A few weeks ago, L’Oréal Australia announced that for the first time the company had a majority female Management Committee, with seven out of eleven roles held by women. The roles held by females are – Communications Director, HR Director, General Manager Luxe, General Counsel, CFO, General Manager IT and Operations Director.

While this announcement was a key moment in business’ history of L’Oréal Australia, it would not have been possible without the development of strong foundation within a culture to support opportunities for flexible work arrangements. Having senior managers who are willing to ask “why not?” when a flexible work arrangement is requested, together with strong leadership from Managing Director to grow and develop female leaders, allowed the company to reach a point where it had a number of strong women candidates ready to take on leadership roles.

Flexible Work Arrangements at L’Oréal Australia

In early 2015 L’Oréal Australia embarked on a program of work to create an environment where both females and males could thrive. Until this point, the way the workforce was structured meant that roles outside the traditional five days onsite pattern were unusual. L’Oréal Australia’s Man Com spent a significant amount of time looking at the benefits of supporting flexible work arrangements and how these could become more common within its business. They asked questions such as – why can’t key leadership roles be part-time? can a normal working week be compressed into four days? can our team members work some days from home?

Ultimately, the Man Com supported a culture that focused on delivering great business outcomes rather than measuring time and attendance. The flexible work arrangements guidelines were developed to be deliberately broad, with overarching principles that help to determine solutions to meet different personal circumstances.

EDGE certification

In addition to the implementation of flexible work arrangements, L’Oréal Australia became the first Australian company to be certified by EDGE. This highlighted a strong commitment to workplace gender equity. The EDGE certification helped to show our employees that the company takes gender equity seriously and combined with flexible work arrangements, provided a solid platform for development of females within our business.