Resource 6 - Example communication objectives and key messages

Example communication objectives

• Develop awareness and promote a consistent and complete understanding of flexible working and flexible-by-default at all levels of the agency.
• Demonstrate the benefits taking a flexible-by-default approach.
• Normalise flexible working practices for all employees, managers and leaders.
• Address conscious and unconscious bias towards employees working flexibly.
• Address other concerns and challenges surrounding flexible working, whether from team members, managers or leaders.

• All roles will be considered flexible unless there is a genuine business reason for any role not to be.
• Flexible working needs to work for the organisation, for managers, employees and teams. It requires give and take on all sides and there is a shared responsibility between the organisation and employees for making it work.
• It should be fair for everyone – employees, team members and managers – and approached with openness and flexibility on all sides.
• Not every type of flexibility will work for every role type, but some forms of flexibility should be workable for all roles (see Resource 2 for examples). The context and the demands of the role need to be considered.
• Flexible working is not just part-time work and working from home. There are many different types and forms of formal and informal flexible work.
• Flexible working is not new. A lot of flexibility already occurs, especially informal flexibility. Agencies have been supporting lots of types of flexible working for decades.
• Flexible work is not just for employees with family-caring responsibilities – there are many reasons why employees may want to work flexibly.
• Support is available to help managers, teams and employees get the best from flexible working.
• Flexible working will help close the gender pay gap, help increase diversity and inclusion, make the agency a better place to work, drive productivity and employee engagement. As a result, flexible-by-default will help the agency to achieve its objectives.
• We welcome ideas and approaches to help make this work for everyone.

You can also draw on Resource 7 which outlines some of the common concerns about flexible-by-default and suggested responses and Resource 8 which outlines common challenges and suggestions for addressing these.