Supporting work-life balance/hybrid working title

We are super lucky at The People Experience Hub that, as a start-up, we got to think about and design the experience here. Now we are growing and developing as an organisation. We can continue developing and adapting to changes, whether that is headcount increasing, clients in different time zones, a pandemic, or just the pace of life.

This isn’t a long blog to talk through the whole process of designing for flexibility and hybrid working – if you want a longer read, then check out this book - Flexible Working: How to Implement flexibility in the Workplace to Improve Employee and Business Performance by Gemma Dale

We realised early on that we needed to work wherever and whenever worked for us, and to do that, we put in some sensible working practices, values and kit

What did we do

Our values

“Do The Right Thing” is our lead value, and when we talk about this internally, we think of it as follows:

1. Do the right thing for you (your health, your development etc.)
2. Do the right thing for your colleagues (Respect their time and their workload – have their back)
3. Do the right thing for our customers
4. Do the right thing for the environment and community we are in

We do not need to explicitly say, "Do the right thing for our business" if you are doing the above, you are already doing it!

How does this support flexible and hybrid working?

Giving people permission to own when they work, where they work and also putting this into a framework of colleagues, customers and environment is just an adult way to work, we trust our people to do the right thing, and this includes taking time out or working from the best location for them.

The kit

It has to work, right?

So our people all have a mix of Laptops, Mobile Phones, Ipads to ensure that they can be as mobile as possible.

We pay for home equipment if needed, chairs, monitors, desks etc.

How does this support flexible and hybrid working?

Well, if your equipment is bolted down to a desk in an office, then guess what…

Seriously though, flexibility isn’t just about working from home. So, ensuring that the kit can be moved around means that people can work from anywhere.

Working practices

Everyone is different, and they have different needs – what flexibility looks like for you is not flexibility for me.

The 4-day week is an excellent example of this; for some people, it works; for others, it is just another rigid structure.

So, making sure the working practices allow people to flex in a meaningful way was really important to us.

Here are some of the things we do here:

• We do not have pre-defined hours of work
• Take your lunch whenever works for you
• Uncapped holiday
• Permission to take time out if needed
• Benefits that can be used anywhere
• We think about the outcome and not the input/time spent on the outcome

We have some people with young children, others with caring responsibilities, and some with a fitness routine they want to stick to. (p.s. you have these people too)

Therefore a one-sized approach will probably be great for many people but pretty pants for others.

Don’t people abuse this?

Big Sigh

No, because we are an adult environment where we work as a team and our value of Do The Right Thing is bedded in, this means that people think about more than just themselves when making choices.

Do we make mistakes, Yup, and we work it out.

If making a mistake meant that we do not do something, then we would never do anything.

 

What would be my advice to you?

Start

So much doesn’t happen because we are looking out of the window, waiting to see what the answer might be, waiting to see the next big headline that reads “Company X has implemented Approach Y.”

You are not company X, so stop waiting and start

You are already doing a lot of stuff; the world of work is re-branding so much stuff right now. But in reality.

1. You always let your sales team get on the road and be where they need to be
2. You always let your client team go and work with your clients (wherever they are)
3. You already let people swap shifts or hours so they can be where is important to them
4. You may have moved a whole workforce to home during a pandemic

I am not a flexible working expert, and you do not have to be either to Do The Right Thing.