Michelmores saw how the pandemic changed their working arrangements, with most staff working from home, and were keen to explore a range of options to continue to support, retain and attract staff going forward. Here’s how we helped to identify the best approach and set them apart from other law firms.
Michelmores, an all-services law firm with 450 staff and offices in Exeter, Bristol, London and Cheltenham offers agile working (a combination of working in office and at home) to all staff, where possible in the role. Prior to the pandemic, Michelmores had many individual flexible arrangements and sought to accommodate staff requests when possible.
During the pandemic, during which almost all of Michelmores’ staff worked from home, HR and the senior partners foresaw that they would need to re-imagine the workplace once the return-to-office started. It was difficult to know what the range of options should be and to anticipate their implications. They wanted support in developing new ways of working and to engage staff in the process.
Michelmores came to Timewise looking for an expert view, the wider context of what was happening in the greater labour market and thoughts on how to plan ahead. Colette Stevens, HR Director at Michelmores, says: “Timewise have a real depth of understanding of all the different flexible working options, what the implications would be of pursuing them and a strong commitment to understanding Michelmores’ needs, context and ambitions. Timewise gave us a framework and process within which to explore ideas, challenge thinking and think about different options.”
Timewise convened a working group, made up of Michelmores’ Managing Partner Tim Richards, HR Director Colette Stevens and other senior partners. This team developed the firm’s Agile Working framework with Timewise’s input and guidance. Fairness sits as a core principle within this framework: the goal is to provide all employees with the opportunity to balance working from home and in the office, as agreed within their teams. The framework provides a practical structure, as to the ‘how’. By way of guiding values, the group wanted to ensure that:
Team leaders were tasked with helping to identify any underlying issues and collaboratively working through the implications of agile working in detail with their teams. The agreed framework was rolled out for a year-long trial, with regular feedback from staff at all levels.
Recognising the critical role of managers, Timewise ran bespoke training sessions to help them feel capable and confident in implementing the agile working framework for their teams. Timewise then worked closely with the project team to facilitate follow up review sessions a few months into the trial, for managers to share good practice, seek support and ask questions.
The agile working approach adopted by Michelmores has been a great success, with over 80% of staff expressing satisfaction with how they can work, giving them greater choice and freedom. Set this against the wider context of the pandemic’s impact upon the legal profession. A 2021 study by Gartner of 202 corporate lawyers found 68% were ready to start looking for a new job.
Michelmores prides itself upon enhanced talent attraction. It now offers a more flexible approach than many other law firms, and this is having an impact on its reputation as a great employer. As one recent joiner comments: “The flexibility offered was a huge factor in my decision to join Michelmores. My previous firm wanted fixed three days in the office, and my commute is long.”
It has also created the opportunity to attract candidates from a wider geographical area than before. Another new joiner says: “…being sure agile worked in practice was my first question. It meant I could join and not have to relocate.”
Michelmores continues to monitor and evolve its agile working approach, including understanding the impact on new joiners such as these and developing induction and onboarding processes to suit new ways of working. Valuing the different office sites and bringing people together in person continue to be important for the organisation as it grows. Working in an agile way encourages teams to use office time more intentionally and the Michelmores agile working approach, with the flexibility that it brings, is now firmly part of the organisational culture.
Colette Stevens, HR Director of Michelmores, summarises: “Timewise really listened to what we were grappling with and what was important for us. They helped us co-curate our approach to agile working and differentiate what we can offer the market.”
Published January 2024
By Amy Butterworth, Head of Consultancy, Timewise
It’s no secret that retail is a tough nut to crack when it comes to flexible working. The industry is the UK’s largest private sector employer, with around 5 million people in its workforce. But while some roles, such as sales assistants and head office staff, tend to allow for some part-time and flexible working, there’s a real lack of these opportunities within retail management. And that, in turn, is having a knock-on effect on companies’ ability to attract and keep staff.
