Increased focus on remote and hybrid working risks overshadowing the flexibility that many people need: part-time.
By Melissa Jamieson, CEO, Timewise
The pandemic-driven focus on flexible and hybrid working is undoubtedly a good thing. Perceived barriers to the concept of flexibility have come crashing down in many organisations; evidence from the CIPD suggests that productivity and wellbeing have improved in many cases. And while we mustn’t ignore the huge challenges created by lockdown, particularly for those juggling family life and work, the overall sense is that many workplaces are undergoing serious transformation.
Indeed, there is no shortage of examples of organisations announcing big changes, from law firm A&O’s news that 40% of their work will be done remotely post-pandemic, to PwC’s ‘Deal’, which includes the freedom for employees to adapt their start and finish times or other parts of their working pattern. Nationwide, BP, Aviva, Vodafone… the list goes on.
But so far, within all the news about post-pandemic changes, there has been little, if anything, about part-time. So while organisations are widening their employees’ ability to work where and when they choose, they are not offering the same opportunities regarding the third pillar of flexible working: how much people work.
The immediate question, of course, is does this matter? If hybrid working is popular with employees, and employers are gearing up to deliver it, do we need to worry about part-time?
In fact, it’s a real issue, with a range of consequences:
Left unchecked, then, this lack of focus on part-time roles will have an impact on workplace issues such as diversity and the gender pay gap, as well as societal ones including in-work poverty and social inequality.
But we’re not suggesting that hybrid working should be put on the back burner; we’re all for it, and are helping many organisations get it right. We’re simply saying that part-time is an equally valid arrangement, which should be included in any re-evaluation of the workplace. In the wake of the pandemic, in which the groups that traditionally need part-time the most have been the hardest hit, considering the future of work at a strategic level within your business is more important than ever.
So, for companies who recognise the importance of including or increasing part-time opportunities alongside full-time flex, what are the next steps? Here are some starting points for leaders and HR teams:
We’re facing a fantastic opportunity here to rework the way we recruit and employ people, for the better. But let’s make sure that this transformation is future-proof and inclusive, by putting part-time front and centre.
Published April 2021
If there is one topic that is occupying the headspace of business leaders and their HR teams more than any other right now, it’s hybrid working. Most companies are grappling with how they will transition out of the pandemic, seeking to build on what has worked well and overcome the issues they have encountered.
And while there seems to be a general agreement that hybrid working IS the way forward for most corporate companies, and that it will create a huge number of opportunities for companies and their employees, implementation feels complex. As one of our clients has noted, in some ways having everyone working from home is easier to manage; it’s developing the next step, and making it stick, which will be a real challenge.
With this in mind, I recently co-hosted a roundtable for Timewise Partners, in which we explored the topic, supported by two of our longstanding corporate partners, who shared their hybrid working advice and insights with us. Here, in Part 1 of the highlights, we look at their approach to creating the principles on which to build a successful model.
Our speakers began by noting that while the change we are going through is unprecedented in modern times, many haven’t grasped just how fundamentally it is altering workplace norms. They also spoke of the need for organisations to agree principles for development before looking into implementation.
All agreed on the importance of allowing all members of the organisation to have input into any changes, asking what they have missed during lockdown, and what they want to build into any new ways of working. One cited a survey of 23,000 UK staff which has pointed towards a model of 2-3 days in the main office per week, with the remainder spread across client sites, at home or remotely.
Among the principles discussed were:
Our speakers then explored the best way to develop a model which is in line what teams need to succeed on a day-to-day basis.
One of our partners explained their pre-pandemic approach, which was based on employees having autonomy around how, where and when they worked. Their view was that hybrid working is an extension of this autonomy, but that teams need support and leadership to help them develop an inclusive environment in which they can continue to collaborate.
The speakers then discussed whether it is better to have a company-wide vision for hybrid working, which teams are expected to work to, or to empower individual teams to find their best way forward. Their insights included:
Take a look at Part 2 of the highlights from this session, which will focus on how to equip your employees to succeed within a hybrid model, and to ensure that it is fair and inclusive.
In the meantime, if you need more hybrid working advice, take a look at our hybrid working workshops, or get in touch to find out more about our bespoke consultancy services.
