Research shows a large proportion of women are unwilling to return to in-office work full-time.
South African women are ditching inflexible workplaces, and companies must change their mindset or lose top talent, warns Jack Hammer Global, Africa’s largest executive search firm.
This comes as Covid-19 national lockdowns have shaken up the traditional way of working. Post-Covid, the mindset of employees and ways of working have fundamentally changed. Not only are some companies looking at a hybrid workflow, but others are looking at the benefits of a four-day working week.
“First came the Great Resignation, and now we have the Great Breakup – where female professionals, executives and senior leaders, unsatisfied with a complete 9-5, five days a week return-to-the-office are seeking greener pastures at more flexible companies, or opting to start their own consultancies instead of dealing with corporate inflexibility,” Jack Hammer said in a statement yesterday.
Jack Hammer said the trend had been developing in South Africa over the past three months and was this month confirmed to be a global movement with the publication of research by Lean In and McKinsey & Company, Women in the Workplace 2022: The Great Breakup – The Unexpected Benefit of Flexibility and How Companies Can Retain Women Leaders.
Advaita Naidoo, the Africa managing director at Jack Hammer, said the pandemic lockdowns, while stressful for women who had to balance working from home with looking after children and home-schooling, introduced the idea of a way of life where work and family could be balanced in a way that was out of the question pre-2020.
“And now, the genie is well and truly out of the bottle, with research showing a large proportion of these women are unwilling to return to in-office work full-time, having to spend unnecessary time away from their families while commuting and only seeing their children for a very limited amount of time before they head to work and after they return.”
The change in the new normal for working is reflected in the uptake of office space. In South Africa, the vacancy rate of office real estate increased substantially across all major markets between the first quarter of 2021 and the first quarter of 2022.
Commenting on the report’s finding, Rachel Thomas of LeanIn.org noted that only one in 10 women wanted to work mostly onsite. Many women pointed to remote and hybrid work options as one of their top reasons for joining or staying with an organisation.
Thomas said: “So, in contrast to the Great Resignation, which was more a global than local phenomenon, given that South Africans are more risk-averse in our tough job market and with our high unemployment rate, the Great Breakup is definitely also echoed locally.
Women seeking greater balance in their lives were not quitting their jobs but rather seeking out positions which did not require them to return to the physical office because of outdated mindsets on the part of company management.
“Companies are calling people back to the office with increasing frequency, and we have now been seeing over the last three months that women are unwilling to readjust and turn their lives upside down again and are just saying no,” Naidoo said.
“With international boundaries no longer a barrier to sourcing top talent, global organisations with progressive remote work models are vying for South African talent.”
“Companies that don’t offer flexibility are non-starters for these women. It has become a key criterion and one of the first, if not the first, issue that arises when negotiations start,” Naidoo said.
To take it further, even the normal five-day working week is now up for debate.
IQbusiness, the largest South African management and technology consulting firm, last week announced that is was piloting a four day week.
The company is following a trend by over 90 international companies that have already moved to a four-day work week.
These businesses are across North America, Australia and New Zealand, the statement read.
According to IQbusiness, employees will work 80% of their working week (gaining an extra day off per week) with no loss of pay.
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