So it’s pretty big news that Wickes, the home improvement retailer, is committing to making all roles open to flexible working, from the point of hire. What’s driving this decision? And how can they be so sure that it’s the right one? The answer – because they are passionate about creating a workplace culture where all colleagues can feel at home and thrive and because they’ve worked with us to explore the art of the possible and test it out.
While Wickes have had real success in making entry-level in-store roles more flexible, they had become aware that access to flexible management roles was very limited, and that their managers were finding it challenging to fit their responsibilities into their allocated hours. So before approaching us for support, they did some digging to try and find out why.
The process saw them interrogate the responsibilities of three management roles: store managers, operations managers and duty managers. This revealed occasional confusion about who should be doing what, which in turn was limiting the managers’ efficiency and effectiveness. It also highlighted that some managers felt a responsibility to be in-store that didn’t necessarily match service needs.
Mark Reynolds is Store Manager of Wickes in Tottenham. He says:
“Before the trial I was probably doing five long days in store. I remember having my review. I’d just won Store Manger of the Year. But my home life wasn’t great. My daughter was 3.5 and my other was newborn.”
“I’m a self-confessed workaholic, and put in all the hours I can. But I had started to realise that a change was needed. I wasn’t getting any time at home with my wife. She was getting no support from me. And I had started to drift from my friends, who always get together at weekends (when I used always to be working).”
Tanya Tozer works in the Worksop store. She has 3 children – all girls, aged 5, 9 and 12. Her middle daughter, Ava-May, has a rare genetic condition called De Grouchy syndrome which requires a lot of support at home. She says: “I didn’t think I needed to change my working pattern, but on reflection, I needed the respite more than I let on, more probably than even I realised I needed it. I had been struggling with my mental health.”
So, building on our many years of experience, we worked with the Wickes team to design, trial and evaluate a six-month pilot across 14 Wickes stores. This saw us supporting the managers to redesign their working patterns, with some opting to work four longer days in-store, and others flexing their hours across the week in a way that suited their lives.
They also kept a reflective diary to track their working hours, and identify why they might be working more than they should. And they were supported by us, and each other, with monthly feedback and learning calls.
As always with our pilots, we put in place a robust system of tracking and evaluation so we could really understand what worked and why. From this, we gained some valuable learnings, including:
The pilot also busted the long-held myth that managers need to be on-site at all hours, and highlighted the fact that when managers step back, they create space for their junior colleagues to step up.
There was no negative impact on store performance or KPIs, and the feedback we received from the pilot participants speaks for itself; 96.5% of store managers were either ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with their work-life balance at the end of the pilot (up from 66.5% pre-pilot).
But perhaps the best way to demonstrate the impact of the pilot is to hear from the people involved.
Tanya says the change to her working pattern, has changed her life: “Now, I can go to the gym, I can do some crafting. I have always had Tuesdays off, as these tend to be hospital days. But having Fridays off is really making a difference in my life. The girls are in school. It is my day for me.”
And it has also helped her team: “I think it’s had a really positive impact on the team. It has helped everyone feel more accountable. I’ve had to strengthen some of my weaker areas; build in more planning and more structure. I’ve also had to delegate more and it has been great to see the team step up to the challenge and grow.”
And here’s Mark again, on how this different way of working has affected him personally:
“At first, I felt a lot of guilt and responsibility. But gradually I realised – it was just about setting a new norm. Getting the processes in place was not easy, but once you get there – it’s a different way to live and work. A better one. I’ve developed a new phrase: happy home life, happy work life. I am a happier me.”
He’s also clear about the effect he believes it will have on the future of Wickes, and the retail industry as a whole:
“We have a WhatsApp group called Trailblazers – we all believe we are part of shaping the next generation. We feel part of something special. At the moment I am looking at ways to retain colleagues who are mothers, and possibly help them onto the management track. Make one small change and a thousand more will follow… people will stay and build their careers as their lives change. I don’t see any negatives whatsoever.”
