INSIGHT: SUSTAINABLE REMOTE WORKING
ADAPTING to a hybrid model
W
ithin the business and HR sector, working from home and flexible working has been a huge talking point throughout recent months. A number of businesses have had to quickly adapt to remote working, however, what is the future of working remotely? And is it sustainable for businesses to continue to offer to work from home? Here, Alex Arundale, Chief People Officer at Advanced, a leading software company, can safely say that remote working is a policy that has been working very successfully for her organisation. Some of Advanced’s employees were successfully working remotely before the pandemic, and with the proven effectiveness of home working over the last 15 months, it makes complete sense to continue to offer a hybrid model. It is not a one-size-fits-all solution – some employees will want to work remotely almost all of the time and others will use our offices on a more regular basis.
Top Tips on how to make remote working sustainable: • Measure productivity: We measure productivity in terms of work quality and meeting goals, so it’s far more important that our employees produce excellent output than are seen to be busy in the office all day. Our modern, flexible approach supports productivity along with the work/life balance our employees want, for the well-being they need
• Communication is key: The key is to communicate with your people and ask what it is they would like. Some have an ideal working space at home; others don’t. Some thrive off the energy of the office; others are most productive in their own quiet space. We believe that being adaptable is sustainable in the long term and offering employee-focused working patterns will help us continue to attract and retain the best talent for our business success. Effective communication ensures that line managers and employees are aligned with regard to expectations • Invest in suitable software: Remote working does not mean letting people get on with it alone. Cloud-based software solutions and video conferencing helps to engage teams and promote a creative exchange of ideas. Also have a range of ‘self-service’ HR solutions including portal-access and chatbots to reduce the admin burden around things like booking holidays, sick-pay and company policies. This will free HR teams to focus on strategy, training, employee support and delivering workplace safe-guarding solutions • Build trust with your employees: It is our responsibility [as managers] to build trust with employees, wherever they are working, and respond to our duty of care to their mental and physical well-being With flexible working, people may decide to pop into the office occasionally, perhaps for meetings or group projects. To ensure this goes smoothly, those who choose to use the office can access a range of tools to help them do this safely, and social distancing, helpful signage and PPE are, of course, all in place. We use a desk-booking app that allows people to choose who will be sitting next to them – helpful when teams need to be in proximity. We are reconfiguring our working spaces to maximise collaboration and team working when people choose to be in the office.
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