Making flexibility an enabler for personal and professional success

At Capgemini, we foster an inclusive culture which embraces differences – one that allows us to live our values every day and feel empowered to realise and discover our potential. We are a merit driven organisation and we understand that you are successful when you have the flexibility you need to meet the demands of your professional life, as well as priorities outside your workplace.

The global workforce is changing and evolving. There is multidimensional diversity (demographic as well as geographical), with four generations now working together, more varied and complex family styles, and cyber workers contributing remotely, perhaps in different languages and from different time zones. Certainly, there are widely divergent styles, motivations, and challenges, both personal and professional. In a challenging environment such as this, balancing family and work life can become an increasing struggle as an employee progresses through his or her career. Flexible working policies are crucial to maintaining employee well-being and fostering inclusion.

The Flexi options policy support our purpose and values by providing more options for our people to stay engaged in order to continue delivering the highest quality services our clients expect. The way we work is changing, we know that our future success lies in working smarter. And we know how important it is for our employees to find the right balance between work and life. We have Flexi Options Policy, to create rewarding work experiences and better engagement by providing our people flexibility in how, where and when they work.

What are the Flexi options available for employees?

The Flexi options policy broadly has two flexibility options available:

1. Flexible Workplace Option
2. Part-Time Option

We live in a society where gender roles have become more egalitarian and where women contribute increasingly to family economic well-being. Men are also much more involved in their home lives than men in the past, spending more time with their children and contributing more to the work of caring for their homes and families.

Myths around flexible work

There are certain myths around flexibility at work. Our endeavour has always been to validate and busts the myths, such as:
Myth 1: That full-time employees are more assertive and self-promoting than flexible workers
Myth 2: That flexible employees are considerably less ambitious than full-timers
Myth 3: That flexible employees are less committed than full-timers to developing others
Myth 4: Clients react negatively if they are required to deal with employees who work flexibly
Myth 5: A commitment to full time work is a strong indication of leadership qualities
Myth 6: Flexible employees are less credible

What changes do employees need in order to more effectively manage work and family?

First and foremost, there needs to be an open and visible dialogue about the work-family challenges that you face. Being able to engage in a dialogue with your people manager about family and personal issues makes a significant difference to employees with family responsibilities.
Flexibility is a team sport. It’s about speaking up and sharing our personal goals. It’s also about encouraging our teams and peers to take the time they need, and support each other.

Workplace flexibility is a powerful way to engage and be successful at work and at home. Moving forward through time of ever greater work and home-life demands, workplace flexibility becomes strategic imperative for our people wellbeing.

Capgemini leaders on flexibility at work

“Flexibility at work is no longer either a nice-to-have initiative or an optional perk mostly used by women. The common stereotypes around flexibility and importance of face-time are now a fad. We need to de-parent, de-gender, and de-age the perception around flexible working.” – Gayathri Ramamurthy Diversity and Inclusion leader – India, Capgemini

“We believe a healthier and happier workforce is more engaged and effective at work. A team member who can strike the right balance between professional and personal commitments is usually much happier, highly satisfied and willing to go the extra mile. This means our colleagues must be able to exercise more flexibility in their work hours and work days. While our India colleagues have enjoyed flexibility, I am very happy to announce that we are now extending the scope of this benefit further and formalizing it under the ‘Flexible Work Option Policy’ at Capgemini India. This is one more transparent, positive step forward in our journey to become tomorrow-ready, and will go a long way in attracting, retaining and engaging our best talent.” – Anil Jalali CHRO – India, Capgemini

“Workplace Flexibility is a powerful lever to progressively and positively influence the professional success of our colleagues, driven by and inspired from their personal success through our support.” Read More – Niraj Parihar, EVP and India Head of Insights & Data GBL, Capgemini