Unsurprisingly, given the pilot’s success, Wickes are now rolling it out across all stores to more roles, those of duty manager and operations manager. They’re doing so as part of our wider Flexible Working for All action research programme, supported by Impact on Urban Health, with Guys’ and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and Sir Robert McAlpine also taking part, which aims to show the impact of embedding good quality flexible working for all on both employees and organisations.
And as Louise Tait, Wickes’ Head of HR, OD and Talent noted when she appeared as a panellist at a Timewise webinar, there’s a hope within Wickes that the retail industry will have a mindset shift and start asking “What’s the right thing to do” when it comes to offering flexible working. With this kind of evidence of the power of flex to change companies’ cultures and people’s lives, why wouldn’t they?
Published January 2024
By Melissa Buntine, Principal Consultant, Timewise
The launch of the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan is a hugely welcome development. The staffing crisis has been an ongoing issue within the service, with the RCN seeking legislation to protect safe staffing levels as far back as 2017. And in the intervening years, organisations within and outside the medical sphere – including Parliament’s cross-party Health and Social Care Committee – have warned that the number of unfilled posts (currently standing at 112,000) is a risk to patient safety.
The NHS took a big step towards tackling the problem with the publication of its People Plan 2020/21, which recognised the importance of flexible working as an attraction and retention tool, and committed to encouraging its employers to offer it from day one. And here at Timewise, we’ve also been focusing on this issue, working with 93 English NHS organisations last year on the Flex for the Future programme, to support the transition to more flexible working practices.
So we’re delighted that the Workforce Plan puts flexible working in the NHS at the heart of its measures, and recognises the impact it can have on staff shortages. But we also know that it will take a concerted effort to bring these commitments to life.
The plan’s commitment to “highlighting the flexibility and autonomy that NHS staff enjoy” is hugely positive, but making sure that this flexibility is fit for purpose is something else entirely. And while the People Plan’s day one flex commitment put the NHS ahead of the flexible working curve, the new legislation that makes this a UK-wide right softens that edge – and increases the likelihood of potential employees finding better-paid flexible opportunities elsewhere.
The NHS therefore needs to not just offer and highlight flexible working, but to champion it, from top to bottom, and make sure it works in practice. Here are four actions that the service could take to make this a reality.
1. Be more proactive about designing part-time and flexible roles
As in many organisations, there’s a tendency within the NHS to wait until people are about to leave, panic, then try to work out how to persuade them to stay. Flexible working is a brilliant retention tool – but instead of waiting until people have had enough, it makes more sense to offer it proactively, and to work with each individual to explore what kind of flexible working matches their needs.
We know from experience that there’s a real lack of confidence within the service about flexible job design, but it isn’t rocket science; at its core, it involves looking at when, where and how much people want or need to work, and designing the job to match. We can help.
2. Offer alternatives to the 12.5-hour shift norm
Again, as in many longstanding organisations, there’s a feeling across the NHS of “It’s always been done this way… if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” The length of a standard shift – a back-breaking 12.5 hours – is a perfect example of something that could merit a fresh look.
Leaders need to have the confidence to challenge this norm, and explore whether other alternatives could also work. Would it be possible to offer 6-hour shifts instead, which might be easier for people who are juggling family or caring responsibilities, or with health conditions? What would be the impact on staffing levels if they did?
3. Embrace self-rostering to give staff a say in when they work
The NHS has a high proportion of frontline staff, who work on a 24/7 shift pattern. Historically, these employees have had shifts imposed on them, and have needed to be available at any time, which is not helpful for anyone’s work-life balance. But thanks to developments in technology, it’s now possible to build rosters which take people’s preferences about when they do and don’t work into account.
We’ve previously piloted a team-based approach to rostering within nursing, using our ‘shift-life balance’ model, and found that it increased the feeling that work-life preferences were being met (from 39% to 51%), and improved the sense of a strong collective responsibility (from 16% to 36%). Both of which, clearly, are key to creating an environment in which people want to stay.