Published April 2021
In a normal year, the deadline for most organisations to submit their gender pay gap reporting is the 4th April. But as this year has been anything but normal, the deadline has been extended to 5th October. And while some may argue a delay was warranted, it’s also ironic – because the pandemic has amplified the issues behind the gender pay gap, and made this information more critical than ever.
All the evidence suggests that the pandemic is turning back the clock on workplace equality, in a variety of ways. In the first lockdown, IFS research showed that mothers were 47% more likely to have lost their job or quit, and 14% more likely to be furloughed, than fathers; they also bore the brunt of home-schooling and spent two hours a day more on childcare. More recently, a report by the Fawcett Society noted that 1 in 3 working mothers have lost work or hours due to childcare during the pandemic, and that 43% of working women are worried about their job or prospects for promotion post-Covid.
Additionally, women are more likely to work in low-paid roles, and in sectors in which part-time jobs are more widely available, such as hospitality and retail. And these are the very sectors that have been decimated by the pandemic; by the end of 2020, for example, the hospitality sector had lost around 660,000 jobs.
So as we seek to build back better, we need to make sure that women, who have been so badly affected by the pandemic, are included in the recovery. And working to close the gender pay gap will be an important part of that process.
At its heart, the gender pay gap is really a gender progression gap. And, as we’ve noted previously, three of the four reasons behind the gap can be tackled by flexible working:
One positive outcome of the pandemic has been that fathers have been more hands-on; the Resolution Foundation have noted the possibility that “a permanent shift towards more flexible working will remove some of the norms whereby mothers are more likely to work part-time than their male partners.” Ensuring that part-time and flexible roles are well-paid, but critically also with progression opportunities, will help.
It’s also important to remember that when we talk about flexible working, we don’t just mean the remote arrangements that have been the focus of the last year. To really help women progress, we need more, better part-time roles, at all levels, advertised with their flexibility up front. Currently only 22% of jobs are advertised as flexible, and a miniscule 8% are specifically advertised as part time; clearly, there is much to be done in this area.
So although the delay means we won’t have access to up-to-date gender pay gap data as soon as we would like, it does also mean that organisations have six extra months to take stock of their post-pandemic position – and, most importantly, take action.
If you are keen to stop the rollback of women’s workplace equality, and make a dent in your gender pay gap, you need to take a positive, proactive approach to flexible working, in line with the points noted above. And we can help.
We have a track record of helping clients improve gender equality, and are frequently cited in gender pay gap action plans. Our Flex Positive Programme has been specifically designed to help organisations become future fit, by developing a sustainable flexible working strategy for the post-Covid workplace. It takes around six months to complete; to find out more, do get in touch.
Published March 2021
By Melissa Buntine, Principal Consultant
2020 really was a remarkable year, which saw more change in the context of how work is done than the last few decades. More people worked from home than ever before, with many long-held objections disappearing overnight as organisations were forced to adapt to a remote working model.
And while no one would suggest that the circumstances were ideal – an emergency response to a global crisis is not the best way to implement new working practices – there is no question that it has caused a rethink in how people work. In particular, it has created and accelerated a move towards a hybrid model. We’re facing an opportunity to create an exciting new way of working – but we need to get it right.
I recently co-hosted a session for a group of local authorities, in which we explored the risks and opportunities around hybrid working, and heard insights from three Timewise Accredited Partners about how they are approaching it. Here are the highlights.
Our attendees noted a number of benefits that hybrid working can bring, when implemented carefully:
However, as the pandemic showed, there are some potential issues that local authorities need to avoid when designing and delivering hybrid working:
Our speakers also explored some of the issues in more detail, suggesting solutions based on their own experience:
‘’There is flex in every role and it is about control and input. You may not be able to offer everyone home working, but you can still offer additional support.’’
‘’We are designing and delivering a new way of working that is not based on HR coming up with what is best, but on a future designed by staff for staff.’’
‘’Encourage great managers to codify what they do well and pass it across in peer to peer learning.”
‘’Transitioning back to where we were before is a wasted opportunity.’’
To finish, here are some final words of advice from our Partners for other local authorities:
“Experiment. Get senior managers on board, then involve people in testing and trying things out, rather than just implementing top-down change without collaboration.”
“Remember to mentor key groups (such as BAME employees or those with health conditions) to support inclusivity, and to understand and close any gaps in provision or experience.”
