Peter Allen, Scentre Group’s CEO and father of four children aged between 14 and 24, is personally committed to removing the stigma associated with flexible working arrangements for all employees across the organisation.
Janine Frew, Director Human Resources, uses flexible work arrangements to spend more time with her son.
Ernst & Young reported earlier this year that Australia's property industry had fallen behind other sectors in gender diversity. Their report found that while the property sector had an equal number of female and male workers, only 25% of management positions were held by women, and women represented less than 10% at the leadership level.
“I hope Scentre Group’s flexible work policies, available for all of our people, will serve as a benchmark for the industry. Personally, I missed out on a lot of important family events for fear of potentially negatively affecting my career. I want to break that stigma.”
– Peter Allen, Scentre Group’s CEO and member of the Male Champions of Change for the property sector.
To attract and retain the best employees, companies must offer more than monetary rewards. People want non-financial benefits, such as flexibility, and this varies from individual to individual. Scentre Group’s policies aim to shift any stigma attached to people requesting to work flexibly for a range of lifestyle reasons or taking time off to be with their families.
We have also implemented a scheme to allow our people to buy an additional four weeks of annual leave each calendar year. The cost of leave can be spread across the year with a reduction in monthly pay, rather than taking leave without pay.
“All roles can accommodate some flexibility and our company is using technology to encourage mobility of our workforce. We recognise that working the traditional nine-to-five might not always be the best option to enable our people to thrive.”