And right now, we’re working with several clients, including UCLH and Guys & St Thomas’, to introduce a self-rostering model. This allows team members to input their preferences into a roster, with ward managers then making final decisions to ensure safe staffing levels and the right skills mix. It’s a win-win, with staff really valuing the chance to have some input, and managers finding it can make the roster building and approval process much more efficient.
4. Make sure that all training can be done flexibly
The plan rightly places a big emphasis on training, both in terms of growing and upskilling the workforce. But in both cases, this training needs to be delivered in a way that is accessible to those who need to work flexibly. Otherwise, key groups who need flexibility to work – including, but not restricted to, parents, carers and those with health conditions – will fall behind their peers and potentially fall out of the workforce, or be prevented from joining it in the first place.
Clearly, changes like these take time to implement – and they won’t happen without board-level buy-in. So the NHS needs its leaders to step up now, and lead from the top, driving the behaviour change that the service needs, and even incorporating flexibility around ways of working as a design principle for their services. Professor Joe Harrison and his leadership team at Milton Keynes University Hospital are great examples of what can be achieved when leaders are vocal about the benefits of flexible working within the NHS.
It also needs to make sure that managers and HR teams have the skills they need to design and implement flexible roles. That means teaching them about the benefits of flexible working for the organisation and its staff; upskilling them in flexible job design; and training them in how to manage flexible teams. Our Flex for the Future programme set out how this can be done.
And finally, for all these recommendations to really take hold, they need to be applied across NHS systems, rather than on a trust-by-trust basis. We’re currently working with three systems –Lincolnshire, Kent & Medway, and Hampshire & the Isle of Wight – and are already seeing the value of bringing together the different parts of a local health and care system to collaborate on strategy, resources and learning. Implementing flexible working across the NHS in this way could be transformational.
And a transformational approach is what’s needed; as the Workforce Plan acknowledges, “Inaction in the face of demographic change is forecast to leave us with a shortfall of between 260,000 and 360,000 staff by 2036/37.” Patient safety is already at risk with today’s shortfall, and we can’t afford to let it get worse. The plan is an important step in the right direction; now let’s act on it.
Published October 2023
By Amy Butterworth, Consultancy Director
It’s no secret that frontline and shift-based jobs are harder to make flexible than office-based ones. From the obvious barriers around working from home to the requirement to have a balance of skills on a shift or site, there’s just less room to manoeuvre when a frontline employee needs flexibility.
Here at Timewise, we see this as a challenge, not a barrier; we’re working with employers across the frontline, including NHS trusts, construction companies, schools and retailers, to level the flexible playing field.
But although the dial is starting to shift on access to formal flexible arrangements, most frontline staff are still missing out on something else that many office-based workers take for granted – ad-hoc flexibility.
Sometimes, life happens in a way that requires flex at short notice; an hour here, or a morning there, in a way that can’t be planned in. It might be a child’s school assembly, or an elderly relative’s doctor’s appointment; it might be something as seemingly trivial as a tiny window in which to book tickets for a favourite band’s farewell tour.
Faced with these scenarios, most office-based workers would simply come in late, or take a bit of time out, and make it up later; but for a frontline employee, that’s not an option. Rosters are often created months in advance, and while colleagues might be willing to swap shifts or cover for each other, it’s not a given – and puts the onus on the employee to call in a favour. So as well as exploring more formal flexible arrangements, proactive employers are also looking at ways to give their frontline and shift-based staff access to this more informal, ad-hoc flexibility.
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder
Full disclosure: this time it’s personal. I used to work in TV production, and left 17 years ago when I found it impossible to juggle the job and my family. So I’ve long been keen to take everything I’ve learned through my years at Timewise and apply it to the film and TV industry.
And right now is most definitely the right time. Why? Because the industry is facing a perfect storm. It has some of the longest working hours in the UK, and 86% of people in film and TV are experiencing poor mental health. The resulting burnout, exacerbated by the rush to production after the Covid-enforced hiatus, has led to real skills shortages, with large numbers of crew leaving, and production companies struggling to replace them.
