Fresh Perspectives for a New Age

In recent history change has been driven by agricultural, industrial and technological change. All heralded momentous changes to the nature of work and they also redefined how, when and where we worked.

The coronavirus pandemic has shown us that it is possible for successful careers to co-exist with a fulfilling life where we make time for family and friends. It crashed painfully into all our lives and caused us to pause, to step back and think about the things that really matter. Family life, flexibility and communities coming together to look after each other has kept our society and our economy functioning even in the worst of times.

Now we have a once in a generation opportunity to rethink what we value and to put it into practical everyday use. Since March, thousands of employers have acted with great clarity and courage and trusted their people. Overnight they’ve scaled up flexible working practices and rolled it out without formality, forms or the familiar business case. Employees have responded balancing work with the complexity of social distancing and all that entails. It’s not been without its struggles and there is no doubt that it has revealed the gaps and systemic inequalities in our society. As we slowly emerge from the pandemic we have an opportunity to supercharge progress and design a more equitable future for everyone.

In a recent survey only 13% of parents said they wanted to return to the old way of working. In a world where major companies are, at last, following the trailblazers of the 1990s recognising that the traditional commute to an expensive city centre office is an expensive obsolescence for working people and the planet we have an opportunity to drive flexibility for everyone. Remove the daily grind of the commute and we open up job opportunities to a large swathe of the population for whom the journey is inaccessible, too expensive or time consuming. It allows parents to take their children to school and creates opportunities for disabled people and those living in rural communities to access a much broader range of careers. We enable people to look after elderly parents, disabled relatives and friends, care for their pets with the mental boost all this creates. It has the added bonus of helping to fix the climate crisis by not having office lights on all day or clogging up our roads with harmful emissions.

This is an opportunity to move to a more flexible norm that means that the majority of people will have an element of autonomy in their working lives.

We only have to look at our Nordic friends in Finland who hold the crown for the world’s happiest country to see what difference autonomy and trust make.

We won’t all work from home all of the time. The rapid adoption of digital technology allows us to work where we need to. Mixing the office with different forms of remote working such as at home and in client’s premises or local hubs.

In the new world we need to focus on getting the right solution for employers and employees alike. Striking the right balance across all areas of our lives make us happier, healthier and more productive people. The great news for employers is that happier people are also more likely to thrive at work because they are engaged and engaged employees tend to outperform their counterparts.  That’s good for people, business and the economy.

We need to understand people as individuals and adapt the flexibility they need to the changing requirements of work and life so that these twin forces remain in harmony through life’s inevitable challenges. This will give everyone the right to invest in themselves, be there for their loved ones and to have the choice of a career.

Greater choice creates greater inclusion. Flexibility unlocks professional opportunities for women who juggle work and caring responsibilities. If it’s the norm for every role at every level we may even see the stubbornly high gender, race and disability pay gaps tumble. And, if women get access to work, men will be more likely to take on caring responsibilities and use Paternity and Shared Parental Leave because it’s the new norm. We can end the cultural stigma that mean these polices exist only on paper and not where they belong at the heart of family life. We can make sharing work and home a genuinely affordable choice for parents.

The pandemic opened our eyes to the possibilities now we must reach in and grab them with both hands. We can and must build a better, stronger fairer society that is based on redefined, modern work practices that eliminate inequality and promote inclusion. We can rebuild our economy based on these foundations, grow employment in new industries that protect our planet and provide purpose and opportunity for everyone.

Britain has a proud history of leading change on a global level; rebuilding a fairer, kinder and more inclusive economy would be a legacy worthy of us all.