Work is something you do, rather than a building you do it in

Firstly, an apology. If you work in a shop, restaurant, factory, drive a bus etc, then this article doesn’t directly relate to you, because your job means you have no choice over where you work. That said, you may be interested in it anyway, especially if you are looking for a different type of role in a different business sector.

Secondly, in reading this, please be aware that I have no inherent bias when it comes to different types of working arrangements. In fact, I will share my own approach later in this article. There is no right or wrong “one size fits all” approach or answer. Ultimately for any business it depends on its strategy, priorities, services, customers, employees, culture, behaviour and, of course, leadership, all of which vary from business to business. What I am sharing here is a different and less traditional way of looking at this subject, which does play to my personal preferences of considering the “what if” rather than the “why not”

I have noticed several articles recently communicating opposing positions on the benefits of hybrid working versus home/remote working and vice versa. Much of this has been based on survey based research of the views and opinions of different audiences, but unsupported by any hard data or evidence to reinforce the position being taken. One article even suggested that some organisations are looking to reduce costs and were demanding a complete return to the office in the hope that some employees would leave voluntarily, so they did not incur paying redundancy costs.

I want to start by looking back to four and a half years ago. The Covid19 pandemic affected all our lives some way (but not the same way) from physical and mental health and self-isolation, to caring for others, educating children and, of course, working. People who had never worked from home, suddenly had to, including some who had never previously been allowed to by their employer. Some struggled, but many thrived. We saw evidence of many employers and their workforces coming together in ways they hadn’t done previously to keep their businesses operating as close to as normal as was possible at the most difficult of times

Although this was a good thing, for me there was an element of sadness that it took a pandemic to create the ultimate experiment to prove that work is something you do, rather than a building you do it in. Many people proved that they could be as, if not more, effective and productive working from home and they could be trusted to do so. There was a sense that businesses that had traditionally taken a very parent v child approach to managing their workforces were now having to operate in a much more adult to adult way.

Four years on, we have seen the growing call encouraging people back into the workplace or mandating them to do so where encouragement has failed. Some of the parent v child culture and behaviours have crept back into the employer v employee relationship. In addition, the term “hybrid working” has replaced “flexible working” because the flexibility has extended to employees spending some, most, or all their time working remotely (usually, but not necessarily, from home), rather than in their employer's workplace(s).?

Where this change is natural, consultative, voluntary and driven by a clear operational, customer, commercial and business need, balanced with the preferences of the employee, then then it is absolutely understandable and appropriate. However, where it is driven purely by the personal working preferences and behaviours of leadership for visible presenteeism in the workplace, does this create the risk of going back in time to the pre pandemic days?

Fast moving technological advancements, combined with significant societal, demographic, cultural and commercial change in the way people interact, socialise, spend their leisure time and work, reinforces that what employees are looking for from employment, their job and their employer (including how, when and where they work) is changing at pace. If your employment proposition isn’t keeping pace with this, you risk being less relevant, or even left behind. Therefore, trying to go back to the pre pandemic working practices of over four years ago seems like a backwards step.

I am a big fan of at least considering and challenging alternatives to conventional thinking when it comes to employment. Therefore, I was struck this week by a job advert from the “Adaptavist Group” for a “Head of People Experience” role. The advert said “We make change happen. From anywhere. Our flexible, remote-first way of working means that work can fit around your life, rather than your life fitting around work”. This was quite a refreshingly different approach, that I want to “kick the tyres” on.?

This means changing the usual conventional thinking that job must be delivered from an employer’s place of work, or via a hybrid working arrangement determined by the employer, to one where the employee has choice which could be to work from home or somewhere else 100% of the time. So, let’s examine the opportunities and benefits of this for both the employer and the employee.

Employers say they want to employ the best and brightest talent. The Adaptavist Group’s flexible approach gives them access to the widest possible talent pool by being location agnostic. Hybrid and office working only really gives business access to a talent pool that is within a reasonable commuting distance of its workplace locations. What if these are concentrated only in certain parts of a country, where the right workforce is in short supply? This approach also applies to talent retention as much as it does to talent attraction. As employees move through different life stages, their situations and circumstances may need which means that their working preferences may change. If a business chooses not to respond to this it risks losing high quality talent to a competitor who will offer that flexibility they want and need.

Continuing the talent pool theme, the UK has a productivity challenge which has existed for several years and a lack of skilled resource to improve this. Yet there is an untapped talent pool of potential workers that could be productively employed, but who could only do so by working from home.

This talent pool includes a large population of people with disabilities, or long term health conditions. The Government wants to try and get these people who can, and want to work into work, rather than being purely on benefits. The problem is those unable to commute to a place of work, but who could work highly effectively from home. Another talent pool is people with caring responsibilities and stay at home parents, who could find respite and fulfilment by being able to work rather than feeling penalised for trying to do both.

