Australia is in the midst of a jobs boom, with the number of jobs advertised in Australia spiking by 42 per cent in 2022 compared to 2021, and a total of 309,000 jobs advertised in August of 2022, according to data from the National Skills Commission.
There’s also a skills crisis, with the same report showing the number of occupations experiencing labour shortages has nearly doubled from 2021 to 2022.
This equates to a perfect storm for finding and keeping our best talent in the public sector. Anecdotally, government departments are facing a 50 per cent gap in filled vacancies, and are seeing key talent leave for other opportunities as quickly as new people are recruited in.
So how can departments and agencies find, and then retain, the people they need to serve the Australian public?
According to James Enoch, RVP and Head of Public Sector, APAC at Slack, flexibility is the answer – not just in where people work, but when they work.
The pandemic changed everything
“Our research has found that for knowledge workers, the last three years of digital-first, flexible working has led to significant benefits, including an increase in productivity,” says Mr Enoch.
“Location flexibility leads to a 4 per cent productivity increase, and schedule flexibility 29 per cent. So if we set this up right, we can give people over 12 hours more time each and every week. Imagine if we ignore this. We would be giving up one of the few silver linings of the last three years by going back to what we felt was working productively for decades, but if we are honest to ourselves was already starting to feel a little broken.”
“Flexible work models deliver many benefits to our teams; time, cost savings from not commuting, and the ability to use different workspaces for their best purpose, such as deep work from home and collaborative in-person connections in the office.”
The values and impact of working in the public service used to be enough to attract and retain the best talent. Now, with historically low unemployment levels – 3.4 per cent, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for October 2022 – and salaries in the private sector growing quicker than the public sector, flexibility in all aspects of work has become a critical competitive advantage for government departments and agencies.
Indeed, the latest quarterly research study from Future Forum, a consortium established by Slack, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and others, has found flexible work is now the default expectation for many knowledge workers, with 80 per cent expecting location flexibility and 94 per cent expecting schedule flexibility.
Additionally, and perhaps counter to expectations, remote and hybrid workers are 52 per cent more likely to say the culture of their organisation has improved over the last two years, with flexible work policies cited as the primary reason.
The data shows flexibility has a positive impact on knowledge workers’ ability to manage stress and improve work-life balance and job satisfaction.
Sounds great, right?
The problem is that employer attitudes differ widely, resulting in many not seeing the true benefits of flexibility.
Mr Enoch notes that: “Some are going back to what they know, creating inflexibility at a time when getting the flexible approach to our ways of working right would, in fact, result in finding and retaining the right people, creating a diverse and inclusive workplace, and a thriving organisational culture.”
This is not to say flexibility is a free-for-all. Future Forum research found knowledge workers still want some structure to their days. Two-thirds want a balance between full flexibility and a predictable framework. This could manifest itself as a limited set of core team collaboration hours for meetings and quick responses, while allowing for individual flexibility for the rest of the day.
Ultimately, “organisations need to create the support for flexibility from the top down, and implement this at a team-based level through team-level-agreements (TLAs) as flexibility looks very different from one group of workers to another. It is also important that support and training is provided to front line leaders. Leaders carry the bulk of the responsibility in shifting workplace expectations and norms for their teams and many have never had any training or coaching in this area,” Mr. Enoch notes.
As a result, the latest Future Forum research sees executive experience scores dropping significantly, such as a 40 per cent worse rating on stress and anxiety from August 2021 to August 2022.
Data such as this is a warning sign for organisations across all industries, and government is not immune.
Does the office still have a role to play?
Some office space may be sitting underutilised right now, but that is not to say having physical spaces for work are unnecessary. People’s value and use of office space differs for many reasons.
Overall, the research shows that collaboration is the number one reason motivating non-executives to go into the office (32 per cent), followed closely by building camaraderie (27 per cent). Executives, too, prioritise collaboration as their top motivator for in-office time, but at lower rates (30 per cent), followed closely by ‘holding or participating in meetings’ (25 per cent), and ‘putting in facetime with management’ (20 per cent).
While building camaraderie is among the top reasons why non-executives want to spend time in the office, it’s dead last for executives, at just 12 per cent, meaning non-executives value building camaraderie at more than twice the rate of executives. Executives, on the other hand, could be said to undervalue camaraderie and over value facetime and in-person meetings.
Mr Enoch makes the point that: “Organisations need to invest in digital infrastructure that supports clear collaboration, culture and productivity gains. This will make it easier for employees to collaborate and connect—in both physical and digital workspaces.”
Flexibility leads to inclusiveness, building the labour force
One of the less well-known aspects of flexible working, says Mr Enoch, is its role in creating a diverse and inclusive workplace. Inclusivity allows a deepening of the talent pool and moving away from flexible working means people who would have been great contributors to the workplace are, once again, locked out.
“In the pandemic we serendipitously created a place where suddenly the workplace is more friendly for underrepresented groups,” he says.
The desire for flexibility is, in fact, strongest in underrepresented groups, notes Sheela Subramanian, Vice President and Co-Founder of Future Forum.
“Underrepresented employees want flexibility in both where and when they work. These employees are crucial to the success of any organisation. They feel a stronger sense of belonging and feel more productive when given the choice of how they want to work. Flexible work policies are foundational to a company’s diversity, equity, and inclusion priorities.”
The public sector, like the rest of the economy, is in the middle of a talent crunch. But by embracing flexibility, the public sector will be able to attract and retain talent, while building a diverse workforce.
Throw in the utilisation of the latest collaborative technologies, and productivity will increase, because it’s in these collaborative environments where, today, work happens.
