Strategic Flexibility Toolkit
A guide to taking an organisation-wide approach
to implementing and managing flexibility
February 2015
DRAFT FOR CONSULTATION
Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Creating the work environment of the future.................................................................................... 3
A strategic approach to flexibility ..................................................................................................... 4
About the toolkit .............................................................................................................................. 5
Key concepts and terms.................................................................................................................. 7
Defining flexibility ............................................................................................................................ 7
Different types of flexibility .............................................................................................................. 7
Definition of other relevant concepts ............................................................................................... 8
Flexibility capability framework and Assessment ............................................................................. 9
Flexibility capability framework ........................................................................................................ 9
Flexibility capability self-assessment: ‘where are we now?’ ........................................................... 15
Overall scoring .............................................................................................................................. 28
The flexibility spectrum.................................................................................................................. 29
Making it happen........................................................................................................................... 31
The change process ..................................................................................................................... 31
How to manage the journey - overview ......................................................................................... 32
Achieving change in each capability ............................................................................................. 37
Establishing your detailed transformation roadmap ....................................................................... 37
Appendix A: Specific flexibility benefits and costs ......................................................................... 51
Summary of benefits ..................................................................................................................... 51
Summary of costs ......................................................................................................................... 52
Introduction
The way we work is changing. Today’s organisations need to prepare for a
future of work that looks very different to the work of today. Certainly no one
can predict the future but failing to take note of the trends that continue to
influence today’s work place could carry an even greater risk.
Realising the significant opportunities requires a new approach, one that sees
flexibility as a strategic opportunity and implements a strategy to realise the
potential. This toolkit supports organisations to achieve that aim.
Creating the work environment of the future
We can see changes emerging across all of the major domains that could be said to create ‘work’: place,
time and purpose. Leading organisations are exploring new office configurations. New time zones are
opening up for a wider range of organisations that can now work with offshore partners. The types of work
that meet the demands of our knowledge-based economy are becoming increasingly specialised and a
generation of workers is joining the ranks for whom work has a greater connection with their individual
purpose.
One of the most significant factors driving these changes is the evolution of computing and communications
technology to the point where integrated computing and communications is available ubiquitously in Australia
and other developed economies and on a widespread basis within our region. This evolution has enabled a
mobile workforce who can work across locations. As part of this evolution, there has been a marked increase
in the quality of the communication experience that is possible, both interpersonally and in terms of
knowledge-management. This has further enabled the possibility of disconnecting the worker from the
traditional workplace, time zone and / or timeframes of work. Whilst not every job suits the new liberty of time
and place of work, many jobs in our knowledge-based economy could be suitable, all else being equal.
All of this means that the future of work is unlikely to look like the traditional workplace of today. Not all work
is likely to be completely tethered to the places and times that have been important to this point. The mobile,
flexible work style that has been known by some professions and sectors of the economy is now becoming
more widespread. Traditional working arrangements are being disrupted. As a result, an organisation’s risk
may be increased if they don’t adopt new ways of working.
It is not only the external push of technological change, globalisation and digitisation that is driving
organisations to change the way they work. A significant internal pressure is beginning to play a larger part:
employee demand for flexibility. That demand is generated by increasing work-life interference (Skinner and
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Pocock, 2014) and increasing personal life pressures, particularly for the ‘sandwich’ generation – so called
because they are sandwiched between responsibilities caring for both their children and their parents.
Separately, employees in Gen Y and those nearing retirement value flexibility particularly highly as do other
groups such as people with disabilities and carers.
There is also now a legislative imperative to offer flexibility under certain circumstances. The National
Employment Standards that are part of the Fair Work Act 2009 require all employers to consider employees’
requests for flexibility. The Fair Work Act 2009 also prohibits discrimination in the workplace on the basis of
factors such as family or carer’s responsibilities, among other things, and makes provision for ‘individual
flexibility arrangements’.
1
The Australian Work and Life Index 2014, Natalie Skinner and Barbara Pocock, University of South Australia Centre for Work + Life
http://unisa.edu.au/Research/Centre-for-Work-Life/Our-research/Current-Research/Australian-Work-And-Life-Index/
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A strategic approach to flexibility
The strategic approach sees flexibility capability as an important organisational issue. When issues are seen
as organisational, rather than individual, there is often a parallel realisation that they need to be dealt with
comprehensively, taking into account every part of the organisation.
In the case of flexibility, the transformation that occurs when an organisation improves its flexibility capability
is far-reaching. It can involve creating new processes and systems around work to enable a wholly different
way of doing work. It can require managers and employees to change the way they work. It can also require
new infrastructure or technology. Organisations need to create a holistic, integrated implementation
approach that involves all the key players who can enable flexibility.
Due to the increasing imperative for organisations to improve their flexibility capability and the strategic
nature of the move to improved flexibility, flexibility is no longer an issue that is largely confined to the
working relationship between an employee and their manager. It involves many parts of the
organisation, which need to work together to create a successful transformation.
The strategic approach seeks to enable internal decision makers to make decisions that support the overall
business direction. This is the role of a flexibility strategy, to enable decision making as well as to support
implementation more broadly.
Flexibility is a strategic issue because leaders play a large role in supporting it. Leaders support the
transformation with resourcing, participate by modelling flexibility themselves, create accountability for
various aspects of the transformation and inspire and lead the organisation through the change process.
The final result of a strategic approach to flexibility will be an organisation with a stronger workforce capacity
and improved bottom line. The challenge is worth rising to, but an approach that is not integrated, holistic,
clear in its rationale and led by leaders, will fail to achieve its end.
Flexibility and gender equality
The achievement of flexibility is a key driver and enabler of gender equality in workplaces. Access to
flexibility in the workplace at all levels enables greater access to roles and leadership positions across an
organisation for both women and men. Lack of flexibility has been shown as one of the primary barriers to
greater workforce participation of women.
Recent Australian research shows there are significant gender differences in the uptake of flexible work.
Currently women are more likely to utilise part-time work, parental leave and other non-standard working
patterns, resulting in increased gender inequality in access to quality work and promotions. Further, there
currently are fewer opportunities for combining flexible work (especially part-time work) with management
and supervisory positions, which are traditionally dominated by men. The challenge facing employers is to
increase flexible work arrangements that do not condemn employees to low quality jobs and leave women
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on the track of jobs that lack quality and career opportunities and rather ensure that flexibility is part of the
mainstream way work is done.
The opportunity
Research also shows that workplace flexibility is a key driver of employment decisions and job performance
for both women and men. For organisations across Australia, there is an immediate opportunity to improve
the organisation’s overall position by offering flexible work arrangements:
 Flexibility has significant potential to improve attraction and retention. In a recent global study, 43%
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of respondents indicated that they would prefer flexibility over a pay rise (UnifyCo, 2014) . Research by
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the Diversity Council of Australia shows that flexibility is one of the top five employment drivers for men.
 Flexibility can significantly improve productivity. Flexibility has been shown to contribute to improved
work performance, improved organisational performance, reduced absenteeism and reduced turnover. In
2
Skinner, N, Hutchinson, C, Pocock, B, (2012) The biq squeeze: Work, home and care in 2012, University of South Australia: Centre for
Work + Life: Adelaide.
3
http://www.unify.com/us/news/2846D70A-ACA6-4146-9B00-955E6114038E/
4
Diversity Council Australia (2012), Men get flexible! Mainstreaming flexible work in Australian business, DCA: Sydney.
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a recent study by Stanford University, people working from home achieved a 13% productivity
improvement over their office-based counterparts.
 Flexibility can result in cost base reduction. Deloitte and Google found that large organisations can
save $350,000 per annum on hiring costs alone through a flexible workplace technology policy (Deloitte,
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2013) . Other costs benefits may be achieved by reduced workspace requirements.
Flexibility is not only a benefit to businesses, but also to employees, who can experience reduced stress,
improved job satisfaction and better health outcomes through having access to flexible work arrangements but not when the systems, structures and culture of the workplace don’t adequately support flexibility.
The challenge
The present challenge for organisations is to improve their capacity to offer flexible work arrangements –
their flexibility capability – so that they can take up the opportunities of flexibility and achieve better business
and employee outcomes. Approximately half (47.7%) of Australia’s employers have a flexibility policy
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however only 13.6% have a flexibility strategy (Workplace Gender Equality Agency, 2014) . This gap
indicates that on the whole flexibility is not managed a strategic tool that can achieve business benefit, so for
many organisations the challenge is real.
About the toolkit
Toolkit objectives
This toolkit aims to support a strategic approach to flexibility. Specifically, the aims of this toolkit are to:
 ensure alignment between an organisation’s flexible working arrangements strategy, gender equality
strategy and broader business strategy
 provide a comprehensive framework for organisational flexibility
 enable organisations to plot where they are on the flexibility spectrum
 assist organisations conduct a flexibility capability assessment
 enable organisations to develop and implement an organisation wide approach to improving flexibility
capability.
Who is this toolkit for?
The toolkit is designed to assist organisations of all sizes and in all industries. Key users of this document
include: human resources practitioners within organisations of all sizes and in all industries, of all levels of
seniority; CFOs, COOs, members of the finance department; diversity practitioners; managers and
employees responsible who are managing and taking up flexibility; change managers and their teams; senior
executives and organisational leaders; Information and Technology professionals; and facilities and
accommodation teams.
How to use this toolkit
The toolkit first defines and describes flexibility, then provides an overview of the flexibility journey, which is
described as transformation. After explaining the transformation process the toolkit provides a flexibility
capability assessment so that organisations can make sense of the following framework for improving
flexibility capability within their context. The framework provides options relative to an organisation’s level of
flexibility capability.
Importantly, your flexibility strategy should be developed in accordance with your broader gender equality or
diversity strategy. When organisations become more strategic in their approach to gender equality, the
resulting strategy will link to and support broader business strategies and objectives. The Agency’s gender
strategy toolkit provides further resources.
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6
http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/the-connected-workplace.html
https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/press-release_WGEA_gender_data_launch.pdf
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When to use this toolkit?
This toolkit is useful when your organisation is:
 considering your business case for flexibility
 reviewing your flexibility capability
 planning to increase the availability of flexible work arrangements
 intending to learn from, tweak or improve current flexible work arrangements
 developing your gender equality strategy.
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Key concepts and terms
There is a variety of different flexibility options. It is important that
organisation understand and consider the full flexibility offering in developing
a flexibility strategy and in communicating the options available to employees.
Defining flexibility
Throughout this paper, flexible work is discussed in terms of the organisational capability called ‘flexibility’,
not as ‘flexible work arrangements’. This is to reflect the broader organisational response that is required,
which goes beyond the arrangement each employee has with their manager to consider flexibility as an
issue that has the capacity to benefit the whole organisation.
We refer to strategic flexible work, to describe the type of work that has become a win-win for employers and
employees, ensuring its longevity and widespread uptake. Strategic flexible work Is the flexible work that is
mainstreamed and widespread within an organisation. It offers the most advantages for employers and
employees alike.
Different types of flexibility
Flexible work options can be incredibly varied. The table below sets out a range of flexible work options that
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cover most scenarios.
Type of flexibility
Description
Flexible hours of work
This is where employees are able to vary their start and finish times.
This is where an employee may agree with his/her manager to work the same
number of weekly (or fortnightly or monthly) working hours over a shorter
Compressed working weeks period. Changes to salary are not required. For example, a forty hour week
may be worked at the rate of ten hours per day for four days instead of eight
hours a day for five days.
Time-in-lieu
Refers to where an employee who works approved overtime may be
compensated by way of time in lieu or overtime. No payment is involved.
Telecommuting
Refers to working at a location other than the official place of work. There is
now a whole range of terms that refer to working across various locations,
including ‘mobile working’, ‘distributed work’, ‘virtual teams’ and ‘telework’.
These are referred to collectively as ‘telecommuting’ in this toolkit.
Part-time work
A regular work pattern where the employee works less than full-time and is
paid on a pro-rata basis for that work.
Job sharing
Means that a full-time job role is analysed and its tasks divided into two job
roles to be undertaken by two employees who each work part of the
designated period (part-week or part-fortnight or other) and are paid on a prorata basis for the part of the period s/he completes.
Carer’s leave
Leave taken to help an employee deal with caring responsibilities, family
emergencies, and the death or serious illness of close family members.
Purchased leave
An employee, in agreement with his/her manager, may take a period of leave
without pay (after taking annual leave allocation) in a year. Employers typically
deduct the salary for the period of leave without pay from the employee’s
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The types of flexible work outlined here are based on the options set out in the Workplace Gender Equality Agency reporting
requirements. The Agency’s types were compared with the Diversity Council of Australia’s framework to arrive at the definitions above.
