Some facts about flexibility and work redesign:

• There is strong evidence that flexible work options are drivers of the recruitment and retention of talented employees;
• What matters more however, is an employee having control over how, when and where they do their work and having a workgroup and an immediate manager who is supportive of this;
• Employees express lower levels of loyalty to managers when they are perceived as being less supportive of flexibility;
• Flexible work options do not necessarily result in improved employment outcomes for women. Indeed, limiting the offering of part-time work to particular areas of a business (eg. customer service) has severely limited career opportunities for women in many organisations;
• Few organisations currently have effective flexible work options at more senior levels of organisations. There are very few examples of part-time or job-share senior positions;
• An effective strategy needs to involve career redesign. Without this, most organisations have found that flexible work options have not enabled employment outcomes for women; and
• Evidence that flexibility options are working effectively in organisations need to include changes in the gender by demographic mix at more senior positions.

Tips:

• Critically evaluate expectations about careers and redesign career pathways; and
• Align flexibility with the delivery of key organisational outcomes, for example, customer service, creativity etc.