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  6. Why flexibility matters

Workplace flexibility allows you, as an employer, to attract and retain top talent (your people), achieve increased productivity (your business), and foster an agile response to changing market needs (your customers and environment).

Flexibility improves performance

In New Zealand, our workplace landscape is changing. We are seeing increased ethnic diversity, the rise of an aging workforce, increased caring responsibilities for men and women, growing talent shortages, continued growth in new technology, growth in female work participation and new generations entering the workforce.

In this evolving environment, businesses are required to navigate new ways of working to ensure performance. Building a flexible and diverse workforce is one way to respond to changing market trends and to enhance the elements of a high performing organisation: customer centricity, engaged and capable people, innovation, and ensuring smart investment and resource allocation.

People desire flexible working for a variety of reasons:

  • Caring for family members – children or parents - is the main reason that Generation X want flexible working.
  • With people living longer, ‘retirement’ is becoming less defined; more of the older generation still actively employed although they may have less desire for full-time work.
  • Millennials want access to flexible working for more personal pursuits including sport and community work.
  • As house prices increase so has the distance to places of work. The ability to work from another location or stagger hours to avoid peak traffic gives employees hours back in their day.