July 2024
Welcome to your latest issue of HR Gamechangers, spotlighting creative people managers, sharing knowledge and providing updates on the fast-moving world of flex. In this issue, we have interviewed the inspirational Nicky Elford from Lloyds Banking Group , who has championed flexible working for over a decade and proven that it creates value for business.
We are just a couple of weeks into a new government and we heard the announcement this week of the new Employment Bill, which will include tackling exploitative zero hours contracts and improving employment rights, including flexibility as a default right. We welcome the focus on greater employee rights and have high hopes for more experimentation around job design innovation.
Speaking of which, our long-awaited Flexible Working for All research has launched! Timewise has long trialled different ways of working, in sectors of site-based, shift-based workforces. But what we hadn't known was the scope of the impact on health and wellbeing. We joined forces with the Institute for Employment Studies to investigate this, backed by Impact on Urban Health . Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust , Sir Robert McAlpine & Wickes , employers with large frontline and site-based workforces, stepped forward to co-design new models of working and let us track the effects of these on employees in the context of health, wellbeing, work-life balance and job satisfaction. And the findings are striking: input into your own working pattern improves health - and there are clear benefits for employers too.
We’ve recently partnered with the 4 Day Week Campaign to spearhead a second big UK pilot in the autumn. This pilot goes further and will include organisations that would like to experiment with other forms of flexibility including flexible start and finish times, a nine-day fortnight or a shorter working week - that’s where we come in. Find out more.
Have you listened to our Part-time Works podcast ? We’ve worked with Phoenix Insights to explore, understand and celebrate good part-time working. Each episode features an honest conversation between two to three part-time workers, sharing what is key to making it work for them, as well as tips and advice on how others can make this work too. These candid stories also showcase why it’s so important for clear communication between employers and employees, and for part-time jobs to be well designed for better futures.
A huge thank you to those who have nominated themselves or colleagues to be featured in our future newsletters – please join the movement and nominate anyone you think we should be speaking to .
SPOTLIGHT ON
Nicky Elford , Head of Colleague Propositions and Policies, Lloyds Banking Group
Nicky worked with Fiona Cannon OBE to launch the Agile Future Forum in 2014 – which changed the way business looks at flexible working.
And she has had very personal drivers for needing flexible working in her own life. Nicky is an expert in finding the balance between what works for colleagues and what works for customers.
She sits in the Culture and Leadership team in Lloyds Banking Group and says: “Ultimately, I am just really committed to helping people do their best work.”
The workforce at Lloyds Banking Group
We have 66,000 colleagues in the organisation - for me it’s an absolute privilege but also a responsibility to ensure we get the experience of working here right. The 66,000 are a diverse multigenerational group of people at lots of different life stages, levels and starting points from a social and economic perspectives.
They work in a wide diversity of roles, from cashiers and mortgage advisors, directly serving our customers to new product developers and coders thinking about the future - we even have a head of nature!
When I think about attracting and retaining the best talent, and enabling people to work in ways that work best for their lives, there is a lot to consider.
23 per cent of our workforce work on a reduced hours basis. I don’t actually like the term ‘part-time’ – I think it implies you are only putting in part of the effort which definitely isn’t the case. We have advertised our roles as open to reduced working options for many years and are keen to think more about career progression for reduced hours colleagues.
We have five generations in our workforce, employing people who are 16, 17 years old and coming straight from school, through to over 60s. We have active apprenticeship and returners programmes and a third of our colleagues are over 50. And all of these generations tell us that work life balance is really important.
We have to consider our colleagues’ needs, their wider team’s needs and always our ever-changing customer needs. All of our expectations have changed following Covid and it is important that our employee products and ways of working meet our colleagues expectations today.
I have found - when you give flex, your colleagues are flexible in return with you.
We are also always mindful of our 27 million customers. We think of them every time we create an employee proposition. We have to think about creating value for customers just as we think about creating value for colleagues. It is a balance.
Flexibility for good, for everyone
It is so important to respond quickly to a flexible working request – that is all that matters to that colleague in that moment. But using ‘design thinking’ to build flexibility and agility into the way a workforce is attracted, managed and the way that it works is a business imperative, I think. Or you cannot adapt and stay sustainable and competitive. It helps colleagues, and it helps your customers.
Ensuring progression for everyone
Regardless of where, when and how you work, it’s so important. I’m really proud that we now offer ALL roles, regardless of grade, to job sharers. Some of our senior people in the business share a role and make a real success of it. When you talk to the managers of these people they say ‘I get two brains, extra skills and sickness cover and holiday cover – it’s a win-win.’ We are really committed to enabling progressive careers in an inclusive manner.
