Employment lawyer Juliet Bourke believes we have learnt a great deal of value about workplace flexibility from the ‘global financial crisis’ (GFC).

Writing on the ABC’s ‘Unleashed’ website, which presents diverse and robust opinions about politics, beliefs and behaviours, she argues that while the ‘Year of the GFC’ has been a tough year, there have been some unexpected positive consequences which she ‘wants to bottle’.

Juliet is also a part-time chairperson with the Government and Related Employees Appeals Tribunal and has been a Member of the 2020 Summit, Chair of the Taskforce on Care Costs (TOCC), Member of the Federal Government's 2009 Work and Family Expert Panel, and Chair of the Equal Employment Opportunity Network of Australia.

On the top of her ‘bottling list’ is how workplace flexibility went from something that was employee initiated (and begrudgingly accommodated) to something that was employer initiated and perceived as a win-win. And this is related to a second revelation - human talent is precious.

“Of course we all said this before the GFC – but when the GFC kicked in, businesses looked for creative ways to hold onto talent in anticipation of an economic recovery,” she said.

“And here we are, 12 months down the track, confidence is returning to the market and the green shoots of economic growth seem here to stay (according to the Mid-Year Economic and Fiscal Outlook report released on 2 November 2009).”

Juliet said the question was whether these two insights would remain top-of-mind, and whether they had generated deep-seated cultural and behavioural changes.

So she wrote the article below to ‘help the bottling process and identify the lessons we have learned’.

Flexibility = cost containment: When the GFC first hit, businesses responded with internal edicts to contain costs, and we found companies thinking creatively about flexible work practices such as telecommuting and video-conferencing (VC), as part of the solution. Instead of maintaining expensive (and sometimes under-used) floor space in CBD locations, and requiring staff to spend excessive time travelling, businesses learnt that working from home and VC options could help contain costs. I remember talking in December last year to one staffer in UBS (USA) who said that she no longer maintained two offices in two different cities, but had dropped back to just one office, which had reduced her commuting time and rental costs.

Flexibility = cost reduction: When the GFC started to bite, businesses looked at ways of reducing their costs. Given past experiences we could have expected that the need for cost reduction would automatically result in lay-offs, and for some businesses this was the response. Yet something unique happened. As businesses had just come through a skills shortage they were motivated to retain talent whilst also reducing costs. The outcome? Another reach for flexibility - this time longer summer holidays, sabbaticals and part-time work. KPMG (UK) for example asked staff to volunteer for long term sabbaticals on 30% pay or work 4 days per week as a strategy to maintain connections and reduce salary associated costs.

Flexibility = engagement: When it looked like the GFC was here for the long term, staff morale began to plummet and business confidence was at its lowest ebb. As one HR manager in Citigroup described it to me "I’m running a marathon. The staff keeps looking to me for the answers, and I have nothing to say".  I noticed that some businesses were starting to make the connection between flexibility and engagement, realising that when staff have more than just work in their lives (i.e. they are ‘dual centric’) their resilience improves. It works like this: if the work domain of an employee’s life is difficult or stressful, they find support via another more enriching domain, for example family or sport. Hence, providing staff with some flexibility to spend time with the family, or pursue an interest, helped lift their spirits, and created a more productive work environment. I have to say, it was only the beginning of this insight, but I think it was part of something bigger, namely an emerging connection between well-being, sustainable workplaces and sustainable workforces.

Writing this article forced me to remember the various stages we went through responding to the GFC, from shock, to adaptation and then a mild depression when we couldn’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.

Flexibility rose to the top as a strategic way for businesses to manage those stages via cost containment, cost reduction and engagement. From my perspective there is a need to take stock and preserve the lessons we have learned as we head into a pressure zone that combines the business desire to make up for lost time against a background of predicted talent shortages.

But who wants to return to the frantic pace of life pre GFC? Who wants to return to excessive expenditure? Can we now do more with less by doing it smarter?

The GFC experience of flexibility was not perfect, some still struggled with the perceived stigma of flexibility, wondering if it connoted business failure or a lack of commitment, but overall I think we have gained significant insights and forged a new way of working. We’ve had a moment to pause, think and do things differently. Let’s bottle that so that we can make the most of a tough year.