Work life balance

We recognise the need to balance work and life is important for all our employees. Work/life balance means different things to different people; it could be caring responsibilities, sporting or study opportunities, volunteering and travel aspirations, or other commitments and ambitions.

Our flexibility options and tools help our employees to manage their careers along with their individual life situations, commitments and aspirations

Anna Lane is a Digital Marketing Manager who works shorter hours, four days per week.

It’s great to work for such a flexible employer, and to be able to achieve such a good work life balance. This good work life balance allows me to be a very focused and productive employee. My arrangement allows me to stay in the workforce while spending quality time with my family.

I have a very good balance – and for the most part everything runs smoothly. The biggest challenge would be managing unexpected things that come up at or outside of work. My manager and team are very flexible and if I need to be at home for any reason, I can work from home or make up the hours later. Likewise if I need to be at work for longer, then I can use my flexible working arrangement to manage this.

Dean Couzins is a team leader in lending services, who works flexible hours and takes extra leave

Playing in a non-professional sport Dean has managed to fit a challenging and interesting career around hockey. His tough training schedule and international hockey commitments as the captain of the NZ hockey team, makes his work life balance all the more challenging.

"I use flex time during the week to attend training sessions in the mornings or early evenings with the national hockey team, and for tournaments ANZ has been great giving me the time off I need, supporting me with Special leave which allows me up to 15 days extra leave to play hockey in a year. For the London 2012 Olympics, ANZ went to the unusual step of giving me leave with full pay which was an amazing help," says Dean.

"I'm really glad that my managers are so supportive in helping me make this work.This support gives me peace of mind, knowing I can continue to play sport at international levels which I am passionate about, whilst also managing to stay engaged with a great job at ANZ".

Jason Brown a MIS Manager, in Finance works part time

I work 4 days a week - I have every Tuesday off to do the school run etc. and my wife goes to work. I am fortunate that I work in an area where it is possible to plan your workload so it was just a matter of adjusting the planning and delivery expectations on the basis that I had 20% less time in the office.

The biggest initial challenge was ensuring that I did not try and cram 5 days work into 4 days which would have required that I was working on my day off or evenings; this would have defeated the purpose of trying to spend more time with my children.

Amanda Owen is the New Zealand Divisional Financial Controller and works full time hours in a flexible way

I do a compressed work week - I start around 7 am each day and I do a mix of early and late finishes, to enable me to collect my kids from school some days. My hours may differ from day to day depending on what I have on, so I will make up hours in the evening where required. I try to work my weekly hours by Friday so I am able to get involved in school and other activities that day.

Having a flexible work arrangement means I can be more closely involved in my kids' day - after school activities, school pick-ups and drop-offs, and helping out with activities at school. My arrangement allows me to have a fulfilling and challenging role at the Bank, without sacrificing quality time with my family. Because I get the best of both worlds (but in a compressed time), I'm very motivated, satisfied and productive at work.

Most people I work with are familiar with my arrangement, and try to avoid booking meetings when I'll be out of the office. Other members of my wider team also work flexibly, so we are practised in accommodating different arrangements within the team.