Flexible Working: Time to stop talking out of both sides of our mouths...

"When are we going to stop talking our of both sides of our mouths when it comes to flexible working?!"

One of our most important Values is 'Tell it like it is', so I was pleased when someone challenged us to clarify where we stood on flexible working at the company-wide share-out of the results of our Employee Engagement survey .

In a business where more than 60% of our senior leaders are female, 12% of our team works remotely and many others regularly tele-commute, we've always been proud of the flexibility we've provided to our people.

But despite its many advantages, flexible working has its downsides. Some people truly value the benefits of flexible working when it enables them to balance the messiness of life in and outside of work. But others find the blurring of boundaries stressful, struggling to switch off. Some of our team argue that the relatively high proportion of people who choose to work from home impacts the vibe in our offices. It certainly requires that remote-working leaders are intentional about still being present and accessible while out of the office, and requires people to think and act differently when collaborating, communicating and innovating together.

Another of our values is 'Open Up and Listen', so we took the challenge seriously. Last year, we'd already started experimenting with TINYpulse, a fantastic online platform which enables us to ping a question out to our team once a week to gather candid, anonymous feedback on how people are feeling about working at C Space. So we asked people "How do you think we’re doing in terms of offering flexible work environments for our people?”.

Encouragingly, 70% felt we were 'just right'.

One person commented: "As a mom who lives in the burbs, the flexible work environment that allows me to do my job at home when needed is what allows me sanity and the ability to be successful in my job. If I can save 2.5 hours once or twice a week from my commute time, it means about half that time goes to doing work and the other half goes to me being with my family. This makes me a happier person and a happier, more productive employee. I also work 80%. Again, the extra time with my family, while still being a valued C Space employee who continues to see opportunities for growth despite working fewer hours a week, is all I could ever ask for in a company and for my career. It has made me feel like a better human to be able to work hard and be challenged at work, while also treasuring extra time with my small children."

But 30% still felt there was room for improvement.

Many of the comments echoed what was implied in the question at our staff meeting. People wanted greater clarity around how much permission really exists to work flexibly, and what was expected if they chose to do so.

"We buy into the idea of flexibility, but then we don't always act consistently with the messages we deliver."

This comment particularly hit home: "We can improve by not talking out of both sides of our mouth. We SAY we are flexible (we trust you to get your work done, it's perfectly fine to leave the office to pick up your kids, coach their Little League, go for a run, etc., but then people feel 'judged' if they actually do leave for personal work-life balance needs). We value uber-responsiveness and "seeing" people around the offices. While we SAY we understand if someone needs to work from home or turn off email to focus on an important task, we do seem "judgy" when the person "seems to work from home a lot" or "isn't responding to messages within minutes". We buy into the idea of flexibility, but then we don't always act consistently with the messages we deliver."

Getting this feedback from across the business inspired us to question whether we really needed a work from home policy, and instead, helped us to understand that we needed to do a better job of communicating what level of flexibility will most benefit our people and business.

People told us that:

• The lack of clarity leads to confusion around what’s expected, acceptable and beneficial to individuals and the company.
• Their ability to work flexibly outside of the office is seen as a key benefit and something we should definitely retain...
• ... and the majority really value time together in the office. It’s seen as key to building culture and relationships, driving innovation, learning and collaboration.

In response to feedback, we're working on being less 'parental' ('telling it like it is') and having more adult-to-adult conversations across the business. So instead of a Flexible Working Policy, we developed some guidelines which we've called How We Work. We've tried to be much clearer about what we believe and why. Here's where we landed:

"We hope these guidelines will support us as we build our culture, enable us to do our best work for our clients, support personal time away and personal preferences, and make space for life outside work. These are meant to be guidelines, not a policy. We know different situations require different solutions! We trust you, in collaboration with your manager, to make the choices that are right for you and right for C Space. We also recognize that some direction and clarity around expectations will help people exercise good judgment."

