Listen Now: Emma Davenport features on HR Leader’s Podcast

In a recent podcast interview for HR Leader, Unispace’s Senior Principal of Strategy, Emma Davenport, discusses our global report, ‘From Restrictions to Resilience’, and how a healthy challenge for authority has built an egalitarian ethos into Australian workplaces.
Read on to understand how Australian workplace sentiment compare to our global counterparts, and  the key insights Australian employers can take forward into the new year. 

In May 2024, Unispace surveyed almost 11,000 people, with 8,000 of these being employees, across thirteen different countries and fourteen different industries. Following a deep dive into each country’s sentiments and attitudes towards the world of work, we are uniquely positioned to understand where Australia sits, in comparison to its global neighbours.

Australia is a mature market when it comes to the workforce. Autonomy, agency and free decision making are highly valued by employees, which has allowed for a democratic environment. On the podcast, Emma raised an interesting question: “Does this stem from our historical convict roots?” Regardless of its origin, Australia’s desire for a flexible, egalitarian workplace is not going anywhere, with Aussie employees having the greatest freedom globally in choosing their office days.

Here are some key trends for Australian businesses to look out for:

• Unity: Some global mandates, such as Amazon’s five day a week policy for all employees have made the news recently. Bezos’ rationale for this decision was the need for greater connection and collaboration face-to-face. Emma breaks down this need and flags the potential impact of these decisions.

While a few controversial mandates have made headlines, our report found there is more unity between employer and employee sentiment, compared to 2023. Essentially, we are seeing a stronger alignment between how employers and employees feel about hybrid working policies.

This presents an opportunity to change the conversation from return-to-work mandates, to how the office can enable employees to be at their best.

• Innovation: Speaking of enabling employees, the perception of how well the office enables innovation has declined in the last year. Specifically, employees and employers perceived the workplace as a better engine for innovation in 2023 than they do in 2024. 

Emma raised that as most employers and employees begin to move away from constant clashing on WFH/return-to-work mandates, some employers have begun redirecting their focus towards reviewing whether their workplace hinders or enables collaboration and innovation. An important point of consideration for all employers and companies alike.

With innovation intrinsically linked to collaboration, change is needed for the workplace to support employees to innovate and generate solutions, and in turn create a competitive advantage for the company. 

• The work week: Australian employees showed interest in a four-day work week, with 87% stating they would be happy to work longer hours, four days a week, to have more choice and flexibility.

While the four-day week is being trialled in prolific companies such as Medibank, Emma cautions that it will take much longer to see the true results. 

• Environment: To put it simply, the physical office environment is playing catch up. Australian’s have spent time and money, and given up space in their homes to create a perfect hybrid set up. This presents a unique challenge for employers - how do they provide an office space that can meet the personalised standards that employees have at home?

Noise disruption, air quality, temperature control, access to natural light, the ability to stay active, privacy: all are available at home, but not necessarily in the office. What is the solution?

Listen to the full HR Leader podcast with Emma via the link below or download a copy of our global workplace insights report, 'From Restrictions to Resilience'. 

As a strategy, design and construction company, Unispace takes these insights and puts them into action within the workplaces that we create for clients. While the insights can help contextualise and inform decision making, there is no one size fits all approach. Any change needs to be tailored to the DNA of each unique organisation. Get in touch today to discuss your tailored needs.