On International Women’s Day 2022, in a first-of-its-type event, the Women in Defence Charter joined Paul Livingston, Chief Executive Lockheed Martin UK Limited, and his team to discuss flexible working and Lockheed Martin’s four-day working week initiative.
Attendees heard from graduates, engineers and working parents about how the ‘opt-in’ model allows them to manage their working patterns around their lives.
The innovative model, termed 4XFlex, has transitioned the Lockheed Martin working pattern from 75 work hours over 9 days, to 75 hours over 8 days combined with hybrid working. These changes enable more flexible childcare, couples to support each other’s careers and to spend more time together, whilst still delivering for Lockheed Martin and their customers.
The event highlighted many important takeaways from the rollout of 4XFlex, one of which was the importance of a culture of trust, implemented from the top by Paul who also works a 4-day week. Another was the recognition that people want to work in a way that suits them, and that for some individuals this may be to remain with a traditional working pattern.
Richard Mckie, signatory work package lead for the Women in Defence Charter, said: “Flexible working isn’t the only solution to achieving gender balance in the defence sector, but it is certainly a tool that can help us achieve the ambition. The discussions raised lots of interest from the audience on how to implement, lessons learnt and hopefully started to change mindsets on flexible working across the sector.”
Thank you to Lockheed Martin UK for hosting the event and for sharing their experiences so openly.