Smart working: because you are worth it!

A few days ago, Sofia (*) shared with me that her mother had just been diagnosed with cancer and it is so advanced that doctors have no hope whatsoever. Terrible news. Sofia wanted to be with her and take care of her. The point is that her mother lives in Puglia, about 1,000 km away from her who works in Milan. So Sofia started planning exhausting trips over week ends in order to try to combine life and work. The dramatic situation of her mother was certainly worth many sacrifices.

On my side, I thought about helping her and easing the situation as much as I could. Giving her a break would be of no help at all. The situation though dramatic and hopeless as it seemed may be lasting for weeks and months so Sofia needed a longer term solution. I wanted to find a solution.

One may ask why? Is she that brilliant that I should be flexible? Is that because I cannot afford to let her go even for a break? Is it because she is a ‘she’? Or even more cynical, is the condition of her mother serious enough for me to feel guilty not to help? These questions would probably come to the mind of outdated leaders. The answer is much more simple. Because talents at Mazars are worth it. And she is a talent.

Talents do want flexibility. They constantly ask and claim for it. Be it for gender diversity, for work life balance, because they are Gen Y, because they have kids, they play sport, because they are more efficient, more creative, etc. Just open any talent survey and the result will be crystal clear.

So I started looking around our brand new Mazars office in Milan. Collaborative, open, disruptive, with lounges and playrooms, all cloud based, no assigned seating, etc. In other words, smart! The solution was right in front of me, of Sofia and yet we had difficulty seeing it. Mazars had just opened a new branch in Puglia and we did not notice it!

Why go for smart working? The answer is simple. Because talents at Mazars are worth it.

Our brand new telephone system enables Sofia to get her office landline calls directly on her mobile. Thanks to our cloud system, Sofia can access and share our resources, documents and solutions from all around the Globe even from Puglia. Our VC cloud interface will enable us to communicate face to face as often as necessary and do online collaborative meetings. Can Sofia work efficiently from Puglia? The answer is clearly yes! So ultimately, did we do anything special for Sofia? Will there be anything setup ‘just’ for her? No. Will that cost anything extra to the firm? No. Done deal! Sofia will be working part time from Puglia. The other part she will be on the move like any consultant, dropping by the office in Milan as and when necessary to meet the rest of the team. And you know what? It was so unexpected for Sofia that she had difficulties to admit it could be possible.

Will it be easy to operate this way? I guess that as for any change, we need to adapt, be focus and pay a bit attention before it becomes a habit. Are talents worth it? Definitely. Will it change our business mindset? Definitely. Indeed, data shows that work-life balance and the flexibility that goes with it are the biggest drivers to gender diversity in our organization. Smart working is clearly a key tool to unlock the potential of female talents in our organizations as well as modern male talents who look forward to enjoying flexibility. Know all men: I am definitely modern! My parents live in Brittany by the way.

(*) Sofia is not her real name.