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Women in business: Making work-life balance work

Flexible work requires commitment from both employers and employees. Here’s how to help make it work
juliako
Julia Ko

Flexibility is going to be an important part of the future of work for Canadians. Our increasingly sophisticated economy demands it, driven by global economies of scale, rapidly changing technology and shifting societal values. We are witnessing it through changing legislation in places such as the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore and European Union.

Flexible work is also critical for gender equity and easing in-work poverty. While examples of flexible-work legislation and benefits for employees are easy to find on the internet, there isn’t much literature to help organizations understand how to implement flexible work successfully. From my work, I see very little infrastructure to enable flexible work for organizations in Vancouver and Canada, and ultimately, we all lose out on the benefits a modern workforce can offer.

In May 2017, I hosted a pilot roundtable with my colleagues Asubi Iwerreh and Christine Glendinning with seven employers to better understand flexibility in their organizations. From these discussions, we learned:

• Flexible work can mean different things to different people and organizations. There is no one definition. It is a complex definition, meaning it will take many people and organizations to shape or define it, and it depends upon pilots to determine what could be successful.

• Flexibility can mean control over time and outcomes.

• Sometimes organizations are forced to consider flexibility out of a sudden event such as moving headquarters, which causes the need for telecommuting and the need to adopt flexibility in order to be sustainable.

• Not all organizations understand the business case of flexible work.

• Without a platform or structure to support flexible work for those responsible for hiring talent, there are real consequences for organizations, such as:

- Flexible work is implemented in a casual or on a case-by-case basis. As a result, if one case of flexible work doesn’t go well, it can “poison the well” for everyone else.

- Furthermore, toxic internal politics within an organization can happen. For example, Linda works Tuesday to Thursday, and most of the others on her team are full time, leading to tension inside the workplace where others on her team comment that she is “not working hard enough.” 

- Without a formal structure and support, organizations can foster a “culture of presentee-ism.” For example, if people are seen at a desk from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., they are assumed to be working, whereas if someone is not at a desk and working from home, they are seen as not working.

- Not all jobs are flexible.

Flexible work is complex and ultimately requires a culture change within your organization. It’s also necessary to prepare your ogranization for an incoming labour force that doesn’t want to work in the same way their parents did, for people looking to ease into retirement, for professionals who want to upgrade their skills and credentials, and for those who want to improve their overall quality of life. Flexible work is a commitment. 

It seems as though few companies are implementing successful flexible work. Those that are need a better platform to share their work with others and test what can work and what is possible. Should Canadian organizations fail to adopt flexible work within their hiring practices, they risk losing the deep and broad benefits flexible work has to offer.

Julia Ko is founder of Flexible Work, a Vancouver-based consultancy that supports organizations looking to implement flexible work practice