"We’re on a mission to make business more human. We believe that should apply to life at C Space as much as it does when we're consulting with our clients."

"We’re on a mission to make business more human. We believe that should apply to life at C Space as much as it does when we're consulting with our clients.

Our work, our clients and our lives outside of work demand a lot of us… and society has become more connected, making it harder for us to disconnect. Professionally, many of our roles require travel, and responsiveness to unpredictable client needs. We have people based on-site at clients, in-field near clients, people working remotely, and based in three offices across North America – Boston, New York, San Francisco, as well as a dedicated presence in Mexico City. We employ a diverse mix of individuals who want to work in different ways and have different passions, preferences, and family situations outside of work.

We aim to create an environment of personal growth and professional fulfillment that enables people to be their best in and outside of work. We know that our preferences in what time to start and end work varies, which is fine! We trust you to work hard and get your job done. And of course, there will be occasions when you’ll need to be flexible around your own preferences to accommodate clients and colleagues. Our time together is important for collaboration, culture, creativity and speed. Our ability to be flexible is reliant on everyone’s communication with each other so we can collaborate and work easily together."

The guidelines go on to clarify how people can optimize communications when working remotely. They also detail that when you're taking a sick day (for mental or physical health reasons) you should take the time to recover, not just soldier on, working from home.

Finally, they clarify expectations around taking PTO (paid time off/ annual leave). With a majority of Americans not using all of their vacation time, we're trying to encourage people to take time away from the business and properly switch off.

Of course, the new guidelines alone won't be the only thing that makes a difference. It will require role-modelling from senior leaders, and all of us to think differently about how we provide cover when people are out of the office. Still, we're hoping that being explicit about the need to take vacation is a positive signal which creates permission to do it.

"Either way, you will not be judged."

"We believe that you should use your full vacation time and that you should be able to switch off fully from work while on vacation. Taking time away from work enables you to recharge and perform at a higher level when you’re at work.

To enable you to fully switch off, you should ensure you have a back-up plan for when you're away and not feel compelled to check-in during your vacation. Your out-of-office should reflect that you’re on vacation and detail who can be contacted in your absence. You do not need to say to your clients or your colleagues that they can contact you when you’re away. And if circumstances sometimes seem to make sense for you to stay connected, that's your choice as well. Either way, you will not be judged!"

This final point felt important to us and has resonated with the team since we launched it. If we're going to treat people like grown-ups, then we also need to appreciate that some people may for one reason or another decide to reply to an email while they're away. We just need to ensure that doesn't set expectations that others should do the same. I have to admit, I was encouraged to see this out of office message from a senior leader recently, and I hope others follow her lead...

"I am OOO (12/13 – 1/1). During this time, I will not have access to voicemail or email. Your message is important to me, but I am taking this time to reflect, recharge and gain fresh perspective so we can dream big and achieve great things in 2019 together. Rest-up and I’ll be fired up and ready to roll on 1/2/19."

As well as launching the How We Work guidelines, we've been thinking about other ways to ensure people 'balance' work and home life. We've just refreshed our parental leave policy, just like we did in the our UK office last year, extending fully paid leave for primary care-givers and enabling secondary care givers to take a full four weeks of paid leave when their new baby arrives. It was fantastic to see Dan Lake, VP & Head of New Business leading by example and taking a full 4 weeks off with his new son in January this year.

A new set of guidelines won't be a silver bullet. We know we'll need to keep working at creating the right flexible culture that's right for us. This will require role-modelling, leadership and continuing to build trust and permission for people to integrate the messiness of work, home and life... but we believe it's a small but significant step in the right direction.

It's only been a month since we shared the new guidelines, so we'll see how things go and keep listening... I'll report back as things develop. If anyone has any tips or experiences you're happy to share around what you've done to get the balance right where you work, I'd love to hear them.

A huge thank you to Mariko and the People & Operations Team for all the work that has gone into this, always 'opening up and listening' and pushing for change when it's needed :)