So, last year, we joined forces with BECTU Vision to explore how flexible working could be used to improve work-life balance within drama productions. And today, we’ve published a report on the first phase of the project.
It’s worth noting up front that introducing flexible working into the film and TV industry is far from straightforward. Schedules are historically built around long days, and budgeted in the number of weeks a project will take. So making them shorter means making the project longer, which in turn has implications for budgets and talent availability.
However, here at Timewise, we thrive on bringing flexibility into hard-to-flex sectors – as our work in construction, nursing and retail demonstrates. And there are positive examples out there – it’s said, for example, that Clint Eastwood’s projects are run on a 9-5 basis. But there’s been no evidence or learnings about what works – which is why we decided to get involved.
We began with a six-month research phase, to explore the barriers and opportunities around introducing flexible working within scripted drama productions. This research, funded by Screen Scotland, included interviews with crew, commissioners and production leads, as well as desk research. And here’s what we found:
The second phase of the project starts in April, and will see us going on set to explore whether productions based on shorter days could be commercially viable, and how they could work in practice.
We’ll be shadowing two live BBC productions in Scotland, both of which are running on a standard schedule and working day. We’ll be capturing and stress-testing crew preferences, using the fact that they are ‘in the zone’ to explore their thoughts on how shoots could be done differently. We’ll then use these insights to build a blueprint for an alternative production schedule and budget, based on a shorter working day, that’s steeped in the reality of life on set.
We’ll also be producing guidance on how to implement this new model, which we’ll ask crew to feed back on and help us refine. And we’ll be working with industry experts to review any previous modelling that could support our approach.
This phase of the project is being supported by Screen Scotland, the BBC and the Film & TV Charity in collaboration with BBC Drama.
Of course, the best way to get buy-in for fundamental change is to prove that it’s possible. So, our plan is to use these insights to have an informed discussion with a range of industry commissioners and production companies about how viable our blueprint is. It’s our hope that this will lead to the development and piloting of a live shorter-working-hours drama production – and with it, the game-changing example that the industry needs.
In the meantime, we have set out a number of recommendations and potential opportunities for industry stakeholders in our report, such as capturing and sharing existing good practice, building leadership capabilities on flexible working, and undertaking cost-benefit analysis to model the impact of shorter working days.
We need all parts of the industry to come together and support this; bringing about this level of change will require industry-wide attention (and funding), as well as an acceptance that there is likely to be a financial cost.
But the cost of doing nothing is also high; if we want a healthy film and TV industry, we need to pull together to make it happen. Seventeen years ago, the flexibility I needed wasn’t there; let’s make sure that won’t be true for much longer.
Published March 2023
With a standard working day of 11 hours, and crew increasingly work back to back on productions because of escalating demand for new film and TV shows, the sector is under immense strain. The drain of skilled and experienced people (especially women) in mid-career is endemic, as the long and unpredictable hours are incompatible with raising a family.
Our action research project explored potential opportunities to improve flexible working – the underlying goals being to reduce long hours, enhance health and wellbeing, and enable productions to attract and retain talent.
We identified several tactical ways to introduce flexibility to some roles within the constraints of the current working model. Alongside our report, we have therefore produced a checklist of practical actions for production teams to consider.
However, there is no getting away from it: the biggest challenge is the length of the standard 11-hour day. The majority of crew and producers we spoke to believe that fundamentally tackling this is the way to change the industry, increase retention and minimise burn out. Piloting a model for a shorter working day is therefore the key recommendation of our research report.
Published March 2023
Domiciliary care roles have a reputation for offering flexible work that will suit people (mainly women) with their own family caring responsibilities. However, the flexibility on offer is often ‘poor flexible work’. Zero hours contracts bring unpredictability and insecurity, while the ‘flexible hours’ that are available are mostly at unsociable times – early mornings, evenings and weekends, which are prime times when carers need to be with their own families.