“Enable consistency by providing extra support to teams which are less adept at flexible working.”
If you would like to know more about becoming a Timewise Partner, please contact melissa.buntine@timewise.co.uk.
Published May 2021
By Melissa Jamieson, CEO, Timewise
No one would argue that 2020 was a straightforward example of flexible working in action; it was more like a global experiment in how to cope when work and home collide. But nonetheless, the pandemic-led exploration of flexible and hybrid arrangements has overcome some of the perceived barriers, highlighted some of the positives, and taught a few lessons, leaving employers and employees with a better understanding of what’s possible.
As a result, any organisation which prioritises equality, diversity and inclusion, work-life balance, employer brand and talent retention and recruitment, will be seeking to ensure that their flexible working offer is up to scratch. So far, so good. The problem comes when they then assume that it’s a people issue, which can be left to HR alone.
Flexible and hybrid working touch all parts of the business
The fact is, flexible working isn’t a plaster that can be used to fix D&I issues or close recruitment gaps, and nor is it a knee-jerk response to lockdown that will soon revert to ‘normal’. Flexible and hybrid working are here to stay, and need to be considered as part of long-term, post-Covid, organisational planning.
They feed into the people strategy, of course; but they also touch wider company issues, from real estate and management structures to company brand and the bottom line. And, most importantly, they will only thrive within a flexible culture – and that needs to be led from the top, backed by an investment in time and training that will empower teams to deliver.
So, what do leaders need to do to make sure that flexible working is properly embedded in their organisation? Here are some key considerations that need board-level attention.
There are a number of questions that business leaders need to ask themselves before getting started. What do we mean by flexible and hybrid working? What are we hoping to achieve by implementing them? How can we ensure a fair approach that matches different needs and circumstances? Are there any limits to what we can or would want to offer? Would we be willing to recruit on a flexible basis? Without top-level consensus on what the objectives are, it will be difficult to persuade anyone else.
Having agreed a set of principles at board level, it’s important to find out the view from the ground. What is the appetite for flexible working among teams, managers, individuals? What are the barriers that different groups anticipate? Leaders need to understand how their principles might be received, and make their implementation a collaborative process, rather than just imposing them company-wide.
If there are negative perceptions about flexible working floating around, ignoring them isn’t the answer; they need to be addressed with actions as well as words. To give just one example, the myth that part-time means less committed can be disproved by giving prominence to part-time role models, or making recruitment opportunities and promotions available on a part-time basis.
Successful flexible working is based on a number of behaviours and skills including:
Leaders need to identify the critical factors within their organisations, and equip their employees to develop them.
Change of this scale can feel daunting for employees, even if they stand to benefit. So, leaders need to make sure that their people understand the principles and their objectives, are clear about the role they will play in embedding them, and know where to go for extra support, or to highlight unforeseen issues. Putting in place a system of feedback and review will help make the process transparent, fair and successful.
While show, don’t tell, might sound like an oversimplification, it is true that one of the best ways to drive a flexible culture is to lead by example. During the first lockdown, leaders shared their personal experiences of juggling home and work, which made their employees feel more comfortable about their own challenges, and the reverse is also true; saying one thing and doing another will make it harder for changes to land. So, for example, if working two or three days a week from home becomes company policy, leaders should do it too.
It’s worth remembering, too, that the implications of getting this right or wrong will resonate outside the organisation. It’s becoming increasingly common, for example, for potential clients to ask for D&I credentials as part of the pitch process (and there are suggestions that it may soon be a factor in boardroom bonuses too). And with flexible working high on employee wish lists, job seekers who are in a position to choose will be asking how flexible potential employers are – and bad news travels fast.
So, if you’re in a leadership role, and this hasn’t yet come onto your agenda, or it’s being treated as just an HR issue, it’s time for a rethink. Either way, if you need help with designing and implementing successful flexible or hybrid working practices, we can help.
Published February 2021
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder, Timewise
It’s simple maths, really. If you’re an office-based organisation, and the majority of your employees are going to be spending two or three days working remotely, you probably won’t need the same amount of space going forwards as you did before the pandemic.
Certainly, an Institute of Directors survey suggests that this is likely to be the direction of travel, with more than half considering cutting back on their office space as staff move more permanently to new ways of working. However, if leaders are assuming that they’ll just stagger people’s in-office days to reduce their square footage and operational costs, and otherwise carry on as before, that’s a real wasted opportunity.
