### Introduction to Flexible Work Arrangements

Tax specialists typically put in long hours to meet client deadlines. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, audit, accounting, and consulting firm Grant Thornton Australia noticed its employees were exceptionally fatigued and introduced a “nine-day fortnight,” essentially providing employees with an extra day off every two weeks to rest and recharge.

### Embracing the Concept

Sandie Boswell, Chief Managing Partner for Tax at Grant Thornton Australia, based in Sydney, is a strong advocate for this concept and dedicates an afternoon each week to refresh and rejuvenate.

### Personal Experience with the Nine-Day Fortnight

“It’s highly beneficial for giving me some time back. I utilize it to do grocery shopping, visit my mother, or pick my daughter up from school. I also schedule time to go to the gym,” said Boswell. “Each week, I know that I have some recharge time where I can refresh, and I really look forward to it.”

### Analyzing Employee Schedules

The challenge was that not everyone on her team of 200 was claiming the extra time. So, Boswell turned to Copilot in Microsoft Excel to analyze employee schedules, examining which areas of the business and which grade they were in, and then enlisted their managers to help their teams unlock the extra time.

### Observations on Microsoft 365 Copilot

Boswell also observed that employees who were using Microsoft 365 Copilot were more likely to take the extra time off. The AI assistant is being rolled out to all 1,500 employees of Grant Thornton across Australia.

### The Virtuous Cycle of Productivity

“It’s a virtuous cycle: more people are accessing their time off because Copilot helps them complete their work more efficiently,” Boswell noted. She saves two to three hours a week by utilizing Copilot.

### Adoption and Usage of Copilot

In Boswell’s tax team, 200 employees now use Copilot more than 8,000 times a month collectively for tasks ranging from drafting presentations to researching tax issues.

### Personal Experience with Copilot

Boswell herself uses Copilot daily. On a recent day, she used it to check on a deadline for a piece of tax legislation. In the past, she would have logged on to a specialized online subscription for legal resources and used a search word, then hunted through search results for the answer. Using Copilot, she obtained her answer and verified it with the source in just three minutes.

### Refining Prompts for Better Results

She’s continually refining her prompts. “The more detail I provide about the scenario I need help with, the better the result,” she explained.

### Streamlining Presentation Drafting

When using Copilot to draft presentations, for example, she specifies not just the topic but also the audience and the number of points she wants to emphasize. In the past, Boswell said, she literally started with a blank piece of paper and a pen to map out her talk.

### Expanding Professional Connections

Recently, Boswell used Copilot to look up fellow attendees at an event. She input each name and wrote a prompt inquiring about their work and interests. She discovered that one person was in a choir, another was a member of a golf club — valuable information for starting conversations.

### Conclusion

“It’s a connector,” she said.

### Image Credits

Top image: Sandie Boswell, Chief Managing Partner for Tax, Grant Thornton, Australia. Photo: Grant Thornton. Image background generated with Microsoft Copilot.