It’s simple: people want choice in how they work. That’s the main philosophy driving Sunshine Coast Private Hospital General Manager Wallis Westbrook’s attitudes to flexible working arrangements.
He is a strong believer in workplaces being adaptable to their employees’ needs and will be discussing his views as one of three key speakers at the Griffith Business School Alumni Breakfast next Friday (12 August).
“I think flexible working arrangements are really important, certainly from an employer’s point of view,” Mr Westbrook explains. “It’s really important for us as a hospital to make sure that we can manage our workforce across the demand that we have for our services.”
Wallis’ approach to his workplace is that a positive, agile work culture produces happy employees who produce their best work.
“We’re always thinking ‘What’s the culture of this workplace?’ We want to ensure we have a workplace where people feel like they can deliver high-quality service and get back high-quality support, not only from the traditional management structure but more importantly across their colleagues and their supervisors.”
His panel contributions next Friday will look at flexible working arrangements from the perspective of a large employer, including why it’s important to have them and the benefits and opportunities involved in adopting better practices.
“Previously we used to have work models where we said ‘This is the work, if we have a person for life, that’s great.’ What we’re thinking now is, ‘How can we be attractive as an employer?’ Part of that might be about trying to get people to move out of our organisation, and get new skills they can come back with,” Mr Westbrook says.
“We recognise that we have to create opportunities, and we can also learn a lot when people come back into our organisation.”
The Breakfast is co-hosted by Griffith’s Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing (WOW) with whom Wallis is a member of its external Advisory Board. Further panelists include Secretary of Together Queensland Union of Employees, Mr Alex Scott, and WOW’s wellbeing and work-life balance expert, Professor Paula Brough(featured below).
Registrationcloses Friday 5 August, 2016.
Tickets: $45 Griffith alumni, staff and students; $55 general admission.
This story is authored by Elizabeth Best, Communications Officer, Griffith Business School with minor editorial changes by WOW.