TRA Flex – adopting the yoga of working

Humans are pliable.  

Our bodies are designed to stretch and move. Yet, we regularly fold them into unforgiving vehicles and stay stationary behind desks. We ignore our bodies needs.   

Our lives should be pliable too. For too long we have been folding our routines into the hard and uncompromising structures of the traditional nine to five, Monday to Friday with a 30-minute lunch break. We’ve ignored our personal needs at the expense of work.  

We’re not made to live stationary, rigid lives.  

At TRA, we believe we should be able to stretch around our interests, commitments and life events. We want to create space to adapt your work to suit your lifestyle, instead of the other way around.  

So, we have adopted a new way of working – TRA Flex. Think of it as the yoga of working, where people can bend their time to whatever makes them feel good, while finding power, creativity and open-mindedness.  

Flexible working doesn’t have to be a stretch of the imagination 

TRA Flex is a new way to work. We’ve thrown away the rulebook that dictates what a working week should look like. It’s not about where and when you work anymore. Instead, we are building an equitable and collaborative environment that empowers us to deliver our best work.  

Like taking up yoga for muscles stiff from sedentary activities, TRA Flex gives people the space to move again. It’s a way to tend to their wellbeing and live their lives in the way that suits them best, while balancing the needs of their teams and clients. 

We call it the three-way win.  

TRA Flex is bolstered via financial contribution to home office setups, wellbeing support, and encouragement to use spaces beyond the home or office. Digital inclusivity means you no longer need to be in the same room, or even the same time zone, to make a meaningful contribution.  

How you work, where you work, and when you work is in your hands 

Finding our flexible flow   

TRA Flex is a bold move – it contradicts the rigid structures around working that has been the norm for decades.  

Extended lockdowns have pushed many companies into remote ways of working, but TRA has a longer-term vision; this isn’t about how we work for a few months until we return to ‘normal’. This is about redefining normal. We don’t want to turn around and go back to how things used to be – we want to look ahead and stride confidently into the future.  

So how did we chart our course?  

We did what TRA  does best; multidisciplinary research. From surveys, we knew our team loved TRA’s culture, innovation, and learning. We wanted to maintain that, with more flexibility. In-depth interviews surfaced an insight: flexibility unlocks creativity and productivity across teams and disciplines. A  co-creation workshop clarified the support, people initiatives and resource required to create a truly flexible workplace.  

We also looked at the numbers surfacing around the world as organisations globally grapple with the return to the office. Seventy-six percent of knowledge workers want flexibility in where they work, and 93% want flexibility in when they work.    

This is no passing trend, but a value we wanted to embed into the culture of our organisation.     

Individuals, collectively 

Within TRA, we have doting parents who want to absorb more time with their young children. We have wild-hearted adventurers who want more freedom to explore remote areas of the country. We have night owls who switch on when most other people are turning out their lights.  

We recognise that everyone has their own unique set of needs and interests. We wanted to make sure that everyone can find their own unique rhythm.  

TRA Flex gives people the chance to start and finish at times that suit. It opens up the opportunity to work from a bach or Airbnb. It gives the freedom to work around the needs of family. The adventure junkies can take time out in the middle of the day to go for a long run, or even a surf, just by blocking out time in their calendar.  

With open communication, trust and support, we’re leaving behind the inflexibility of traditional ways of working and becoming stretchier than ever before. 

And, of course, for the people already content with working 9-5 Monday to Friday, we welcome that too. 

TRA Flex is just one more way we challenge the status quo. If you would like to join a diverse group of thinkers and adopt a flexible approach to work-life balance, take a look at our current career openings.