Yet reports that some large companies are considering doing just that have begun circulating as employers fight to bring people back on site for at least 50 percent of the time.

Late last year, an internal memo to ANZ staff, shared by The Aussie Corporate Instagram page, showed the bank cracking down on staff who worked from home more than half the time.

It warned that if employees didn’t “meet the standards expected [of 50 per cent attendance], it may factor into your performance rating and PRR [Performance and Remuneration Review] outcomes at the end of the FY24 year.”

More recently, PwC’s UK boss warned that young workers who don’t come into office at least four times a week will be replaced with artificial intelligence.

The threat to link on-site work to performance, the pay packet — and even to keeping one’s job — is a sign that post Covid 19 lockdowns, both employers and employees are struggling to find the right balance between working on-site and remotely.

“There is no one simple answer to this,” says Dr Fiona Macdonald, policy director at the industrial and social department at the Centre for Future Work.

“While some employees are happy to go into the office a few days a week, in some places people don’t want to be in the office at all. It’s pretty problematic for organisations in how they manage that.”

While many organisations continue to include flexible work policies following the pandemic years of 2020 to 2022, the creep of presenteeism and messages that those working from home may suffer from being “out of sight and out of mind”, as well as being seen as less productive, are intensifying in some sectors.

“We have organisations which are overwhelmingly staffed by men, and while I don’t think most men consciously think they don’t want women in their workplace, there is definitely less understanding about people’s life circumstances if you don’t have diversity,” says Macdonald.

And while for many the model to return to working how we used to — 9 to 5, on-site — seems easier to implement, experts believe companies need to move beyond that and try harder to offer flexibility.

“It’s well past the time where we’re thinking workplaces need to be based on male models of working in the 1970s,” Macdonald says, but points out that many workplaces have not been structured around hybrid and flexible work.

“Managers haven’t been training to think about it,” she adds. “It takes effort to figure out how to organise staff who are working remotely some of the time, and what is the best way to get them to come together and work well as a team.”

The problem is that the “cat’s out of the bag” when it comes to hybrid working, with people now expecting some degree of leniency from their bosses. For many women, the flex work policies implemented during Covid were a godsend, and enabled a much more reasonable work-life balance.

Demanding that staff return to work physically will disproportionately impact those with caring responsibilities (usually women), says Sarah McCann-Bartlett, CEO at Australian HR Institute.

“Rigid office attendance requirements might inadvertently create barriers to workplace participation for those with caring responsibilities, who we know are more likely to be women.”

Families and home life have always adapted to organisations, points out Macdonald: maybe it’s time that organisations adapt a little to life. Men also need to get on board and fight for the right to hybrid work.

“If we want more men to do more caring, men need to be demanding these changes too,” she says. “Unfortunately change comes slowly: it’s two steps forward, one step back”. 

Fortunately, some data suggests the situation is not quite so gloomy. McCann-Bartlett points to AHRI’s most recent survey, which, after talking to 452 employers, found that while more employers are specifying how many days a week employees should work on-site, most (that can) are maintaining a hybrid work model.

“Very few employers are requiring employees to return to the physical workplace five days a week,” says Sarah McCann-Bartlett, CEO at Australian HR Institute. “AHRI’s research shows that in 2023, only 7 per cent of employers required full time employees to attend physically all five days”.

The research also found that nearly all (97 per cent) of organisations offered some form of flexible working arrangement aside from hybrid working, such as  part-time work (85 per cent); flexi time (53 per cent); compressed hours or compressed working weeks (45 per cent); and career breaks (44 per cent).

Senior lecturer in work and organisational studies at the University of Sydney Business School, Dr Meraiah Foley, believes organisations are “finding themselves in a pickle trying to work out what is the right balance between having people physically present to build culture, foster innovation and help train new graduates, and allowing the kind of flexibility people have become used to”.

“People like working remotely and having autonomy and flexibility, and in many instances, people aren’t returning to their workplace to the extent organisations would like them to,” she tells Women’s Agenda.

Seemingly every week, cases about “battles” between employees and employers fighting for balance are aired in public, including a sales rep being awarded $26,000 in compensation after being fired by his employer over “lack of commitment” for working from home on compulsory on-site days; a scientist failing to get his job back following the sack for secretly working overseas; and Fair Work upholding that a remote working lawyer was unfairly fired for trawling music, books, comic and PlayStation websites while on the clock.

Foley says any organisations that plan to dock pay based on office attendance are extremely problematic, and a return to the “idea that productivity is time spent in the office… and not based on outputs and outcomes”.

“It’s also extremely problematic from a gender equality perspective, as it’s just going to reward people who don’t have caring responsibilities or who have the capacity to work long hours,” she adds.

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The SEEK report attributes a shift in the types of jobs that are being advertised as the reason for the gradual fall in WFH jobs advertised. 

As the number of people employed continues to fall however, employers might begin to exert greater pressure to get people to return to the office. And employees might have no choice but to concede, especially since ABS data released last week showed the number of Australians in employment fell by 65,100 last month. 

The industries experiencing the biggest fall in jobs available include finance, IT and media sectors, while jobs in hospitality and tourism increased compared to this time last year. 

SEEK’s senior economist Matt Cowgill believes that with the cooling market, the proportion of jobs advertised with flexible conditions may continue to fall.  

“The cooling labour market likely does mean that employers have a bit more ability to try and bring people back to the office where they can,” Cowgill told ABC. 

In the past year, big companies including ANZ, insurer Suncorp, and electricity retailer Origin Energy have encouraged their employees to return to the office by offering bonuses conditional on being back at the office.

Meanwhile, giants including Google, Meta and Amazon have asked its employees to do at least three days a week at the office, warning them that compliance with that guideline will be considered in their performance reviews.

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The latest Women in the Workplace report, produced by LeanIn.Org and McKinsey & Company, also shows that women’s representation in the C-suite has increased substantially. However it does confirm that progress is lagging in the middle of the corporate pipeline, with women with marginalised identities continuing to be significantly underrepresented at all levels.

The research is the largest study of women working in corporate America and Canada, with 276 participating organisations and 27,000 people surveyed.

The good news is that at every stage of the corporate pipeline, women are just as ambitious as men, and more ambitious than they were before the pandemic. 

