Flexible working Flexible working
Flexible working (flexi-working) gives employees the power to re-design their workday. It's the best way to reduce congestion on our roads and provides a multitude of benefits for the entire organisation.
About flexible working
Flexible working is a catch-all term for a wide variety of tools that empower employees to choose their own schedule, such as working remotely, working different hours or days, or working compressed weeks.
Learn more about different examples of flexible working arrangements.
Key benefits of flexible working
Flexible working can make a real difference to staff wellbeing, organisational productivity and resource use, and is easy to implement with common business technology.
For employers
- enables the building of a diverse and inclusive workplace
- attract and retain top talent
- increased staff engagement and productivity
- creates an agile response to the changing market
- decreased absenteeism
- savings on overheads like office space, power and parking.
Learn why businesses have chosen flexible working.
For employees
- less time, energy and money spent commuting
- better work-life balance
- lower stress levels
- improved focus and productivity when working
- greater job satisfaction
- enhanced wellbeing.
You'll not only be making a difference internally, but also helping to solve Auckland-wide issues such as pollution, congestion and road safety. By considering flexible working, you'll be joining the trend of 77% of employers in New Zealand who already have a flexible work policy or initiative in place.
Download the Sustainable Business Network - Flexi-working resource sheet (PDF 1.9MB, 11 pages).
Examples of flexible working arrangements
Flexible working isn't a singular solution. It can be permanent or day by day, employee-specific or organisation-wide.
Here are some of the most common flexible working options:
Working from home or another location
- working from home
- working from a collaborative working space or satellite office.
Remote working one or 2 days a week not only saves your commute time, but it helps reduce commute times for the rest of Auckland.
If everyone worked from home one day a week, our roads would as empty as they are during school holidays.
With shorter commute times for everyone, employee wellbeing and happiness increases across Auckland.
Changes to working hours or working week
- variable starting and finishing times
- travelling off peak to avoid peak congestion times
- working a compressed week, for example, 40 hours over 4 days.
- working a non-standard week, for example, Tuesday to Saturday.
Variable starting and finishing times are common ways employees are empowered to work to their own schedule and better balance work and life.
Changes to working hours not only helps 'spread the jam' of Auckland's transport network but also allows employees to work on hours that they're naturally more productive (are you a night owl or a morning early bird).
Compressed working weeks can help you care for loved ones, enjoy longer summer weekends or take a mid-week breather.
Changes to employment
- job sharing and shift-swapping
- flexible leave including time off in lieu and annual leave purchase schemes
- a 4-day working week.
Changes to employment terms such as job sharing, or flexible leave can massively impact employee wellbeing by enabling employees to work to the terms that best suit them.
Perpetual Guardian, proponents of the 4-day working week, saw a 20% increase in productivity and reduction in staff stress after implementing a permanent 4-day working week for those who opted-in.
Flexible working case studies
Case studies of businesses large and small creating a cultural paradigm shift to working flexibly.