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Type of flexibility
Description
annual salary and then average the remaining salary over the
Unplanned Leave
An employee has informal access to leave for unanticipated or unplanned
events
Flexible Careers
Employees are able to enter, exit and re-enter the workforce, or to increase or
decrease their workload or career pace at different life stages
Other Choices about the
Timing of Work
When an employee has other choices about when they work, not mentioned
above. Choices include overtime and deciding when to take breaks.
Definition of other relevant concepts
Table of key terms and definitions
Term
Description
Executive leadership team
‘Executive leadership team’ or ‘executive leadership’ is considered to be the
CEO, C-suite and Board or equivalent.
Transformational change
Change that is widespread and far reaching, with a significant impact on
fundamental aspects of operations.
Strategic flexibility
Flexibility that is mainstream and widespread within an organisation, rather than
ad hoc, infrequent or taken up by only a minority.
Collaborative technologies
Information and communication technologies that enable collaboration between
work colleagues.
Flexibility capability
An organisation’s skills, knowledge, systems and behaviours that support
strategic flexibility.
Capability
A set of knowledge, skills, awareness and behaviours held at the organisational
level.
Competence
A set of knowledge, skills, awareness and behaviours held at the individual level.
Other useful terms
In the past, flexibility has been understood as a benefit to employees, with little focus on the potential
benefits to the organisation. As a result, the focus has been on individuals and their managers.
The following terms reflect an organisation-wide approach to flexibility:
 the flexible organisation – an organisation, with embedded, widespread flexibility
 flexible teams – teams where most or all employees work flexibly,
 agile workforce – a workforce of employees capable of responding strategically to uncertainty,
 activity based working – an office work style where the workplace infrastructure is closely harmonized
with the organisation’s work activities
 work hubs - office locations that tend to be available to casual users and facilitate collaboration
 co-working spaces – shared working environments where coworkers are not usually employed by the
same organisation.
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Flexibility capability framework
and Assessment
In order to achieve powerful, effective flexibility, capabilities are needed in a
number of areas. The flexibility capability framework has been developed.
The framework outlines ten specific capabilities that are required for
achieving organisation wide and strategic flexibility. Together these individual
capabilities constitute an organisation’s flexibility capability.
Flexibility capability framework
The ten capability areas are illustrated in figure 1. This section provides a description of each of the ten
capabilities and a self-assessment tool to assist organisations diagnose their current status on each
capability (as either limited, basic or strategic) and enables organisations to determine where are they now
on the flexibility spectrum.
This will enable organisations to develop a comprehensive view as to the status of the essential capabilities
and provide a clear picture of areas of strength and development, which can feed into the development of
the organisation’s flexibility goals, strategy and action plan.
Figure 1 Flexibility capability framework
For many organisations, the degree of change required is therefore quite significant. Sections 4 and 5
together outline how organisations can successfully make this change. For now, it is important to
acknowledge that a comprehensive appreciation of the status quo is the first step in establishing a
successful, effective move towards greater flexibility capability in your organisation.
Capability 1: Business case
A clear business case is an essential prerequisite for building commitment to a flexibility strategy that can
lead to effective implementation. Whether the organisation is commercial, public or in the voluntary/not-forprofit sector, a business case is vital to demonstrate whether flexibility will assist in ensuring the
organisation’s economic viability.
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Weakness at this stage in the strategy development process has the potential to undermine the success of
everything that follows. In particular, it is important for organisation’s leadership team to be ‘on side’ in the
early stages. Without a strong business case that establishes the organisation’s return on its investment,
leaders are unlikely to invest in improving capability of any kind. In the case of flexibility, leaders’ investment
is not only financial but also personal - leaders play an important role in championing and ‘modelling’
flexibility by working flexibly themselves.
The move to flexibility is transformational. As such organisations that don’t clearly perceive the business
rationale for flexibility have a weak basis for long-term, wide-ranging commitment. It is insufficient to rely on a
sense of corporate responsibility or supportive attitudes and values to see the move to flexibility through,
even more than it is insufficient in other change programs.
What is the business case for flexibility?
Leading organisations in gender equality have recognised that building and maintaining gender diverse
teams and an overall workforce is essential to improve business performance. Flexibility is a known change
lever that establishes significant potential to improve an organisation’s gender balance.
The particular business case for flexibility is established by looking across a range of areas of business
performance. An assessment of the pluses and minuses will usually balance towards the positive side for
most organisations, based on the measurable benefits that can be realised.
For organisations beginning their journey towards improved flexibility, there will be some advantage in
looking at both the potential costs and the potential benefits to determine their relevance.
Refer to appendix A for more detail on specific benefits and costs.
Capability 2: Leadership
Organisations with strategic flexibility have strong executive leadership commitment to flexibility, together
with clear leadership in the change process. Taking the journey towards strategic flexibility can require
significant change, which simply fails without strong leadership commitment or involvement in the process.
Leaders play particularly important roles in several ways:
 Leaders establish accountability for the change program’s outcomes.
 Leaders are the natural example or ‘model’ of flexibility that sets the tone for the whole organisation.
 Leaders provide clear direction to managers and employees.
 Leaders facilitate the engagement of managers and other staff in the change process through inspiration,
clarity and the provision of resources to support the change.
As a result it is unsurprising that 86% of participants in an international survey of over 3000 high performing
professionals and managers ranked leadership support as the most important consideration for them in
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whether or not they would engage in flexible work (Coffman & Hagey, 2010).
Capability 3: Flexibility policy & processes
Organisations leading the way in workplace gender equality have in place a policy that specifically supports
flexible working arrangements for all employees. A formal policy on flexible working arrangements states the
principles, guidelines and procedures related to flexible working arrangements and conditions that support
employees’ personal choices.
Whether an organisation has a flexibility policy is not as important as what it contains. An organisation may
have a flexibility policy that simply responds to the legislated requirements. In this case, the typical approach
is usually one that favours a traditional work style and an out-dated concept of the ‘ideal worker’, as
someone who is always available at a set work location during an immovable range of hours.
An organisation may also have a flexibility policy that places a significant administrative burden on either the
employee’s manager or the employee. This is often the case when the organisation does not have in place
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DCA paper
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the full set of capabilities that together constitute flexibility capability. As a result, it is not uncommon for
some managers and their employees to sustain informal, ad hoc flexible work agreements that are not
registered as formal flexible work arrangements.
An ideal flexibility policy has the following features:
1. It provides a wide range of options for flexible work.
2. It enables individuals and their managers to create tailored options.
3. It establishes a low bar with regards to eligibility and suitability – ideally all roles across the
organisation and all individuals have the option to discuss flexible work with their manager and any
reason is an acceptable reason to request flexibility.
4. It establishes a positive stance towards flexible work requests.
5. It states the organisation’s goals with regards to increasing the frequency of flexible work
arrangements across the organisation.
6. It provides managers and employees with full flexibility to tailor individual arrangements to create an
ideal scenario.
7. Importantly, the flexibility policy will also acknowledge that each individual’s flexible work
arrangement may need to change over time, for example in response to either learning gained
during a trial period or changing operational requirements.
Every flexibility policy should also take into account the following legal considerations:
Employees’ right to request - The Fair Work Act (2009) establishes obligations for employers. One
important aspect is the right given to certain Australia employees to request flexible work. Further information
about employers’ obligations under the Fair Work Act 2009 can be obtained from the Fair Work Ombudsman
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[link ]. It is important to remember that entitlements under state or territory laws [link ] may provide
additional flexibility-related rights.
Employers’ obligations to keep a safe workplace - Work Health and Safety (WHS) legislation requires
that employers provide:
 safe premises of work,
 safe machinery and materials,
 safe systems of work,
 information, instruction, training and supervision, and
 a suitable working environment and facilities.
WHS may be referred to as Occupational Health and Safety in your jurisdiction. Employers can find out their
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WHS / OHS obligations from their state or territory WHS agency [link ].
Employers should note that flexibility may cause other legislation to become relevant in areas such as
discrimination, pay and conditions, equal employment opportunity, privacy and other matters.
Lastly, it is important that the policy be communicated with managers and employees.
Guidance on how to develop a flexibility policy is available on the Agency’s website.
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http://www.fairwork.gov.au/
10
http://www.fairwork.gov.au/about-us/policies-and-guides/best-practice-guides/the-right-to-request-flexible-workingarrangements#state-territory
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http://www.business.gov.au/business-topics/employing-people/workplace-health-and-safety/Pages/workplace-health-and-safety-inyour-state-or-territory.aspx
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Capability 4: Management competence / capability
The role of managers in flexibility is crucial. Managers play a particularly important role in managing teams
and individuals so that the organisation achieves its goals from flexibility - so much so that researchers
consistently identify that management capability can either make or break the success of a flexible work
program. As part of this, managing the flexible team is an important management capability.
Managers of flexible workers need to be strong communicators and great project managers who are able to
use technology to their advantage and are aware of the particular strengths and potential pitfalls of flexible
work. Managers have potentially the most significant impact on the success of flexibility, through their direct
impact on an employee’s working arrangement.
Many effective managers today already have the skills to rise to the potentially demanding challenge of
manage flexibility. However, where there is a lack of skill in any of the crucial areas of communication,
project management and use of technology, these deficiencies quickly become obvious. Additionally,
problems can arise that are unique to flexibility and unanticipated.
As a result, flexibility can drive improvements in management skill. At the time of writing, several pieces of
research have found that middle managers are significantly underperforming across a range of key
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indicators including people management, communication and leadership.(AIM, 2014)
Organisations wanting to improve their flexibility capability do well to ensure that managers of flexible
workers receive specific learning and development opportunities that enable them to develop strong
capabilities in communication, results management and the use of technology for flexible work.
Capability 5: Employee experience
Employees’ experience of flexibility is the litmus test of whether an organisation has fully developed its
flexibility capability.
When an organisation’s flexibility capability is limited, employees who work flexibly are at risk of experiencing
work intensification, isolation, increased stress, reduced access to information and stigma. As a result, the
employee’s working relationships with their teammates can be significantly affected.
Employees themselves play an important role in making flexibility effective in their situation. Employees who
work flexibly need to be great communicators, who are able to negotiate the balance between their work and
home lives and understand well how to use technology to support their work. Organisations that are capable
tend to provide support to their employees so that they can develop in these areas.
Other issues to consider with the employee experience include: equality in performance reviews (i.e. not
letting flexible work arrangements affect perception of work outcomes achieved at the time of performance
review), sense of belonging, ensuring appropriate access to feedback from managers, ability to participate in
meetings and ability to engage with the team.
When all roles are flexible, it is important not only to consider the employee’s individual experience but also
the team dynamic and experience.
Capability 6: Results management
Results management is an important approach that deliberately focuses on work outputs such as goals
achieved, rather than inputs such as time spent in the office.
The results management capability is an organisation’s ability to establish an effective results-based
management style for flexible work. Organisations that do this effectively establish the specific outcomes,
goals, aims or other results that are important in each person’s work. These results are described in
sufficient detail to become the primary source of information against which employee performance is
gauged, so that it is no longer important to monitor potentially unrelated inputs such as time spent in the
office. Managers play an important role in developing this capability – they establish the specific results
12
Australian Management Capability Index, 2014 Australian Institute of Management, page 6
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required and monitor and reward performance. The human resources team can also provide valuable
support by establishing the job description, competencies or KPIs for each position that become the basis for
the results framework.
The results management framework should capture everything about an individual’s work and describe it in a
way that is quantifiable, so that this becomes the basis for performance and productivity measurements. The
framework becomes a tool to be used between managers and employees to increase transparency around
work that is being done and how it is being done. It may consist of a weekly reporting template, a guide or
agenda for open conversations about results that are being achieved and a performance management
template that refers back to the position’s stated outcomes, goals, aims or expected results.
A results management framework addresses trust issues, by supporting an open, transparent description of
work. This is one of the key aspects of trust: not only that person is seen as competent, or that their
intentions are believed to be good, but also that they establish a history of delivering on their commitments
and promises.
The results-based management approach is about establishing the outcomes of work, but it is also about
open and honest performance management. In some organisations formal performance management
meetings occur annually however results, or performance, may need to be discussed more openly, honestly
and frequently for effective and productive flexibility.
Capability 7: Technology
Organisations use technology to establish effective collaboration between people who work together but
don’t share the same timing or location of work. There are a range of technologies that support collaboration,
whether primarily for purposes of communication or project management. These enable organisations to
avoid disruption when employees work flexibly by changing the timing or location of their work.
Some of the most prevalent communication technologies that are used today on a daily basis are not good
tools for collaboration. Communication can be described in many ways but a simple dichotomy between
verbal and non-verbal communication helps to understand which collaboration technologies provide the best
communication experience. Email, for example, is a poor collaboration tool because it provides only nonverbal information. At the other end of the spectrum, high quality video conferencing provides an experience
that is almost as good as collocated, face-to-face communication.