The research shows that young women are especially ambitious, with nine in 10 wanting to be promoted to the next level in their career and 3 in 4 aspiring to become senior leaders. Women of colour are more ambitious than white women, with a massive 96 per cent noting their career is important to them, and 88 per cent looking for a promotion. 

Flexible working options are also fuelling women’s ambitions, with women who work hybrid or remotely being just as ambitious as women and men who attend a workplace.

“One in 5 women say flexibility has helped them stay at their organisation or avoid reducing their hours. A large number of women who work hybrid or remotely point to feeling less fatigued and burned out as a primary benefit,” the report notes.

“A majority of women report having more focused time to get their work done when they work remotely.”

Since 2015, the number of women in the C-suite has increased from 17 to 28 percent, while the representation of women at the vice president and senior vice president levels has also improved.

‘The broken rung’

The report also challenges the notion of the “glass ceiling” being the biggest barrier holding women back, writing instead that there is a “broken rung” in the ladder, causing women to fall behind.

“This year, for every 100 men promoted from entry level to manager, 87 women were promoted,” the report states. “And this gap is trending the wrong way for women of color: this year, 73 women of color were promoted to manager for every 100 men, down from 82 women of color last year. As a result of this broken rung, women fall behind and can’t catch up.”

“I’ve always done every task, every project ahead of schedule and under budget, and I still couldn’t get the promotions I saw my white colleagues getting,” one participant in the research said. 

Performance bias is particularly challenging for women in the early stages of their carer and can lead to missing out on that first promotion to the managerial level.

“Because women early in their careers have shorter track records and similar work experiences relative to their men peers, performance bias can especially disadvantage them at the first promotion to manager.”

Microaggressions are harming women

According to LeanIn.org and McKinsey and Co, years of data show clearly that women are much more likely to experience microagressions in the workplace. For example, they are twice as likely to be interrupted and hear comments on their emotional state. 

For women with marginalised idenitites, the microagressions are much worse, and have a lasting impact. The report notes that Asian and Black women are seven times more likely than white women to be confused with someone of the same race and ethnicity.

“It’s like I have to act extra happy so I’m not looked at as bitter because I’m a Black woman. And a disabled Black woman at that. If someone says something offensive to me, I have to think about how to respond in a way that does not make me seem like an angry Black woman,” one participant in the research said. 

 “I’ve gotten mistaken for Chinese,” one Filipino manager said. “People will ask me about some kind of Chinese delicacy assuming that all Asian backgrounds are the same.”

The report shows that roughly 1 in 3 women with disabilities and 1 in 4 LGBTQ+ and Black women have felt invisible or like their accomplishments went unnoticed.

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That’s according to a recent survey from Business NSW, that included responses from big business all the way through to sole traders. Together, the respondents employ nearly 80,000 workers. 

This lowering of business confidence is occurring Australia-wide, and points to uncertain, and perhaps tougher economic conditions ahead. The latest figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics show slowing economic growth and weak household consumption as the highest interest rates in a decade have stalled demand.

With concerns of a recession now on the horizon, businesses and employers will look for ways to cut their costs. It also makes it all the more important that employers are getting bang for their buck when it comes to the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) policies they may have in place. 

Below, we’ve outlined five non-negotiable DEI policies for employers that will help their business flourish in a slowing economy. 

Paid parental leave

When it comes to DEI policies, delivering paid parental leave to employees is a key action that has a proven, positive flow on effect for organisations. 

Employer-funded parental leave ensures new parents are supported as they embark upon one of the most challenging times in their lives and careers. It can lead to reduced staff turnover, which in turn leads to fewer recruitment and training costs for businesses.

In uncertain economic times, retaining your best talent can help ensure businesses keep their productivity high and employees satisfied. A top-tier paid parental leave policy can also be a key way for organisations to show they are leading with a “people-first” attitude.

Best practice paid parental leave policies from employers in Australia have removed ‘‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ carer labels to encourage both mothers and fathers to take up the leave. In the OECD, the average length of leave offered is 53 weeks, while countries like Iceland, Norway and Finland offer paid parental leave at around 80 per cent of a parent’s normal wage. 

Meanwhile, supporting new parents with paid parental leave has considerable advantages – not just for businesses, but for the entire economy. As noted by KPMG in a major report on paid parental leave in 2021, equal parenting models in families can give rise to a higher standard of living, and benefits for businesses, with increased productivity and workforce participation. It can also help reduce gender pay and superannuation gaps, and help mothers stay connected to the workforce. 

Sponsorship 

Another DEI policy that has innumerable positive benefits for businesses and provides a significant return on investment, are sponsorship programs that link senior leaders with emerging leaders within an organisation. 

As we’ve noted on Women’s Agenda previously, sponsorship can be a key way to dismantle systemic and behavioural barriers that hold women back in workplaces. This has never been more important as Australia’s economic growth slows.

Katriina Tähkä, Managing Director at Cultivate Sponsorship, knows the benefits of sponsorship first-hand and says now is not the time to back off on career development, even amid tougher economic conditions.

“Uncertain economic times can lead employees to also feel uncertain about job security and career progression at their current employer unless there are signs to the contrary,” Tähkä told Women’s Agenda.

“If people do not believe that their company and leaders genuinely care about their continued development or they feel overlooked and isolated it can lead to people changing jobs. Now is not the time to back off on career development; but to ensure that your most valuable resource, your people, know that they are valued.”

Tähkä says that sponsorship programs ensure that leaders have the skills they need to be effective sponsors, and that investing in emerging leaders is necessary if they are to be part of an organisation’s financial success. 

“Having a sponsor in your corner gives you a senior person in your company who understands your aspirations and is looking out for ways to keep you on the radar for opportunities,’ she said. 

“That connection will keep employees engaged even through the most challenging economic conditions. Engaged employees are more productive and will be key to helping any organisation to weather uncertainty. Leading with a people-first culture will always pay off in the long term.”

Flexible work practices 

On top of paid parental leave and sponsorship programs, continuing to offer employees flexible work options is critical in this uncertain economic period. According to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), flexible work options are one of the key ways employers can ensure they are being responsive to their employees’ needs. As WGEA highlights, attracting and retaining diverse talent is critical to future-proofing businesses – all the more important if employers are looking at strategies to thrive in a shrinking economy. 

Whether it’s offering remote or hybrid work practices, flexible hours for working parents, or allowing some roles to shift to job-sharing arrangements – there are many ways that flexible work arrangements can fit into a business. 

