Employers that don't offer part-time workers adequate support and career opportunities risk losing them to competitors that do, says Diversity Council Australia (DCA) acting research director Lisa Annese.

Speaking at launch of DCA's "Working for the Future" survey in Sydney last week, Annese urged employers to move "from policy to practice" in not only accommodating their part-time workers, but maximising their potential.

According to the "Working for the Future" survey, which canvassed the views of more than 2,000 Australian workers, nearly one in two Australian workers agrees it is difficult to work part-time and have a career in their organisation.

Some 68 per cent of employees agreed that in their area, it was not practical to be a manager or supervisor and work part-time, and nearly one in five said they had considered resigning in the last six months due to inflexibility.

"Organisations that don't invest in the part-time workforce tend to lose a lot of their women to organisations that do," says Annese.

"A really good example is professional services firms, like accounting and law firms, who don't provide well enough for part-time carers.

"Ultimately, women who would end up becoming partners in those organisations, end up having to move to companies that offer different conditions of service.

"So really great organisations who have invested an enormous amount of money in their graduate programs for women, lose those women. And that's just one example."

The survey also found parents made better managers. "Managers with care-giving responsibilities rated higher - consistently - on all 11 indicators in our survey," Annese says.

"That included generic management capability, work/life capability, creating satisfied employees [and] ability to advance and grow part-time employees - and this was a gender-neutral result. It didn't matter if the manager was male or female; if they were a care-giver, they were a better manager."

Annese says this could be because care giving develops skills such as problem solving, logistic management, negotiation, consultation, flexibility and adaptability. People who have been parents are also more likely to empathise with employees who are becoming parents themselves.

It's not about the policy

Most employers - including all those that report to the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (which is any employer with 100 employees or more) - already have flexibility policies in place, Annese says.

"But we know it's not about the policy," she says.

What counts is the day-to-day experience of employees. "And that comes down to the individual manager interpreting the policy."

According to the DCA's research, what organisations need to focus on now is building management capability in relation to workers who do not work full-time.

"And the first thing you can do is focus on the particular skills you need to manage a flexible workplace," she says.

These skills are not dissimilar to those needed to manage an off-shore or regional customer base, Annese says.

The trick is to apply them to managing employees as well.