With the challenges of an ageing workforce, a smaller talent pool and growing concerns about competition, successful organisations are addressing the issues through the introduction of different ways to work.

• How you could analyse your workplace to identify any work organisation issues for women.

•  Suggested actions you could take to address the work organisation issues for women you may have identified.

• How a diversity approach to work organisation can deliver benefits to your organisation generally through an improved approach to human resource management.

• revisit your workforce profile to find where your female employees are and if there are any particular age demographic clusters within your organisation.

• consult with all your employees, specifically about how work is done and identifying the opportunities for change.

• examine your workforce and your human resource and business needs.

• take into account workforce planning issues and configure work organisation to current and future business strategies and organisational goals. In particular, consider labour market shortages.

In your organisation, is work organised in a way that effectively meets the needs of your business, customers/clients and employees'

Is work organised the way it is simply because that is how it has always been done' Are any roles performed in non-traditional ways'

Do you have policies and processes around flexible working arrangements such as part-time, job-share, or working from home' Are managers aware of - or trained in - how to implement and manage these policies and procedures'

If a role becomes vacant or an area is to be restructured, are job re-design and analysis processes carried out'

Do you use restructuring opportunities to review the gender composition of your workforce and its implications' Have you thought of reviewing employee diversity as part of this exercise'

When changes are made in your work organisation, are the potential impacts on all female and male employees considered'

Would it be beneficial for areas within your organisation to operate on similar management and work organisation principles' For example, is there a consistent approach to multi-skilling, team-based organisation of work, or putting less hierarchical structures in place'

Are women and men given the same opportunities to express their choices when changes are to be made' Has the impact of changes on women of different cultural backgrounds been taken into consideration'

Are those making decisions around restructure and organisational change trained in equity and diversity issues' Are decisions about training, re-training and re-skilling based on skills and business needs, or on age and gender'

Is appropriate assistance given to older workers in terms of training and development needs before they are selected for redundancy' Is your organisation able to effectively challenge the stereotypes surrounding the skill sets and learning abilities of older workers'

Given the requirements of your business, are opportunities to work in different ways, such as working from home, job-sharing, part-time work and flexible hours available throughout all levels and all areas of the organisation as far as possible'

Does the make-up of the different types of work for example, full-time, part-time and casual work, effectively meet employee choice as well as business needs'

Do you enable workplace flexibility by balancing your employees’ needs (eg. related to family, lifestyle, cultural/religious practices) with the business needs'

Do women and men get the same opportunities to work overtime' Are they given the same options to decline overtime, without negative consequences'

Do your female and male casual employees get the same opportunities to access permanent vacancies' Do older workers and those who do not speak English as a first language have equal access to these opportunities'

Have you talked with both female and male employees to identify how shift arrangements and changes, such as set night shifts, rotating shifts, etc. may impact upon their work and family or other responsibilities'

Are the turnover rates for casual employees the same for women compared with men' If not, is there any reason for this' Is there a difference between older and younger workers' If yes, what is the reason for this'

Does your casual workforce have access to training and development'

Have you considered the impact your outsourcing and contracting-out decisions may have on your female employees'

Do employees who choose to work flexibly or part-time in your organisation have access to career development opportunities'

Are female and male employees clustered in particular occupations or work areas' If clustering occurs, do you see other patterns (eg. patterns in cultural or linguistic background, access to learning and development opportunities, or age groupings)'

Is your organisation adaptable and flexible' Are there unnecessary barriers between ‘casual’ and ‘permanent’, ‘men’s work’ and ‘women’s work’, ‘blue collar’ and ‘white collar’ work'

Is your organisation taking steps to address these issues' If so, what steps'

Are there any barriers to women progressing through the ranks into senior or management roles' If so, what are they'

• Not all of these actions may be relevant to your organisation. You will need to decide whether you choose to do all, some, or none of the suggested actions and whether you wish to tailor suggested actions to suit the needs of your workplace.

•  If your workplace analysis demonstrates your organisation has no issues for women in this employment matter, you would not need to take any actions.

• When restructuring or redesigning organisational processes, identify key issues for both women and men in your organisation. In identifying these key issues, remember to consider employee diversity.

• If restructuring decisions unavoidably impact on particular groups of employees, put strategies in place that provide an easier transition to new employment for both women and men. (See Employment Matter Guideline 2 on Promotion, Transfer and Termination).

• Incorporate the need to consider the impact upon different groups of employees (including women) into future reviews or restructures. 

• Adopt an organisational policy that values diversity and accommodates differing employee needs, as well as a range of workplace practices.

• Look for opportunities to expand effective new management processes which have a positive impact on both women and men, to all parts of the organisation, such as team-based work, multi-skilling, mentoring and skills transfer in job-share arrangements.

• Consult with both female and male employees to find out if there are issues about the way work is being organised. Don’t overlook the different needs and ideas of different employees. Identify creative ways to reorganise work that improve both individual and business performance.

• Ensure that new ways of working are innovative in meeting customer and employee needs, rather than simply a relabelling of the old ways of working.