With flexible work policies comes diverse talent, as well as more diverse leadership teams. And, as a growing body of evidence has made clear, there is a clear business case for more diverse leadership teams. They perform better, deliver greater profits, and achieve higher ESG outcomes. 

Data collection

Collecting data on your company’s DEI policies is also critical to ensuring you are getting the most out of the strategies that are in place. In an adverse economic climate, getting the most out of DEI practices can be a real benefit to any business. Moreover, tracking the outcomes and success of policies with clear metrics is critical to ensure there is accountability at the leadership level.

Also, having transparency around the goals of a company’s DEI strategy will mean employees are more confident in their workplace’s commitment to better outcomes. It can also help to educate and inspire employees, a key part of talent retention. 

Cultivate Sponsorship provides its clients with an Impact Report at the end of each program, which  provides a workplace with a comprehensive overview of employees’ sentiments on their career progression and DEI policies. It’s another transparency measure that can help an organisation decide if they need to make incremental changes to better its DEI outcomes. 

A commitment to preventing harassment, discrimination, and bullying 

One in three workers in Australia have experienced sexual harassment in their workplace over the last five years, according to a national survey undertaken in late 2022. Meanwhile, just half of employees say their employers have provided information on how to report an incident.

With a slate of changes following former Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins’ Respect@Work report in 2020, there a number of new requirements for employers to take note of. Importantly, it is now incumbent upon businesses to prevent sexual harassment from occuring in their workplace, after legislation passed through federal parliament last year creating a “positive duty” for employers.  The respect@work.gov.au website provides information and resources for employers to help create respectful workplaces, free from harassment.

Preventing your employees from suffering from discrimination and bullying is just as vital to ensure workplaces are safe for everyone. As the economy slows, ensuring workplaces are safe is key to enabling employee productivity and wellbeing – both are essential for the financial success and resilience of a business. 

Ensuring your policies on harassment, discrimination, and bullying are up to date and implemented fully is non-negotiable in this economic climate. But most importantly leaders need to ‘walk the talk’. They need to be visible role models of the behaviours expected in the organisation even through the most challenging of times. Adversity can’t be an excuse for loosening the standards of respect expected of everyone.  

Leaders who are active sponsors of others will understand firsthand the barriers and challenges that others face and commit to overcoming them. Seeing your own company through another person’s eyes and lived experience is a powerful way to teach empathy and understanding, crucial for the decision makers to understand the potential multigenerational impact of the decisions they make now. If you take flexible work and paid parental leave off the table now and overlook inappropriate behaviour how will this impact the people in your organisation?

Although DEI is often first on the hit list of cost cutting; chances are that you will be cutting more than just the budget.

Learn more about Cultivate Sponsorship here.

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Depending on a particular employee’s job requirements and personal life, an effective form of hybrid work may vary. 

Speaking on a panel at UNSW’s ‘Redesigning Work for a Hybrid Workforce’ event, Frasers Property Australia’s General Manager People & Culture, Ranna Alkadamani says that for her company, the sweet spot for hybrid work seems to be 2 to 3 days of working in the office and the rest from home.

This is particularly useful for their female employees, who Alkadamani says tend to work for 2 days from the office and 3 from home, with factors like caregiving responsibilities impacting this decision. 

“Gender equality is facilitated by flexible work,” she says, adding that if large corporations are serious about shifting the dial for women, then they need to think seriously about hybrid and flexible work. 

Pointing out research that they’ve conducted, Alkadamani says they’ve found “the key drivers” in their workforce is that people really value working from home as it helps them balance their work and life. She adds that working from home a few days of the week allows for time saved in not having to commute as well as cost-savings from food and travel. 

Despite these benefits of hybrid work, there are some who argue that workers need to return full-time to the office to be the most productive. 

In response to this kind of logic, Alkadamani says, “You can turn up at work and be just as ineffective as you are at home,” noting that different job types require different types of flexibility. 

“If you’ve signed up to be a GP or nurse, then you’ve signed up to show up,” she says, but adds that this doesn’t mean an office job– that could be done effectively from home– should be required to commute to the office full-time. 

“Work is something we do and it’s important to manage outcomes- it’s not just a place we go,” says Alkadamani. 

Adding to the conversation of managing hybrid workers, HR Advisor and Business Partner at the Art Gallery of NSW, YingYing Mai says “we don’t need to micromanage people to get the work done,” noting that having trust in your workers is important. 

Mai also notes that the cost-of-living crisis in Australia is something that cannot be ignored when discussing why allowance of hybrid work is necessary in today’s workforce. She’s seen employees have to move out of the city to be able to afford to live and that hybrid work arrangements are what’s allowed them to keep their jobs. 

Addressing the functionality of today’s cities to cater to a workforce journeying to the office 5 days a week, Associate Professor Philip Oldfield, Head of School, UNSW Built Environment, points out that Sydney isn’t currently set up to allow for effective commuting. 

He adds, however, that the benefit of hybrid work emerges when we realise that “not everyone’s home is set up to work from home”. 

I live in a tiny flat and have two children,” says Associate Professor Oldfield on why he finds it personally beneficial to have an available office space to work at.

“Different people have different needs at different times– it’s trying to find the culture and physical infrastructure to adapt to that.”

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The future of remote work and work from home (WFH) options have been garnering plenty of headlines in recent weeks, as large employers issue new rules on flexible work. 

While WFH isn’t the only form of workplace flexibility – and can even come with less flexibility in terms of tasks and hours expected – for many office and knowledge workers, working from home for all or at least some of the week has largely been normalised since it became the only option for continuing such work during the pandemic. 

But now employers are increasingly setting new rules. Elon Musk axed work from home on arriving at Twitter HQ as the social network’s new owner in late 2022, declaring that “remote work is no longer allowed.”

Other companies have been much gentler in issuing rules around such options. Citi recently issued a requirement for employees to return to the office at least three days a week. Google also wants its employees back in the office at least three days a week, unless other arrangements are approved, along with a number of other tech companies. Commonwealth Bank also recently issued a rule requiring staff to spend 50 per cent of their hours in the office. 

Still, some employers are bucking the trend – often thanks to union pushes and employee backlash. Earlier this month, the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) announced it had struck a deal with the Australian Public Service Commission to remove work from home caps. Meanwhile, NAB has also cemented the right to work from home for employees, thanks to an agreement reached with the Finance Sector Union. 

