A new study by Managing Work/Life Balance International has revealed that 92% of organisations are seeking to increase workplace flexibility, with changing attitudes to work/life/flexibility strategies and programs continuing to be a major challenge for HR practitioners.

Part Time Online  co-director Liana Gorman, said the 2007 National Work/Life Benchmarking Study has also revealed that 77% of the organisations surveyed were currently working on overcoming internal resistance to flexibility. As well, 83% were focusing on re-designing job descriptions to make them more accessible to part time workers.

She also cites the projected figures for 2005 – 2010 from the National Institute of Economic and Industry Research¹, which show the growth of NSW part time workers is greater than the growth of full time workers. According to Gorman, despite a significant jump in the number of people wanting to work part time, the new findings show many organisations are still coming to terms with the need for workplace flexibility.

“It was interesting to see that more than half (57%) of the organisations surveyed noted their efforts to bring about change were actually being hindered internally, with key personnel having difficulty accepting the benefits of flexible working arrangements” said Gorman.

The findings mirror Gorman’s experience and that of her co-director Vicki Gris, who identified a serious gap in the marketplace whilst trying to find the right balance between their working lives and the demands of raising young children. Between them, Gorman and Gris have a combined experience in the recruitment industry spanning more than 40 years and the pair have placed thousands of successful candidates across a diverse range of industries.

“I was surprised to discover that part time workers aren’t taken seriously by many of the bigger employment sites, despite the fact that ²29% of the workforce choose to work part time, casually or in a job share capacity”, said Gorman. “At parttimeonline our focus is firmly on promoting workers in every industry who are seeking a quality service in the part time and job sharing arena, including those working from home and freelancers.”

The 2007 National Work/Life Benchmarking Study report will be available from Managing Work/Life Balance International  on 10 May 2007.

¹ Projected growth for part time workers 3.3% v’s .6% for full time workers.
² ABS Australian Labour Market Statistics, Oct 2006.

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