• Ensure that organisational change is accompanied by leadership commitment and support which are clearly communicated to all employees.

• Examine your casual workforce. Identify the pros and cons for the business and for both female and male employees of the nature of this workforce.

  -         Is the balance right for your business'

  -         What would happen to your business if your casual employees became in
            demand to a competitor and resigned from your organisation at a critical
            time'

  -         Is there a higher turnover among casual employees and a higher cost in
            replacing them'

  -         Is your casual workforce predominantly female' Why'

• Develop a cost/benefit analysis of regular part-time workers versus casual workers for your organisation, eg. consider annualised salaries, flextime and other flexible working arrangements.

• Remember the value of retaining existing trained staff when considering encouraging quality part-time work and employees’ return from maternity leave.

• Before you advertise permanent vacancies, consider the talent in your existing pool of both female and male casual/temporary employees. Do you have a policy encouraging internal applications'

• Before outsourcing or contracting out work, consider the talent within your organisation. Take the opportunity to ‘grow’ valuable experience and skills within your own organisation. Explore the resources of your mature-aged workforce and in particular mature-aged women: are there people who can do the work whilst training others'

• Make sure that decisions relating to outsourcing and contracting out take into account the impact on both women and men, in particular the re-training needs of older workers.

• Ensure that decisions relating to contracting out, redundancy or restructuring are not based on stereotypical views of the supposed inability of older workers to learn or to undertake refresher training.

• If outsourcing decisions unavoidably impact on particular groups of employees, put strategies in place that provide an easier transition to new employment or retirement for women and men. (See Employment Matter Guideline Two on Promotion, Transfer and Termination).

• Put in place policies and practices for achieving discrimination-free access to overtime and shiftwork. Review their effectiveness regularly. Discourage excessive overtime amongst all staff.

• Ensure that arrangements for 48/52, working from home and unpaid leave are evaluated for their positive effects on employee retention and satisfaction.

• Consider reviewing jobs to see if flexible work arrangements can be accommodated, rather than designing all jobs around the traditional ‘9am-5pm’ arrangement.

• Visit the Work and Family Unit Website, which provides a range of options available to employers and employees to organise work more flexibly.

• Put regular part-time work, flexible start times, working from home and/or job-sharing on your workplace agreement agenda.

• Vary the length of shifts to meet the range of needs of your employees, including women and men with family or other responsibilities, as well as the needs of your business.

• Talk with employees about how shift arrangements and changes (for example, set night shifts, rotating shifts, etc.) impact upon their work, family or other responsibilities (eg. cultural or religious practices).

• Pilot new working arrangements in areas with supportive management so that you can test whether those arrangements will work in your business.

• Develop policies or procedures which enable managers and female and male staff to reorganise work so that they can balance business needs with individual needs.

• Survey employees about the effectiveness of these policies and procedures. Are they meeting business and employee needs'

• Put flexible working hours and arrangements on your workplace agreement agenda.

• Consider how to assist mature-aged workers who may wish to retain contact with the organisation to transition into part-time work.

• Ensure applications for flexible work are given consistent, due consideration by managers across your organisation. Develop a set of fair decision-making criteria that will be used to assess applications for flexible working. Train managers in how to use them.

• Hold managers accountable for justifying their decisions when they do not approve a request from a staff member to convert to a part-time or flexible working arrangement.

• Assist female and male staff members who wish to work flexibly to develop a well-considered proposal/business case on how their work could be re-organised and the business needs still met, plus how to put their proposal to their manager for consideration.

• Communicate to all staff (including managers) that flexible work arrangements are available and accepted in their workplace. Provide recent examples and case studies.

• Advertise positions that can be worked in a flexible way, both internally and externally, to increase the pool of talented people (including women) who can apply.

• Review all your position descriptions to identify positions that could be performed flexibly.

• Consider a range of flexible work options including part-time work, flexible hours or job-share arrangements for your senior female and male managers, as well as for your less senior staff. Consider these arrangements for all areas of your business, not just clerical or predominately female areas.

• Ensure that any staff members who work flexibly have equal access to promotion, training and other benefits.

• Ensure that managers and staff are aware of flexible work options available, such as:

  -         Part-time work

  -         Job-sharing

  -         Flexible hours of work

  -         Working from home

  -         6-hour shifts instead of 12-hour shifts

  -         Working from home on an ad hoc basis

  -         Compressed working week

  -         48/52 work year

• Develop a module in your management training to assist managers to effectively lead a diverse team with a range of working arrangements.

• Develop and publicise case studies of successful flexible working arrangements across your workplace.

• Use training forums to ‘mainstream’ EEO and diversity issues (for example, cover ‘valuing and managing difference’ and ‘harassment-free workplaces’ in induction training and ongoing leadership training).

• Encourage managers to discuss work organisation issues when providing feedback or conducting performance appraisals.

• Ensure that both female and male employees, and employees on long-term leave, have access to the information on any changes to work organisation.

• Educate managers on how to implement work organisation changes effectively and in a non-discriminatory way.

• Hold managers accountable for implementing work organisation changes effectively and in a non-discriminatory way.

• A lack of applications from female employees.