So how should employers navigate this new era of flexible work, where WFH options are not necessarily a given for those who may have expected it over the past couple of years? 

CEO of Parents At Work and Family Friendly Workplaces, Emma Walsh, sees workplace flexibility as “one of the single most powerful enablers of diversity and inclusion, gender equity and wellbeing.”

She says “the broad spectrum ‘health’ and ‘wealth’ benefits offered by flexibility cannot be underestimated”. 

But, she adds, workplace flexibility isn’t just about having the option to work from home. 

“It’s about examining the most effective ways to achieve individual and team based goals and tasks and ‘flexing’ to respond to changing needs in any given day or situation.”

Increasingly, Parents At Work are seeing hybrid working arrangements – where workers spend part of their week in the office and part of it at home – being cemented as the norm. 

During a recent webinar, they polled their audience and found  71 per cent of participants had a hybrid working arrangement, 24 per cent of participants always work from home and 5 per cent of participants are permanently on-site and/or in the office. 

“No two organisations are exactly the same,” says Walsh. “Every workplace needs to consider how flexible work can be done well in their environment as opposed to focussing on what doesn’t work.”  

Listen to team members 

Walsh says it’s critical that leaders listen to employees to design flexible work options, including hybrid work weeks. 

“The voice of the employee is so critical in how flexibility can be designed effectively. Too often employers impose flexible work guidelines without consultation and then wonder why it is so challenging to manage,” she says. 

Asia Pacific Director and member of the Future of Work advisors at HSM Advisory, Alison Hernandez, echoes this sentiment, noting that building and sustaining trust between employer and employee is essential to implementing flexible work.

Hernandez says that for employers, “this means listening actively to what people need and want to perform at their best and then co creating new ways of working with individuals and teams, whilst keeping the organisational needs in focus.”

Hernandez also shares how she has personally worked in a hybrid way for more than eight years, since moving from Sydney to northern NSW. During that time she has been role modelling flexibility, and recently became the first remote member of the HSM Advisory global team, headquartered in London. 

Hernandez says that as a single mum raising a daughter while building and growing a successful business for over a decade, the only way she could work for herself and her co founder who was also a working parent, was to create an environment “built on trust, transparency, great communication and flexibility.” She said that as a leader, this ultimately then flowed through to their team as they grew. She believes it became the “secret sauce” in attracting and retaining great people. 

Making flexible work, work 

Organisations should consider how they can better support meaningful connections if they want to get remote work right, says Hernandez. This means “investing in collaborative technologies to enable meaningful connections, more intentionality around communication and check-ins with their people to build transparency and clarity of vision, and leadership upskilling.”

Multimodal leadership is also required to successfully manage teams virtually and in person, Hernandez adds. This means being intentional about what is best achieved virtually – such as information sharing and project tracking – and what is best achieved in person, such as team comradery and celebration, creativity and brainstorming. 

“Equip leaders with the future skills they need to manage performance, but also to show up as decent human beings who genuinely demonstrate empathy and care for the wellbeing of the people they work with. And as a result they will be respected, and people will go above and beyond to do a great job,” she says. 

Future of work and hybrid working expert, Ariane Virtue, points out that different generations of employees will have different needs as well. 

“For the first time, we now have five generations in the workplace, (The silent generation, Baby Boomers, Gen X, Millennials, General Z) – from Joe Biden to Greta Thunberg,” says Virtue, adding that they’re “all at different career and life stages, with varied caring and personal responsibilities.”

As a consultant working to reshape flexible work and inclusivity, Virtue has some best practices for teams to work together in a hybrid environment. She says having the flexibility to choose what days to work from the office is important, as well as the visibility of team members’ schedules– whether they’re coming to the office or working remotely.

Virtue also recommends planning a hybrid schedule that includes team core days and planning engagement activities around team member schedules.

When it comes to implementing best practices for flexibility, Emma Walsh offers the reminder that the changes employers make don’t always have to be big.

She says: “Often it can be minor tweaks that can be made to ways of working that deliver an extraordinary benefit to your workforce.”

“Leaders need to be equipped to act as ‘inclusive leaders’ who can bring people together in ways that maximises their collective talent, effort and needs – teams aren’t static, they’re evolving all the time, and workplace flexibility is key to facilitating teams to be agile so they can rise and meet the changing needs of the organisation, customers and their peers.”

The business imperative for flexibility remains 

Maintaining work from home options is essential for employers that want to compete for the best talent, and nurture and support the talent they have. 

“Research is telling us that flex is number one priority for talent and the first question that head-hunters are asking is how and where do you best work, rather than salary expectations,” Ariane Virtue says. 

“It is imperative that work from home is maintained, for employees to maintain life / work alignment and organisations need to have the clarity of what flex means for their organisation – meaning, it should be clearly communicated, it should leverage collaboration technology, and embed team protocols of how to work flexibly, successfully and clarity of outcome and expectations. 

“It is not seen as a nice to have but a business imperative to normalise what has worked through the pandemic and retain the new ways of working. 

And although she’s worked remotely for years, Alison Hernandez says that the office is far from over. 

“There is certainly an important role that the workplace plays going forward. People crave human connection and moments of joy and laughter, and it needs to be these things that bring people back together in person,” she says. 

“Friendships for example, are a huge source of happiness – I know that personally many of my lifelong friendships were forged in the workplace. It is harder – but not impossible – to nurture those deep relationships virtually. So let’s repurpose the office for driving relationships, connecting, sharing knowledge, learning from each other in a more organic way. And trust people to design their work at an individual level and determine when, where and how they show up as their best and most productive self.”   

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Claire McCaffery is Chief Human Resources Officer at Accenture who has been with the employer for 20 years – working flexibly and mostly from home during her entire career with the firm. 

She started with Accenture when she already had two young kids and before going on to have a third baby, and she continued with the firm when she later became a single parent. 

“It would have been impossible without flexibility,” McCaffery tells Women’s Agenda. “We worked at home with Accenture before most people ever had those opportunities.” 

With her youngest child now 20, McCaffery still works remotely and says things are a little easier on the home side. When they were young, she says it was a juggle. She had support from neighbours, friends, colleagues, and work circle that she cites as significant. McCaffery had a nanny at different points; she juggled different childcare arrangements. But overall she speaks positively about having the opportunity to be with her kids, while continuing her career. She got to school performances, could support with homework, and do pick-ups and drop-offs. 

