The advent of flexible and hybrid working handed unprecedented levels of autonomy and freedom to employees, to organise their work time. But research is beginning to show that this is not the era of the life/work hinterland that was expected, nor the panacea to employee experience and business productivity. What is going wrong and do we have to reinterpret what ‘time’ represents?
OUR DELEGATES
Niamh Newman, HR Business Partner – Cooper Parry
Louise Tofts, Head of People – Finatal
Simon Garrity, Senior Workforce Management Expert – Protime
Sara McDonough, Head of People – Wincanton
Laura Jayne Gordon, Senior HR Director Corporate Functions – Cencora
Sara Lee-Boone, Director of People & Workplace – CIM
Heather Garrett, Group HR Director – ASC International Schools
Rico Bel, Business Director International – Protime
Matthew Collington, HR Director – Different Drum HR Services
Lauren Homer, HR Business Partner – Healthhero
Hilary Holder, Interim Head of HR Operations – CAF
Sonia Gupta, Global Talent & Learning Director – Save the Children
HOW HAS YOUR PERCEPTION OF TIME MANAGEMENT TRANSFORMED FOR BOTH YOURSELF AND YOUR EMPLOYEES? WHAT INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES ARE YOU USING TO MEASURE TIME, TO NOT ONLY PREVENT OVERWORK, BUT TO FOSTER A HEALTHY WORK/LIFE INTEGRATION?
Matthew Collington: How we value our time has changed considerably over the past few years. COVID definitely changed our general perception of work/life ratio, particularly the younger generation have a different view of what work represents and employers are having to adapt to that in ways that they did not expect.
Hilary Holder: It seems increasingly strange that we all adhered to the nine-to-five routine and now most people are now working to some degree of flex. In our business, we looked at every single role and carried out an evaluation with equitability in mind and we consulted with managers and employees. For most roles we are seeing flexible and we are seeing positive signs that productivity and collaboration is where we expect it to be.
Sarah Lee-Boone: We are a big blend of different types of roles in the organisation and we had to really consider what would be a practical hybrid framework. We don’t do fully remote working – and we had to consider the different job roles for practicality – but I would say the most important element is to develop remote management skills and we measure how engaged managers are with setting objectives, how effective their checkins are and the engagement levels across their teams are. Collaboration is really key and is central to people coming into the office.
Louise Tofts: The expectations of employees on companies are ever-increasing and one aspect of hybrid working that we have to be mindful of is presenteeism and the potential for burnout. We must not underestimate the scale of change and mindset shift – being present doesn’t necessarily equate to performance output and what is required now is real trust, self-responsibility and respect amongst teams. HR is about promoting that and supporting employees to engage in quality of conversations and interaction.
Lauren Homer: We have call center and operational staff for which homeworking is not practical, but we still have to manage expectation. When it comes to job roles and their fit for remote working, you can’t compare apples with pears.
Sara McDonough: Likewise, we employ 20,000 and a large proportion of our workforce are warehouse colleagues and drivers where remote or hybrid working is not possible. We do have a much smaller proportion of our workforce in functional or management roles that can be more flexible. One of the biggest challenges we have is supporting managers to manage remote members of their team – those managing have a split workforce, you could be inclined to be biased to those ones that are physically present.
Heather Garrett: My concern, particularly for young people is, who do they learn from? Not just technical skills, but the capacity to collaborate. How are we going to solve this? Working virtually, you have to be far more structured in how you contact people and how you engage.
Niamh Newman: Post-pandemic was an opportunity to flatten the playing field, especially for women, by achieving a level of flexibility that was not seen feasible before. We must not lose the gains we have made.
WHY, DESPITE UNPRECEDENTED FREEDOMS AND FLEXIBILITY IN WORK IS STRESS AND BURNOUT INCREASING?
Rico Bel: Back in the conventional days of the nine-to-five, there was undoubtedly work-related stress, but there were clear work/life boundaries. In the transition to hybrid, many employees feel the necessity to be “always on” and the taboo around talking about mental health issues at work are diminished and so more cases are going to present. This is a growing problem for businesses and is posing some questions about hybrid working. But essentially, it is the convention of time that we need to reconsider – not as a commodity or a set target to complete tasks and projects – and that is at the center of our discussion today.
Simon Garrity: We’re operating in a world now where there are lots of moving parts There is a perfect storm coming over the next few years regarding salary, with HMRC demanding that all work time is tracked and I can’t quite see how that will fit with the hybrid working world. We have a Government pushing for employers to offer a four-day week, but how will compressing work obligations further impact the health of employees and how businesses operate?
WITH TRADITIONAL BOUNDARIES BETWEEN WORK AND LIFE BECOMING INCREASINGLY BLURRED, HOW ARE YOU ENSURING THAT PERFORMANCE AND ENGAGEMENT REMAIN HIGH?
Sara McDonough: Employers are having to adapt to massive changes in the way they operate, along with heightened employee expectations that flexible and remote working come as standard. Looking at equity in flexible and remote working, in workforces where there are some job roles that can adapt and others that cannot, this is bound to present challenges for managers and team leaders and this is part of the reason that hybrid working is testing the resolve of some employers.
