The event was booked out, with over two hundred people hearing details of a Queensland study into flexible work arrangements in ten industries.
Ready access to flexible workplace arrangements is affected by management and employee attitudes. For example, workers in industries with cultures of long work hours look unfavourably on colleagues who are absent because they use flexible working arrangements. This can discourage the take-up of flexible arrangements.
According to speakers at the seminar, the aging population means work life balance programs are needed if older workers are to be retained, especially during times of labour shortage.
The seminar also heard poor work practises often meant poor health outcomes, and work life balance should be treated holistically as a broader part of community health.