Instead, companies need to use this shift in working practices to consider three questions. Firstly, what could we gain as an organisation from radically rethinking how we use our office space? Secondly, what would be the right changes to make, for our people and our organisation? And thirdly, how should we approach the process?
At a macro level, there are a number of opportunities created by this shift in workplace use, outside of simple cost savings. One idea that’s being frequently mentioned is to move from one centralised office to more, smaller regional ones; for example, as the CEO of Coinbase puts it, “One floor of office space in 10 cities, rather than 10 floors of office space in one city.”
Decentralising in some way would allow employers to gain access to a wider talent pool, and a greater diversity of background, experience and opinion, than if they remained based in one of the big cities. And it would potentially allow people who can’t afford the high cost of living centrally to have access to more, better jobs.
From a societal perspective, given the concerns about the effect of the pandemic on high street retailers, and fears of ‘ghost towns’ developing, an increase in the number of localised offices or hubs could also help with town centre regeneration. And of course, there are both environmental and individual gains from minimising commuting, from a decrease in pollution to the impact on people’s mental and physical health.
So, what would these new-style offices be for – and what should be done elsewhere? The pandemic has highlighted the suitability of home working for certain tasks; writing a report, finessing a presentation, or tackling a complex spreadsheet can be tricky to complete in a chat-filled open plan office. And some meetings are highly effective by Zoom or Teams; chaired properly, with a carefully curated invite list, they can be more efficient than a face-to-face equivalent.
Equally, there remain some circumstances in which face-to-face is best, with the most obvious being tasks that require creativity and collaboration. However, although these require people to be in the same place, they’re not best suited to a traditional, cubicle-based layout.
So ideally, instead of simply tweaking their existing real estate for their new ways of working, leaders should start with a blank sheet, thinking about what the new office should be for, before creating spaces to match. And that means thinking about job design.
Before getting excited by floor plans and paint colours, leaders need to invest time and thought into how their employees’ roles break down, work out what can and should be done where and when, and then base any new plans on these redesigned specs. That means considering issues relating to both tasks and people, such as:
Our suggestion would be to start by focusing on tasks, and then take people’s needs into account. It’s also important to consider the wider challenges around hybrid working, to ensure that any new model is both fair and inclusive. And as a side note, it’s worth remembering that there are tax implications for hybrid workplaces in certain circumstances.
A number of companies have already spoken openly about their plans to significantly change the purpose of their workplaces. Aviva is planning to close three offices (but not withdraw from any locations, or lose headcount) and “invest in our sites to provide a more vibrant, inspiring and flexible workspace for our people”.
And Vodafone has gone on the record to say that, while they will retain a presence in London, they can also “see the power of a distributed model, with hub offices elsewhere in the country, to help drive diversity and inclusion, reaching out to undiscovered talents nationally.”
They’re right to have got started; well-executed change of this scale won’t evolve or ‘just happen’; it takes time and investment to get right. We can help; if your organisation doesn’t have the right skills and experience in job design, or you’re not sure where to start, do get in touch.
Published April 2021
By Claire Campbell, Programme Director, Timewise
So, here we go again, back into lockdown. Morale is low and people are exhausted; frontline workers, in particular, have had little respite. For office-based employees, many of whom had been planning to spend some of their time back in the workplace, it’s time to pivot once again to enforced home working. And for parents across all sectors, home schooling has been added to the to-do list.
But despite the all problems the new lockdown is likely to bring, there is one positive: we have done this before. Organisations across the country, our clients among them, have learned what works and what doesn’t. They have tried new ways of working and communicating, sticking with the successes and rejecting the failures. And in the best cases, they have used what they’ve learned as a platform to develop more flexible cultures.
Acting on the lessons others have learned will help make managing lockdown easier this time around. So, based on our insights from our clients and our own experience, here are our suggestions for what to keep, and what to avoid, when your employees are working remotely.
One of the more surprising outcomes from the first lockdown was that the explosion in remote working brought people’s home lives out into the open. For some managers, who didn’t know about the responsibilities their employees had outside work, this provided real insight into their team members’ lives. And both sides reported that people felt more supported as a result.
