VPS Flexible Work Policy

This is a policy to embed flexible work in the Victorian Public Service.

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Purpose

This is a policy to embed flexible work in the Victorian Public Service.

This policy supports flexible ways of working, so we can all create the best public value for Victorians.

It’s up to your organisation to work out how you implement this policy. This includes how you update existing processes.

Scope

This policy applies to all Victorian Public Service employees and:

  • tells you why we have a flexible work policy
  • gives you principles to follow to help your team work flexibly
  • gives you a set of tools to support you to use this policy
  • shows you the other policies and laws that support this policy.

Aim of flexible work and how it changes our work

Flexible work is the government’s default position.

This means:

  • an employee has a meaningful level of control over when, where and how they work
  • every role can have some form of flexibility
  • flexible work must not lead to reduced service delivery to the Victorian community
  • managers must work with their employees and team to come up with solutions that work for everyone.

The aim of this policy is to help the Victorian Public Service:

  • attract and retain employees
  • balance the employee’s needs with ongoing service delivery
  • better meet the needs of the Victorian community we serve
  • build positive workplace culture
  • create a more diverse and inclusive workplace
  • help everyone have a better work-life balance.

How your organisation must implement this policy

It’s up to your organisation to work out how you implement this policy. This includes how you update existing processes.

You must align what you do with the flexible work guiding principles.

For more support, read how to implement flexible work in your organisation.

The laws you must comply with

Some employees have a legal right to request changes to when, where and how they work.

To find out more, read:

Why flexible work matters

Flexible work means we can all manage a work-life balance. This includes things like how we:

  • contribute to the community
  • maintain health and wellbeing
  • parent or care for others
  • study
  • transition to retirement.

How to achieve flexible work

To achieve flexible work, we all need to have ongoing discussions and make a strong commitment to this policy, as this:

  • helps us all understand the flexibility we each need
  • helps managers support their team’s work and organisation’s needs.

To support flexible work, organisations need to:

  • adapt their processes
  • communicate clearly and consistently
  • embed a culture of learning and improvement
  • embrace new technology and ways of working.

Guiding principles of flexible work

Use these principles to help embed this policy in your team.

We start from a position of flexibility

Flexible work is available to you by default, regardless of:

  • the reason you want it
  • when you started your employment
  • your role.

All roles can have some type of flexibility. This includes frontline and operational roles.

But not all types of flexibility will work for every role.

If there’s a good reason a role can’t have a type of flexibility, managers and employees must look for a type of flexibility that will work.

We focus on outcomes

Flexible work means employees focus on the outcomes of each role, rather than when, where and how we work.

If you’re a manager, you need to set clear expectations with your employees about:

  • what outcomes they need to achieve
  • what support they need from you to succeed.

We lead by example

We can all support and champion flexible work.

This means executives and managers must model the principles set out in this policy to their employees.

And as we all serve the Victorian community, we must lead by example in how we work.

We put health, safety and wellbeing first

The health, safety and wellbeing of employees is at the core of flexible work.

With any flexible work, organisations, managers and employees must look at:

  • what the risks are
  • what harm those risks could cause
  • how they could mitigate risks.

If you’re a manager, check in with your employees regularly to make sure they have what they need to work safely.

We embed flexibility through the employment lifecycle

Flexible work means we may attract more diverse people to work in the Victorian Public Service.

So we need to embed flexible work at every stage of the employment lifecycle. This will help us attract, retain and develop our people.

With a more diverse and inclusive public service, we’ll better meet the needs of the Victorian community we serve.

We come up with solutions that work for everyone

Flexible work needs to suit us all and reflect a strong commitment to each person’s and team’s needs.

But we also need to balance this with our commitment to improving service delivery and outcomes for the community.

The best way to balance these is through open dialogue to work out how teams can best work together.

Flexible work must never result in:

  • more work for employees who do or don’t work flexibly
  • reduced service delivery to the Victorian community

We maintain privacy

We’re all entitled to have our privacy respected when we work flexibly.

And we all must comply with relevant privacy laws.

If you’re a manager, you must maintain your employees’ privacy when you discuss flexibility with them.

We embed a culture of growth and development

Regardless of position, we all need to work together to make flexible work successful.

This means organisations:

  • train managers to support flexible work in their team
  • support employees to succeed when they work flexibly.

This means managers:

  • promote flexible work in the team
  • discuss and review flexible work with their team regularly
  • work with their people to support their performance.

We champion equity

Each employee’s flexibility is different. Flexibility is available to all.

Flexible work helps employees balance paid work with other demands.

For example, flexible work may:

  • help a guardian or parent work while someone else takes care of their child
  • let carers meet the needs of the person they’re caring for
  • support employees with chronic illness or chronic pain to balance their health with their role
  • allow employees to observe their religion or culture
  • give employees who are experiencing domestic violence time to seek support and resources
  • support employees as they move to retirement
  • support employees as they transition to a new gender.

All of this helps us create a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the Victorian community we serve.