Timewise teamed up with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) to explore what carers say they need to make the job fit better for them. Our aim was to provide insight as to how small changes and greater transparency around the nature of working patterns could potentially enhance retention during the first few months of the job – a ‘crunch’ point when many new recruits realise the schedules are not a good fit.
We developed and tested a guide for carers with a focus on how to manage the realities of scheduling. Guidance for hiring managers was also produced, highlighting the need for transparency and support.
This project by Timewise and LBBD has reinforced previous evidence of the need to improve flexible working options for care workers, to make it a more attractive career choice.
Published February 2023
By Emma Stewart, Co-Founder
The crisis in social care is well-known – and is something that we should all be worrying about. Demand is growing as the population ages, but care worker numbers are going in the opposite direction. Local authorities are finding it harder than ever to recruit and retain staff; job centres send candidates through without giving them any sense of what the job actually involves, with the knock-on effect that few stay the distance.
As a result, there are over 100,000 unfilled care worker vacancies in the UK right now. And while there has been much hand-wringing and many column inches on the subject, much of which has understandably been focused on pay, scant attention has been paid to working patterns or work-life balance.
Given that the existing care workforce is primarily women with their own caring responsibilities, this is a massive oversight. It’s not a huge leap to suspect that for this group, having some control over their working patterns could be a gamechanger. But there has been little attempt to ask existing care workers what THEY think could make a difference. At least, until our new action research project, Building the Social Care Workforce of the Future.
Tackling staff shortages by exploring what care workers need
Social care isn’t a new sector for us; our previous report, Caring by Design, explored whether a geographical, team-based approach to scheduling could tackle issues such as unpredictable rotas, unsociable hours and long travel times (the short answer – yes it can).
But this time, we wanted to get in on the ground, to gain the clearest possible understanding of the challenges domiciliary care workers are facing and their views on how to overcome them. We also wanted to work with the commissioning teams to ensure that any changes we recommended could become a reality. So we teamed up with London Borough of Barking and Dagenham (LBBD) and a number of providers in their area, to do exactly that.
Over a six-month period, we shadowed a team of care workers, going with them from appointment to appointment, on buses, in cars and walking the streets, to get under the skin of how their days work (and how they made them work for them). We also spoke to managers and HR teams within social care providers, to understand the challenges they face, and the solutions they put in place to overcome them.
What we learned from our six months of research
Now clearly, the social care sector is not something that can be completely fixed from the ground up. There is absolutely a role for government to play, and we, like everyone else in this country, are hoping that policymakers will intervene to address the overarching issues that affect recruitment and retention, critically around pay.
However, we did learn that there are a number of practical changes that don’t require major policy reforms; relatively small quick wins that could have a transformational impact. For example:
The first few weeks in a social care role are particularly unpredictable, because the care worker doesn’t yet have a rota of regular clients. This can mean they don’t have enough guaranteed hours, or are offered work at times they can’t fulfil. Being open about this from the start, and reassuring new recruits that it will settle down, can help avoid knee-jerk resignations.
While most candidates are aware of the nature of tasks in care work, they may not understand that the timing of slots may not fit around their caring responsibilities. Setting this out up front could both cut down on wasted applications and the cost of training applicants who might not stay the distance.
When team members feel connected, they are more likely to support each other, whether that’s helping newcomers to settle into the role, sharing hints and tips or being willing to swap shifts.
Similarly, team members who feel supported by their field supervisors are more likely to accept unforeseen scheduling changes. And they’ll feel trusted enough to report back on problems that, if left unchecked, might force them to leave (such as under-estimated time slots, issues around travel time or pressure to work more hours than they can manage).
The resources we created to bring these changes about
So, having gained these insights into what needed to change, we created a suite of resources to help candidates, employees, managers and providers to put them into practice:
No resources like this have previously existed within the social care sector, and they have been well-received by employees and providers alike. They’re now being rolled out across LBBD and neighbouring boroughs by providers, local authorities and wider networks, with the help of Skills for Care and Care Providers Voice.
