A guide to flexible working: when simple solutions to complex problems don’t work

We’ll spare you the context, given that it’s been our reality for the past two years.

It’s time to shift our focus to the top challenge faced by many leaders when it comes to flexible working; embedding flexibility across varied teams in a way that aligns with the needs of their people, teams and business.

Q5 recently worked closely with Datacom, Australia’s largest homegrown tech company, to help them define and arrange a set of flexible working guidelines that’s tailored to the needs of their people, teams, and business. We engaged with teams to understand their needs at each level, from leadership to the frontline. We created a set of recommendations for implementing flex work from both a time and location perspective. Datacom’s overarching purpose and strategic objectives remained a key consideration throughout the entire process to ensure buy-in from leadership and the broader team when it came to implementation.

We’ve recorded a detailed account of how we engaged Datacom’s teams and the key principles which underpinned our approach. The aim of this paper is to provide guiding principles and considerations to help you decide what’s right for your people and business.

Key topics we cover:

• Guidelines vs mandate: What works best and how to communicate this to leaders
• Determining the optimal time in office based on the nature of job roles across Datacom
• How culture and engagement affects flexible work arrangements (and vice versa)
• Creating space to discuss how to maintain collaboration, culture, and wellbeing across hybrid teams

Click here to access our guide!