Rigid rules support flexible work

Swinburne Edge and Deloitte have released a new report, Reset, Restore, Reframe – Enabling Wellbeing through Flexible Working, which supplements their research analysis of 1,553 Australian knowledge workers’ views and experiences of flexible work.

The new report provides practical guidance to organisations in their journey towards implementing effective flexible working practices that enable employee wellbeing.

Pre-pandemic data from Insurance and Care NSW (icare) in 2013 and 2017 showed that the average psychological injury claim cost twice as much as physical injury claims in terms of weekly payments.

More recently, insurer Allianz reports that mental health injury related claims are on the rise, with a 19 per cent increase in psychological workers’ compensation claims for work absence in 2022 compared to 2019.

Recent updates to the Workplace Health and Safety (WHS) model legislation now formally requires organisations to manage psychosocial risks, alongside physical risks, through the implementation of an effective risk assessment and control framework.

Results from Swinburne Edge and Deloitte show 23 per cent of workers report working from home without a remote working policy. Without a policy and clear guidelines to manage their time away from the office, employees are exposed to psychosocial risks such as low role clarity and low job control.

The report shows that a substantial number of Australian organisations are unlikely to be meeting their obligations as part of the new WHS guidelines surrounding psychosocial safety.

When structured effectively, hybrid and flexible work has been found to improve both employee performance and wellbeing. Swinburne and Deloitte data show that leaders, and the examples they set, are critical to this being realised.

Once enacted, flexible work policies and practices require appropriate planning and investment to enable their benefits to be realised. The report reveals that organisations struggle with this, with 70 per cent of people who stated that their organisation had a formal remote work policy in place reported that they faced challenges with working from home.

Poor implementation of flexible working arrangements can lead to unintended consequences such as blurred work-life boundaries and increased workload hours, which are detrimental to employee wellbeing.

The Swinburne and Deloitte data showed 34.5 per cent are working more hours, only 15.1 per cent are working less and 48.1 per cent are working the same amount of hours. When asked the reasons for working outside standard hours, 62.9 per cent said workload, 43.4 per cent said choice and 15.8 per cent said their employer asked them to.

Sean Gallagher, the Director of Swinburne’s Centre for the New Workforce, argues that “Flexible work is the new frontier for organisations to manage their employees’ wellbeing. Flexible working delivers more time and control to the individual – better work-life balance – which enables them to better prioritise their wellbeing both during and outside of work.

“Our research finds that flexible working allows most individuals to feel a better sense of balance in their lives and experience improved levels of mental and physical wellbeing. This is a critical connection for employers to recognise.

“Flexible workers tell us they want and need leadership to ensure flexible working meets their individual needs and concerns. For instance Millennials are more likely to be concerned about their choice of work location negatively impacting on their career prospects (1.3x) or relationships at work (1.1x), while women are 1.7x more likely than men to choose ‘home’ as their preferred location compared to the ‘office’.

“Flexible work policies need to be equitable rather than equal, while also meeting the needs of the workforce and the organisation. Consulting with their workers about how to balance the equation between employee expectations and organisation needs is leadership in action.”

Swinburne Vice-Chancellor and President, Professor Pascale Quester notes that “A university, more than anything else, is a community of people. It is having a vibrant campus, it is collaboration in classes, it is the structured serendipity that comes from colleagues catching each other in the hallways.

“As a university of technology, Swinburne was well-positioned to shift to online during the pandemic. But it was important to us to find a new way forward when we came out of lockdowns.

“Research from the Centre of the New Workforce and Swinburne Edge helped inform how we approached our ‘Future Ways of Working’ framework, including how we consulted extensively with staff. We have embraced hybrid work and blended learning – taking the best from technology and the best from being in-person to create a wonderful environment for staff and students at Swinburne.”

Justin Guiliano, Partner in Risk Advisory at Deloitte Australia, says “We are seeing such a variety of preferences in where, when and how to work across the Deloitte team and our clients and this report discusses some of the key factors to consider when looking to maximise wellbeing through flexible working.

“A surprising insight was that the proportion of people preferring hybrid work doubles when respondents had more than two dependents within the household. An important factor which warrants further attention is the impact leaders can have on employees and their wellbeing through trust and expectation setting when it comes to flexible work.”