Flexibility in the Mirvac Design Team

Mirvac Design understands that our employees have a wide variety of personal commitments and goals that extend beyond the office and are just as important in their lives. With this in mind, we take an evolving approach to flexibility in the workplace through our Flexibility Policy, which forms part of our Diversity Policy.

A flexible arrangement can be formal or informal. It may involve being able to adjust your traditional workday hours or location to fit in with other commitments, such as an ongoing arrangement for a later start to drop the kids off at school or a regular afternoon to pursue a hobby.

Currently, 21% of Mirvac Design’s employees have a formal flexible arrangement in place and over 54% benefit from an informal flexible arrangement.

Mirvac Design encourages employees to identify a way in which small achievable changes can be made to enhance the quality of work and life. We call this approach “My Simple Thing”. Your Simple Thing could be starting work later so that you can attend a pilates class, or it could be leaving work earlier to coach the local under 12s cricket team. Whatever it is, we’re committed to supporting our employees to achieve a better work/life balance and we’re proud of our industry-leading, family-friendly Shared Care Parental Leave policy. This is an important component of our Flexible Working Charter.

The best people to provide an insight on the difference our workplace flexibility policy makes are our employees. Jaakko Vahtola, Senior Draftsperson with Mirvac Design has been enjoying the benefits of a formal flexible working arrangement for three years now.

For Jaakko, his flexible arrangement allows him to work a 9 day fortnight, which has supported his wife in getting back to work, and has provided him with the opportunity to spend time with his son in his precious pre-school years.

“Being able to spend an extra day with my son as he grows up has been amazing – it gives me a great sense of enjoyment and well-being to know that I can have a special day with him once a fortnight ”

When life presents unexpected situations such as sickness – Jaakko has felt supported and not pressured to accommodate work at the cost of family responsibilities.

“In my social circle we discuss parental leave and workplace conditions for parents, people are always surprised and pleased by the conditions that I enjoy as an employee of Mirvac Design.”