The future is flexible

MartinJenkins’ Managing Partner Allana Coulon looks at the rapid growth of flexible working in Aotearoa New Zealand and its implications for culture, performance and inclusion. She has advice on how organisational leaders and HR professionals can ensure that flexibility works for the organisation and not against it.

In 1930, in his short essay ‘Economic possibilities for our grandchildren’, economist John Maynard Keynes predicted that, in 2030, we would be working only 15 hours per week. We’re not there yet, but over the past 94 years, we’ve seen significant shifts in expectations and attitudes towards flexible work practices.

People are finding many ways to work flexibly. For employees, it includes working from home, flexible start and finish times, condensed work weeks, part-time hours, and sometimes all of the above. For others, it’s about how they work for themselves, including self-employment, contracting, the gig economy and ‘portfolio’ careers.

In this article, I look at how organisations are responding to the increased demand for flexibility from their employees.

WE’VE CAUGHT THE BUG

We might not be working 15-hour work weeks six years from now but, let’s face it, the future of work is flexible. Flexibility has already gone from a perk to a necessity for many people.

In 2019, according to Stats NZ , 50 per cent of employees in New Zealand had flexible work hours that allowed them to start and finish work at different times of day, and one-third had worked from home.

Fast-forward 12 months, and, in July 2020, almost all New Zealanders in jobs that allowed them to work from home had, in fact, done so. The COVID-19 pandemic fundamentally shifted our collective experience of, and appetite for, working from home. Whether or not we caught COVID-19, many of us caught the ‘WFH’ bug, and, with it, new possibilities began to emerge.

EMPLOYEES’ EXPECTATIONS HAVE FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED…

In 2023, Workmonitor research into New Zealand employees found that 61 per cent wouldn’t accept a job if they thought it would negatively affect their work–life balance. In 2024, Workmonitor reported that working from home is nonnegotiable for close to two out of five New Zealand workers.

…AND ORGANISATIONS HAVE RESPONDED…

Employers caught between economic, demographic and societal forces have, in recent years, had a harder time attracting and retaining talent. Until recently, it was an employee market, with new terms like ‘the great resignation’ and ‘the big quit’ being coined.

In March this year, Stats NZ reported that four out of five New Zealand businesses offered flexible working hours to their employees in 2023. For employers of large organisations with more than 100 staff, the figure was 90 per cent. On average, 14 per cent of employees in an organisation will be WFH on a given working day.

... ALTHOUGH FLEXIBLE WORKING IS UNEVEN ACROSS THE NEW ZEALAND WORKFORCE

Some industries, like retail, construction, manufacturing, healthcare and social assistance, and accommodation and food services, can often be constrained when it comes to the place or hours of work, because of the need for direct contact with customers, or for access to machinery or specialist equipment, or some other reason.

This means employers can’t be as flexible about working from home or start and finish times, but other kinds of flexible arrangements are still being agreed upon, for example, parttime hours or job sharing.

THE FUTURE IS FLEXIBLE

Flexible working broadens the labour pool available to employers, and it also allows us to differentiate ourselves from the competition. Providing flexibility allows us to attract and retain talented people, and research also shows it can boost engagement and productivity.

At MartinJenkins, like many other organisations, we’ve adopted a policy of flexibility by default. We’re a professional services firm with staff and associates in Auckland, Wellington, Wānaka, Missouri and California. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit we were lucky that we had already moved, a year earlier, to all using mobile devices, as well as improving our then-VPN service.

That put us in a much better situation than many of our clients at the time. Our ability to work remotely through the pandemic was also a godsend for the many clients who were becoming more agnostic about where the work was being delivered from.

Since COVID-19, it has allowed us to be more flexible about where we hire people, and to support people to move cities – and countries – but stay with us. It’s also meant we’ve retained people through their parental leave and attracted new people to us. For our Auckland team, in particular, WFH some days allows them to spend less time navigating traffic and more time delivering for our clients.

BUT IT’S NOT ALL ROSES…

When I talk to leaders and managers in different organisations, it doesn’t take long for common frustrations about flexible working to come up.

First, there’s productivity paranoia. With people working in different places, at different hours, how do we know they’re really working and being as productive as they can be? Are people quietly quitting? Flexible working can lead to mistrust, perceptions of unfairness and the temptation to micromanage.

Social disconnection is another worry. Those corridor conversations help build bonds, generate new ideas and impart organisational know-how. So how do you maintain those links in a virtual or hybrid environment?

A flipside of disconnection from work and colleagues is the risk of the work–home boundary becoming blurred both for staff and managers. How do we make sure that people properly unplug from work?