Project management tools and technologies vary greatly but their main purpose is to provide a system for
managing resources such as time, money and information, so that work gets done. Some project
management tools build in communication technology so that they combine communication between team
members with the system for managing resources.
With technologies in place, it is common for organisations to fail to provide sufficient support to managers
and employees in the form of training and troubleshooting. A flexible organisation recognises this potential
barrier to success and ensures that adequate technology support is made available.
Each organisation’s particular technology needs will depend on its goals for flexibility, the nature of the work
and the prevalence of flexible work that occurs across timeframes and locations. In some cases, additional
technology won’t be needed at all, while in other organisations, new technologies will be essential particularly in those organisations looking to embed flexible work and significantly improve their flexibility
capability.
Capability 8: Infrastructure (physical and process)
It is critical that organisations have the appropriate infrastructure to enable flexible working arrangements.
This is both in terms of the physical infrastructure in the workplace / space, as well as in terms of process
related infrastructures.
The location of work can be a key enabler of flexibility – enabling work to be done in a variety of locations or
places can provide for a wide range of flexible work options. When the place of work suits the work activity,
organisations have the potential to further improve productivity. On the other hand, when the place of work is
a bad fit with work activity, there is a risk not only to productivity but also to health and safety. In this sense
infrastructure refers to all the physical elements of the work environment, wherever the work happens and
not to just in the organisation’s main office.
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Process related infrastructure includes the range of systems and processes that enable or limit how the
organisation functions in key domains. Process related infrastructure may include:
 Knowledge management systems (to ensure capture of information to ensure smooth transition of
knowledge when employees are not working / job share / etc).
 Communication methods (new ways of communicating with employees and flexible teams to ensure
cross communication).
 Location trackers (within workplaces without allocated desks to enable ease of finding people).
 Strategic resource management / methods of work allocation (flexible work, particularly when the whole
team or organisation works flexibly, often required new ways of allocating work to employees and teams).
 Supporting human resources policies and procedures to enable flexible work arrangements, consistent
with your flexible work arrangements.
Capability 9: Learning cycle (feedback loop)
Establishing an effective learning cycle is absolutely vital for an organisation to maintain its ongoing flexibility
capability. Due to the complex nature of flexibility, organisations can find it difficult to achieve productive,
flexible work options if there is no concerted effort to learn what works and what doesn’t for the organisation
and its people.
As noted elsewhere in this toolkit, improving flexibility involves transformational change that impacts the
hearts and minds of people throughout the organisation. Consequently, organisations do well to assume that
there may be some intransigence over time and to monitor the uptake of practices that support flexibility.
Establishing a feedback loop enables the organisation to learn what works and doesn’t in its particular
circumstances. Flexibility needs to be tailored to suit the organisation’s goals, values and other unique
business needs, while creating attractive flexible work options for staff. A feedback loop enables solutions
generated in one area to be learned and adopted more broadly across the organisation. In addition, risks
such as isolation and stress need to be monitored so that they can be managed wisely.
The appropriate learning cycle for the introduction or broader uptake of flexibility is a phased approach that
includes a pilot or trial, adjustment and ongoing learning. These phases are outlined further in Section 4.
Capability 10: Change management
A successful move to strategic, productive flexibility results in an organisation that has a new culture of work
- one where new norms are established and where the systems, symbols and behaviours within the
organisation all reinforce the value that is placed on flexibility. This cannot be achieved without a tailored
change management program that appreciates the unique nature of the move to improved flexibility and is
adequately resourced and supported.
Key aspects to consider in the change management process:
 Alignment of the change program to the organisations objectives and strategy.
 Alignment to other large scale change programs and the touch points across the organisation.
 The engagement of the organisations project management office or change managers.
 Project management capability, risk assessment and mitigation strategy.
 Culture change implications and other aligned culture projects that may be underway.
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Flexibility capability self-assessment: ‘where are we
now?’
Completing this flexibility capability assessment enables your organisation to understand the status quo,
which is an important first step in constructing an appropriate strategy to improve flexibility.
In order for the capability assessment to be useful to most organisations, its focus is on observable aspects
that are readily assessable. Together these observations can provide a strong picture of an organisation’s
overall flexibility capability, while providing clarity about which individual capabilities require particular
development.
It is worth noting that there are other, more subjective observations that can inform your organisation’s
understanding of its flexibility capability. These include explorations of:
 management commitment to flexible work,
 leadership ability, and
 commonly held views and beliefs about flexible work in your organisation.
How to complete the capability assessment
For each capability, a spectrum is provided that enables you to identify whether your organisation sits closest
to either the ‘limited’ or the ‘flexible’ end of the spectrum.
Each capability has a number of questions that assess different aspects of the capability. In order to
establish your score, complete each question and provide a score as ‘limited’, ‘basic’ or ‘strategic’ against
that question, as indicated. Once each capability is completed, transfer your total score to the graph at the
end of the assessment.
Establish your score to determine whether your organisation is operating mainly at the limited end of the
spectrum for that capability, or is closer to flexible or fully flexible. For an overall view of your organisation’s
capability for flexibility, plot your scores for each capability on the capability grid.
Self-assessment capability 1: Business case
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices
related to the existence of a flexibility business case.
Status
Signpost
Limited
No business case: there is no business case, or if one has been done in the
past it has remained largely unknown
Basic
Generic business case: the business case for flexibility Is the generic, uncompelling, limited or fails to demonstrate the contribution of flexibility to
business performance
Strategic
Strong business case: your organisation has a clear business case that
outlines how flexibility contributes to business performance
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Self-assessment capability 2: Leadership
Visibility of leadership: an organisation’s executive leadership has the capacity to set the tone for the
organisation’s other leadership and management teams. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the
signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices related to executive leadership on flexibility.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Executive leadership team is silent: the organisation’s executive leadership is
silent or negative about the benefits of flexibility for the organisation
Basic
Limited discussion at the executive level: the organisation’s executive
leadership has publicly stated its commitment to exploring the benefits of
flexibility.
Strategic
Highly visible executive leadership: the organisation’s executive leadership
makes strong, consistent statements about the importance of flexibility to
achieving the organisation’s goals.
Your org
Role modelling of flexible working arrangements by executive leadership: when an organisation
empowers its leaders to work flexibly, powerful role-modelling is established that influences the workplace
culture towards a positive approach to flexibility. At the other end of the spectrum, isolated instances of
senior executives working flexibly are consistent with a culture of uncertainty, or at worst negativity, towards
flexibility. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s
practices related to executive uptake on flexibility.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Limited senior executive uptake: a proportionally small number of Senior
Executives have no or limited flexibility arrangements.
Basic
Minimal uptake: a moderate number of senior executives work flexibly. As a
guide, these executives comprise less than 15% of the senior executive team.
Strategic
Widespread senior executive uptake: a significant number of senior
executives work flexibly. As a guide, these executives comprise upwards of
35% of the senior executive team.
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General uptake of flexible working arrangements by management: when an organisation’s leadership
takes a positive approach to flexibility, uptake of its flexible work program is higher than when employees (at
all levels) perceive that they may jeopardise their career opportunities by taking up flexible work. Complete
the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices related to
management uptake on flexibility.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Limited general uptake” a proportionally small number of employees at all
level take up flexible work options.
Basic
Minimal uptake: a moderate number of employees at all levels take up flexible
work options. As a guide, this could be less than 15%
Strategic
Widespread general uptake: a significant number of employees at all level
take up flexible work options. As a guide, this could be at least 35%
Your org
Self-assessment capability 3: Flexibility policy
Range of flexible working arrangements: a limited number of flexible work options is a strong indication
that an organisation hasn’t made the necessary adjustments to embed flexible work. For example, an
organisation at the limited end of the spectrum may offer part-time work, time in lieu and carers leave or
other options that tend to cause minimal disruption to an organisation.
Offering a limited range of flexibility options may inadvertently disadvantage some employees. Employees’
ideal flexibility options are selected on the basis of wide range of factors that are best understood by them.
While, say, part-time work may be ideal for one employee, another may prefer a compressed workweek or
telecommuting.
An organisation that has adopted strategic flexibility will utilise the full range of different types of flexibility
mentioned in Section 2. These will include the more involved types of flexible work such as compressed work
week, job sharing, telecommuting and flexible careers. An organisation that is at the strategic flexibility end
of the spectrum has the characteristics that make these arrangements effective, so that they are generally
not seen as ‘challenging’.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s range of
flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Limited range of flexibility options: the organisation has a limited number of
flexible work options available to employees. These may include part-time
work, time in lieu and carers leave.
Basic
Moderate range of flexibility options: a broader range of flexible work options
is available to employees. These may include flexible hours of work,
unplanned leave and choices about the timing of work.
Strategic
Wide range of flexibility options: more involved types of flexible work are made
available to employees. These may include compressed work week, job
sharing, telecommuting and flexible careers.
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Response options to flexibility requests: complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best
describes your organisation’s range of response options for flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low number of acceptable reasons: the organisation has a limited number of
acceptable reasons for requesting flexible work, for example relating mainly to
child care or elder care.
Basic
Moderate number of acceptable reasons: the organisation considers a range
of reasons for requesting flexible work, but has some limitations.
Strategic
High number of acceptable reasons: the organisation does not prescribe the
reasons why flexible work can be requested and any reason is acceptable.
Your org
Formality of documentation of flexible working arrangements: another key and important difference is
whether flexibility is documented. Documentation, such as written flexible work agreements, indicates an
organisation’s acceptance of flexible work as a valid option. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the
signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices for documenting flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Informal flexible working arrangements: some individuals may have informal
arrangements with their manager, which are usually not documented.
Basic
Some documentation of flexible working arrangements: some individuals may
have documented arrangements with their manager for small portions of work
flexibility.
Strategic
Formally documented flexible working arrangements: flexibility is consistently
documented.
Your org
Availability of flexible working arrangements: one of the key differences between a limited approach and
an strategic flexibility approach Is whether the flexibility is implemented on an individual, one-by-one basis or
whether there is an organisation-wide policy that establishes a general expectation across the organisation
of positive responses to flexible work requests. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that
best describes your organisation’s practices for the degree to which flexibility is available across the
organisation.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Available to individuals: individual arrangements are entered into between
managers and employees. These are unusual compared with the rest of the
organisation.
Basic
Limited availability: individual arrangements are entered into between
managers and employees. These are not unusual but are also not the norm.
Strategic
Available organisation-wide: flexibility is made available to every employee or
most employees.
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Type of roles: organisations that are inexperienced with flexible work typically make an overly cautious
assessment about which roles can be worked flexibly. This caution is often influenced by the lack of culture,
systems, technology and infrastructure that support flexibility.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices for
the types of roles that may access flexibility.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low number of acceptable roles: leaders and managers in the organisation
view most positions as unsuitable for flexible work.
Basic
Limited number of acceptable roles: around half of the organisation’s roles
may be excluded, whether formally or informally.
Your org
High number of acceptable roles: the organisation starts from the point of view
that all roles can be worked flexibly. Flexibility is made available to all roles in
all areas of the business.
Strategic
It should be noted that some organisations mistakenly force flexibility on their
employees, when many people still prefer a traditional working arrangement.
The best practice approach is to make a flexible work arrangement available
across the organisation, while providing the option for employees to opt-in.
Frequency of flexible working arrangements: another key and important difference Is whether flexibility is
available on an ad hoc basis or whether it is mainstream (and therefore highly frequent) within the
organisation. Ad hoc arrangements set no precedent or expectation of flexibility, while mainstream,
consistent availability of flexibility contributes to an expectation amongst employees that a flexible work
request will be positively received.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices for
the level of frequency of flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Ad hoc: arrangements are made on an ad hoc basis, with no guarantee of
increasing the frequency. Employees tend to expect a negative response to a
flexible work request.
Basic
Limited: arrangements are made on a part time or infrequent basis.
Employees tend to expect their flexible work request may be accepted if a
sound business case is made.
Strategic
Mainstream: arrangements are mainstreamed as a regular, consistent way of
working. Employees have a reasonable expectation of a positive response to
a flexible work request.
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Level or tailoring of flexible working arrangements: strategic flexible work is usually the result of
recognising that when it comes to flexibility, there is no-one size-fits-all solution and that every organisation,
every team and every individual will need tailored arrangements. Organisations that are more readily able to
implement individualised arrangements are more likely to succeed with embedding flexibility.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices for
the level of frequency of flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
One limited approach: if flexible work options are utilised, managers and
employees are provided with little opportunity to tailor the arrangements,
whether this is due to rigid internal policies or firm specifications in an
Enterprise Agreement.
