Our next article in the Vision 2030 Strategy series focuses on Flexible Working for All regardless of who or what the flexibility is wanted for. Vision 2030, is AXIS Network’s invitation to the industry to imagine what more we could achieve if we accelerate progress towards a fully inclusive and diverse industry. Flexible working policies are at the heart of a modern and inclusive workplace and vital to driving a thriving industry. If you want to retain good people, you need find ways to support them with their broader life goals; flexible working goes a long way towards this.
The UK government defines Flexible working as: a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, for example having flexible start and finish times or working from home.
They include the following as types of flexible working:
Job sharing
Remote working and working from home
Hybrid working
Part time
Compressed hours
Flexitime
Annualised hours
Staggered hours
Phased retirement
CMI’s Guide to flexible working makes clear: Flexible working makes good business sense. If implemented well, it can boost the attraction, retention, progression, and well-being [and therefore productivity] of employees.
Normalisation of flexible working is not yet seen across the industry, with it being viewed predominantly for the needs of mothers. This needs to change.
Two key areas need to be addressed:
Encouraging more men to take up flexible working
Ensuring flexibility in senior roles
Flexible working is vital to allow mothers to manage both work and caring responsibilities, giving them a greater chance to stay in roles that reflect their skills and ensuring the gender pay gap doesn’t increase further. However, encouraging men to work flexibly and share caring responsibilities more equally with their partners may do more to close the gender pay gap and support women’s progression into leadership roles.
In addition to this, leaders working flexibly will do the most to remove stigma from flexible working and will ensure it is not just seen as a perk of working mothers.
Leaders role model behaviours and working practices for their employees. If they are seen to work flexibly, facilitating caring responsibilities, sports, side-hustles, studying, charity work or any other activity that means they are able to have a vibrant life alongside work, their teams and employees will do likewise. It is important to normalise flexible working by boosting its use in all positions and levels of seniority.
Being vocal about your support of flexible working in your team or being open about how you flexibly work starts to drive an inclusive culture within which people feel supported and valued. This drives retention of talented people within the industry and encourages people with the key skills required to drive the energy transition to join.
For us to deliver the energy transition that is so important to this country we need the best people making up diverse teams, working together to deliver innovation and efficiency. Encouraging and facilitating a greater uptake of flexible working in all its forms and ensuring it is accessible at all levels of business will accelerate progress towards Vision 2030.