It’s worth noting that in the interim months, some people’s personal and financial situations may have changed for the worse; and with figures suggesting 1 in 50 people have the virus, sick leave will be on the increase. So regular check-ins will be important; it shouldn’t be a one-off.
Following on from the above, the employers who managed their teams most successfully in the first lockdown were those who realised that a 9-5 set-up wasn’t practical, and made it possible for their employees to work to a schedule that matched their responsibilities.
At a simple level, this meant things like scheduling meetings after 10am, so that parents could set their children off on their studies, or creating a timesheet code for non-work responsibilities for those who record their time (and encouraging them to use it). Some of the best examples saw employers providing additional paid carers leave, and clarifying that employees would be judged on outputs, not inputs, with active support to do so.
The risk underlying this approach is that over-diligent employees will suffer from work creep; the best employers redesigned roles that were proving too much to manage, and made it clear that switching off was both necessary and expected.
The negative impact of the pandemic on morale and mental health has been well documented, and many employees miss the interaction and creativity of the workplace when fully home-based. In the previous lockdown, the best managers and leaders put in place ways of communicating which supported team cohesion, and helped overcome physical distance.
This isn’t simply a case of arranging online coffee mornings or setting up team What’s App chats, although these do have a role to play. Acknowledging the challenges created by lockdown, and asking how your team members are feeling, is an easy place to start. Encouraging regular conversations about their purpose and priorities will help them feel connected to what they are delivering and why. Training managers to identify mental health issues and signpost support is also valuable.
Zoom fatigue became a real problem in the first lockdown, with some employees hopping from online call to online call, leaving little time or energy to get any actual work done. It’s recognised that video meetings are more exhausting than face to face ones, and the problem was exacerbated by the fact that everyone was (in theory) available, and meeting capacity unlimited, making organisers more liberal than usual with their invites.
Among the ways our clients found to address this were to block out meeting-free days or periods of time, to set out protocols for length and invitations to meetings, and to make it clear when attendance was and wasn’t expected.
There’s no question that transitioning from working in close proximity to your team to managing them remotely takes a huge mindset shift. However, in the first lockdown, some dealt with this more successfully than others. Stories emerged of teams being expected to log in to an all-day Zoom call so their boss could keep an eye on them; others of companies installing tracking software on company laptops to virtually look over people’s shoulders.
As every successful manager of flexible employees knows, trust is central to a positive working relationship. Those who managed this well in the first lockdown set clear expectations for delivery, and then gave their teams space to achieve it. For those who were struggling, our workshops were a great help.
However long this new lockdown lasts, the consensus is that there will be no going back to the old ways of working. Employees have stated in survey after survey that they want to hang on to at least some of their flexibility, and employers have seen for themselves that there are real business benefits to offering it.
The organisations that recognise this are one step ahead. Instead of seeing this shift to more flexible working as a short-term interruption of the status quo, they’re working to develop a truly flexible culture. One that starts at the top, with inspiring leadership and role modelling, and which is brought to life by well-trained managers and on-board HR.
If you feel that you need support with managing lockdown this time around, we’re here to help. In response to the impact of the pandemic, and our clients’ requests, we’ve created the Timewise Flex-Positive programme, a four-step process that helps employers develop and implement a flexible working strategy to match the evolving workplace. If you’d like to know more, please email info@timewise.co.uk.
In the meantime, on behalf of the Timewise team, I’d like to wish you all the best with the challenges that the next few months will doubtless bring.
Published January 2021
When we set out to create this year’s Flexible Jobs Index, we were pretty sure we’d see a major, pandemic-fuelled shift. There were huge increases in the number of people working from home, as well as a consensus that some of the traditional barriers to flex were falling in the face of necessity. And article after article suggested that employees wanted to continue flexing when the pandemic was eventually over.
It’s for this reason that we split the reporting for this year’s index into three periods; pre-Covid, the first national lockdown, and the first three months of lockdown easing. We recognised that the jobs market has contracted significantly as a result of the pandemic, but we nevertheless expected a bigger proportion of flexibly advertised jobs, and wanted to track the change through all three stages.
