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How can you develop a flexible workplace policy?

A Workplace Flexibility Policy provides a framework for an organisation to express its commitment to flexibility and set expectations about rights and responsibilities.

This article will focus on the issues to be addressed in a Workplace Flexibility Policy and developmental steps as well as providing a sample policy.



What is a flexible workplace policy?

A flexibility policy is a document describing the rights and responsibilities of employees and employers in relation to flexible work arrangements, and it describes the steps for putting flexibility into practice.

A flexibility policy may include:
  • a statement of commitment to workplace flexibility;
  • definitions of flexibility;
  • entitlements to employees;
  • how to apply for flexibility and how it will be reviewed;
  • where to go for more information; and
  • the CEO's signature.

How to go about it

Developing a flexible workplace policy needs good research and communication with employees to find out which practices will best suit the business.  Whether there is a policy that needs reviewing, or starting from scratch, this usually involves five key steps:

1. Analysing demographics

Begin by getting a general picture of the population within:
  • the Australian workforce and the changes taking place within it.  For example, a survey of 2284 Australians in 2007 found that one in four employees are expected to be caring for an aged person and/or a person with a disability by 2012;
  • the industry and the trends of its workforce.  In particular, research should be conducted into industry benchmarks in terms of flexibility arrangements; and
  • the workplace, for example finding out:
    • the proportion of women to men;
    • the most common age group;
    • the average retirement age;
    • the average length of employment;
At the end of this step, you should have a broad understanding of your employees' demographics and their potential flexibility requirements.

2.  Assessing needs

In this step, you'll get a more detailed picture of the exact flexibility needs of your employees such as how many have young children or plan to have children or how many have elder care or disability care responsibilities.  This information can be obtained by conducting staff surveys, meetings, consultations, focus groups and exit interviews (people leaving your business will often let you know if there are gaps in your work and family policy).

This assessment may give you an idea of what works well now, what doesn't work so well and the type of working environment your employees may be looking for in the future.

3.  Communicating

To end up with a policy best suited to your business, communication is essential.  There are many effective ways to ensure this happens, for example:
  • establishing a management/staff project team to create and implement flexible work practices, and regularly talks to employees about its progress;
  • talking to managers, both individually and in groups, to get them involved;
  • getting managers to talk to their staff, choose people who understand what you're trying to do so they can support and implement the new programme;
  • sending out newsletters to let employees know what's happening - a good idea for small to medium sized businesses; and
  • using email and intranet as a fast and efficient means of "talking" to employees in larger businesses.
The aim is to keep employees informed of all progress and give them a sense of ownership of the new policy that is being developed.

4.  Developing strategies

By this stage, with a good profile of your workforce and a detailed understanding of their needs, you'll have a better idea of which flexible work practices are best suited to your business.  These may include flexible:
  • working hours, for example, condensed hours or part-time work;
  • leave provisions, for example, carer's leave, parental leave, single days annual leave;
  • work locations, for example, working from home, teleworking; and/or
  • employment arrangements, for example job-sharing.
Whatever strategies you decide upon, the most important thing you need is the support and backing of senior managers.  This may involve training on:
  • the types of flexible practices available;
  • how to develop practical solutions to new requests for flexibility;
  • how to manage a diverse work team; and
  • how to effectively implement flexibility.
It is essential to include flexible working in your performance review/appraisal process for managers and workers to help them feel comfortable with the new arrangements and to take responsibility for ensuring they work well.

5.  Evaluating

A very important and final step!  A good policy will have an in-built evaluation process to help you measure its success and highlight improvements that may be needed.  This may include outlining key performance indicators and work objectives, and setting a review period, of three to six months, where feedback from employees, their managers and even clients is gathered to determine the impact of flexibility on the workplace.

A sample flexibility policy

The policy below is an example only, to show you how a workplace flexibility policy may look.
  
Workplace Flexibility Quotes
“Unless the (flexibility) policy is accepted in the organization it just won't be used.”
Christine Bartlett
CEO Jones Lang LaSalle
SAMPLE Flexible Work Practices Policy
[XYZ COMPANY]
Commitment to flexibility
At [XYZ Company] we are committed to providing a work environment in which employees can achieve a balance between their work and outside interests.

We recognise that at different life stages employees may seek to balance their work and outside interests (eg study, family, community involvement) by using flexible work practices.  We also recognise that over the life course those interests may vary, and the type of flexibility desired may also vary.  We are committed to reasonably accommodating an employee's need for flexibility, subject to reasonable business needs.

Business needs include assessing the cost of the desired flexible work practice (eg a laptop to enable working from home), meeting workflows, the impact on other team members, and the length of time of the arrangements.  Business needs also include our interest in keeping motivated, satisfied and talented employees, and offering flexible work practices may help us to achieve those outcomes.

Our commitment to flexibility is linked in part to our commitment to meeting the needs of employees who have family responsibilities, and we will make a special effort to accommodate those needs in terms of flexible work practices.

Definition
By flexible work practices, we mean arrangements which vary the standard working day and week of 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.  Flexible work practices include: variations to working days (eg working part-time and job-sharing), working location (eg working from home), working hours (eg working 8am to 4pm, instead of 9am to 5pm; or working condensed hours eg working a full week in a shorter number of days); and annualised hours (eg 48/52 in which 4 additional weeks of leave are taken, and the reduced salary spread across working 52 weeks).  This list is intended to be inclusive and not exhaustive and we expect that variations will arise in practice.

Employee entitlements
As described under our EEO Policy Statement, discrimination and harassment on the basis of family responsibilities will not be tolerated at [XYZ].  This means that if an employee feels that they have been discriminated against or harassed on the basis that they have accessed (or sought to access) a flexible working arrangement to accommodate their family responsibilities, they are entitled to make a complaint to their manager or the grievance contact officer, see [Grievance Handling Policy].

If an employee has sought access to a flexible work arrangement for a purpose other than caring responsibilities (eg to pursue study, a community activity or to look after a sick animal) in the interests of fairness [XYZ] will try to accommodate their request (subject to business needs).

Finally access to flexible work practices for any reason is subject to an assessment of suitability, eg some positions and some employees may not be suitable to work from home.  Employees who seek access to flexible work practices should be prepared to demonstrate why their position is suitable for the requested flexibility.  Where the assessment is unclear [XYZ Company] will consider implementing the requested flexibility for a trial period (eg 3 months) and will set performance review criteria in consultation with the employee.

Application and review
An application for a flexible work arrangement should be made to an employee's manager.  The application should address key implementation issues, eg when the arrangement will commence, how it will operate, how business needs will be met, when it will be reviewed, how performance will be evaluated and whether the arrangement will continue or be for a set duration.

Reasons will be provided for a manager's decision about an employee's request.  If an employee is unhappy with the outcome of their application (eg because access has been denied or the terms of access are restrictive), they can have their application reviewed by the manager's manager.

Where to go for more information
[XYZ] has a policy on the different types of available flexible work practices.  For further information contact the Human Resources Department.

Signed CEO

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