of the time by re-routing their phone system. Clearly OH&S issues need to be taken into account too.

•  Job-sharing with a similarly skilled partner: This is one option that sadly we don't see happen often enough in large organisations. Successful job shares require trust between all parties, (not only the two sharing the position), and also require the laying of ground rules, good systems in place for the hand-over of work, and clear accountabilities.

•  Working a percentage of a full time role for a percentage of the full time salary: this is a common solution and what is also common with this is that employees inadvertently do a full time role, in fewer days for less money.

•  Buying additional leave: This simple option involves employees nominating the extra leave they would like to purchase and spreading the remaining salary over 52 weeks of the year at a level that takes the extra leave into account. For example, I might ask for 8 weeks annual leave per year, (4 weeks in addition to my entitlement), which means that I am being paid for 48 weeks in the year (although this is spread across the 52 according to my pay cycle).

These are just some of the options that we currently see, however, flexible options are only limited by your creativity and courage to have the conversation.

Tips for discussing flexibility

•  Know the outcome you want to achieve and state that upfront, (don't feel you need to justify yourself). e.g. more daylight time to focus on my sport; to pick my child up three days per week at 3pm .

•  Be prepared to flex on 'how' this might be achieved; treat the conversation with your manager/HR person as joint problem-solving exercise.

•  Be clear, firm and professional, but be prepared to discuss options rather than placing demands.

•  Show that you have thought through the impact on the team/your workload and suggest some options as solutions.

•  Know your company's policies but don't be limited by them - sometimes policies simply don't exist because no one has ever raised the issue.

Flexibility attracts and keeps talent

The talent shortage is only just beginning to bite. Stories travel quickly of organisations where work life balance is taken seriously and where individuals needs are listened to and respected, (note: that doesn't always mean every request is granted fully, but it does mean that employees are listened to, truly heard and that a win-win solution is jointly worked on). Stories travel just as quickly about those where 'flexibility' is simply rhetoric and lip service.

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