Basic
Moderate tailoring: the organisation’s policies and approach can be tailored
however operational requirements or other limitations prevent fully tailored
individual arrangements.
Strategic
Tailored individual arrangements: the organisation’s policies and approach
give managers and employees full flexibility to tailor individual arrangements
to create an ideal scenario.
Your org
Consideration of legal requirements: every flexibility policy should also take into account relevant legal
considerations. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s
policy with regard to your organisation’s legal requirements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Legal requirements absent or signalled: the flexibility policy may or may not
signal the relevant legal framework, but does not outline the organisations’
steps to meet these obligations.
Basic
Legal requirements met: the flexibility policy outline the organisations’ steps to
meet its legal obligations.
Strategic
Your org
Legal requirements exceeded: the flexibility policy outline the organisations’
steps to meet and exceed its legal obligations.
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Self-assessment capability 4: Management capability
Level of manager awareness: an organisation at the limited end of the spectrum has a low number of
leaders and managers who recognise and accept the importance of flexibility for their organisation. Often this
low degree of acceptance is due to a combination of a) a range of misunderstandings about flexible work,
with b) little or no leadership positioning about the importance of flexibility for the organisation.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s level of
manager awareness on flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low acceptance: low awareness, negative misunderstandings about flexible
work.
Basic
Moderate acceptance: a supportive leader with possibly some supportive
managers.
Strategic
Recognition of the organisation’s mandate for flexibility: widely held
recognition of the importance of flexibility amongst leaders and managers.
Your org
Support for managers: organisations at the strategic flexibility end of the spectrum ensure their managers
are trained effectively in the skills required for effective flexible work management, through specifically
relevant learning and development opportunities.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s level of support
for managers to enable flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Minimal support for managers: the organisation makes little or no commitment
to providing learning and development in the specific skills required for
effective flexible work management.
Basic
Moderate support for managers: the organisation offers related, limited or
generic learning and development opportunities that provide only partial
support for effective flexible work management.
Strategic
Significant support for managers: the organisation offers dedicated learning
and development opportunities that train managers in the specific skills
required for effective flexible work management.
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Effective team management: when teams work flexibly, rather than a single individual within a team,
managers are often required to establish team practices that continue to support excellent communication,
task management and resource allocation. Team flexibility increases the organisation’s potential gain but
can raise the level of challenge for managers.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your managers’ level of experience
with managing flexibly working teams.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Minimal experience: managers have very little experience managing flexibly
working teams.
Basic
Moderate experience: managers have had some experience managing
flexible working teams.
Strategic
Significant experience: managers have a significant degree of experience
managing flexibly working teams.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 5: Employee experience
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s level of
employee awareness of flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low acceptance: limited acceptance amongst teams of flexible work.
Basic
Moderate acceptance: some acceptance of flexible work amongst teams, with
pockets of unacceptance.
Strategic
Wide spread team acceptance: widespread acceptance of flexible work
amongst teams such that flexible work is widely seen as the norm.
Your org
Risk of work intensification: flexible work options, particularly where the use of technologies is part of the
flexible work arrangement, can lead to the risk of work intensification if an employer does not have adequate
protection in place. For example, by staying connected with the office or being accessible to colleagues
through technology, a part-time worker could effectively work additional hours or days.
As noted by the Australian Institute of Management, work intensification carries risks to employee health,
wellbeing, satisfaction and engagement and may generate a negative impact on productivity over the long
13
term. Employers need to have processes in place so that employees at all levels achieve appropriate
workloads, while individuals need to be prepared and empowered to negotiate an appropriate workload.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s level of the risk
of work intensification for employees as a result of flexible working arrangements.
13
Insert reference to White Paper,
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Status
Signpost
Limited
High risk of work intensification: the organisation is unaware of, or does not
manage the risk of work intensification for flexible workers. There are no
appropriate systems in place.
Basic
Moderate risk of work intensification: the organisation supports employees to
manage their risk of work intensification but places the onus on them, without
systems to reduce the risk.
Strategic
Low risk of work intensification: the organisation has systems in place to
provide a check and balance to work intensification, such as monitoring stress
levels, ‘no emails after hours’ rules or similar.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 6: Results management
Outcome-based culture: documentation tends to show whether an organisation has a system of
management that supports flexible work. That system has many aspects, which includes firstly a clear
description of the outcomes, goals, aims or results expected of each position. Secondly it includes a
reporting procedure, whether formal or informal. Lastly it may include a guide or agenda for open
conversations that monitor the achievement of results.
Rather than a passive approach, leaders and managers of the organisation actively manage the results
being delivered in their teams by monitoring and following up on progress. Complete the self-assessment by
ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s level of results focused culture to support flexible
working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Passive results management: results are not actively managed after an
employee is recruited, beyond monitoring attendance and participation.
Basic
Moderate results management: some results management is evident but it is
infrequent, uncommon or only utilised when an employee works flexibly.
Strategic
Active results management: the organisation has a clear system of results
management for each position in the organisation, regardless of whether the
person works flexibly.
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Nature of management: organisations that tend to encourage autonomy are more likely to be fully aligned
with a flexible work approach. Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your
organisation’s management style with regards to flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Micromanagement: leaders and managers tend to view employees as a
performance risk that needs to be closely managed.
Basic
Moderate level of trust-based, results-focused culture.
Strategic
Management on the basis of autonomy: leaders and managers tend to see
employees as capable individuals. Autonomy is empowered and encouraged.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 7: Technology
Technology infrastructure: organisations that have strategic flexibility usually adopt collaboration
tools and systems that enable a high-quality communication experience. Organisations that don’t understand
flexibility tend to rely on communication technologies such as email and file transfer, which provide a lowquality communication experience and are less than ideal as an organisation’s primary communication tools.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s technology to
support flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low-quality communication technologies: email and file transfer are used as
the primary tool to communicate. Other communication tools that enable a
higher-quality communication experience are used frequently.
Basic
Moderate quality communication technologies: managers are encouraged to
move beyond email for communication with their flexible workers. They may
use the phone, Instant messaging or social media. These tools are used in
addition to email to enhance the communication experience.
Strategic
High quality communication technologies: organisations use a range of
collaborative platforms that enable employees to communicate effectively with
their team members and managers. These technologies include collaborative
project management platforms, simultaneous document sharing and video
conferencing, which enable a high-quality communication experience.
Your org
Telecommuting technology: similarly, one of the most important aspects of strategic flexible work is the
presence of focused attention on the technology that supports flexible work. Strategic flexible work often
includes some form of work offsite which requires supportive technology. This work could include
telecommuting, mobile work or other offsite work. Other types of flexible work such as job sharing and
compressed work week also benefit from the use of supported collaboration technologies.
An organisation with strategic flexibility provides its employees with the technologies required, together with
the training and troubleshooting support required to maintain effective use. Capability and performance are
maintained and corporate security and systems are integrated.
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Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s technology to
support flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Minimal technical support: the organisation makes little or no commitment to
providing supportive technologies or to training or troubleshooting support.
Basic
Moderate technical support: the organisation provides basic supportive
technologies, sufficient to perform some offsite work. Training and
troubleshooting support is provided.
Strategic
Substantial technical support: the organisation offers dedicated technical
support to ensure supportive collaboration technologies are able to support
the work and are effectively used and maintained. Corporate security and
systems are integrated.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 8: Infrastructure (physical and
process)
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s physical work
environment to support flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Traditional work environments: the organisation has limited or rigid ‘traditional’
offices and does not provide ergonomic chairs, desks etc. for home offices.
Basic
Home office support: the organisation has limited or rigid ‘traditional’ offices
but provides all the physical equipment needed for staff to work from home or
offsite.
Strategic
Flexible work environments: the organisation’s main office environment is
designed to be used in various ways and supports working in and away from
the main office.
Your org
Process related infrastructure includes the range of systems and processes that enable or limit how the
organisation functions in key domains. These may include knowledge management systems, communication
methods, location trackers, strategic resource management, human resources policies and procedures.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s processes and
systems that either support or limit flexible working arrangements.
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Status
Signpost
Limited
Limiting process infrastructure: the organisation has limited or rigid process
infrastructure that could get in the way of flexibility.
Basic
Basic process infrastructure: the organisation has one or two processes or
systems in place that will make flexibility easier.
Strategic
Strategic process infrastructure: the organisation’s processes and systems
fully support flexibility.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 9: Learning cycle
Value of innovation: organisations that are highly innovative tend to have a degree of familiarity
with the innovation process, which involves piloting, testing, learning, adjusting and re-testing. Noninnovative organisations are less likely to be comfortable with ‘untested’ work arrangements and tend to be
unfamiliar with how to establish a learning process that can establish robust, tailored and effective work
arrangements.
The innovation process involves piloting an arrangement in order to discover its strengths and weaknesses,
adjusting the arrangement in the light of the learning gained in the pilot phase; then continuing to test and
trial the arrangement while it is in place. As such, there is a strong degree of experimentation in the process.
This can make a non-innovative organisation uncomfortable, while a highly innovative organisation
recognises the strength in the process, which provides the foundation for robust workforce arrangements.
At the time of writing this, flexibility is still seen as a non-mainstream, innovative option that is uncomfortable
for many organisations. The innovation process provides an unrecognised opportunity to manage the
transition to flexibility in a controlled way.
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes the value your organisation’s
places on innovation and learning to improve flexible working arrangements.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Low value on innovation: innovation occurs in small, discrete patches, for
example within an individual’s work. These innovations have little impact
beyond an individual’s work.
Basic
Moderate value on innovation: Innovation processes occur within teams, for
example by brainstorming improvements to team processes or service
delivery. These innovations are carried through to effect real change.
Strategic
High value on innovation: innovation processes occur within the organisation,
for example by harnessing employee suggestions or through deliberate crossfertilisation of ideas. These innovations are carried through on a wide scale
and are widely publicised within the organisation.
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Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices
related to flexibility change management.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Minimal ongoing adjustment: flexible work arrangements are limited and firm.
The employee may be responsible to initiate reviews of the arrangement’s
effectiveness.
Basic
Regular adjustment: flexible work arrangements are reviewed more frequently
than yearly, with the possibility of adjustments. Either the employee or
manager can initiate a review.
Strategic
Dynamic adjustment: flexible work arrangements are reviewed more
frequently than yearly, and are able to be adjusted by employee or manager
with reasonable notice, at any time.
Your org
Self-assessment capability 10: Change management
Complete the self-assessment by ticking the signpost that best describes your organisation’s practices
related to flexibility change management.
Status
Signpost
Limited
Minimally resourced: the organisation’s change management team is
unfamiliar with flexibility and lacks the resourcing for transformational change.
Basic
Some resourcing: the organisation’s change management team is either
unfamiliar with flexibility or lacks the resources for transformational change.
Strategic
Substantially resourced: the organisation’s change management team is
familiar with flexibility and has the resourcing for transformational change.
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Overall scoring
Transfer your results from the capability framework self assessment to this overall summary sheet to obtain a
comprehensive view as to the current state of flexibility in your organisation.
Limited / Marginal
Partially Flexible /Midstream
Fully Flexible / Mainstream
‘Limited’
‘Basic’
‘Strategic’
Business Case
Leadership
 visibility of leadership
 role modelling of leadership
 uptake
Flexibility Policy
 range of options
 response options
 documentation
 availability
 type of roles
 frequency
 tailoring
Management Skill
 awareness level
 support
Employee Experiences and Skill
 awareness level
 risk of intensification
Results Management
 outcome based culture
 nature of management
Technology
 infrastructure
 telecommuting support
Infrastructure
Learning Cycle
 value of innovation
 feedback incorporation
Change Management
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The flexibility spectrum
Aligned to the gender equality roadmap
The gender strategy toolkit outlines the gender equality roadmap.
This sets out six steps for how to think about moving towards a more strategic approach to gender equality.
Similarly, we have adapted this model to help organisation think about the flexibility journey and where they
are positions overall in their thinking about flexibility. Does the organisation think of flexibility in a compliance
or programmatic way, in the sense that flexible work arrangements are offered in a limited way, or does the
organisation think about flexibility in a more holistic way, where flexibility is part of the organisation’s strategy
and strategic into the way work is done? Or does your organisation lie somewhere in between?
The flexibility spectrum
Understanding at a high level where you are on the flexibility spectrum will help your organisation determine
the starting point of the journey and set clear strategic objectives at a high level as well as identify which
specific flexibility capabilities to focus on as your strategy develops.
No
Stage
Description / characteristics
 This is consistent with an ‘avoidance’ or ‘compliance approach’.
1.