And then there are security concerns. More devices, in more locations, accessing corporate data, and in a context of increasing cyber-security risks … it keeps our CTOs up at night.

But despite those concerns, it’s clear that offering flexibility to employees is not only increasingly non-negotiable, it’s also well worth it. The trick is ensuring that flexibility works for the organisation and not against it.

Strong, deliberate leadership is essential to achieve flexible workplaces. To the left are my five tips on what matters most to harness the potential and minimise the downsides of being a flexible organisation.

THREE MAIN QUESTIONS FOR HR LEADERS

As an HR leader or professional, ongoing attention is required to make sure flexible working works for the organisation and not against it. I’d start by asking the following questions.

First, is our approach to flexible working strategically aligned with our overall business strategy? Do our executive and Board have the assurance they need and is it on the agenda?

Next, what do we know about how well flexible working is serving the organisation? Are we gathering feedback on whether policies are working as intended, on performance and productivity? And are we adjusting where needed?

Finally, how ‘evolved’ and culturally aligned are our people managers? Do they need help to build their management muscles for the virtual and hybrid world of work?

AND JUST BECAUSE THERE’S ALWAYS ANOTHER QUESTION …

I’d also ask myself: As a leader, am I as evolved, inclusive and deliberate as I need to be in my own practices and decisions?

Get in touch if you want to know how I’ve answered those questions in my own working life, especially that last one.

LEADERS NEED TO LEAD

Senior leaders have a significant role in developing and preserving the culture they want in their organisation. Here are Allana’s top five areas for leaders to focus on to harness the potential and minimise the downsides of being a flexible organisation.

1 Pragmatic, not dogmatic

A one-size policy rarely works. Many larger organisations have adopted organisationwide policies, like a 3/2-day policy (three days in the office, two days working from home), and anchor days, to try to bring people back into the office. The evidence I’ve looked at is only anecdotal so far, but I’m not convinced those organisation-wide policies work that well.

In an insightful article, Jeremie Brecheisen emphasises that different people will thrive under different arrangements, and managers need to be attuned to those differences. He writes:

Organizations that help employees find their version of balance, prioritize their feelings of being cared for, and ensure managers are actually equipped to lead remote and hybrid teams have a good chance of improving both well-being and productivity in our new era of work.

In a similar way, I favour allowing teams to experiment and work out the models that fit their workflow, but to do this deliberately with each other and the wider firm in mind. This is likely to work best if managers are supported with tools and training to help teams devise constructive ways of working. And, if you want to get everyone in the office on occasions, a shared lunch never hurts!

2 Develop your manager muscles

Let’s face it, in 2020, many of us were making it up as we went along, and we all had to learn fast. Today, many managers still have mental models to break and new ones to form.

Flexibility requires a shift in how we lead, trusting rather than controlling, and with a shift to measuring results rather than activity. More deliberate upskilling of managers is needed to help them understand their unconscious biases around flexible working and to manage differently.

3 Lead by example

You knew I was going to say this. Nothing signals ‘flexibility is okay’ like seeing a leader being human and having a life say, with a cat walking across their home desk during a Zoom/Teams meeting, or occasionally leaving work early, or getting out to the gym between meetings.

As our Managing Partner, I believe it’s important to be in the office more often than not, but that it’s just as important to demonstrate my commitment to flexibility in my own working life.

4 Set clear expectations around values and behaviour, not a formula

Be straight-up with people about how you want them to connect and work together. Ask people to think about how they’re contributing (or otherwise) to the life of the organisation and to the connections within their teams.

Ask and expect them to think about how their choices and behaviour affect others, and to adapt to support and cover for each other. Celebrate employees who exemplify these behaviours.

5 Build for inclusion and safeguard against isolation

As a leader, I sometimes yearn for the good old days of a face-to-face meeting. And when we can do them, they’re great.

But to make sure we’re engaging and making the most of our talent – wherever they are and whenever they work – we need to think creatively about how we use virtual and hybrid methods to connect, build teams, facilitate meetings and workshops, hear different voices, and communicate well and often.

We can also help by establishing team or organisational check-in rhythms that make it easy for people to show up and for managers to observe when people don’t.

Allana Coulon is Managing Partner of leading New Zealand management consultancy company, MartinJenkins. As well as her day job of running a successful company, Allana also regularly applies her expertise in organisational performance and design to support change in organisations. Senior leaders value Allana as a trusted advisor for her ability to grasp their unique contexts, challenge established thinking and provide practical solutions. Allana has a Master of Business Studies (First Class Honours), majoring in Human Resources Management, from Massey University.