Implementing Organisational Change
Reviewing Who Does What Type of Work
Implementing Workplace Flexibility
Communicating about Work Organisation

Implementing Organisational Change

• When restructuring or redesigning organisational processes, identify key issues for both men and women in your organisation. In identifying key issues, remember to consider the 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 men and women.
• Build into future reviews or restructures the need to take into account the impact upon different groups of employees including women.
• Adopt an organisational policy that values diversity and accommodates differing employee needs and a range of workplace practices. 
• Look for opportunities to expand effective new management processes, for example, team-based work, multi-skilling, etc, which have a positive impact on both men and women, to all parts of the organisation.
• Consult with both female and male employees to find out if there are issues about the way work is organised. Don’t overlook the different needs and ideas of diverse employees. Identify creative ways to reorganise work that improve both individual and business performance.
• Ensure 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 a leadership commitment that is communicated effectively to all employees.

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Reviewing Who Does What Type of Work

• 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 from a competitor and left your organisation at a critical time?
  • Is there a higher turnover among casual employees and a higher cost in replacing them?
• Develop a cost/benefit analysis of regular part-time workers versus casual workers for your organisation.
• Before you advertise your permanent vacancies, consider the talent in your existing pool of both female and male casual/temporary workforce.
• 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.
• Make sure decisions relating to outsourcing and contracting-out take into account the impact on both men and women.
• If outsourcing decisions unavoidably impact on particular groups of employees, put strategies in place that provide an easier transition to new employment for men and women.
• Put in place policies and practices for achieving discrimination-free access to overtime and shiftwork. Review their effectiveness regularly. Discourage excessive overtime.

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Implementing Workplace Flexibility

• Consider reviewing jobs to see if flexible work arrangements can be accommodated, that is, rather than designing all jobs around the traditional '9am-5pm' approach.
• Put regular part-time work, home-based work and/or job-sharing on your workplace agreement agenda.
• Vary the length of shifts to meet the range of needs of your employees, including men and women with family or other responsibilities, and 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 and 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.
• Put flexible working hours and arrangements on your workplace agreement agenda.
• Ensure applications for flexible work are given consistent, due consideration by managers across your organisation.
• Assist female and male staff members who wish to work flexibly to develop a well thought through proposal of how their work can be organised and the business needs met, and how to put their proposal to their manager for consideration.
• Communicate to managers and staff that they could apply flexible work practices in their workplace. Provide examples and case studies.
• Advertise positions that can be worked in a flexible way, both internally and externally, to increase the pool of talented women who can apply.
• Review all your position descriptions to identify positions that could be performed flexibly.
• Consider 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 staff who work flexibly have equal access to promotion, training and other benefits.

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Communicating about Work Organisation

• Ensure that managers and staff are aware of flexible work options available, such as:
  • Part-time work.
  • Job sharing.
  • Flexible hours of work.
  • Home-based work.
  • Six hour shifts instead of 12 hour shifts.
  • Working from home on an ad hoc basis.
  • Compressed working week.
• Develop a module in your management training to assist managers to effectively manage a diverse team with a range of working arrangements.
• Develop and publicise successful case studies across your workplace.
• Use training forums to 'mainstream' EEO issues (for example, cover 'valuing and managing difference' and 'harassment-free workplaces' in induction training).
• Encourage managers to discuss work organisation issues when providing feedback or conducting performance appraisals.
• Ensure both female and male employees, and employees on long-term leave, have access to the information on 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.

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