Limited
 No recognition of how effective flexible work and family-friendly policies /
practices can promote gender equality and diversity.
 Generic flexible work and family-friendly policies / practices only exist to the
extent they are required by legislation or regulation.
2.
Basic
 This is consistent with the ‘programmatic’ approach.
 Flexible work and family-friendly policies / practices are provided to meet the
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No
Stage
Description / characteristics
needs of specific groups or individuals.
 Typically flexibility is seen as a human resource function only.
 This is consistent with a ‘strategic’, ‘integrated’ and ‘sustainable’ approach.
Enabling progression as flexibility becomes strategic in the mindset, systems
and culture.
 Flexible work and family-friendly policies / practices are designed and
accessible to benefit all employees; the flexibility business case is
established.
3.
Embedded /
strategic
 Flexible work and family-friendly policies / practices are leveraged as a
business enabler; no value judgements are made about flexibility needs.
 Flexible, family-friendly working is expected, normalised and equitably
accessible; it is integral to all business and people practices (e.g. workforce
planning).
 The flexibility strategy is aligned to the business strategy and the
organisation is moving towards the workplace of the future.
 Flexibility is a mindset and the way business is done.
You can use your self-assessment against the capability framework to plot your position on the flexibility
spectrum.
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Making it happen
The past focus on individuals is not enough for today’s organisations.
Improving flexibility is complex, far-reaching and personal – it is best
understood as transformational change that involves the whole organisation.
While trial and error is essential to establish emergent answers to new
problems, there are known core elements that need to be established: a clear
vision, executive support, responsibility for change and a roadmap for
change.
The change process
The change to organisation wide flexibility needs to begin with the end in sight and the end needs to include
an ongoing learning process, which enables the organisation to handle the complexity.
In the past, flexibility has been understood as a benefit to employees, with little focus on the potential
benefits of wide-scale flexibility to the organisation. As a result, the focus was on individuals and their
managers. Many organisations are yet to develop the capabilities that are needed for effective, productive
flexibility.
For many organisations, their exploration of flexibility may have started with one trusted, valued employee
who adopted a flexible work arrangement that resulted in a minimal imposition on operations. While this may
have been an important first step, it is not sufficient to enable the organisation to grapple with the important
areas of change that facilitate flexibility. The organisation’s experience of flexible work with isolated
individuals may have reinforced, rather than challenged, existing misunderstandings about flexibility because
without organisation-wide systems, managers and individuals come up against the ‘same old’ problems.
How can an organisation implement a successful change program that results in an organisation that has a
new culture of work, where new norms are established and where the systems, symbols and behaviours
within the organisation all reinforce the value that is placed on flexibility?
Understanding the move to flexibility
There are two important steps involved in understanding the move to flexibility.
Capability Assessment
The first important step to understanding the move to flexibility is it to understand the organisation’s current
capability. The capability assessment outlined in section 3 provides organisations with a tool to develop this
understanding.
Understand the Change Process
The second, potentially simultaneous step is to understand the change process. Developing flexibility
capability requires a unique approach to change management, for several reasons.
Wide-ranging, multidisciplinary change
Improving flexibility is a significant, multidisciplinary change that extends across the whole organisation. It
involves a range of professionals working together collaboratively: human resources, technology,
infrastructure, leadership and management representatives all take a seat at the table. Each of these
functions plays an important role because effective flexibility is enabled by organisation-wide systems in the
areas of management, technology and infrastructure.
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Unknown future state
Moving to strategic flexibility involves moving to a complex, unknown future state, where it is difficult to
determine at the outset exactly what that future state will look like for your organisation. Although certain
core characteristics need to become strategic, the detail of the final structures and systems is usually
unknown. Many elements will need to be adjusted to suit your particular organisation, in response to your
organisation’s values, goals, management capability and individual employee needs, to mention only a few
significant factors. Wide-ranging changes may be needed across leadership, management, policies and
processes, technologies and infrastructure.
Entrenched personal characteristics are involved
Moving to strategic flexibility can require leaders, managers and employees to change not only their skills
and behaviours, but also in some cases their mindset, values and beliefs, which tend to be more intransient.
Without these important personal changes, any organisation seeking to improve its flexibility capability can
expect a low return on its investment in the change process.
For these reasons, the move to flexibility is best understood as transformational change.
Transformational change
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Transformational change needs to be managed differently to transitional or developmental change . By way
of contrast, the less complex ‘transitional’ change is change that can be planned in a linear fashion and
moves from one step to the next towards a known final point. It usually involves change at the level of skills
and behaviours. Developmental change is different again in that it involves improving on existing processes;
evolving standards or refining methods, rather than replacing them with something completely new.
Continuous improvement is an example of developmental change.
Seeing what is actually transformational change as either of the more familiar ‘transitional’ or ‘developmental’
change processes is likely to result in major oversights, wasted effort and unrealised goals. For example,
often organisations start out by addressing the ‘hard’ elements of flexibility, such as technology and
Infrastructure, as these are most easily understood. Unfortunately failing to fully appreciate the integrated,
complex nature of the change can result in failing to realise the organisation’s goals. On the other hand,
managing the change as transformational change will result in improved business performance,
strengthened capabilities and greater organisational resilience.
How to manage the journey - overview
At this point, is important to draw on best practice understanding of how to manage transformational change.
One of the most important aspects of the change program is that it depends on a significant degree of trial
and error. The change process emerges incrementally, rather than as the result of linear plan. Overall, this
means that the organisation is developing new solutions to new problems as it goes, rather than either
adopting old solutions or failing to recognise new problems. This trial and error approach means that leaders
and executives at each level need to be comfortable with a certain level of ambiguity. While it may seem at
first contradictory, an experimental approach is the best way to achieve strong outcomes.
This ambiguity can be minimised in several ways: through adopting known best practice change
management for transformation, which is outlined in this section; through ensuring that known core elements
are included in the transformation roadmap – these are outlined below; and through pairing a small pilot or
trial with monitoring methods prior to wider rollout – as outlined in Section 4. It is also worth acknowledging
that small shifts can collectively add up to transformation and some organisations may wish to stretch out
their transformation over time to allow these small shifts to accumulate.
Your organisation’s change program needs to include several core elements: a clear vision, executive
support, responsibility for change and a roadmap for change.
14
http://changeleadersnetwork.com/free-resources/what-is-transformation-and-why-is-it-so-hard-to-manage;
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-online-2012-driving-successful-change-through-journey-management.aspx
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Envision the end point
A clear vision of the organisation once it has improved its flexibility capability serves to motivate leaders,
managers and employees at all levels. You may wish to refer to it as your organisation’s ‘change vision’. As
well as inspiration, it provides the basis for cascading goals and planning for change throughout the stages
that follow. While this is one of the core functions of leadership, other roles can be involved in establishing
the organisation’s vision for flexibility. These may include executives of the human resources, technology
and infrastructure areas together with a selection of executives across delivery areas.
The business case provides a strong framework for establishing your organisation’s change vision – it could
focus on the benefits your organisation seeks to capture. Your vision should also be informed by the results
of your organisation’s flexibility capability assessment – a clear understanding of the status quo provides an
idea of where the organisation wants to move from, which can be informative and deciding where to move to,
which will no doubt involve moving up the flexibility spectrum.
As has been noted above, the detail of the exact changes required to your organisation’s specific structures
and systems is unlikely to be known at the outset. This level of detail needs to adjust and emerge in
response to your organisation’s specific goals, values and business needs. As such, the vision cannot at this
stage include detailed goals for each functional area. These need to be established in concert with the
executive of each area, as outlined below.
Develop a compelling vision
A great change vision is easily understood by, and appeals to, people at all levels of the organisation. It
speaks to various thinking modes so that it has wide appeal, for example it may communicate to all the
15
thinking modes by incorporating logic, imagination, intuition and planning.
Your organisation may choose to involve its executive team in developing a compelling vision, particularly
because it is important to confirm executive-level support and resolve, as noted below.
Link with the organisation’s history
Great change visions link not only with the future i.e. Where are the organisation wants to get to, they also
establish why the future makes sense in terms of where the organisation has come from. This linking with the
organisation’s history goes back further than the status quo, to establish a coherent view of why the
organisation would move in this direction. For example, the vision could refer to the organisation’s long
struggle to position as an employer of choice in a competitive market; previous examples of when the
organisation has made cutting edge innovations in its workplace or delivery; or highlight how the values that
are consistent with flexibility, such as improving service delivery, can be found in the organisation’s
establishment documentation.
Confirm executive resolve
Once a clear vision for change has been established, it is important to garner support within the executive
team. In fact, given the transformational nature of the change, executives may need to have a significant
degree of resolve to see it through. Typically, it is good to be aware that some executives will be
uncomfortable with the level of ambiguity in the change program.
It will be useful to run an executive workshop at this stage. The results of the flexibility capability assessment
need to feed into this process, so that executives understand the current state of the organisation. Likewise,
the business case needs to be considered because the business case outlines the drivers for change and
establishes a clear mandate for flexibility. The next important aspect of executive involvement is in
establishing KPIs for each capability. Finally, it is important that specific executives are allocated
responsibility in this meeting for delivering the capability or capabilities most relevant to their role.
It is important that executives have the opportunity to engage around the drivers for change, so that varying
views can be expressed. Executives will also need to have an opportunity to air their concerns about issues
in their own functional areas and these things should be taken note of, to feed into the transformational
15
Based on the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument, which has been used by 90% of the Fortune 100 companies to improve
performance.
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roadmap. Failure to achieve a common agreed set of drivers and a resolve to proceed with improving
flexibility can significantly jeopardise any future success.
The executive workshop can be used to make the executive team aware of the crucial role of the
organisation’s leadership team in modelling flexibility. As such, they can anticipate that the transformation
roadmap will establish goals for developing their leadership capability and as such will cascade goals ‘up the
line’.
Assess the gap between status quo and the vision
An issues map provides a clear picture of the gap between the status quo and the vision. Coming out of the
executive workshop will be issues seen by each executive in their functional area. These need to be
considered together with the results of the flexibility capability assessment, so that an issues map can be
established. The issues map highlights the capabilities that need to be developed and specific issues within
each of these.
The issues arising out of the executive workshop may need supplementation by exploring each capability
area, particularly if specific issues are not identified within the executive workshop, although this is unlikely. If
further information is needed, interviews and focus groups could be useful. Candidates should be chosen on
the basis of whether they could inform a realistic assessment of the issues within each relevant capability.
Create a transformation roadmap
The next crucial step is to establish responsibility for change in the functional areas that are relevant to each
capability, through a transformation roadmap.
The roadmap describes the activities that will achieve the change vision and who will conduct them. It
becomes an important communication and project management tool, which acts as a reference point for
progress, together with the change vision.
It is important to note here that Section 5 provides more specific detail to assist with creating and
implementing the transformation roadmap. In that Section, an outline is provided of the important results or
outcomes that need to be achieved from the change process for each capability – these are provided as
suggested KPIs. That section also provides a list of the key individuals involved in implementation for that
capability. Tips are also provided for avoiding roadblocks within each capability area.
For now, the current section provides an overall guide to creating your organisation’s transformation
roadmap.
Assess change capacity
It has been noted elsewhere that trying to do too much too soon is one of the prime reasons for the failure of
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some transformational change journeys (Accenture, 2012 ). Several important factors need to be taken into
account: what are the resources available to support the change program, in terms of time, funding and staff
capacity? What is the capacity of the organisation to adjust in response to the transformation plan? What are
the organisation’s current resources in each area of capability?
Cascade the goals in each capability
Once any significant issues with change capacity have been established, the vision and Issues map can be
cascaded into capability goals, which are goals in each capability area. These goals should address the
known issues that were established in the flexibility capability assessment and should be framed relevant to
the change vision.
Responsibility for delivering change in each of the capability areas was allocated previously at the executive
workshop. Once the capability goals are established, these should be communicated to the responsible
executive for sign off, who will then have responsibility to managing change within that capability. Section 5
provides more specific guidance on how to manage change within each capability.
16
http://www.accenture.com/us-en/outlook/Pages/outlook-online-2012-driving-successful-change-through-journey-management.aspx
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One of the capabilities that may require development is leadership. It is likely, when an organisation is
inexperienced with flexibility, that leadership will need some development. The change management team
may find it difficult to cascade goals up the line to the leadership team however it should be noted that the
executive workshop flagged this possibility with the executive team and that strong leadership is crucial for
improving flexibility.
Establish where, when and how disciplines will need to integrate
The transformation roadmap is the key document that supports integration of the transformation process
across the organisation. One of its crucial functions is to establish when, where and how disciplines may
need to integrate. Section 5 provides more information about which roles and functions within the
organisation are involved in developing each capability. People in these roles need to review the capability
goals and issues map to determine where they need involvement from another area within the organisation.