“It was all I could do. I was focused on being the best I could be at work and managing my children as best as a mother,” McCaffery says. 

Now, McCaffery is supporting more parents and carers at the firm to access the support and opportunities they need to build satisfying careers while engaging in family life. 

Accenture became a certified Family Inclusive Workplace in late 2021, an initiative of Family Friendly Workplaces and UNICEF Australia. 

A crucial part of this agenda is enabling – and encouraging – men to take paid parental leave, which McCaffery says her ex-husband, who was also with Accenture, could do twenty years ago, enabling him to three months to spend at home. Dads taking such stints of parental leave is increasingly becoming the norm at family-friendly employers, but it was unusual in the early 2020s. 

Accenture developed a two-year action plan for further developing a family-friendly workplace culture once they were certified in 2022, mainly on exploring the most inclusive approach to various leave offerings that covered everything from paid parental leave to miscarriage leave and leave to support those caring for a sick family member or someone with a disability. 

The firm now offers 18 weeks of paid parental leave for new parents of all gender identities and is intentionally pushing to normalise men taking leave, working flexibly and becoming active carers. 

The strategy is working. The firm has experienced an impressive uptick in fathers taking leave. Of the roughly 24 per cent of employees in Australia and New Zealand who have used their parental leave policy in the three years since it was introduced in 2018 – around 58 per cent (or almost 700) of the parents taking up such options were men. 

In addition to the parental leave policy, Accenture also offers Assisted Reproductive Treatment leave, with 37.5 hours of paid leave per year for employees trying to conceive via ART, including IVF. They offer flexible work options for those experiencing pregnancy-related illness and leave provisions to those who experience miscarriage or stillbirth. 

To support families, Accenture offers a family group, the Accent on Families program, focused on supporting parents and carers before, during and after parental leave. The goal is to provide a consistent and supportive experience that starts with pre-leave workshops and continues into support mechanisms to transition back into work. 

Accenture says its paid parental leave policies, family-friendly focus, and “storytelling” around flexibility have ultimately helped increase women’s workforce participation and caring responsibilities for men. Also important are several programs supporting female talent, including their ‘Return to Work’ and ‘Career Reboot’ programs, which aim to identify talent that doesn’t have traditional educational qualifications to take alternative reskilling pathways into new positions. McCaffery points to the experience of Rabia Zafar, a Digital Tech Developer Analyst who recently joined the firm. Zafar shares a testimonial on the experience: “As a Pakistani woman with no Australian experience, and as a mum returning from a career break, Accenture made it clear that these points were no barrier.” 

Accenture’s goal of having 30 per cent of their managing director roles internationally filled by women by 2025 has already been surpassed in ANZ, where women hold 32.8 per cent of such positions. Meanwhile, with 39.2 per cent of the workforce being women, Accenture ANZ say they are also well on their way to reaching their stated goal of gender parity by 2025. 

At a time when many large employers are pushing for employees to return to the office, McCaffery’s story of building a leadership career while working remotely and raising young children well before the pandemic pushed such leaders to work from home is a powerful one that demonstrates just what’s possible with flexibility and autonomy. 

McCaffery has accessed numerous opportunities – including promotions, that have ultimately led her to lead human resources. 

And while it takes workplace flexibility to make it happen, McCaffery also notes the work she puts in to ensure she stays connected. 

“I did have an ‘ah ha’ moment at one point, where I realised I need to intentionally expand my networking to make up for what you lose when you’re not building relationships in person. 

“That network is so important. Every job I’ve done, it’s from somebody in my network who has said, ‘Would you be interested in this?” 

Check out more from our series profiling family-friendly certified employers here.

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So will this momentum continue through 2023? Or are we set to see some progress made actually reverse or be rolled back completely, as some workplaces push to return to the pre-COVID ‘norms’ of the past?

Certainly, we can expect some rollbacks and reversals on workplace policies. 

But we may also see some positive shifts firmly remain on the priority agenda in favour of supporting employee wellbeing, as well as acknowledging the care and family responsibilities they have outside of paid work.

And with the tight jobs market expected to continue, and employers having to fight to attain and retain the best team members, we can expect to see an upward trend in employers doubling down on their efforts to make sure their workplace is an appealing proposition, particularly for employees to whom lifestyle and family time really matters.

Below are some of the trends we’ll see in 2023.  

The four day work week gains (further) momentum 

The four day work week gained significant attention in 2022, thanks to a massive study in the United Kingdom followed by a similar initiative rolled out in Australia, as well as some major employers like Unilever announcing it is implementing the workplace strategy across its local offices. 

Just this week, news broke that 100 more major companies in the UK will be joining the 4-Day Week campaign, which will see them offering employees a 32 hour work week with no loss of pay. In 2022, we can expect to see this modern approach to the work week entering the mainstream, with large employers officially rolling it out in Australia, as well as small and medium sized businesses and startups also following the lead. 

Work from home options continue to dominate employee searches

The Covid pandemic pushed options for working from home significantly and suddenly back in 2020, but in 2023 we will see that such options are (mostly) here to stay, especially given the high priority job seekers are placing on remote work. As Seek reports, the term “work from home” continues to be the number one search term across its jobs platform, a trend employers will need to leverage as they fight for talent in a tight jobs market. 

While some employers may have hoped to roll back part or all of the “work from home” opportunities that are now afforded to employees, the reality is that many workers across Australia have now shifted out of metropolitan areas, and/or have grown used to a daily/weekly routine that incorporates things that can’t be achieved by being in the office 9 to 5, Monday to Friday – such as dropping or picking up the kids from school or going for a run mid morning. Many Australians have also had more than three years to adapt their homes to accommodate what they need to be effective at work, and will want to continue to take advantage of their at-home setup. 

‘Primary’ and ‘secondary’ carer labels removed

The ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ carer labels that are typically applied to paid parental leave policies are on their way out in Australia, thanks to a number of major employers like KPMG, ING and Baker McKenzie removing such definitions to enable ALL staff to access the same policies on paid parental leave, regardless of whether they are mothers, fathers, adoptive parents or something else. Also helping are shifts in government-paid parental leave, with the Albanese Government keen to promote flexibility in the reforms scheme offered, and more options for men to take the leave. In 2023, we can expect a huge number of employers shifting to label-free paid parental leave and making intentional moves to encourage more men to take parental leave. 