It’s a good starting point – but more needs to be done
This research project has made it clear that exploring worker preferences, and giving them more input and control into how they work, are good places to start tackling the social care crisis. This is at the heart of everything we do at Timewise, for a simple reason; you can’t create change without understanding what could make a difference on the ground.
So we hope that care commissioners will start taking a whole systems approach to workforce planning, which includes supporting providers with job design skills, and insisting that they cover travel time and expenses (with funding to back this up). And we hope that local authorities and providers across the UK will start using these resources so that they can attract and keep people for whom social care is a viable career.
And above all, we hope that the government listens to everyone who is telling them that investment is needed in social care; not just to increase wages, but also to provide the financial support to commissioners and providers that will make the kind of changes we are suggesting a reality.
This project has been supported by Trust for London. Published February 2023.
By Dr Sarah Dauncey, Head of Partnerships and Practice, Timewise
The twin pressures of the post-pandemic recovery and the cost of living crisis are causing local councils to refocus their priorities. Driven by a need to reduce the inequalities which have been exacerbated by these pressures, and to support those most in need to thrive, councils across the UK are stepping up their activity on good work initiatives and wider plans to foster growth.
These priorities are unquestionably the right ones. Creating good quality jobs is not only key to raising living standards; it’s also a critical part of addressing skills shortages and supporting growth. But if councils are also to tackle inequality, and bring currently inactive residents into the workforce, they need to make sure that the jobs offered by local employers have flexibility built in.
And as major employers themselves, councils must also take action to enable flexible working in a fair and consistent way for their own employees, from housing officers to social workers to refuse collectors.
Recognising the scale of the challenge that councils are facing, we have been working in partnership with Camden Council to develop a new model that would use all the available levers to drive sustainable change. The result is our new programme, Fair Flexible Councils, which builds on our long-established accreditation model and reflects the current context and priorities.
And while we’re delighted that Camden have committed to working with us to put this programme into practice, our aims run far higher. We know that all councils are facing similar issues; if we can bring them together and build momentum, the impact will be so much greater, at both an individual and a labour market level. It’s our hope that this programme will do exactly that.
Collaborating with Camden to design a new model for action
Camden’s commitment to the flexible working agenda is well-established and we have worked with them for a number of years to develop their practice as an employer. But the intensification of inequalities resulting from the pandemic and the cost of living crisis has led the council to take strategic decisions to step up action on inclusive growth.
So, as flexible working is a key part of this work, we came together to develop a new approach. One that would allow Camden to achieve joined-up, coordinated action across their services, while also widening the availability of flexible working options among site-based and frontline teams.
Our work together began with a period of consultation across the council. We sought to understand what was already working well, to identify what skills and resources they already had in place, and to explore what factors might be getting in the way of successful outcomes.
We then used these specific learnings, and our wider experience, to develop a Fair Flexible Councils framework. This sets out what councils need to do with and for their own workforce, and also recognises the role they can play as place-makers and anchor organisations to widen access to flexible working across their locality.
As pioneers who helped us to develop the programme and framework, Camden have set themselves some ambitious goals, and developed a comprehensive action plan to deliver them. The impact of their plans to widen access to flexible working will be assessed through KPIs, with internal working groups established and tasked with monitoring progress.
How the programme will help councils overcome their challenges
So, how will the Fair Flexible Councils programme work in practice? In terms of outcomes, it has been designed to support councils in tackling three specific challenges:
To achieve these outcomes, participating councils will be given access to the following support from Timewise:
Critically, the programme has a far wider reach than just the councils’ own employees. It’s built on a ‘train the trainer’ model, through which the skills we teach internal teams will be passed on to others. For example, we are equipping Camden staff who work in employability to build capability among their business and employment support teams, who will then share their learnings with the employers and candidates they work with.
