Your chance to embrace flexible working is just around the corner

Posted on 15 April, 2019

Throughout her life, career coach Vanessa Vanderhoek has found the option to work flexibly while she travelled, faced health issues, and cared for her children and parents has made her happier and more productive.

That’s why she founded Flexible Working Day in 2016, an international day to celebrate and showcase the benefits of flexible working for both individuals and organisations.

However, Vanessa didn’t know that she would soon understand the importance of flexible working from an even more personal perspective.

“Last year, our world was tipped on its head when our youngest daughter fell ill with a chronic disease. My need for flexibility was through a lens of not only caring for a sick child, but also through the lens of a child who quite likely would have a permanent disability and require flexibility in the workforce herself one day.”

As a mum, being able to tailor her work schedule to fit around her caring responsibilities helped Vanessa stay in the workforce. But she says the ability to access flexible work arrangements across the board is an essential part of achieving equality in the workplace.

“The work that I was involved with at the time was centred around supporting gender diversity in senior leadership roles, and it was obvious to me that one of the key pillars to this was normalising flexible work for everyone.”

Vanessa Vanderhoek.

Through her work with Flexible Working Day, Vanessa hears the same stories again and again.

Often, the biggest barrier against implementing flexible work is an old-fashioned culture that perceives people who work flexibly as uncommitted to their jobs and creates a lack of trust between management and employees. Many workplaces also lack the technological expertise to smoothly transition to flexible work.

“At the end of the day, shifting these mindsets is a process of change for management and self-awareness by individuals. In the training we facilitate for organisations, we focus on authentic conversations to support employees and managers to move to a place where they can trust their people to work flexibly.”

In fact, shifting the flexible work conversation to include men has been a challenge due to outdated stereotypes about parenting.

“I read recently that men are often discriminated when they take parental leave particularly in organisations where it’s not normalised. The key to overcoming it in your business is creating behavioural nudges to offer flexibility for everyone.”

Thankfully, attitudes are changing, as employers see the benefits on both a personal and professional level.

“I’ve observed that conversation within many businesses is shifting to how they can best embrace flexibility and use it to their advantage by attracting and retaining great people, building capability within their business, and leveraging flexibility as a strategy to ensure the competitive advantage.”

This year, Flexible Working Day will take place on 22 May. If you’re hoping to push your organisation in the right direction, Vanessa and the team can help with a free step-by-step guide and webinars on the Flexible Working Day website.

“The biggest recommendation that I have is to look through the lens of your boss and your team, as well as yourself. It’s about having a balanced conversation.”