These needs can then be coordinated by either the change management team or at a collaborative
workshop.
Establish a learning cycle to inform the transformation
The learning cycle is incredibly important for a successful start with flexibility and its ongoing success. The
learning cycle is best established as an integral part of the transformation, rather than an afterthought.
Important solutions can arise when a learning process maintains ongoing learning and observations.
Similarly, an established learning cycle enables effective risk management.
The learning cycle should incorporate five initial phases: pilot, testing, learning, adjustment and re-testing. An
organisation’s rollout should then be followed by an ongoing cycle of learning and adjustment. These
phases provide a controlled method of exploration, so that tailored solutions can be generated and risks can
be managed appropriately. Organisations new to flexibility can find it difficult to establish their flexibility
program If they adopt another organisation’s approach like a cookie cutter – this approach stands a strong
chance of generating a poor fit because there are many factors that create successful flexibility. As
discussed elsewhere in this toolkit, solutions need to be generated through exploration so that they are a
good fit for the organisation. As a result, these first five phases and the establishment of an ongoing learning
cycle are essential.
Learning should be managed as an ongoing cycle, not a linear process with a fixed start and end. The
reason for this is twofold: firstly, it is highly likely that not all issues and their relevant solutions will be known
at the outset. Secondly, it can’t be assumed that the organisation’s flexibility capability will remain strong as
the organisation changes over time – changes in any of the specific capabilities outlined in this toolkit can
result in an overall decrease (or increase) in flexibility capability. Organisations are best not to assume that
their learning around flexibility capability will end completely.
The learning cycle needs to lead the organisation through transformation by providing frequent observations
across all levels. These observations should provide information about the issues being experienced, the
responses being tried, adjustments being made and whether or not success is being experienced.
Information should be gathered within business areas, between colleagues and at the level of the individual.
Issues and effective solutions should then be fed back into the transformation map. In this way your
organisation has a mechanism to quickly learn what works and what doesn’t, so that the solutions can be at
amplified and what doesn’t work can be minimised. Further, the learning cycle can enable the organisation to
better handle emerging issues, by cross-fertilising solutions across areas.
The change management project team needs to seek to create widespread awareness that this
transformation is more ‘experimentation’ than ‘linear process’. That is, that people can expect ongoing
changes until ideal arrangements are reached. One of the consequences of this approach is that it is
foreseeable that ideal arrangements for employees could be pulled back, for example if they don’t work for
the organisation. On the other hand, not taking the iterative, experimental approach to change would result in
greater negative impact. It is crucial that a shared expectation is established with everyone involved in the
transformation that it is about experimentation, not process.
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Establish long-term flexibility goals
The organisation’s initial efforts on transformation need to translate into long-term flexibility goals. These
goals will be informed by the transformation process. A step needs to be built into the transformation map,
when long-term goals will be established.
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Achieving change in each
capability
Now that we have looked at the capability framework it is important to provide
specific guidance on each achieving change within each specific capability.
This guidance includes examples of KPIs that organisations could set within
each capability, for moving to the basic and strategic levels of the flexibility
spectrum.
It also includes specific roadblocks and roundabouts for each capability; and
outlines who needs to be involved in the change process for each capability.
It shows clearly how the learning cycle needs to be established, which is a
crucial element for a successful transformation.
Establishing your detailed transformation roadmap
Now that we have looked at the Capability Framework, and an overview of the change process, we can see
that:
 flexibility is organisation-wide and is enabled by a range of specific capabilities; and
 change is complex and transformational and requires a unique approach, including establishing a
Learning Cycle that enables the organisation to create tailored solutions that improve over time.
It is now important to look at each specific capability in more detail to support your organisation to establish a
detailed transformation roadmap. In the following pages you will find:
 examples of KPIs that organisations could set within each capability,
 specific roadblocks and roundabouts for each capability, and
 clarity around the key individuals who should be involved in the change process for each capability.
KPIs
KPIs are suggested for each of the capabilities below, based on an organisation’s overall position on the
flexibility capability assessment. Organisations at the limited end may choose to identify KPIs within the next
band, basic. For organisations already in the basic band, it would be most appropriate to identify relevant
KPIs within the strategic band. Each organisation will need to make its own decisions regarding which of the
suggested KPIs to adopt.
As outlined above, it is important that organisations not yet at the strategic phase engage in a trial of
flexibility. This trial lowers risk by enabling the organisation to learn how to adjust, before rolling flexibility out
more broadly across the organisation. As such, many of the suggested KPIs propose that the characteristics
of strategic flexibility be established first in a trial business area.
Note that percentages outlined in the KPIs tables are indicative examples only. Organsiations should select
percentages that are appropriate for their individual circumstances.
Simultaneous development
Rather than trying to bed down one capability before others, capabilities should all be developed
simultaneously.
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Roadblocks
Where possibly or likely hurdles can be anticipated, these will need to be considered in your organisation’s
transformation map.
The roadblocks provided in this toolkit are known, significant hurdles that may or may not occur. Given the
diverse nature of organisations, hurdles may arise that are not listed as roadblocks here. In addition, some
organisations may not experience the typical roadblocks. The roadblocks are provided to support your
organisation with a greater awareness of the possibilities.
Roundabouts
In this toolkit, roundabouts are suggested ways to overcome roadblocks. These suggestions may not always
be the most appropriate for your organisation. They are provided to support your planning with options.
Other important strategies
For each capability below, other important strategies are suggested if they have the capacity to significantly
improve the success of the organisation’s transformation. These other strategies may not be in response to
roadblocks.
Business case
Why it is important
A clear business case is an essential prerequisite for building commitment to a flexibility strategy that leads
to improved organisational performance. Without it, the transformational change required is significantly at
risk.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
A business case is established that clearly
A business case is established that clearly articulates
articulates the organisation’s likely return on
the organisation’s likely return on investment in
investment in flexibility in the trial business area.
flexibility across the whole organisation. The business
The business case is compelling and demonstrates
case is compelling and demonstrates the contribution
the contribution of flexibility to business
of flexibility to business performance, having looked at
performance, having looked at both costs and
both costs and benefits.
benefits.
Roadblock
Implementation issues can overshadow – Organisations establishing their business case may find the
process at risk of being derailed by the concerns of senior managers, managers or employees about the
move to strategic flexibility. Until the organisation’s business case is established an organisation is generally
not in a position to adequately answer these concerns about implementation because it has not committed to
the allocation of resources let alone begun the learning cycle that will address implementation issues. At this
stage it will be important to refer to some of the successful strategies used by other organisations, which can
provide clues to how implementation issues may be addressed. Nonetheless, as noted elsewhere,
organisations get the best result when they tailor their implementation solutions rather than adopt other
organisations’ solutions holus bolus. It is important that the business cases is fully fleshed out and not overly
influenced by concerns about implementation.
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Roundabout
Engage a discrete group of senior staff – Given that strategic flexibility has a lot to offer an organisation, it
is important that these benefits are not lost through concerns about implementation. A discrete group of
senior staff may be the appropriate team to develop the organisation’s business case.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Senior executive team
Leadership
Why it is important
Leaders play a particularly important role in the transformational journey towards strategic flexibility. Strong
executive leadership commitment and involvement is essential for a successful move to strategic flexibility.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
 Accountability is established for the change
program’s outcomes.
Strategic (End)
 Accountability is established for the change
program’s outcomes.
 15% of the organisation’s Leadership team works
 35% of the organisation’s Leadership team works
flexibly.
flexibly.
 The leadership team has communicated its
 The leadership team has made several strong,
commitment to flexibility to the business areas
consistent statements about the organisation’s
involved in flexibility trial.
commitment to flexibility across the whole
 Sufficient resources are allocated to the
business.
capability areas involved in the transformation to
 Sufficient resources are allocated to the capability
flexibility.
areas involved in the transformation to flexibility.
 The business areas involved in the flexibility trial
 All business areas have a flexibility champion.
have a flexibility champion.
Roadblocks
Lack of permission to advise leaders – In designing the organisation’s transformation map and through
the flexibility capability assessment, your change program designers may notice a gap in the organisation’s
leadership capability.
Myths and misunderstandings – There are several misunderstandings about flexible work that can have a
strong impact on leadership commitment. Leaders can be concerned that flexibility is primarily a benefit to
the organisation’s employees. A related belief is the myth that flexible workers are less committed to their
organisation, although it has been well established by research and experience that the opposite is the
case.. A further misunderstanding is the belief that performance will suffer, when in fact individual
productivity can rise significantly. Lastly, some leaders believe that flexible work can threaten the whole
organisation’s cultural foundations whereas many effective communication methods and tools exist that
enable organisations to effectively eliminate this risk.
Values and beliefs can inhibit flexibility - As mentioned above, flexibility can challenge people’s values
and beliefs, which tend to be intransient. For example, some leaders (and managers) hold a view that they
‘need’ to see their staff members to know that they are working or that they ‘need’ to have their staff
members in the office to gauge the quality of their performance. These deeply held views can be based on
years of experience. It can take a different experience, of improved productivity through successful results
management, before some people will change their long-held views.
Concerns about implementation can be significant - Leaders can have many valid concerns about
implementation, which will need to be resolved through the transformation process described in Sections 4
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and 5 of this toolkit. Concerns are usually about maintaining effective management strategies, fostering great
performance, implementing technology and maintaining legal compliance.
Roundabouts
Permit the change team to advise leaders - It is important that the change program managers are given
permission and a communication channel to advise the organisation’s leadership team on how leadership
will need to improve.
Correct myths and misunderstandings - It is important that myths are corrected early on so that
leadership support can be maximised. Provide examples of where flexibility works effectively and evidence
that contradicts the myths. The suggested executive workshop is an appropriate forum to dispel myths, for
example the myth that flexibility is primarily a benefit to the organisation’s employees can be dispelled by
clearly outlining the organisation’s positive business case for flexibility. Evidence can be presented from the
research mentioned earlier in this toolkit about the improved commitment, performance and productivity of
flexible workers. Communication methods and tools that enable the organisations to eliminate the risk of
negative cultural drift can be outlined.
Become aware of values and beliefs that inhibit flexibility - The organisation needs to become aware of
values and beliefs that can inhibit flexibility, so that they can be addressed. Your organisation may choose to
address these long-held views with information or opportunities for personal exploration e.g. an opportunity
to participate in the organisation’s flexibility trial.
Identify and address concerns about implementation - Identifying leadership concerns is an important
step in establishing your organisation’s transformation roadmap, which provides a detailed view of the
organisation’s issues. It is also important for establishing ongoing leadership support as leaders are more
likely to be engaged if they know their issues have been noted and are being addressed. These concerns
need to be addressed in the organisation’s transformation map. As noted above, The learning cycle should
capture these ongoing concerns and feed them back into the ongoing transformation map.
Other important strategies
Establish responsibility for leadership capability with the CEO - The suggested executive workshop
outlined in Section 4 should establish responsibility for the leadership capability with one of the senior
executive team. It is important that this senior executive has the capacity to influence and enable the
leadership team. As such it may be that the organisation’s CEO or equivalent is the right person to take
responsibility for the leadership capability.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 C-suite
 Senior executive team
Management capability
Why it is important
Management Capability can either make or break the success of the journey to strategic flexibility. Managers
of flexible workers should receive specific learning and development opportunities that enable them to
develop strong capabilities in communication, results management and the use of technology for flexible
work.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 Managers in the trial business area are aware of
the benefits of flexibility to the organisation & to
their teams.
 All managers are aware of the benefits of
flexibility to the organisation & to their
teams.
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Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 Managers in the trial business area are made
aware of the systems being adopted to enable
flexibility.
 All managers are made aware of the
systems being adopted to enable
flexibility.
 Managers in the trial business area are given
opportunity to raise their issues with flexibility.
 All managers are given opportunity to
raise their issues with flexibility.
 Managers in the trial business area are offered
learning and development opportunities that
specifically train the skills required for effective
flexible work management.
 All managers are offered learning and
development opportunities that
specifically train the skills required for
effective flexible work management.
 Managers’ flexible work management skills.
continue to be monitored.
 Managers’ flexible work management.
skills continue to be monitored.
 An effective system is in place to monitor work
intensification for managers in the trial area.
 An effective system is in place to monitor
work intensification for managers across
the organization.
Roadblocks
Myths and misunderstandings – There are several misunderstandings about flexible work that can have a
strong impact on management commitment. As mentioned above under leadership, managers can be
concerned that flexibility is primarily a benefit to the organisation’s employees. A related belief is the myth
that flexible workers are less committed to their organisation, although it is well established by research and
experience that the opposite is the case.. A further misunderstanding is the belief that performance will
suffer, when in fact individual productivity can rise significantly. Lastly, some managers believe that flexible
work can threaten their team’s culture whereas many effective communication methods and tools exist that
enable organisations to effectively eliminate this risk.