Join our movement – and help change workplaces for the better, for all
Our Fair Flexible Councils programme will be open to all UK councils from Spring 2023. We’re keen to use this programme as a platform to deliver tangible, lasting change for communities across the UK, and the more councils who take part, the more powerful we can be. Will you join us?
If you have any questions about how it could work for your organisation, please contact melissa.buntine@timewise.co.uk
GRAHAM is a privately owned Construction and Facilities management company with 16 regional offices throughout the UK and Ireland, with 2,500 staff. Its Civil Engineering division specialises in resolving complex engineering challenges, from easing commuter congestion to powering renewable energy.
The challenge and opportunity
GRAHAM’s workforce already had a degree of informal flexible working and, having read our report – Making construction a great place to work – wanted to understand how to extend this further to all teams through engaging the site-based managers. Recognising the shift in expectations for more agile working, and understanding that it would be key to staff retention and recruitment, GRAHAM’s leaders were keen to bring about change as quickly as possible.
In the past, objections to introducing flexible working practices within the construction industry have centred around the need to maintain health and safety standards, being unable to offer any level flex to all roles, meeting commercial targets and managing sub-contractors and suppliers.
“The construction industry is very traditional in its approach to working, but we want to challenge this and demonstrate that flexibility can be integrated without compromising on delivery for clients or financial performance.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
Our solution
While there was broad enthusiasm for change across the organisation, there were some initial pockets of reluctance, largely due to a concern that there was already enough to do without having to manage new working patterns. Our position as external experts, and collaborative approach, were considered key to overcoming this barrier.
Working closely with the GRAHAM Human Resources team, we explored two options; running an in-depth pilot program with a small part of the business, or providing training and support for managers more broadly across the Civil Engineering division, so they could initiate their own flexible working pilots.
We concluded that the best route was to implement a top-down approach by engaging the team managers. This would allow them to adapt their learnings to their own teams’ circumstances and overall objectives.
“In order to fast track the benefits of more agile working patterns, we partnered with Timewise. Their consultants took the time to understand our objectives, working with us to develop an adaptable model that fitted with our business needs, but which was also easy to implement for managers on the ground.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
The process
We began by designing a series of regional workshops for site-based managers, to share real-life examples of how flexible working can be successfully implemented for construction workers.
As well as sharing our experience and expertise from our work elsewhere in the sector, we also highlighted examples of where flexibility was already taking place informally at GRAHAM. Sharing these examples helped bring the discussions to life, highlighting arrangements that were working well and opening up conversations about how to build on them.
The rate of change in attitudes towards flexible and hybrid working within the industry has outstripped that of many team managers, so hearing relevant success stories from colleagues, as well as our third-party expertise, was key to opening minds to the potential benefits.
Overall, the workshops demonstrated clearly that, despite people’s fears that working flexibly might negatively impact the project, it actually benefitted it, by helping workers become more engaged and productive.
Learnings and outcomes
The workshops really helped overcome negative preconceptions of flexible working, with the majority of attendees immediately seeing the value of offering it to their teams and understanding how even small changes can make a big difference to individuals.
At the end of each workshop, all attendees agreed to commit to doing at least one thing to work towards implementing flexible working in their own teams. To support this, this, we also built guidelines for Civil Engineering managers to use on site as they evolved their ways of working. This was all brought to life with anecdotes from our previous pilot work within the sector.
GRAHAM continues to review their operations, collating their learnings for ongoing review. This will help managers to see the value of flexibility, which has already resulted in lower staff turnover and increased engagement rates.
The client’s view
“We are an innovative employer and recognise that creating a modern working environment leads to personal and business benefits. Timewise’s holistic approach means ongoing support beyond the project with access to their peer community. Creating change won’t happen overnight but with the ongoing support, innovation and advice from Timewise, a modern working culture will emerge.” Michael Smyth, HR Director GRAHAM Group
Published January 2023