If you’re a manager and your employee has approved reasonable adjustments, you must support them to keep using these when they work flexibly.

Flexible work must not undermine career progression, pay or development opportunities.

Types of flexible work

There are many types of flexible work, which can be ad-hoc, formal, informal, short- or long-term.

Employees can negotiate flexible work at any stage of their employment and careers.

When you work

Examples of this are:

  • compressed work week
  • flexible start and finish times
  • shift swap
  • flexible daily schedules.

Where you work

Examples of this are:

  • primary workplace
  • other workplaces
  • from home
  • other safe work environments
  • a combination of these.

How you work

Examples of this are:

  • job sharing
  • part-time
  • negotiated working days.

Other types

Examples of this are:

  • leave entitlements, such as purchased leave
  • flexitime.

Read clause 10 of the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024 to see what flexible arrangements employees can use.

If you don’t know what any of these mean, you can speak with your HR team or get in touch for advice.

Ways to embed flexible work in the employment lifecycle

Here are some examples of how we can all embed flexible work at each stage of the employment lifecycle.

Attraction

We include our commitment to flexible work in our job advertisements.

Recruitment

We promote flexible work in interviews and ask candidates what they would need.

Onboarding

We discuss flexible work and come up with solutions that work right from the start.

In the job

Managers chat with their team on a regular basis about flexible work.

Offboarding

We check in with employees on what did and didn’t work, so we can improve how we do flexible work.

Retirement

We support employees as they transition to retirement with ways to have flexible work.

When an employee has a legal right to request flexible work, you must comply with the law.

These documents tell you when employees may have a legal right to request flexible work:

This includes when an employee:

  • is pregnant
  • is a parent, or has responsibility for the care of a child who is of school age or younger
  • is a carer
  • has a disability or long-term health condition
  • is 55 or older
  • is experiencing family and domestic violence
  • provides care or support to an immediate family member, or the employees household who requires care or support because the member is experiencing family and domestic violence.

Employers will genuinely consider all forms of flexible working and an employee’s flexible working request must be responded to within 21 days.

Employers may only refuse these requests if they have first discussed the request with the employee and genuinely tried to reach agreement about making the requested changes to the employee’s working arrangements, having regard to the consequences of the refusal for the employee. The refusal must be based on reasonable business grounds.

How to implement flexible work

Use these stages to plan how you implement flexible work in your organisation.

Every organisation will be at a different stage of implementing flexible work.

Adapt these stages to what works for you.

Step 1: Analysis

In this stage, analyse how your organisation currently supports flexible work.

Speak with stakeholders, such as:

  • senior leaders
  • managers
  • unions
  • people who receive your services
  • employee-led networks
  • a diverse cross-section of employees.

And run an employee survey, focus groups or combination of methods.

Think about the concerns and challenges your employees will have with flexible work, such as:

  • how they find your policies and processes
  • what access barriers they may have
  • what skills they may need to develop
  • what skills managers may need to support their team.

Organisations may like to do a flexible work self-assessment.

If you deliver services to the community, look at what impacts flexible work may have on how you do this.

Step 2: Design

In this stage, design the materials your organisation needs to implement change.

Vision statement and goals

The vision statement shows employees:

  • the organisation’s commitment to flexible work
  • where the organisation wants to get to with flexible work.

The goals are what an organisation needs to do to achieve flexible work.

In writing a vision statement and goals, organisations can think of:

  • how they currently support flexible work
  • how they want to support flexible work in the future
  • how they will get there
  • how they will engage with stakeholders
  • what challenges they may face and how they will overcome them.

Communications, policies and processes

Create accessible and consistent communications, policies and processes. And use all leaders to create buy-in across the organisation.

This helps tell everyone what’s changing and embeds flexibility into the culture.

Develop policies and processes that support flexible work, such as:

  • how organisations set and approve informal and formal arrangements
  • how often arrangements should be reviewed
  • how organisations embed flexibility across the employment lifecycle
  • how employees can appeal decisions about flexible work.

Your organisation’s policies must comply with relevant enterprise agreements and laws.

Step 3: Engage

In this stage, engage your organisation’s employees using the materials you created in Stage 2.

This may include:

  • celebration of success stories
  • promotion of the benefits
  • regular communication from leaders
  • training and development.

Step 4: Review

In this stage, review your organisation’s progress towards flexible work.

To do this, it’s a good idea to collect some data, set targets and report on it regularly.

Some data that shows an organisation’s progress may include:

  • the number of employees who use flexible work
  • the types of flexible work employees use
  • how long it takes for employees to have flexible work approved
  • the number of requests rejected
  • the impact flexible work has on productivity, absenteeism and engagement
  • the impact flexible work has on diversity
  • the impact flexible work has on career progression or development.

Further reading

Advice for embedding flexible work

Organisations can use these to support their employees:

What informs this policy

The commitment to flexibility is set out in the:

Download the Policy and Guidance Notes

VPS Flexible Work Policy
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Guidance Note 1:  Supporting Victoria’s recovery
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Guidance Note 2: Interstate or international remote work
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