Allow for flexible hours and teleworking where possible
An inclusive workplace culture is a healthy environment for all. To establish an inclusive workplace and promote healthy work-life balance, the ALBA Declaration on Equity & Inclusion advises to allow for flexible hours and teleworking where possible. This article provides useful tips & resources on best practices about setting working rules.
Issues
Due to proportionally higher demands on women’s home and professional time allocations - if they balance family and career, flexible scheduling places control into the hands of the female academic. Often women must work around family members’s demands and thus can benefit greatly from being able to work on a self-determined basis when it is necessary.
Scientists with disabilities might also need or prefer working from home.
Suggested actions
- Allow women, disabled people and minorities to set their own hours or work from home if necessary
- Provide IT support to make it feasible.
Resources
Examples of best practices:
- Mapping the maze: getting more women to the top in research -- Flexible environment p.32 samples of EU countries (see section §3.2); Women In Research Decision Making (WIRDEM) (EU)
- A Half-Time Tenure Track Proposal; Robert Drago & Joan Williams (2010)
- Assistive Technology; Do.It University of Washington (US)