So we were disappointed, to say the least, to discover that the gap between the recruitment market and the employment market for flexible jobs grew wider still. The number of people working remotely shot up from 6% before the pandemic to 43% mid-Spring, and settled at 37% by June. But, as our index shows, the proportion of flexibly advertised jobs only rose from 17% before the pandemic to 22% during and since lockdown (with home-working roles representing about one third of those jobs).
To make matters worse, many of the newly created home-based jobs are likely to revert to the workplace as soon as is feasible. And there has been very little movement in the availability of other forms of flexible working, such as part-time and flexible hours.
This matters, a lot, and on many levels. Firstly, the pandemic has decimated the overall jobs market; it halved during lockdown, and was only up to two-thirds of the pre-pandemic level by the end of September. There are more job losses to come, once the furlough scheme finally ends, and more people will be struggling to keep the jobs they have, or find new ones.
And unfortunately, flexible workers will probably be some of the hardest hit, as they are more likely to have additional, complex challenges (such as caring commitments, or health issues) or to work in disappearing frontline jobs (such as retail or hospitality). As a result, they are at a higher risk of falling out of the workplace than their non-flex counterparts.
The knock-on effect of all of this is that the brunt of the pandemic-induced economic crisis is being borne by low-paid workers, and particularly by women. The Resolution Foundation has shown that one third of those in the lowest-paid quartile (who are disproportionately likely to work part-time) have lost their jobs, been furloughed, or lost hours and pay, compared to 15% of the highest paid.
Indeed, at the time of writing, data from LinkedIn has revealed that the percentage of women hired during the lockdown fell, while the percentage of men being hired increased. It also indicated that women over the age of 30 were least likely of all to be hired.
Clearly, then, the economic impact of the pandemic has been devastating, and is likely to continue to be so for some time to come. But alongside the challenges, there is an opportunity, as we rebuild the economy, to create a more level playing field for those who do and don’t need to flex.
Employers can’t wave a magic wand and create jobs that aren’t viable within the current market. But what they can do, and must do, is make sure that any vacancies they do have incorporate as much flexibility as possible, and are advertised as such. If they don’t, there’s a risk that the people who need to work part-time, or from home, or with staggered start and finish times, will be ‘flexcluded’ from the workplace, both now and well into next year.
And yes, we recognise that it’s a tough time for employers as well as employees. But for the sake of fairness, and to support the people who need it most, as well as ensuring businesses don’t miss out on the right talent, we must keep working towards a flexible jobs market. Let’s hope that, by next year’s index, we’ve managed to shift the dial.
Published December 2020
As 2020 crawls to a close, one thing is certain; the workplace will never be the same again. It’s pretty clear that a degree of remote working is here to stay; a survey by the IOD suggested that 74% of firms are planning to maintain the increase in home working. And at the time of writing, the Prime Minister has told all workers in England to work from home if possible until April 2021.
Clearly, there are many upsides to remote working; from the time gained by skipping the commute and the related positive impact to mental health, to a general perception that it makes it easier to balance work and life. And the growing acceptability of hybrid working set-ups, where you work in the best place for the job in hand and the needs of your team, is a real step forward.
But it’s also important to recognise that the remote working we’re seeing right now isn’t normal; it’s universal, and enforced, without reference to whether it’s the best way to tackle that day’s or week’s workload. So it’s not surprising that, in our conversations with businesses, we’re hearing lots of examples of how it isn’t working as it should.
This doesn’t mean that home and hybrid working arrangements should be phased out once the pandemic is over. Employees want to keep them, and they can be a useful part of any organisation’s flexible toolkit. But simply replicating office-based practices isn’t enough. As with any flexible role, these arrangements need to be designed properly, and managers need to be skilled up to support the people who are using them.
The concept of Zoom fatigue – the exhaustion felt by people as a result of online meeting overload – was much discussed at the beginning of the pandemic. Some employees, particularly younger ones and those living alone, have wrestled with a lack of proper workspace, with some even reporting feeling judged by their home environments. The blurring of boundaries is also a recognised problem. And smart decision-making and creativity have both been noted as being negatively affected when whole teams work permanently from home.
Additionally, there is a growing sense that, without careful oversight, the move to a hybrid set-up, with some in the office and others at home, may lead to women and ethnic minorities being excluded from key decisions and limiting the diversity of opinions which are heard. Or that the extroverts in a team will choose to go in, and the introverts to stay at home, affecting their visibility and progression path, and encouraging groupthink.