Despite having this untapped potential, at the end of last year, mental health charity Mind reported the results of research carried out with 2,000 recruiters across England and Wales. 84% of them reported a reduction in home based roles since the end of the pandemic.

Home working eliminates the cost and time of commuting which can both be significant, especially during the cost of living crisis and for people in low paid or part-time roles, where these costs are a significant proportion of their take home pay. The employer also benefits by reducing its carbon footprint and from employees spending time working rather than sitting in traffic jams or on delayed trains. It can also benefit through savings in building costs.

The other obvious benefit for employees is a better work life balance and more flexible choice on when and how to work by being able to blend a mix of home and work activities, rather than having to work set hours. This builds high levels of employee engagement and advocacy, which in turn improves employee performance, productivity and retention.

So, let’s provide some balance because while there are obvious benefits from home/remote working, it isn’t right for every role and employee. The first and most important consideration is role and not the individual. What are the key components, objectives, relationships and deliverables associated with the role and how and where can these be most successfully delivered from in terms of the highest levels of collaboration, innovation, engagement, performance and value creation that also delivers the highest levels sustainable business growth and success now and in the longer term.

Leaders really need to challenge themselves on being able to evidence this and successfully deal with any counter challenge from employees. If they can’t (or don’t) do this, then they lay themselves open to claims that they are putting their own personal preferences ahead of actual business need.

?Just because a role can be delivered 100% from home or remotely, doesn’t mean that it must be, or even should be. This is where the employee needs to really consider what working arrangement is appropriate and practical for them to perform at their very best and create the most value from what they do.

?Do they have enough self-discipline and motivation not to get unnecessarily diverted or disrupted by the distractions and seductions that exist at home? Do they have the right physical set up and equipment to work from home in a productive, healthy and safe way (e.g. separate room that is well lit and ventilated, appropriate chair, desk and space, high speed Internet connection etc). It is also true that some people have a preference and work more effectively from home, others from an office environment and others with a hybrid mix of the two. Some people want to completely separate their home life from their work life or escape a crowded and chaotic house by working from completely in an office.

?Where a hybrid approach has been mandated by an employer, does it really have to be specific/set number of days per week for everybody, regardless of their role and/or the function they work in. This arrangement creates a famine or feast approach when it comes to finding desk space and spare meeting rooms because employees tend to flock to their place of work on a Tuesday and Wednesday, with slightly fewer attending on a Thursday, and Monday and Friday being like office “ghost towns”.

?The hybrid v home working debate is also influenced not just by the preferences and actions of the individual, but also those of their team colleagues and what works best to create high levels of teamwork and performance. There will always be an element of the “give and get” for every employee and that is both desirable and healthy.

?Earlier in this article I said I would share my approach. This is based around the fact that I don’t have a preference. This is for all the reasons outlined in this article and because there is no “one size fits all” approach. My approach is based on trust and working in an adult to adult culture. In my last role, I had a team of eight people, geographically spread across the UK in London (just me), Hertfordshire, the Midlands, Shropshire and Edinburgh. I didn’t mandate a single thing about how, when and where they worked. I trusted them as adults and professionals to work in a way that maximised their performance, value contribution, collaboration and business stakeholder engagement, delivery and satisfaction. If I couldn’t trust them to do this, then it would have been apparent from the feedback I was getting from their teammates, other colleagues across the HR function and their senior functional and business stakeholders. That would have prompted a conversation and a different approach, but that never happened.

?As a People Analytics & Insight professional, it would be remiss of me not to reinforce the importance of using data, evidence and insight informed decision making about which working arrangements work best for different roles and segmented groups of employees and whether differences in performance and productivity are really about the working arrangements they have, or other elements of your employment proposition. For example, newer younger employees are likely to want to spend more time working in the office, getting face time to gain knowledge, skills and experience as well as from a social interactive experience perspective both inside and outside of work.

?Capturing details of employees’ working arrangements in your HRIS is incredibly valuable in helping you to understand what works well, where and why and vice versa. It should help you to provide data and evidence informed insight about whether your flexible and hybrid working strategy, policy and practices enhance, or inhibit, your ability to attract and retain the best and brightest employees from the widest and most diverse talent pools, working collaboratively, inclusively and innovatively to deliver sustainable business success both now and in the future. It will also inform, prioritise and enhance your future approach to flexible and hybrid working in the fast changing world we live and work in.

?Every business has to make choices about its employment proposition and needs to data and evidence informed insight to consider the benefits, costs and risks when making these choices.