Values and beliefs can inhibit flexibility - As mentioned above, flexibility can challenge people’s values
and beliefs, which tend to be intransient. Like leaders, some managers hold a view that they ‘need’ to see
their staff members to know that they are working or that they ‘need’ to have their staff members in the office
to gauge the quality of their performance. These deeply held views can be based on years of experience. It
can take a different experience, of improved productivity through successful results management before
some people will change their long-held views.
Concerns about implementation can be significant - Managers can be concerned that flexibility places a
significant burden on them of additional communication and monitoring together with additional challenges
allocating resources. In addition, managers play a leading role in conveying the organisation’s culture and
values.
Roundabouts
Correct myths and misunderstandings - It is important that myths are corrected early on so that
leadership support can be maximised. Provide examples of where flexibility has worked effectively and
evidence that contradicts the myths. Manager training is an appropriate forum to dispel myths, for example
the myth that flexibility is primarily a benefit to the organisation’s employees can be dispelled by clearly
outlining the organisation’s positive business case for flexibility. Evidence can be presented from the
research mentioned earlier in this toolkit about the improved commitment, performance and productivity of
flexible workers. Communication methods and tools that enable the organisations to eliminate the risk of
negative cultural drift can be outlined.
Become aware of values and beliefs that inhibit flexibility - The organisation needs to become aware of
values and beliefs that can inhibit flexibility, so that they can be addressed. Your organisation may choose to
address these long-held views with information or opportunities for personal exploration e.g. an opportunity
to participate in the organisation’s flexibility trial.
Identify and address concerns about implementation – As noted under leadership above, identifying
management concerns is important for establishing ongoing management support as managers are more
likely to be engaged if they know their issues have been noted and are being addressed. These concerns
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need to be addressed in the organisation’s transformation map. The learning cycle should capture these
ongoing concerns and feed them back into the ongoing transformation map.
Other important strategies
Communicate the organisation’s business case clearly – It is important to communicate clearly to
managers that the organisation has a mandate or positive business case for flexibility, which is driving the
change. As noted elsewhere, significant effort is required on the part of managers to make flexibility work
effectively. Without a clear understanding of the organisation’s mandate for flexibility, managers cannot be
expected to become fully engaged with the organisation’s transformation.
Communicate the opportunities for managers – Managers have the potential to benefit significantly from
flexible work, both in their role as manager and as employees of an organisation with strategic flexibility.
Managers can look forward to a team that is less stressed and more productive. Flexible teams are better
able to respond to the organisation’s changing requirements through a wider range of timeframes and time
zones that can be utilised, a wider range of locations that can be worked and greater clarity around the work
being done.
Ensure adequate support for managers – Managers have responsibility in a number of areas when it
comes to flexibility capability. It is crucial that managers are provided with adequate support for their own
transition to flexible work management, including appropriate learning and development opportunities. This
support may also take the shape of extra resourcing or some tasks being taken off the manager’s plate for a
few months.
Raise managers’ attention to the risks of flexibility – Managers play a key role in ameliorating the risks of
flexibility to individuals within the team, both the flexible worker and their colleagues. For example, managers
are usually responsible for recommending people for promotion. They also ensure that employees don’t
become isolated or subject to stigma. Importantly, they play a leading role in ensuring smooth team
communication and task or project management. The manager training mentioned needs to highlight to
managers the risks of flexibility and clarify their role in resolving these issues.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Learning and development team
 Managers
Employee experience
Why it is important
The employee experience is important in two ways. Firstly, as a litmus test of whether flexibility capability is
fully developed and secondly, because employees partner with their manager to make flexibility effective.
Consequently, organisations that are strategic about flexibility tend to monitor the experience of employees
and provide support so that they can develop their competency with flexibility.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 At least 15% of employees within the organisation
take up flexible work options
 At least 35% of employees within the
organisation take up flexible work options
 At least 15% of employees at each level take up
flexible work options within the trial area
 At least 35% of employees at each level
within the organisation take up flexible work
options
 An effective system is in place to monitor work
intensification and other risks associated with
flexibility, in the trial area
 Employees in the trial area have access to support
to develop their flexibility competence
 An effective system is in place to monitor work
intensification and other risks associated with
flexibility, across the organisation
 Employees in the trial area have access to
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Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
support to develop their flexibility competence
Roadblock
Limited team acceptance of flexibility – A flexible worker’s teammates have both a significant impact on
the success of a flexible work arrangement. Conversely, they are also significantly impacted by a flexible
work arrangement, whether positively or negatively.
Roundabout
Monitor team acceptance of flexibility - Just like it is important to monitor flexible workers’ experience of
flexibility, it is equally important is to monitor team acceptance of flexibility and any issues that may arise.
Monitoring could be conducted with anonymised research tools, focus groups or through manager feedback,
however importance needs to be placed on getting reliable and valid information.
Other important strategies
Monitor issues impacting uptake – The issues employees express about flexibility, which may prevent
them from taking up flexibility options, can be important information to capture. This information helps to
establish a view on whether the organisation is operating at the level of strategic flexibility. For example, if
individuals continue to hold the view that they are less likely to be promoted, or feel isolated or subject to
stigma, then the organisation has further work to do.
Understand individuals as individuals – Look at trends but keep in mind that individuals within a single
organisation can have vastly different experiences of flexibility because the success of flexibility is influenced
by many factors. If your organisation looks only at the trends, individual scenarios that go against the grain
can be missed. For those people involved in situations where flexibility is burdensome, the impact can be
great. Trends and high-level perspectives will be highly useful, but your organisation needs to capture the
experience of individuals as well.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Managers
 Employees
Flexibility policy & processes
Why it is important
An ideal flexibility policy provides a wide range of options for flexible work; enables individuals and their
managers to create tailored options; and establishes a low bar with regards to eligibility and suitability –
ideally all roles across the organisation and all individuals have the option to discuss flexible work with their
manager. Importantly, the flexibility policy will also acknowledge that each individual’s flexible work
arrangement may need to change over time, for example in response to either learning gained during a trial
period or changing operational requirements.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 ‘More involved’ types of flexible work are offered  ‘More involved’ types of flexible work are offered
to a test area of the business.
across the organization.
 A broader range of acceptable reasons for
 Flexible work can be requested for any reason
requesting flexible work is established in the test
without limitations.
area.
 Flexible work arrangements, including previously
 Flexible work arrangements, including previously
ad hoc arrangements, are consistently
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Basic (Middle)
ad hoc arrangements, are consistently
documented in the test area.
Strategic (End)
documented.
 The organisation’s flexibility policy establishes a
 The organisation’s flexibility policy establishes a
positive stance to flexibility for all staff.
positive stance to flexibility for all staff.
 The organisation’s policies and approach give
 Managers within the test area have full flexibility
to tailor individual arrangements to create an
ideal scenario.
managers and employees full flexibility to tailor
individual arrangements to create an ideal
scenario.
 The organisation’s flexibility policy outlines the
 The organisation’s flexibility policy outlines the
organisations’ steps to meet its legal obligations
organisations’ steps to meet and exceed its legal
obligations.
Roadblock
Finalising your flexibility policy too early – Due to the large degree of variability between organisations,
amongst teams and between individuals, together with the degree of change involved in a transformation
program towards strategic flexibility, it is misguided to establish a flexibility policy prior to implementing a
transformation program. Doing so could lock the organisation into an approach that still needs refinement
based on experience.
Roundabout
Establish a working draft flexibility policy – Instead of finalising your flexibility policy too early, the policy
should be considered a draft prior to and during the organisation’s flexibility pilot. It should be adjusted in
response to learning gained during the flexibility pilot and should be finalised only after several months of
monitoring the rollout phase - typically three to six months is a good length of time.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Human resources policy team
Results management
Why it is important
The results management capability involves establishing an effective management approach that establishes
the outcomes, goals, aims or results that are important in each person’s work. A results management system
establishes a contract of agreed expectations between an employee and their manager or with whomever
they have responsibility to deliver outcomes. The system forms the basis for an effective, ongoing working
relationship. It describes what needs to be done, how it needs to be done, when, and who needs to be
involved. All parties involved have information on which to base their view of whether the contract of agreed
expectations has been met. From this basis, good intentions and competence can continue to be
demonstrated. The ongoing disclosure of information affecting the ‘contract’ also continues to reinforce trust
between a manager and employee.
The results management framework should capture everything about an individual’s work and describe it in a
way that is quantifiable, so that this becomes the basis for productivity measurements. This framework
becomes a tool to be used between managers and employees to increase transparency around work that is
being done and how it is being done.
The framework should include:
 a clear description of the outcomes, goals, aims or results expected of each position,
 a reporting procedure, whether formal or informal,
 a guide or agenda for open conversations that monitor the achievement of results.
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Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 The organisation has a results management
framework in place for each position in the trial
area, regardless of whether the person works
flexibly
 The organisation has a results management
framework in place for each position in the
organisation, regardless of whether the person
works flexibly
Roadblock
A skeleton or incomplete framework – As explained above the results management framework should
form a comprehensive basis for the ongoing working relationship between an employee and their manager.
This is a central plank in the effective management of flexibility, but some organisations will be inexperienced
establishing a results management system. The framework should include significant detail on all the
elements above, even though describing them may be unfamiliar.
Roundabout
Conduct a results management workshop – Organisations can find it highly useful to review the
organisation’s value chain i.e. the process by which the organisation delivers value to its clients or
stakeholders. This involves establishing the outcomes, goals, aims or results that a particular business area
is responsible to deliver – these are the outcomes a particular area contributes to the organisation’s overall
delivery. The workshop should look at each ‘piece’ that is delivered – often, this is not a literal widget, but
anything that is measurable. The workshop should determine who in the team is involved in its delivery and
how that piece is measured, whether by quantity, timing, quality or other area of impact, such as its effect. It
is also useful to establish what information is needed to deliver each piece and who provides this
information. The information that comes out of this workshop becomes the basis for the business area’s
results management framework.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Managers
 Employees
Technology
Why it is important
Organisations use technology to establish effective collaboration between people who work together but
don’t share the same timing or location of work. Each organisation’s particular technology needs will depend
on its goals for flexibility, the nature of the work and the prevalence of flexible work that occurs across
timeframes and locations.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 Managers in the trial area use a variety of
 The organisation uses a range of collaborative
communication tools to communicate with
platforms that enable employees to communicate
flexible workers. Together these tools enable a
effectively with their team members and
high-quality communication experience.
managers. These technologies include
collaborative project management platforms and
 Capability and performance of these
video conferencing.
technologies is supported and maintained in
 Capability and performance of these technologies
is supported and maintained in line with their
 Flexible workers and their colleagues within the
critical functions
trial area are trained on any new
line with their critical functions
communication or project management
 Flexible workers and their colleagues across the
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Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
technologies
organisation are trained on any new
communication or project management
technologies
Roadblock
Lack of technology resourcing – Organisations often fail to provide sufficient collaborative technologies
that can support managers and flexible workers. This unfortunate failure can be caused by a lack of
experience with appropriate technologies, funding issues or implementation problems.
Roundabout
Explore collaborative technologies - While none of the issues associated with the implementation of
collaborative technologies are resolved simply, organisations do need to invest in exploring the possibility of
using the correct technologies that will meet their organisation’s flexibility goals.
Key Roles
 Change Management Project Team
 Information and Technology Team
 Managers
 Employees
Infrastructure
Why it is important
The location of work can be a key enabler of flexibility – enabling work to be done in a variety of locations or
places can provide for a wide range of flexible work options. When the place of work suits the work activity,
organisations have the potential to further improve productivity. Similarly, organisational processes create
structures that people work within and these can have a significant positive and negative impact on flexibility.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)

 Flexible workers’ in the pilot area are able to
access equipment and technology that
effectively supports their flexible work

arrangement.
 The pilot area has effective knowledge
management systems that ensure smooth
transfer of knowledge.
The organisation’s main office environment has
spaces that are highly suited to the spectrum of
various work activities.
Flexible workers’ are able to access equipment
and technology that effectively supports their
flexible work arrangement.
 The organisation has effective knowledge
management systems that ensure smooth transfer
 Methods of work allocation in the pilot area
of knowledge.
are adjusted to suit flexible work.
 Methods of work allocation across the organisation
 Any process infrastructures or systems are
are adjusted to suit flexible work.
identified that could impact flexibility on the
 Process infrastructures and systems are
trial area.
reorganised to support flexibility.
