Women warned to be wary of double-edged sword of workplace flexibility

1100 mainly women attended the Bold Steps conference on Tuesday. Photo / Supplied

Covid has seen the rise of flexibility in the workplace become the norm but it also poses a serious risk to the progress of women if it is not carefully managed.

That was just one of the messages imparted to around 1100 mainly women who attended the Bold Steps Conference held at Auckland’s Spark Arena on Tuesday.

Organised by top female business leaders Dame Therese Walsh, Joan Withers and Jolie Hodson, the conference was held for the first time since 2019 and attracted a record crowd.

Walsh, who chairs the board of Air New Zealand, said Covid had bought amazing flexibility which she didn’t have when she was a young mum.

“Isn’t it great that we have these tools and a lot of older women like me who are 50; I’m envious.”

But she also pointed to research which showed that the flexibility of working from home also came with a potential downside which appears to impact women more than men.

“There is a serious risk the progress of women goes backwards if we are not really careful about how we manage it because men are more likely from the research to want to be present in the workplace and women not so.”

Walsh said one of her challenges to conference attendees was how to capture all the benefits of Covid but not let women go backwards.

“I challenged everyone in the room to ask who were their three closest supporters in the business world - who are the people that sponsor them, motivate them, support them and then I asked them how did you get those relationships.”

“Because you probably got those relationships by turning up to work and having shared experiences with those people. So what happens when you can’t do that?”

Walsh said she didn’t have the answer to how workers could benefit from both the flexibility and be seen enough in the office to make progress.

“I haven’t got a finalised position on it. I don’t think that anyone has solved it. I don’t think that we know the impacts yet fully because it has only been a little while. But for me what I said is we all have to take individual accountabilities for our careers and there also has to be a system-wide approach to make sure there is no gender bias.

“Each organisation has to take responsibility for that just like we do with the gender pay gap or something else. We have to be conscious of it to make sure these things don’t happen.”

She said there would be tools and techniques for the way that people structure their organisations and their working from home and hybrid working.

Walsh said the challenges around flexibility were also generalisations because it also applied to some men and didn’t apply for some women.

“But the research shows it more often applies to women.”

Walsh said research showed male leaders were also more likely to expect their team to come into the office.

“It’s an emerging risk. It’s not a total risk.”

Walsh said there was no one solution to get more women to the top of organisations or onto boards.

“I think it is continuing to have these conversations. Continuing to put it on the agenda in board rooms and at executive tables. Having the development pipe ways and really working and making sure that people are coming through.”

Walsh said the key was to support people to be able to have a life and a job and combine them.

“Why have so many women dropped out of the workforce in the past is because it is really hard balancing all these things. So Covid’s been great in that regard because it has equalised in a way, but at the other end of it it’s perhaps created a stronger domestic burden for many women.”

The conference also featured a panel discussion from top male and female CEOs including ASB CEO Vittoria Shortt, Westpac’s Catherine McGrath, Fonterra CEO Miles Hurrell and Fletcher Building chief Ross Taylor.