More employers will offer paid parental leave 

Currently, three in five employers offer access to paid parental leave in addition to the government paid scheme, either to both women and men or to women only, according to figures from the Workplace Gender Equality Agency. 

In 2023, we can expect to see the proportion of employees who don’t currently have access to shrink – in line with the upwards trend in employers offering such leave over the past five years. Employers will be watching closely the policy shifts that are occurring at the Federal level and the push by the Albanese Government to see more employers complementing the government paid scheme. Particularly, we can expect to see more small and medium sized businesses offering paid parental leave, as they increasingly appreciate the opportunity and business case for supporting new parents and carers. 

More superannuation on parental leave 

Paying superannuation during paid parental leave is often a small cost for employers, but a meaningful one that shows they are actively hoping to help address gender gaps in retirement savings later on, and acknowledge that nobody should be penalized because they are supporting and participating in unpaid care work. We can increasingly expect superannuation payments during paid parental leave to become the norm in 2023, rather than the exception. 

More paid domestic violence leave 

With the NSW Government moving to offer 20 days of paid domestic violence leave across the public sector in September 2022, we can expect more employers to follow the lead and roll out their own paid leave policies aimed at supporting victim-survivors. 

As more workplaces acknowledge their role in safety, we can also expect more initiatives to be rolled out aiming to create safe spaces for their team members, and programs designed to offer financial and psychological support. These could include things like access to temporary accommodation for employees and their family who need it, a program supporting access to “burner” phones, and more on-team “first responders” trained to support staff who may be experiencing domestic or family violence. 

Employers responding to new Respect At Work laws 

With the Resect At Work legislation passing the Australian parliament this week, which will see an onus placed on employers to prevent workplace sexual harassment, we can expect some swift actions from employers aiming to respond and be ready and able to meet the new requirements. 

Under the changes, employers will now have a “positive duty” to prevent sex discrimination, as well as sexual harassment and victimisation in the workplace. While employers have 12 months before the laws take effect, they are being encouraged to introduce the necessary changes required earlier. Such changes require ‘reasonable and proportionate measures’ for preventing sex discrimination and sexual harassment, which could include overhauling or implementing new policies and procedures, establishing new support mechanisms for employees, delivering regular training and educational, and collecting and monitoring data. 

More employers will adopt and promote family-friendly benefits 

In a tight recruitment market, employers will need to do more to stand out. We’ll see more organisations promoting their remote work and work from home options on job ads throughout 2023, to meet the fact that candidates are already filtering their searches to find these offerings. 

We will also see employers doing more to promote their family friendly benefits and credentials – for example, highlighting the paid parental leave they offer, within their job ads and promotions. And potentially noting the other forms of leave on offer, such as fertility leave, menstruation and menopause leave. These companies know such leave entitlements signal to potential candidates that they take the wellbeing of their team members (as well as their team member families) seriously. 

We expect to see more employers adopting the National Work & Family Standards and being certified as a Family Inclusive Workplace to show their ongoing commitment to greater work life wellbeing and removing barriers to workforce participation, particularly for those with diverse and varied caring responsibilities that have previously shut out from job opportunities.

Employers will commit to creating proactive action plans that support carers and other family friendly ways of working 

Employers will need to be more aware of the caring needs more broadly across their workforce and rise to the occasion to support their employees bridging the gap between their work and caring duties.

We can expect to see employers recognise that caring commitments is a normal part of many employees’ lives and proactively put in place caring policies and benefits that respond when caring needs increase and change. 

Employers will be need to be more vigilant in ensuring that carer discrimination is being addressed and ensure managers are proactively educated in how to accommodate caring requirements when designing jobs and allocating workloads. 

New and creative initiatives to “stand out” as an employer 

What more can employers do to stand out as the top place for people to work? 

Through 2022, we’ve seen great employers getting increasingly creative on what they are offering their people, such as initiatives to support mental health and raise awareness on mental health, as well as new forms of leave to highlight the different needs of culturally diverse talent. 

More will want to show 

And 2023 is guaranteed to present more such unique offerings. 

It’s no longer enough to offer a “dream job” or even the best and most competitive pay, companies need to be working to support the full wellbeing of team members, as well as their families and life outside of work. 

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Now we are seeing the fallout of such conflicting approaches in the ‘The Great Resignation’ that is apparently showing few signs of resigning itself. 

We saw the lowest unemployment rate in 28 years in Australia back in June, down to 3.5 per cent, with some economists suggesting this could even fall below 3 per cent. Job vacancies have doubled since the COVID-19 pandemic.

So what’s an organisation to do when it desperately needs and is competing for excellent talent?

There are many other important and compelling levers that can be pulled that go beyond the obvious: competitive salary and bonus structures.

Indeed, one such lever is transparency and signalling active commitments to close the gender pay gap. We’ve seen examples of this recently among the big consulting firms, which have been publishing salary levels in a bid to attract key talent and help close gender pay gaps. PwC released such figures back in April, with KPMG  also emailing their people last month to reveal the lowest level of employee pay across each tier, all in a bid to help attract staff and show it’s serious about closing the gender gap. Deloitte followed a week or so later.

These are good examples of an immediate response across the professional services sector, which has thousands of jobs open across Australia right now.

All employers need to get creative 

Companies of all sizes and industries need to consider how they are retaining staff– in addition to retraining them– and put measures in place to ensure they are doing everything possible to provide a great place to work.

Most importantly, companies also need to ensure they are promoting such measures and walk the talk. 

As our Family Friendly Workplaces research and data tells us, promoting great workplace policies and procedures can have make a real difference in attracting staff and retaining team members. 

We know that one of the first things a good portion of the talent pool will look at when considering applying for a role is what’s on offer to support their lives outside of work. This includes the ability to work flexible hours, have more autonomy over where they work and an acknowledgement that caring and other life well-being moments matter and need to be accommodated for and invested in

Reducing work-life conflict remains a common challenging issue many employees struggle to achieve and they’re looking for an employer who understands that challenge and is willing to help them attain greater work-life wellbeing.  