• A low proportion of women in management.

• A low proportion of women in non-traditional occupational categories eg. trades, labouring, plant and machinery operators.

• Problems retaining female employees.

To what extent do your policies and practices reflect the needs of staff' Do you have a diversity strategy'

Have you introduced part-time work and family leave' Carers’ leave' Compassionate leave'

Have you surveyed staff to identify work, family, personal and flexibility needs'

Do you allow part-time work, job-share or other flexible working arrangements at management levels'

Have you introduced flexible practices that will assist both women and men to manage their work/life responsibilities'

Do your women employees return from maternity leave'

Can women work flexibly on their return from maternity leave'

Do you offer paid parental leave'

Can you introduce more flexible hours (eg. flexible start and finish
times)'

Can you introduce a ‘work from home’ policy'

Have you developed a job-sharing policy'

What is the usage rate of your organisation’s policies on workplace flexibility' Does it vary for women and men'

Have you identified the barriers to implementing workplace flexibility and taken steps to overcome them'

Do you undertake any job redesign or analysis when delivering a new role or recruiting to fill an existing role'

Do you include any EEO or diversity training for new managers or team leaders' Is such training part of your ongoing leadership programs'

Do you have any people in leadership positions who work flexibly or who reward and recognise performance regardless of hours worked'

When consulted, to what extent do women and men indicate that the organisation assists them to balance their work, family and other personal priorities'

What work and family policies and practices exist in your workplace' To what extent do they meet the current needs of your female and male employees within the organisation'

When consulted, to what extent do women and men indicate that the organisation assists them to balance their work, family and life priorities'

What is the usage rate of your organisation’s work and family policies'  Does the rate differ for women and men'

What data have you collected that demonstrate that work and family policies are implemented equitably across the organisation'

Do women and men resign for work and family reasons'  Has this changed over time'

Is the rate of return from parental leave high or low'  Has this improved over time'

Do you offer paid parental leave' Do you offer flexible work practices on return from parental leave'

Do you have exit interview data indicating that people would have remained with your organisation if they could have worked more flexibly'

Do you employ many older women workers' What are you doing to ensure that their skills continue to grow and develop so they can access greater job opportunities'

• Review current work practices and identify opportunities for organising work in a way that effectively meets the needs of your business, customers and employees.

• Review vacant positions to consider whether they could be performed part-time or as a job-share role.

• Revisit your business case for flexible work arrangements. Evaluate what has been achieved to date and promote the successful examples, particularly those that have had ‘bottom line benefits’ to the organisation.

• Survey casual staff to identify any interest in converting to permanent status.

• Include an evaluation of flexible work practices in all staff annual performance appraisals.

• Link workplace flexibility with your diversity strategy.

• Implement a formal communications strategy that enables and encourages all employees to voice their perceptions of the availability and accessibility of flexible work arrangements within the organisation.

• Review current policies, especially those on flexible working, and ensure that they are up-to-date and comply with current legislation. For example, changes to OH&S legislation may impact your work from home policy.

• Where appropriate, re-launch your flexible working policies by distributing information to all staff (including managers) about what is available to them, plus outlines of implementation guidelines and any support materials. Also include information on how staff can build proposals for changes to be made to their individual work schedules.

• If you do not offer paid maternity leave, benchmark with similar organisations, then prepare and present your business case to your Executive and leaders (please visit the EOWA site for ideas).

• Implement a formal process for accessing part-time hours.

• Offer all vacancies on a part-time basis to applicants not able to work full-time.

• Enable casual staff to convert to permanent status after 6-12 months of employment.

• Enable all staff (managers and CEO direct reports included) to work part-time and flexibly.

• Encourage senior staff and management to utilise available flexible arrangements as a model for other staff.

• Ensure that all sections of the organisation report annually on the take-up of flexible work options.

• Schedule meetings at times that all staff members (including those with caring responsibilities) are able to attend, for example between 10am and 4pm, and not on Friday afternoons.

• Ensure that all budgets and financial reporting include part-time employees in the headcount.

• Ensure that HR and Managers do not consider the taking up of flexible work options as an impediment to promotion or career development within the organisation. Be sure that this is communicated to all staff.

• Train leaders in the management of flexible work arrangements and other work organisation processes.

• Educate managers in effectively applying and managing flexible arrangements/rostering.

• Establish forums and/or other networking opportunities for women who work or who want to work, or who are already working flexibly.

• Ensure that all employees feel comfortable in approaching their managers with a business case to work part-time or flexibly.

• Provide HR assistance to all staff (managers included) to develop a business case for flexible working arrangements.

• Implement a job-share register that may be accessed by all members of staff across the organisation.

• Implement a payroll system that allows all staff to convert their work status easily, without the organisation having to change employee numbers or having leave entitlements automatically paid out.

• Restructure sales territories to reduce travel time and facilitate sales people working part-time.

• Provide all staff who work from home with financial reimbursement for a broadband Internet connection.

• Introduce video-conferencing so that employees who work part-time, who have caring responsibilities, or who are unable to commute to the office, can attend and participate remotely in meetings.