One of the principles of creating a simple workplace – a workplace in which it is easy to get things done – is the creation of flexibility. Making it easier for people to do their work when and where they can would seem an obvious way to help employees strike the right balance between work and home.
And it works. I’ve just read interviews with two CEOs – Peter Widdows of Heinz Australia and Tom Quinn of Aker Kvaerner – who describe the significant cultural benefits their organizations have gained from providing their staff with greater flexibility.
Yet relatively few companies have worked this out. Recent figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics suggest that in the last 9 years, only 3% more employees have gained a significant say in the hours that they work – in 1997 it was 37%; in 2006 it was 40%. The proportion of employees able to work extra hours in order to take time off was the same in 2006 – 38% – as it was back in 1997.
Particularly interesting to me is that for all the countless reports and studies into management effectiveness and work-life balance in the last ten years, few if any of the indicators in these surveys of working time arrangements have changed at all.
Perhaps, in the end, maintaining the status quo is just easier?
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“Perhaps, in the end, maintaining the status quo is just easier?”
Yes, but change is not completely absent, only really really slow. As a strong advocate of policies allowing better work-life balance, I am glad that the research is positive – but I also accept that it may take a while for the real meaning of the research to seep its way into actual changes in the working world.
I worked for Aker Kvaerner and generally you were put under the pump so much that you had to work overtime on the Friday afternoon.
Things are not always as they seem.
We’ve shifted to a model within our company of a four day work week which allows our employees the opportunity to enjoy a four day weekend twice a month. This allows us to have people available to address issues all five business days, but gives them a significant amount of down time to enjoy their family and friends.
We also allow them to work from home up to two of their four days each week. I don’t mind where the work is happening … as long as it is happening. This flexibility has resulted in a far more efficient company and team members that are looking forward to coming to work.
I also worked for Aker, the hours were not at all flexible. The half day Fridays meant longer days Monday to Thursday, which did not suit me personally, yet I was not allowed to adjust my hours to suit. Overtime was the culture at that company, and that meant working the Friday afternoon. The company put very little focus into training individuals unless you were in the inner circle in the Melbourne office. A terrible company to work for unless you were in Melbourne, and everyone knew it, making for awful morale and a sense of inferiority in the other offices. Way to go!