Why one employer is keeping their agile working plans in place post Freedom Day

“When lockdown hit it felt like we were starting the business from scratch.”

The Hewitt & Carr Group (www.hewittandcarr.co.uk) is based in Cheadle, Staffordshire. They employ 15 specialists who offer services including building design, renovating, and refurbishing neglected buildings for businesses and town planning and project management.

When lockdown hit in March 2020, and uncertainty on whether the construction sector could operate given the restrictions in place, their phone simply stopped ringing almost overnight.

How could they operate?

Company director and architect, Natalie Hewitt, admits pre-lockdown the business had a strong professional ethic of bringing everyone together in the office to collaborate on projects and keep up to speed with updates which could impact their work.

No one in the team had a laptop, and as a company, they were reluctant to agree to requests to work from home.

“When we set up Hewitt & Carr we always wanted it to be a little bit out of the box, but we still wanted people in the office, not watching television at home or walking the dog, which meant they weren’t going to have the focus we wanted.

Initially, when lockdown first began, we asked everyone to bring in their own laptops and we set them up for working from home. A week later everyone had to furlough as the phones simply stopped ringing. Mark and I worked silly hours and the rules surrounding construction work were a grey area.

I knew it was going to be hard, and it felt like we were starting the business from scratch. We couldn’t bring people back into a business where we’re selling time without having work lined up for them to do, and our office space didn’t allow for social distancing measures. How could we do it?"

Lockdown planning for the future

Lockdown gave the company an opportunity to think and plan for the future. To question how they operated, what roles were needed – or not – and to revisit why they were running things as they were.

“We took on additional office space and moved one of the business services into that, splitting the team into two with me leading one team and Mark Carr the other. This allowed us to control who was in the office on what days and to achieve social distancing.

It was during that process that we began thinking ‘how could we improve things and how could we future-proof the business?'

That’s when we began to formulate an agile working process and I picked up the phone to Karen Coleman to put my mind at rest that what we were thinking of was reasonable and feasible.”

The company decided on a rota which meant each member of staff had to work 5 days in a fortnight in the office, and 5 days in a fortnight from home. Each team had a set day to be in the office and alternated to work one Friday/Monday in the office and one Monday/Friday out.

Agile working is here to stay

Company staff loved the new working pattern because it meant one Friday in a fortnight, they are at home at 4pm, not commuting. Between lockdown one and two last year the company issued everyone with a laptop and a company mobile phone, so when they are working away from the office it is as though they’re at their desk.

Hewitt & Carr will continue to offer work flexibility moving forward but are clear this time out of the office is to support project work where focussed time is needed without distraction for staff to work to the best of their ability. One day each month the whole team is expected to come together for their staff meeting and to collaborate.

Sanitisation stations remain in place at their office, while the decision to wear a mask in the office moving forward is left to the discretion of each individual member of staff. When staff are on site, risk assessments, operating procedures, and mask-wearing remain the same.

How Karen Coleman of Excello Law has helped Hewitt & Carr

Natalie says: “Everything I come up with I run past Karen. She helps to ensure any process we need to implement is legal and puts my mind at rest as an employer that I am not doing anything out of line.

Karen always remains calm, down to earth, and professional. Over the last 12 months, we have needed her more than ever for HR support because in addition to agile working we’ve also needed to manage redundancy and a case of gross misconduct.

We know we can always pick up the phone to Karen and she gives us peace of mind. She’s fantastic, and we have never felt the need to go anywhere else for HR advice.

We have now created an agile working document which any new starters will read and sign and going forward it’s something we will probably look to include within our contracts of employment.”

Are you an employer currently considering what working practices you want to change, review, or bring into your business post lockdown? Message me, and let’s begin a conversation about your HR needs.