pitt&sherry is a specialist engineering and environmental consulting firm that solve unique challenges in the transport, mining, civic & utilities, tourism & recreation, energy and industrial manufacturing sectors.
Twenty years ago, working at pitt&sherry was the standard Monday to Friday 9-5, with a one-hour lunch break mandated. In the last five years however the change to become a flexible work environment has been significant.
The first change was to value outcomes and recognise that flexible working arrangements was not only good for employees, but also good for business.
At pitt&sherry the focus isn’t on when the work is done, just that the work gets done. If someone chooses to work 4 x 10 hour days and take Fridays off, then that is ok.
As a commitment to the new focus, the company upgraded staff to laptops, moved to cloud based systems including timesheets on phones; and implemented remote system access to allow them to make flexible working available for all of their people.
The heavy investment in technology has paid off with pitt&sherry able to retain staff who due to family circumstances may have had to leave. Recently they had a team member relocate to Vancouver and another to the Netherlands – both have remained working for the company. The unplanned upside was the bonus of team members working in a different time zones. Five years ago this would not have been possible.
Instead of resigning to follow their partner to Wagga Wagga, one employee took up the challenge and established an office there. Since then, she’s grown the team, taken parental leave and been promoted twice.
Whilst not everyone can work remotely, pitt&sherry’s staff tap into a myriad of other forms of flexible work such as adjusted start and finish times or part time employment. Hamish Peacock is a flexible part time engineer at pitt&sherry and a champion javelin thrower who trains and competes at an elite level including at the the Olympics and Commonwealth Games. With pitt&sherry’s flexible working arrangements he is able to thrive at work and excel in his sport.
Understanding the benefits to mental health pitt&sherry encourage work-life balance for their people, however that may look for their staff as the company knows this enables their people to perform better, smarter and harder at work.
The flexible working offering at pitt&sherry is something they are really proud of. An ongoing work-in-progress, pitt&sherry is always looking for flexible work opportunities to help their staff succeed. Experience, implementation and commitment to flexible working is what has made pitt&sherry a great place to work.
Congratulations to pitt&sherry on achieving the Flex Able Certification.
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