Such candidates may undertake searches across LinkedIn and other platforms to see what other employees of the business are saying about their work: including how they are spending free time, the purpose they are pursuing, what they are saying about work-life balance, and any other hints that reveal their experiences around what it’s like to work there.

Candidates may look to diversity within leadership teams and on boards, and seek out publicly available information on gender targets.

But one of the first things they will do is aim to seek out just how flexible their work week will be. Given they may be leaving an existing flexible working environment for this new opportunity, returning to the workforce after having kids, or leaving an existing employer due to a lack of flexibility, what they discover on flexibility will be everything.

Candidate priorities matter

Ultimately, candidates will be looking at a potential employer who can meet their immediate life priorities and personal goals..

McKinsey recently released research on what such priorities may include, undertaking a global study of six countries (including Australia) to identify five distinct pools of talent and noting what the priorities are across each such pool.

The findings are fascinating. They highlight how employers need to take a multifaceted approach if they want to attract and retain great talent. There is no one-size-fits-all that will be enough to meet the talent market available. 

The first thing to note from the McKinsey research is that the usual compensation and job advancement carrots are not enough. From there, they named a number of key categories (with detailed explanations of their motivations and what helps lure them provided here) .

1. The traditionalists. This pool of talent is “career-oriented” who care about work-life balance but are willing to make tradeoffs for their jobs. Their motivations are competitive compensation, job title, company status and career advancement. 

2. The do-it yourselfers. This pool is about autonomy and covers the largest share of survey respondents. These workers value flexibility, meaningful work and compensation – but ultimately flexibility above all else. McKinsey concedes that attracting this cohort can be challenging for organisations, as in many cases they will need to show that what they offer will be better than what many of these workers have been able to create for themselves.

3. The caregivers and others. This pool is what McKinsey has described as the cohort that have been sitting it out at home. Some are actively looking for work, while others are passively job seeking and seeking the opportunity that can justify them re-entering the paid labour force. Still motivated by compensation, flexibility is a major priority, alongside employee health and wellbeing and career development. A huge portion of the group have caring responsibilities (for kids, parents or themselves) and need more flexibility than has typically been offered in traditional employment. They may be lured by companies that are willing to work with their schedules: including with part time options, flexible hours and four day work weeks.

4. The idealists. This pool is typically students and younger part time workers, with a typical age of 18 to 24. They typically are free of caring responsibilities and mortgages. Compensation is lower down the priority list, with the cohort focusing on flexibility, career development and meaningful work.

5. The relaxers. This is the pool where career no longer comes first. A mix of retirees, as well as those who are not looking for work, this group could be open to opportunities, under the right circumstances. Now outside of traditional careers, money is less of a priority, so their motivations often centre mostly around the promise of meaningful work.

One thing that’s clear across at least four of these five talent pools is the need for flexibility. They are not seeking a traditional work week and environment. They are looking for some control over their time, and to be able to set upfront how and when they can work without needing to fill in an application form nor ask for permission every time they choose to shift their work patterns. 

It’s no longer as simple as compensation. Employers need to ensure the flexibility they are offering is real. That it’s actually being taken up and demonstrated by senior leaders and teams. They need to ensure that team members feel they can advance while working flexibly, or part time, or on four day work weeks.

Also clear in this research is the value of meaningful and purpose-driven work, especially in ensuring jobs are “sticky” for team members and also for enticing more great talent into their organisations. McKinsey suggests that companies double down on what their employee value propositions actually are, and get serious culture, purpose and values – and be “creative and authentic” in their outreach to the multiple talent pools because ultimately, “workers know the difference, and they are voting with their feet”.

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There is no doubt that many organisations are making inroads and striving to do their bit to tackle gender inequality in the workplace, but what really delivers results?

There are a number of key accelerants for driving gender equity at work, according to a new report by Chief Executive Women and Bain & Co. 

Analysing 22 companies that are outperforming the ASX 300 average on having gender-balanced leadership teams – including Telstra, ANZ, Deloitte and QBE – the researchers sought to identify five key accelerants to change that are aiding these employers in making it happen. 

What gets measured gets done

At the top of the list is “committed and accountable executives”. Reaching diversity, equity and inclusion targets won’t happen without genuine commitment to the goals. Such commitment also needs accountability: through scorecard reviews and linking bonuses, and other forms of compensation, directly to hitting targets. 

But accountable executives aren’t the only path to driving equity. Second among the top five accelerants to progress identified is “action-oriented commitments”.

This is where we see the link to workplaces that aim to be “family friendly” by addressing paid parental leave and flexibility options. Making a commitment to getting more Dads to take paid parental leave – and directly tracking and measuring that commitment according to the number of dads actually using leave policies – is one example of how this can be done. 

Acceptable not just available

Another example is in intentionally creating and demonstrating flexibility options. We know too often that flexible working can become an option used by working mothers alone, and research has highlighted some of the concerns fathers have about being committed to their careers, should they request flexible work. We need to change this. We need to actively, and intentionally, normalise flexible work for everyone: mothers, fathers, those without children, those needing to care for an older family member, those seeking to address their health or life outside of work. 

As the CEW and Bain researchers note, every one of the 22 employers they spoke to said flexibility is critical to employee retention. But just making flexibility available isn’t enough, flexible work must be practiced at all levels of the business.

COVID-19 has actually propelled the mainstreaming of flexibility forward, according to this report, and as many of us have directly seen in our own businesses. The pandemic has forced organsiations to embrace “flexibility as a normal, gender-neutral practice” while also learning that flexible arrangements can actually be successful for any team member, and in any business. 

By everyone, as CEW notes, that also includes senior executives and C-suite leaders. Senior leadership role modelling of flexibility is critical, just as it is to role model taking paid parental leave, demonstrating where you’re getting involved in family life, and intentionally showing that you have a life outside of work. Role modelling helps ensure that flexible work is not only just seen as possible – but also acceptable. 

It was great to see some excellent examples of policies, initiatives and changes that have occurred at the top employers, highlighted within the report. Such examples include BHP, which recently created a job-share position at the vice-president level – something that would have been unheard of in the past. Another is SEEK, which has initiatives to directly counter any bias in performance management reviews that may come up against those who’ve taken parental leave or other forms of extended leave.

Targeted action speaks louder than intentions

The report highlighted the “return to work” programs run by Deloitte and ANZ that aim to specifically recruit new team members from candidates who have taken a career break of two or more years. These programs provide wholistic support to those who’re hired, including flexible work from the outset.

