Report summary: Flexible working in the Australian Capital Territory Public Service (ACTPS)

This report is authored by Dr Fiona Buick, Dr Miriam Glennie, Professor Helen Dickinson, Professor Deborah Blackman, Associate Professor Sue Williamson, Dr Vindhya Weeratunga and Professor Massimiliano Tani.

Report name

Flexible working in the Australian Capital Territory Public Service (ACTPS)

Who wrote this report?

This report was prepared for ANZSOG and the ACTPS by the University of NSW Canberra Public Service Research Group.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of flexible work amongst public sector workers and revealed a strong employee preference to work from home at least some of the time. The challenge now for public services is to change management practices to optimise the potential of flexible working to improve employee wellbeing and productivity, while maintaining collaboration, knowledge-sharing and organisational culture.

The Australian Capital Territory Public Service (ACTPS) has positioned flexible working as central to their vision to be the most progressive Australian jurisdiction for workplace practices and an employer of choice for employees seeking flexibility. This report undertaken by the University of NSW’s Public Service Research Group and funded by ANZSOG in partnership with the ACTPS, based on focus groups with ACTPS employees and managers, supported by analysis on ACTPS datasets, outlines four essential elements for flexible working with relevance to the ACT and other jurisdictions:

• An outcomes-oriented approach to working
• A purposeful approach to working from the office
• A team-based approach to working
• Improved managerial support and development

Best quote

Flexible working exacerbates and accentuates existing managerial styles, highlighting fragility in a model that relies on individuals and the need for more focused and proactive management development in this area.

Key takeaways:

• Despite the enormous upheaval involved in the previous two years, ACT public service participants overwhelmingly expressed positive experiences with flexible working. The majority of managers appeared to engage with their staff in a positive and constructive way and attempted to support employees to balance work demands with their non-work demands. There needs to be a clear and well-communicated reason for work to be done in the office.
• For more effective flexible working, an outcomes orientation needs to be culturally embedded across the ACTPS, with value placed on results and a focus on the effective achievement of tasks rather than time spent undertaking them. This should involve a team-based approach where team members are connected by a common purpose, have interdependent tasks and roles, share responsibilities, and have complementary skills.
• Flexible working exacerbates and accentuates existing managerial styles, highlighting fragility in a model that relies on individuals and the need for more focussed and proactive management development in this area. Development could focus on translating high-level support for flexible working to the operational context and empowering managers to manage flexible working in ways that ensure work demands and team goals are achieved.

What’s in this report?

The report aims to help the ACT public service and other jurisdictions to better understand employee preferences and patterns of work, as well as key risks to equitable and effective flexibility. It looks at the existing evidence base both for and against flexible working, and outlines the conclusions made from focus groups of APS staff and managers and analysis of ACTPS data on work patterns. It gives a detailed look at exactly how employees worked remotely, how these work patterns varied across demographics and occupation groups and how managers successfully adapted to flexible working. It finds that the ACTPS workforce’s preference for flexible work is driven in part by dissatisfaction with activity-based working in an office environment, and how work environments both in the office and outside can be changed to increase satisfaction and productivity. It looks at the importance of managers in implementing flexible work, and how they can be supported by agencies to do so to both increase their own capability and to support broader cultural change. Its recommendations are structured around four essential elements for flexible working: an outcomes-oriented approach to working, a purposeful approach to working from the office, a team-based approach to working, and improved managerial support and development.

Why should you read this report?

Flexible working suits the ‘knowledge workers’ of the public sector and has potential to improve wellbeing and productivity if managed correctly. This research looks at the real experiences of public sector workers and managers in the Australian Capital Territory during COVID lockdowns and develops a series of strategies for harnessing the productivity and wellbeing benefits of flexible work. It looks at the roles of technology, communication tools and the built environment and how restructuring work around teams and tasks can improve productivity. It outlines the management changes needed to benefit from flexible work.

Who is this report for?

This report has relevance across the public sectors of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, and potentially in other jurisdictions, who had similar positive and negative experiences with flexible and remote work during 2020 and 2021. Agency managers and HR professionals would benefit from the report’s systematic understanding of what employees do and do not like about their workplaces and the strategies outlined to take advantage of the benefits of flexible work to build more productive and satisfying workplaces, which have practical advice for managers. It is also a starting point for other researchers looking at the impact of flexible work.

🔗 Read the full report here. 🔗

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