Say hello to Generation F. That is, women between the ages of 16 and 65. They make up more than half of Australia’s population, and nearly 45 pent cent of the nation’s total labour force, but remain an untapped resource for many companies, according to a recent report by The Equal Opportunity for Women In the Workplace Agency (EOWA). The report, entitled Generation F – attract, engage, retain, explores the career aspirations, priorities and expectations of Gen F and provides advice for organisations to ensure they don’t lose employees to bigger and better opportunities.

The findings of the report show that flexibility is the key to keeping the talented Gen F happy at work, with approximately 50 per cent of women feeling that part-time work and flexible start and finish times should be made more accessible in their workplace. Kate Sykes, director and founder of CareerMums, has already recognised the importance of flexibility at work, creating the first national online jobs board to connect skilled parents with flexible and part-time jobs. Read our interview with Kate here.

Anna McPhee, director of EOWA talks more about the report, and her own career, in an interview with Career FAQs.

Summary of key findings

Generation F have the same expectations as men when job seeking

• Both women and men identify good pay and bonuses as the most important factor when job seeking.
• Over 80% of all job seekers also consider job security, supportive bosses, good relationships with colleagues and job satisfaction to be extremely important.
• Women are likely to consider additional factors such as the promotion and support of women, flexible working conditions, women in senior positions and the provision of paid maternity leave to be significant.

Household and caring duties the double shift for Generation F in the workplace

• More than half of working women say their partner or spouse does less of the unpaid domestic and caring work at home.
• Nearly a third of working women state that if their partners were to carry out a greater share of domestic duties, they would be more likely to work more hours in paid employment.
• Nearly half of women with young children aged under thirteen years who are currently working part-time claim they would work more hours in paid employment if they had greater access to child-care facilities.
  

Generation F are as ambitious as men

• Both women and men most commonly want to move into a job involving more responsibility.
• Plans to move into roles demanding less responsibility are shared by women and men in similar proportions.
• Almost 20% of women indicate that they intend to leave their jobs to start up their own business in the next few years, while only 14% of women plan to leave the workforce to have children.

Gender equality has yet to be achieved in Australian workplaces

• Nearly one quarter of women and men do not believe that women are treated equally to men in their workplace.
• Nearly half of all employees believe that a boys’ club exists within their organisation.
• More than half of both women and men agree that promotions and job opportunities are not always awarded on merit.
• Nearly 40% of women and 30% of men say that men in their workplace progress more quickly than women.

Organisations need to do more to retain Generation F

• Two of the five most common reasons for women to leave their previous job were a difficulty in progressing and a lack of clear career development.
• Desire for a higher salary motivated more than 16% of women to leave their last job.
• Nearly one in ten women left their last job as a result of bullying and harassment.

Flexibility is the key to staff retention

• 17% of women believe their workplace offers no flexibility whatsoever.
• 12% of women were motivated to resign from their previous job in search of greater work/life balance, while 10% resigned because they sought a more flexible role.
• Approximately half of women feel that part-time work and flexible start and finish times should be made more accessible in their workplace.
• More than 60% of women want their current employer to improve the provision of time in lieu and flexible rostering.

Source: The Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency

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