Multiplex is offering staff the option of four-day working weeks in a new flexible-working initiative that it hopes will improve the gender balance in the company.<\/p>\n
Its \u2018Multiplex Flex\u2019 initiative will provide staff with different options for flexible working. It includes early finishes on Fridays, four-day weeks, remote working and extra time off in lieu of overtime hours. The different approaches have been trialled through live projects over the last six months, where the initiative was found to build more trust and decrease stress for staff.<\/p>\n
The contractor said it hoped this new system would make the workplace more attractive for women, who currently make up 21 per cent of Multiplex\u2019s workforce. The firm stated that it was also a step towards their gender-diversity targets of having 10 per cent of projects be female-led by 2023 and improving the gender gap by 10 per cent by 2025.<\/p>\n
The firm said the changes would also help with the redistribution of intra-household care by better enabling employees to support their partners.<\/p>\n
Multiplex senior pre-construction engineer Narjes Jafari (pictured) said: \u201cFlexible working is not just for mothers or those that are ill. In our industry, it also means that the fathers can take time to be with their families and to support the women in their lives in other ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jafari had made use of the company\u2019s enhanced maternity pay policy in 2019, which gave her nine months\u2019 full pay. She said the formalisation of a flexible-working scheme helped address the stigma around less traditional styles of working.<\/p>\n
\u201cLaunching flexible working formally like this within the business has meant that people have changed their mindset, especially at leadership level, and leading to greater support and trust. I feel like no one is judging me for working in this way and that is important; it\u2019s all up to me as I am able to maintain the output.\u201d<\/p>\n
The system was also reviewed by Timewise, the flexible-working consultancy. Multiplex began trialling flexible working earlier this year, alongside other contractors like Kier and McAlpine.<\/a> Bam, Skanska and Wilmott Dixon<\/a>\u00a0have also found a similar system to be beneficial.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Multiplex is offering staff the option of four-day working weeks in a new flexible-working initiative that it hopes will improve the gender balance in the company. Its \u2018Multiplex Flex\u2019 initiative will provide staff with different options for flexible working. It includes early finishes on Fridays, four-day weeks, remote working and extra time off in lieu …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":117289,"featured_media":445910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[541,542,543,546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-445931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-multiplex","category-sir-robert-mcalpine","category-skanska","category-willmott-dixon","editorial-employment","editorial-multiplex","issue-15-october-2021"],"yoast_head":"\n