<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The Australian financial services industry has been a leader in offering flexible work policies, positioning them as a solution to the tensions between women’s dual work and family roles. While Australian legislation provides the right to request flexible work, this study uncovers how, in one finance organisation, flexible work is framed as an employee benefit within a suite of benefits. The study shows that employees using flexible work arrangements are less likely to understand and know how to access the full range of benefits, many of which have short- and longterm financial implications. This has consequences for the long-term financial security of women (as the heaviest users of flexible work arrangements) and for financial planners, both as employees of organisations in the Australian finance industry and as providers of advice to women working in this sector.</p>
</abstract>

The Australian financial services industry has been a leader in offering flexible work policies, positioning them as a solution to the tensions between women’s dual work and family roles. While Australian legislation provides the right to request flexible work, this study uncovers how, in one finance organisation, flexible work is framed as an employee benefit within a suite of benefits. The study shows that employees using flexible work arrangements are less likely to understand and know how to access the full range of benefits, many of which have short- and longterm financial implications. This has consequences for the long-term financial security of women (as the heaviest users of flexible work arrangements) and for financial planners, both as employees of organisations in the Australian finance industry and as providers of advice to women working in this sector.

Flexible Work: Barrier to Benefits?

Financial Planning Research Journal

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

{"article-title":"Flexible Work: Barrier to Benefits?"}

The Australian financial services industry has been a leader in offering flexible work policies, positioning them as a solution to the tensions between women’s...

Variable	Category	Frequency	Percentage^a	Mean	SD	Min	Max
Understand benefits	-	-	-	63.44	21.74	0	100
Know how to access benefits	-			66.64	23.53	0	100
Gender	Male	2143	42.2	-	-	-	-
	Female	2882	56.7	-	-	-	-
Type of Employment	Full- Time	4290	84.4	-	-	-	-
	Part- Time	662	13.0	-	-	-	-
	Casual	48	.9	-	-	-	-
	Other	38	.7	-	-	-	-
Work Location	Office/Branch	3320	65.3	-	-	-	-
	Home	354	7.0	-	-	-	-
	Combination	1355	26.7	-	-	-	-

	Male		Female			Full-time		Part-time			Office / branch		Home
	M	SD	M	SD	t-test	M	SD	M	SD	t-test	M	SD	M	SD	t-test
Understand benefits	64.38	21.26	62.88	21.99	2.45*	64.34	21.45	59.20	22.48	5.51***	63.84	22.14	60.77	21.90	2.49*
Know how to access benefits	67.89	22.80	65.86	23.97	3.06**	67.83	23.16	60.70	24.41	7.04***	67.31	23.90	61.81	23.68	4.12***

Flexible Work: Barrier to Benefits?

Online veröffentlicht: 16. März 2024

Seitenbereich: 51 - 68

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/fprj-2018-0007

© 2018 Melinda Laundon et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1:

Figure 2:

Figure 3:

Descriptive Statistics

Independent samples t-tests