{"id":31985,"date":"2021-12-15T12:18:33","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T02:18:33","guid":{"rendered":"\/au\/en\/blog\/flexible-working\/"},"modified":"2021-12-15T23:31:59","modified_gmt":"2021-12-15T13:31:59","slug":"flexible-working","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/au\/en\/blog\/flexible-working\/","title":{"rendered":"What it Means to Feel Connected has Changed Forever &#8230; and so has Flexible Working"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Highlights<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Flexible working options are essential for Australian organisations to attract and retain talent.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Research shows that the way Australians connect with other people has changed, and that people are feeling settled and stable in their current working environments.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There is a lot of anxiety about a return to the office; 65% of full-time Australian workers say that Delta and other COVID-19 variants have made them more likely to consider other employers that allow remote work.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the last two years, our reliance on collaborative technologies to allow us to work from home during lockdown has indelibly changed how we feel about human connectedness. <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/explorecomms.files.wordpress.com\/2021\/12\/ringcentralhumanconnections2021_infographic_au.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a recent survey we conducted of 2000 Australian workers<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we found that 71% of us feel just as connected over voice\/video call, and 80% believe the way we connect has changed forever.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As borders reopen and \u2018normality\u2019 returns to our lives, it\u2019s also pretty clear that many of us are rethinking our priorities, the jobs we are doing today, our careers and our work\/life balance. That\u2019s created a phenomenon around the world that has been coined the \u201cGreat Resignation\u201d &#8211; a massive staff turnover rate that some parts of the world are already seeing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, I\u2019m not sure we will see it playing out in Australia in any significant way &#8211; provided organisations offer permanent hybrid and flexible work arrangements for their people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While 63% of Australians anticipate that in 2022 they will be returning back to the office to work, 58% who work hybrid or remotely during COVID would prefer to work from home. Most now don\u2019t see why they need to travel into the office every day for work &#8211; when they can connect just as effectively with their colleagues from wherever they are working.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The good news is that business attitudes have changed. In a survey conducted earlier this year by <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Age<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Sydney Morning Herald<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of 50 of the nation\u2019s largest companies, overwhelmingly<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.smh.com.au\/business\/companies\/the-five-day-office-week-is-dead-long-live-the-hybrid-model-says-productivity-boss-20210706-p587d4.html\"> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">these organisations will be permanently adopting hybrid working policies for office-based employees<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Another survey of 130 Australian organisations found that 51% expect their workers will commute to the office for just three days a week, and 36% expect their staff will cluster their office days from Tuesday to Thursday (\u2018<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.news.com.au\/finance\/work\/at-work\/bosses-anticipate-long-weekend-trend-to-stay-once-australians-head-back-to-the-office\/news-story\/f030472132fffc38560ee27cd6988cfc\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Bosses anticipate \u2018long weekend\u2019 trend to stay once Australians head back to the office<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2019).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That support for flexible working is mirrored by the attitudes of the business decision makers in our survey and how enthusiastically they have embraced remote collaboration: 77% believe they can build personal relationships with co-workers without ever physically meeting them, 76% feel that connecting online through voice or video calls is as good as in-person for work-related tasks, and 74% that connecting online through voice or video calls is as good as in-person for building personal relationships with co-workers. In fact, 83% say that there is increased freedom to work from anywhere. They also firmly believe that workplace collaboration tools can make them feel professionally connected, and that video facilitates better personal relationships with co-workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, it\u2019s really important that we are making sure our people feel included and that they are on an equal footing as their colleagues in the office. Establishing \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/au\/en\/blog\/approaching-participation-equity-in-a-work-from-anywhere-world\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">participation equity<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d is critical to maintaining a successful and productive hybrid workplace, and this is one area that has caused issues for remote workers during the pandemic. 52% of Australian full-time workers who worked hybridly or remotely during COVID felt more isolated or lonely at work, and of those people, 38% say that it has had an impact on their overall mental health, 35% that it has had an impact on how much enthusiasm they have for their job, and 31% on the connections with their co-workers.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, while offering a flexible workplace will help you to compete successfully for talent in the marketplace and hold on to the people you have, it\u2019s important that your workspaces and your unified communications and collaboration platforms allow your people to feel equally connected no matter where they are working.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For more information on the survey, which was part of a global RingCentral study, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/corporate-news\/workplace-connections-thriving-remotely-but-new-study-foresees-return-to-office-resistance\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">click here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If you\u2019d like more information about how RingCentral can enable your teams to work from anywhere, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ringcentral.com\/au\/en\/office\/product-overview.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">click here<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Highlights Flexible working options are essential for Australian organisations to attract and retain talent. Research shows that the way Australians connect with other people has changed, and that people are feeling settled and stable in their current working environments. There is a lot of anxiety about a return to the office; 65% of full-time Australian &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":31988,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-employee-experience"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Flexible Working | RingCentral AU Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Flexible working options are essential for Australian organisations to attract and retain talent. 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