Most Australian workers would turn down a job that didn't offer flexible working: survey finds
Having control over where you work could be the difference between accepting or declining a job offer, according to a new survey which finds Australia is leading many other developed countries when it comes to implementing some form of flexible working policy.
Eighty-four per cent of Australian workers included in a global survey by flexible office provider International Workplace Group (IWG) – the parent company of Regus and Spaces flexible workspace offerings – said that they “would turn down a job that didn’t offer flexible working”.
IWG runs the Global Workplace Survey with respondents from across the world. This included approximately 200 “professionals and business leaders” from Australia, who were prospective customers of IWG, making up part of a global survey sample of more than 15,000.
The prevailing definition of flexible working could involve an employee spending some of their working hours in a satellite office operated by the employee’s company, a home office or a space in a coworking office – a business model which is thriving as a result of employers embracing flexible work policies.
Regardless of definition, it’s clear that it’s not just employees who are cottoning on to the notion of flexible working – 87 per cent of businesses in Australia have introduced a flexible working policy in the last decade or are planning to adopt one.
More than seven out of 10 Australian respondents in the survey (71 per cent) indicated that their current workplace has a flexible working policy in place, well above the global average of 61 per cent and pipping the USA (69pc), Canada and the UK (68pc each) but behind Germany (80pc).
Australian employers are increasingly turning to flexible working as a recruitment tool as well. The survey found that 85 per cent of surveyed employers were using flexible working to “attract and retain top talent” compared with a global average of 77 per cent.
Damien Sheehan, head of IWG for Australia, said: “Last year our Global Workspace Survey talked about reaching a tipping point, but what we are seeing now is that flexible working is considered by many to be the new norm for any business that is serious about productivity, agility and winning the war for top talent.
“Indeed, half of all our respondents claim to work outside their main office location for at least half of the week.”
While Australia leads much of the world on key flexible workplace metrics, survey results show that flexible workplace policies have had less of an impact on productivity here than in other developed countries.
Just over half (58 per cent) of Australian respondents agreed that “having a flexible workspace policy means businesses see a 20 per cent or more increase in productivity”, putting it behind the USA and UK (63 per cent each), Canada (74pc) and France (79pc).
Get a weekly roundup of the latest news from Commercial Real Estate, delivered straight to your inbox!