Meanwhile at Mercer, the company’s “career journey maps” were shared as a key means to intentionally highlighting the positive stories that occur with help from workplace policies, and just how being an inclusive employer supports team members. Mercer spoke about one of the most powerful team member stories shared as being about a leader who had affirmed their gender while working with the business. This story gave the leader the opportunity to highlight what it’s like to be a transgender woman in busines. 

QBE also shared a number of their initiatives in the report, including the support it offers for those experiencing pregnancy loss, as well as those needing family domestic violence support. The insurer found that after launching initiatives like these, that there were run-on effects beyond those who directly benefited. They saw the positives in employees sharing how they saw their organisation as one that “authentically cared for its staff”. 

Being loud and proud inspires others to follow

It’s so encouraging to see these organisations being open about what is working for them. 

It’s information sharing that goes a long way in proving the point that policies enabling flexibility, paid parental leave, domestic violence leave and other mechanisms for supporting employees are only as good as how you committed you are to them, and how deliberate you are in ensuring they are seen as accessible and acceptable by all employees.

To learn more about how employers are implementing good policies to support employees, check out the Family Friendly Workplaces podcast.

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It’s an added bonus she’s achieved after leaving a full-time role in government in order to set her own hours and work location, while caring for a sick family member.

The flexibility – and more money – she has achieved has also helped significantly during the disruptions caused by the pandemic.

“On average, as a freelancer, I’m earning between 20-50 per cent more than I was as a full-time employee in the Government,” Cardine tells Women’s Agenda. “During my best year yet, in business, I’m proud to say that I’ve doubled what I was earning as a public servant.”

Cardine’s experience is far from alone when it comes to the users of Freelancing Gems, the female-founded platform dedicated to connecting employers with women seeking freelancing opportunities.

In a recent polling of their audience, the platform found that 48 per cent of women were making more money than when they were salaried employees, and 1 in 5 are earning more than $120,000 a year.

Meanwhile, 60 per cent of their members are earning the same income as they were in their corporate, salaried role while working less hours. They also found over half of respondents were earning over 80k per year from freelancing.

Freelancing Gems champions women as freelancers, consultants, sole-traders, small business owners and side hustlers, making it easy to obtain the resources needed to find worthwhile jobs across all types of industries.

Members get access to business tools, coaching, educational and networking opportunities to help grow and scale their businesses. While men are allowed to join Freelancing Gems, the platform’s content and coaching speaks specifically to the challenges faced by women in the freelancing space.

Ultimately, the platform aims to help close the gender pay gap – seeing women getting paid what they’re worth, while achieving the flexibility they want or need.

Co-founder and CEO, Fleur Madden, created the platform after learning that female consultants charged up to 38 per cent less than their male counterparts.

This felt unacceptable and she knew it was important to make room for women to get equitable work. She and the rest of the team at Freelancing Gems are on a mission to aid women in finding meaningful work that pays them what they’re worth.

“Our main goal at Freelancing Gems is for women to have ongoing work opportunities to contribute meaningfully. be it in a remote, flexible, freelance, consulting, part-time role– and that they have the knowledge and confidence to charge competitively,” says Madden.

Merendi Leverett is another Freelancing Gems user who has found more flexibility, and at some points more weekly pay, than when she was in a full time role.

She took up freelancing work after unexpectedly losing her salaried job in government, and being left without an income.

Now, a business consultant, Leverett says she earns similar money to her full-time role, while working less hours and getting more flexibility to care for her children.

“Most weeks, I only work 20 hours as I have chosen in the past 18 months to work only school hours,” says Leverett. “And I am earning the same, if not more, than if I had a full-time job.”

Making the leap into freelancing

While freelancing can be incredibly lucrative, many people may be hesitant to leave their salaried position where regular pay is a contractual agreement.

Creative consultant and member of Freelancing Gems, Kymberly Louise, argues that the pros outweigh the cons for those willing to put in the work required of freelancers.

“Yes, sure, there is the element of no guarantee of salary each month/week, and that’s not for everyone. However, if you are great at what you do, and have built a network of business contacts, then freelancing/consulting is definitely something you can do,” says Louise.

“If you have been thinking about it, set yourself a runway and start planning to take the leap!”

Madden notes some tips for success as a freelancer: advising women do their research on competitive rates, build a supportive network and embrace their differences to set themselves apart.

And she knows now is the time to promote opportunities for women to get work that pays what they deserve, and gives them the opportunity to have the flexibility and control they need.

“We are only just getting started,” says Madden. “Everything happening around the world right now, what rings true to me is that representation matters at all levels– government, media, health, boardrooms and workplaces, so decisions are made by women and not for women.”

Freelancing Gems is a digital jobs platform that helps women redefine their 9 to 5 and find their next meaningful role. They match Australian employers with rare gems of female talent across a range of industries.

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Preferably both, you might say. But Australians are placing more emphasis on the value of flexibility and may be willing to sacrifice pay in order to achieve it.

Six in ten workers want more flexibility over how they structure their working time, according to new research released today by ADP Research Institute’s People at Work 2022: A Global Workforce View.

While pay continues to trump other factors when it comes to what people want in a job, almost half of the workers surveyed (48 per cent) said they would actually take a pay cut if it meant improving their work-life balance and achieving more flexibility and control over how and when they work.

Meanwhile, 41 per cent said they would take a pay cut in order to guarantee flexibility around how they structure their hours – even if their total hours didn’t change week to week.

Despite these findings and the clear interest in flexibility, the survey creators express surprise that just nine per cent of Australians have been offered the opportunity of a four day work week

They are calling for more employers to consider flexibility, especially as 62 per cent of workers surveyed said they have contemplated a major career change in just the past year.

Kylie Baullo, the MD of ADP for Australia and New Zealand, said the results show that businesses need to get creative in adjusting to employee expectations – including by considering ideas like the four day work week.

“Such arrangements would previously have been dismissed, but now they are an example of real-world change caused by shifting worker priorities and astute business leaders,” she said.

“Business leaders must consider what employees value and be open-minded and accommodating in negotiation.” The idea of the four day work week has been getting significantly more airtime in recent months, as a major study into its impact on productivity, wellbeing and gender equality kicked off last month in the United Kingdom, and as more Australian businesses are reportedly trialling and considering the idea

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