These are tough issues to work around – but if we just roll over and accept them as the price we pay for more flex, we risk rowing back on all the progress that’s been made. Instead, we need to tackle them – and the best way to do so is by making sure line managers and other leaders are properly skilled up.
Well-trained, properly skilled managers know that they need to trust their remote employees, rather than force them to stay logged in to Zoom all day so they can keep an eye on them. They understand that having an 8.30 meeting every day to check that everyone is working can be counterproductive. They appreciate that, when physical interaction isn’t possible, other ways of connecting teams have to be found. And they realise that, in an era of job uncertainty, employees need to be encouraged to switch off, not left to put in ever longer hours for fear of being let go.
To succeed, managers need to know how to design flexible roles – whether part-time, remote, or a combination of the two. They need to understand how to manage flexible employees, and how to ensure that hybrid-working teams are still able to work productively together. But these aren’t skills that people can just pick up. They need to be taught; and that’s where we come in.
Training managers to build and develop successful flexible teams has long been a core part of our work here at Timewise. And now, from our work with clients and other organisations during the pandemic, we have gained a unique set of insights that are specifically relevant to building these skills in the current circumstances.
We can support employers in a range of ways; from workshops and training sessions to participation in our new Flex Positive Programme. So if you, like us, believe that this is a critical time for developing the leadership skills that will make a success of flexible and hybrid working, feel free to get in touch to see how we can help.
Published December 2020
If you were asked to guess the biggest cause of death in the construction industry, what would you say? Most people would assume that the answer is something to do with on-site accidents. But they’d be wrong: in fact, it’s suicide, with male construction workers three times more likely to take their own lives than the average male.
It’s a shocking statistic, and one which is largely due to the long-hours culture that dominates the industry. With 20 hour days commonplace, and only 10 % of roles advertised with any kind of flexibility, it’s no surprise that construction workers suffer from mental health problems, struggle to balance work with their families, and end up burnt out.
Equally unsurprisingly, women don’t want to work in the industry; female participation currently stands at 15%, mainly in office-based roles. And although efforts have been made to try and attract more women, little has been done to address the workload and work-life barriers that are keeping them away.
With such deep-rooted problems to overcome, a deep-dive approach is required; and that’s what we’ve been doing. In 2019, we began a Timewise Innovation Unit project with four construction companies; BAM Nuttall, BAM Construct, Skanska and Willmott Dixon, supported by Build UK and the Construction and Industry Training Board. The project aims to explore the options for making construction more flexible; to identify key barriers, design and pilot solutions, and share what we’ve learned across the industry.
So, what have we learned so far? Well, our initial diagnostic phase put meat on the bones of what we had suspected; that the structure and culture within construction are not just unsupportive of flexible working, but bordering on incompatible:
Having identified and fleshed out these core issues, we then planned to run a series of pilots, starting in Spring 2020. These set out to assess the potential of allowing teams to have some input into their shifts and working patterns, and pilot the best way to deliver it. The work included:
The project was put on hold during the first lockdown – but on the flip side, once companies were allowed back on site, it helped accelerate some of the plans. The need for social distancing, for example, meant that site managers were forced to explore staggered start times and virtual team briefings, with positive results.
For now, the work continues. We’re supporting sites who have fast-tracked their plans, skilling up managers to implement the changes and make sure they’re fair, inclusive and sustainable. For those who were unable to do so, we’ve now started work. And of course, we’re capturing insights from this pilot phase to support a consistent approach to scaling up at a later date.
It’s worth noting that, with inflexibility as entrenched as it is within this industry, it can feel like an impossible challenge. Indeed, it’s no exaggeration to say that, when we started, the response from some was that nothing could or would change. There was a widespread belief that the issues were too deep and that current working practices would always stand in the way of culture change.
We don’t doubt that changing this industry is a complex job – but we also firmly believe that it’s a critical one. People are leaving and there’s little incentive for others to replace them; the rest of the world is becoming more flexible, and construction mustn’t get left behind. Additionally, given the pivotal role that construction plays in our country’s infrastructure, there’s a real opportunity to reskill and redeploy workers who have been adversely hit by Covid-19 as we build back up.
The pandemic has opened the door a crack and our project aims to wedge it open; we’ll keep you posted.
Published November 2020
