Let's talk about flex

In February 2020, Time magazine called Coronavirus 'the World's largest Work-From-Home Experiment'. Only 8 months later, Time published an article titled 'The COVID-19 Pandemic Upended the Office. It's Time to Radically Rethink How We Work'. And the conversation on the workplace in the New Normal continues … 

Closer to home, in March 2021 a new flexible work policy was launched to embed flexible work in the Victorian Public Service (VPS). The default starting point for application of this policy is three days a week in the office for full-time office based VPS employees, subject to relevant Pandemic Orders issued by the Minister for Health.  Employees and their managers are then to discuss and agree to individual working arrangements, based on the principle that we start from a position of flexibility.

The uptake of the flexible work policy has been patchy thanks to the virus - just as employees were beginning to edge back into the CBD, new variants have batted us back to the 'burbs. However, with Spring around the corner, the question many of us are thinking about is,
are we ready for flex?

We have an impressive panel of speakers who are extremely well qualified to tackle this topic:

• Adam Fennessy (Victorian Public Sector Commissioner)
• Kelly Crosthwaite (Executive Director, People and Culture, DELWP) 
• Kristen Georgakopolous (Executive General Manager People & Culture, VicTrack)
• Sean Gallagher (Director, Centre for the New Workforce, Swinburne University of Technology)

The panel will be chaired by Frances Anderson (Assistant Victorian Government Solicitor, Victorian Government Solicitor's Office).

During the discussion, we will unpack:

• Why flex?
• Important early research into flex
• Emerging themes and tension points, including the right to disconnect 
• The role of leaders/organisational clarity
• What works/what doesn't
• The 4-day working week
• Case studies in the VPS
• Key take-outs

You are invited to pose any questions to our panel in your registration form and we will endeavour to cover these in the session.

We look forward to seeing you there.

Who should attend: Victorian Public Sector employees, managers, people leaders, executives, in-house legal teams