Introducing staged retirement
Some colleagues told us – you work 5 days for years and years and then... nothing. It can feel like a bit of a cliff edge. We are now able to really phase retirement, allowing older workers to transfer their knowledge and skills and create a real legacy. Some colleagues transition to retirement, others pivot to a completely new career - we are finding equal numbers of men and women are interested in this proposition.
Flexible Summer
Our office attendance policy for our 37,000 office colleagues is for them to come into the office 40 per cent of their week, so 2 days for full time colleagues. However, in July and August we flex the need for coming in. You can work from anywhere in the UK for up to 6 weeks and do your work from wherever you need to be. Some choose to work from an office near the grandparents, others prefer to work from home more during that period so they can make the most of the summer and lighter evenings.
Challenges
My constant challenge is - how can I create new employee products that will be great for our colleagues but will also enable the business to move faster and deliver what our customers need. It’s not about creating a ‘bolt on extra’. The biggest part of my job is talking to people and understanding what they need and getting closer to the different businesses across the Group so I understand their priorities, it is important to get this fine balance just right.
Site-based flex
Sometimes, you cannot flex ‘where’ someone works. Eg if they are a cashier in one of our branches or provide security for a technology centre. But we can offer flex on ‘when you work’. It is important to look at different colleague segments and, based on their role, be transparent about when we can and can’t offer flexibility. It’s something we continue to research and we iterate to try to get it right. It’s about really listening to what’s important to people, we cannot assume what worked for customers and colleagues for the last 12 months will work for the next 12 months as things are changing all the time.
What I’m most proud of
My contribution to the set up of the Agile Future Forum a long time ago, with the initial drive to attract more women to the workforce and add more value to the economy. We had CEOs and Chairs of large and small organisations onboard, across all sectors, we were like a microcosm of UK plc. We built a business case and methodology so businesses could quantify the value of different types of flexibility. This was a gamechanger. The national conversation became about businesses increasing productivity and attracting talent through flexibility. It was no longer seen as just an employee perk or a burden. It gave a new view – of flexibility creating value for business.
Personal Flex
I have three children, aged 7, 8 and 13. We live in Devon. I rely on the flexibility the organisation provides me with; hybrid working and everyday flexibility help me get the balance right. I came back to work on a reduced hour basis following my first maternity leave. I worked 2-3 days a week and then struggled to get pregnant a second time. We went through several rounds of IVF but decided that the adoption route was the right option for us, finally adopting a wonderful little girl. At this point I decided working for a large corporate organisation just wasn’t what I wanted to do. I wanted to invest my time in this beautiful little girl who had global development delay issues and challenges. She just needed me to be her everything. So, I left Lloyds for a little while, set up my own business and did some work for a charity. We then adopted again unexpectedly – the opportunity for my daughter’s full sibling to join the family came about.
Then Covid hit – and for my partner and I to both be self-employed didn’t feel very sensible. After 6 or 7 years away, I started working on a reduced hours basis for Lloyds Banking Group again. I was then invited to join on a full-time basis, with lots of flexibility built in. Lloyds has actually given me lots of flex for different reasons, at different times. I have worked in a compressed fashion for a short time to finish an MBA. I have worked in a shift pattern while managing a contact centre. For me good flexibility is having an employer that is there for the moments that matter, and those moments vary for everyone, in different ways.
Top tips for other Gamechangers
Should we spend less time at work?
Timewise CEO Claire Campbell joined Sean Fletcher, Geeta Sidhu-Robb, Sunil Sharma and Charlie Mullins on BBC’s Sunday Morning Live show to discuss
Claire championed a considered and evidence-led approach to different ways of considering flexible working practices. There were some opposing opinions that made for a lively segment. Watch now
Interesting reads
Heads up
22 July 2024: 4 Day Week Campaign explores the results of South Cambridgeshire District Council’s one year long trial
17-18 September 2024: Gartner’s Reimagine HR Conference provides networking and access to experts for HR leaders
17 October 2024: MAD World Summit , a festival of workplace culture, health and wellbeing
End October 2024: A final call to join King’s College London’s study into how flexible job design can help those with long-term health conditions
13-14 November 2024: The Future of Work Europe event offers expert presentations, interactive panels and networking
20-21 November 2024: Formerly Flexpo, The Inclusive Workplace Conference offers two days of case studies, inspiration and thought leadership
Over to you
We welcome your feedback and thoughts on this newsletter - is there anything you would particularly like to see in the next newsletter? Let us know!
With best wishes,
The Timewise Team
e. [email protected] | t. 020 7633 4444