Roadblocks
Inadequate resourcing – It is a problem common to many change programs that the extent of change
required is underestimated. As noted here, infrastructure involves not only hard aspects but also some of the
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integral processes that contribute to an organisation’s functioning. Changing these processes can take time
and the involvement of many people.
Roundabouts
Resource infrastructure appropriately - The extent of resources required to change infrastructure
shouldn’t be underestimated. A better approach is to allow more time, people and funding that is thought
necessary.
Other important strategies
Overblown focus on ‘hard’ infrastructure – As noted elsewhere in this toolkit, organisations can easily
make the mistake of focusing on hard aspects like the office set up, desk arrangements and technology, to
the detriment of other important aspects of the transformation. It is important to use this toolkit in full, to avoid
that mistake.
Key roles
 Change management project team
 Information and technology team
 Facilities or accommodation team
 Managers
 Employees
Learning cycle
Why it is important
A strong and appropriate learning cycle is the key to an organisation successfully managing the complex
transformation to flexibility and maintaining its ongoing flexibility capability. The learning cycle enables the
organisation to handle problems as they emerge; creating tailored solutions that improve over time.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 The learning cycle is established as an integral
part of the organisation’s transformation map.
 The learning cycle is established as an
integral part of the organisation’s
transformation map.
 A learning cycle is established within the trial
business area and that area’s teams, which
monitors success and failure, captures learning
and creates tailored solutions on an individual,
team or area level as needed.
 A learning cycle is established across the
organisation and within teams, which monitors
success and failure, captures learning and
creates tailored solutions on an individual,
team or area level as needed.
 A business area is identified as a pilot area that will
participate in the trial phases.
 The ongoing learning cycle involves frequent
reviews (e.g. 3 monthly) of flexible work
 The trial period learning cycle involves frequent
arrangements, which involve the individual,
reviews (e.g. 1 monthly) of flexible work
team, manager and business area.
arrangements, which involve the individual, team,
manager and business area.
 Regular monitoring for issues and solutions is
a standard business practice across the
 Regular monitoring for issues and solutions is a
organization.
standard business practice in the pilot area.
Roadblocks
Failing to understand the importance of an iterative learning cycle – For all the reasons mentioned
above, flexibility requires a unique approach to change. Organisations are often more comfortable with a
linear, planned approach that establishes a limited set of activities that will lead to a known outcome. As
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explained elsewhere in this toolkit, this approach is appropriate for other types of change – transitional and
developmental – but not for transformational change.
Prescribing solutions – For an organisation to amplify what is working, people need to be empowered to
make adjustments that work in their situation. A prescriptive approach sets limits on his opportunity.
Organisations will vary in their overall approach, from a prescriptive approach to an organic one.
Organisations with a very traditional approach and hierarchical structure are more likely to work in a topdown mindset, where solutions are generated by the leadership team and the rest of the organisation is
informed of their benefit and instructed to adopt it. Organisations with a more agile approach and a flat or
changing structure are more likely to work from a bottom-up perspective, where solutions are generated at
the grassroots level and then communicated more broadly. Traditional and hierarchical organisations may
tend to set prescriptive approaches that limit the organisation’s ability to quickly learn how to adapt.
Roundabout
Value grassroots solutions – Logically, the grassroots level is more fertile territory for generating solutions
to flexibility as there are simply more employees and managers than leaders. Consequently, organisations
need to value grassroots solutions if they want to amplify successful strategies. This can be achieved
through focus groups, interviews with employees and managers or an email survey that asks what is working
and what is not working about flexibility for that person at that point. Where something is identified as
working, the survey could be followed up with a short interview to get more information. With respect for
privacy issues, the change management team could make a regular habit of communicating successful
solutions more broadly across the pilot group or the whole organisation.
Other important strategies
Include assessment of business outcomes in the transformation roadmap - The learning cycle needs
to continue to support the organisation’s transformation with accurate information about the achievement of
business outcomes. This supports the transformation in the presence of factors that could otherwise derail it,
such as changes in leadership or in the marketplace. As such, it is important that the organisation collects
data on flexibility’s contribution to its business goals. These organisational goals for flexibility were
established in the business case. The results management workshop established the framework that can be
used to assess these business goals.
Key Roles
 Change management project team
 Managers
 Employees
Change management resourcing
Why it is important
A successful move to strategic, productive flexibility results in an organisation that has a new culture of work
- one where new norms are established and where the systems, symbols and behaviours within the
organisation all reinforce the value that is placed on flexibility. This cannot be achieved without a tailored
change management program that appreciates the unique nature of the move to strategic flexibility and is
adequately resourced and supported.
Possible KPIs
Basic (Middle)
Strategic (End)
 The organisation’s change management team is
 The organisation’s change management team
adequately resourced for transformational change in
is adequately resourced for transformational
the trial business area.
change across the organization.
 A flexibility champion is identified, supported and
active in the pilot business area.
 Flexibility champions are identified, supported
and active across the organization.
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Roadblock
Lack of familiarity leads to poor implementation – Some of the concepts outlined in this toolkit make it
clear that the move to improved flexibility could pose a significant challenge for many change teams tasked
with an organisation’s transformation. A lack of familiarity could result in an organisation’s change team
falling back to familiar methods, rather than fully implementing the strategies outlined in this toolkit.
Complexity of the change can obscure early wins – It is well understood that change programs proceed
more successfully when early wins are communicated broadly across the business area. In the case of
flexibility, which doesn’t proceed according to a linear plan, it can be difficult to celebrate the achievement of
milestones.
Roundabout
Overcome lack of familiarity with experimentation and education – One of the best ways for an
organisation’s change team to become familiar with the new, transformational approach to change is to
become educated about the difference between transformational change and other more familiar change
processes. Another important strategy is to actively experiment with the principles outlined in this toolkit.
Garner early wins during the trial and at the individual and team level – Early wins are more likely to be
experienced by individuals and teams than at the higher level of capabilities. Wins should be uncovered
during the trial and at the individual and team levels. These should then be communicated across the
organisation. These wins might include the business area/team achieving (or improving on) its business
goals for the week, an experience of improved customer service or evidence of cost savings. Note that these
wins refer to the organisation’s business goals for flexibility, rather than the employee’s goals, reinforcing the
view that flexibility capability is driven by a mandate to improve the organisation’s business outcomes, not
just the employee experience.
Key Roles
 Senior leadership team
 Change management project team
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Copyright and Disclaimer
This toolkit is shared openly with the intent of promoting progress towards workplace gender equality.
Ownership of the intellectual property within this toolkit rests with the Workplace Gender Equality Agency.
The ideas and recommendations contained within this toolkit are used or adopted entirely at the discretion
and own risk of employers. The Workplace Gender Equality Agency cannot accept any responsibility or
liability for outcomes resulting from the use of this Toolkit, either directly or indirectly.
Acknowledgements
The Agency would like to acknowledge and thank Nina Sochon for her involvement in the development of
the strategic flexibility toolkit.
.
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Appendix A: Specific flexibility
benefits and costs
Summary of benefits
Employee attraction and retention
 Strong and growing interest from employees to work flexibly results in significant benefits to the flexible
organisation, particularly in the areas of attraction and retention.
 Many employees would rather stay with an employer who offered flexible work than leave to take the
opportunity of a pay rise. 43% of employees would choose flexible work over a pay rise (UnifyCo, 2014) 17.
 Over three quarters of parents want flexibility (Flexjobs 2013 18).
 Flexible work contributes to greater employee loyalty (Working Families UK and Cranfield University
School of Management, 2008).
 With an ageing workforce, flexible work has strong appeal for the semi-retired person who wants to keep
working to some degree (Deloitte, 2013) 19.
 Improves quality of life and provides a workplace that is seen as more family friendly.
 Acknowledged as a powerful tool for attraction and retention.
 Overall this means that an organisation offering a strategic flexible work approach can become an
employer of choice, it also means that the organisation benefits from retaining valuable skills and
knowledge as employees continue work within the business.
Productivity gain
 Despite the fact that many business leaders and managers are concerned about the impact of flexible
work on productivity, a collegial, flexible workplace has a 9% impact on shareholder value. 20
 Absenteeism declines when employees have greater flexibility to be able to handle personal concerns in
their normal working week. For example, 61% of 200 ‘Fortune 1000’ companies interviewed reported
reduced absenteeism amongst their telecommuting staff 21.
 Improved satisfaction with work - Employees who work from home are generally less distracted and are
grateful for the flexibility (London School of Economics, 2013) 22. Up to 83% of employees with access to
flexible IT policies such as being availability of technology to work from home report feeling satisfied at
work, compared to 62% without access to flexible IT policies (Deloitte Access Economics, 2013). 23
 Stronger engagement on the job. Research has established a positive relationship between workplace
flexibility arrangements that give employees greater control over when they work, where they work and
how they work and satisfaction and engagement (AIM, 2012) 24.
 Telecommuting is well documented to result in improved productivity. Most studies of telecommuters
indicate that they get more done. For example Stanford University found individual productivity improved
by 22% when staff were enabled to choose telecommuting or not (Stanford University, 2014) 25. Increased
17
http://www.unify.com/us/news/2846D70A-ACA6-4146-9B00-955E6114038E/
18 http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/outside-voices-careers/2013/09/12/what-working-moms-really-want
19 http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/creating-jobs-through-nbn-enabled-telework.html
20
Watson Wyatt, “Report Summary: Human Capital Index: Human Capital as a Lead Indicator of Shareholder Value,” 2002.
21
http://hrweb.berkeley.edu/faq/2074
22
http://www.lse.ac.uk/newsandmedia/news/archives/2013/10/homeworkers.aspx
23
http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/the-connected-workplace.html
24
https://www.aim.com.au/media/default/downloads/AIM-Research-Managing-Flexible-Work-Environment.pdf [PDF download]
25
http://web.stanford.edu/~nbloom/WFH.pdf [PDF download]
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 productivity comes from which decreases commuting stress, improved ability to manage work and life
commitments and increased work satisfaction.
 Overall, there is a range of robust sources providing productivity data showing that telecommuters tend to
be more productive than their office-based counterparts.
Cost savings

Flexible work options such as telework can result in significant cost savings. For example, AT&T’s
savings through its telework program are estimated to amount to $30 million USD annually 26.
 Real estate and accommodation costs can be significantly reduced. For example, approximately 40% of
IBM’s some 386,000 employees in 173 countries have no traditional office, enabling IBM to reduce its
office space considerably, resulting in annual savings of $100m (IBM, 2009) 27.
 Savings on hiring costs alone can be around $350,000 per year for large organisations and around
$22,000 for medium-sized organisations (Deloitte Access Economics, 2013). 28
Improved service delivery
 Flexibility can expand organisational capacity. The first area of benefit is in improved customer service
and /or delivery of other outcomes to stakeholders, for example across time zones, during workload
peaks and instances of crisis or disaster.
 For organisations of any size, an approach to flexibility that includes telework can contribute greatly to an
organisation’s ability to manage the impact of natural disaster and other impacts on business continuity.
 The second area of expanded capacity is agility, which improves due to greater transparency and
understanding around the organisation’s value chain, so that it becomes easier to adjust, amend and
replace elements of the value chain in response to economic, political or other strategic pressures.
 Overall, flexibility offers a win-win for employers and employees.
 A true business case considers both the risk and the return, the costs and the benefits. The negative side
of the business case is outlined below.
Summary of costs
Negative reception from managers
Managers can be concerned about the imposition of flexibility on their day-to-day experience of managing
their teams. For some managers flexibility can require not only new skills and knowledge but also adjusted
beliefs, values and attitudes. As a result, it is usually appropriate to provide learning and development
opportunities and to support managers to adopt the new approaches and systems that will enable flexibility.
Technological investment
In order for some organisations to fully embed flexibility, it can be important to invest in collaborative
technologies. The need to do so can be driven by a range of factors but the most important factor of these is
usually the degree of distance between employees working collaboratively, in terms of time or location. For
example, organisations that are beginning to adopt flexibility may not see the need to make any upfront
technological investment if they opt for flexibility options that involve employees working at the same time or
location. On the other hand, providing technology to support work at a variety of times and in a variety of
locations can dramatically improve the range of available flexibility options so that the organisation can
realise the benefits of flexibility to a greater degree.
26
http://www.toolsofchange.com/en/case-studies/detail/129
27
http://www-01.ibm.com/industries/government/ieg/pdf/working_outside_the_box.pdf [PDF download]
http://www2.deloitte.com/au/en/pages/economics/articles/the-connected-workplace.html
28
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Resources spent on change
The move to strategic flexibility is best described as transformational. As such, it can require more resources
than other change programs. The extent to which each organisation needs to invest in its change program is
established by its current flexibility capability, which can be established by the flexibility capability
assessment in this toolkit.
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