Matthew Collington: What do we make of certain companies raising issues about productivity and demanding people return to the workplace? There is no evidence that hybrid working has fundamentally damaged productivity. PM is mostly a factor of two things – the productivity of the organisation and engagement of employees – that is where it really comes together and hybrid working doesn’t change that fundament.
Lauren Homer: Performance management has to be relatable to productivity, but we have to move away from the conventions of the past, we cannot apply a nine-tofive culture to this new working era and the fact that employers are not managing overworking and the resultant stress is an early sign that we need to heed.
Laura Jayne Gordon: Time and measurement are clearly fundamental to business success, the main KPIs. Whether operating in a conventional or hybrid world, the standard measurements for success or concern are still engagement, health, absenteeism and attrition. But there is also an essential element that is often overlooked and undervalued and that is purpose.
Heather Garrett: Author and motivation specialist Dan Pink cites the fundaments of autonomy, mastery and purpose and purpose is definitely high on the agenda, particularly for Gen Z, because they saw their parents trying to juggle work and life obligations and don’t want to repeat. The pandemic made us all pause for thought and increasingly, people are jumping off the hamster wheel.
Louise Tofts: It has been said that the one positive of the pandemic was a new era of work and we must ensure this opportunity to better people’s lives is not wasted. We are in the throes of big and fast change – conventional and generational – and trying to navigate through requires vision, communication and purpose.
Sarah Lee-Boone: We are three years into the biggest change in the working landscape for 100 years and there is no shortcut or quick fix, well planned actions and decisions are essential, to redesign what work means. The direction of travel is irreversible, even if some high-profile businesses demand people back, eventually talent will vote with its feet.
Heather Garrett: As always, it’s quality of leadership that is key and with the managerial role becoming more relational, we need to develop and upskill our managers to cope with all the different nuances of the employment relationship, because it is so much more complex than it used to be.
Sarah Lee-Boone: Big change demands big planning, we have to literally redefine what work means. It’s quite a privilege to be part of a revolution, it’s our time to shine.
Simon Garrity: In general, I think there is a positive mindset about this new era. We all had a shared experience of COVID and this newfound freedom to many, is perceived as some form of solace, a consolation prize. But we need a healthy dose of pragmatism and determination to see it through.
WHAT ABOUT TIME MANAGEMENT AND THE PRACTICALITIES OF HOW LONG A CERTAIN TASK SHOULD TAKE?
Niamh Newman: We’ve implemented various measures for managers, such as lowering chargeability and adjusting expectations around client advisory work. This change emphasises the importance of dedicating more time to team management, as we’ve learned that the manager-team relationship significantly impacts productivity.
Hilary Holder: Our ‘North Star’ has not changed and that is to make our business a great and safe place to work wherever you are, both physically and psychologically. When we manage performance, it’s about output of course, but it’s also about behaviours and values.
Niamh Newman: Performance management models help to set expectations for everybody. They set out, “here are the metrics that you need to meet to be successful here’. However, in environments grown inorganically, from different acquisitions where perhaps not everyone is bought into one culture yet – or there are different interpretations of it – we need to be mindful of other biases that come into it.
Rico Bel: There is that famous phrase “culture eats strategy for breakfast” and for those that have worked in a startup business, that phrase will resiniate. They start off vibrant, innovative, chaotic but friendly and personal, but as they grow, they are forced to professionalise and if they merge or are acquired, they suddenly become very different. Some will remember what it was like before and feel the fun has gone and that’s the reality of business. It’s not without challenges, evolving from a culture fun company to a performance driven company and there needs to be very careful adaption.
Simon Garrity: Pre-COVID, there was an obsession with metrics delivered through AI and the focus of the data was on efficiency, productivity and ROI. It’s interesting that now the focus has switched to other elements of performance, such as culture and values and perhaps this is part of a reconnection with those human elements as the workplace becomes increasingly digital and mechanised.
Louise Tofts: On the trading floors, our traders are constantly connected to live feeds and the competition is, who is top of the leaderboard when trading ceases? Imagine if all employees could see their performance constantly on a screen in real-time?
HOW ARE YOUR MANAGERS ADAPTING TO BUILD TRUST AND PROVIDE THE RIGHT SUPPORT AND GUIDANCE TO PREVENT OVERWORK?
Sara McDonough: It’s important that we’re clear and although I don’t agree with Amazon demanding a return to work, at least its black and-white and in the fulness of time, people will decide whom they choose to work for.
Laura Jayne Gordon: Who we choose as managers and leaders matters more now. Management is no longer about being stoic or technically-skilled, it’s about EQ. Those managers that had strong people skills are thriving, those that did not are becoming increasingly exposed. This will define leadership potential and calibre in the future.
Hilary Holder: Agreed, it’s middle managers that are fundamental to outcome and their EQ is essential. Interestingly, we have a team of mental health first aiders for support – and we train our managers in mental health awareness – and the majority of our people say they are confident in going to their managers.
ARE WE SAYING THAT MANAGERS NEED TO RE-FOCUS ON EQ, RATHER THAN PERFORMANCE AND PRODUCTIVITY?
Louise Tofts: As employers, we have all been promoting and supporting that people bring their whole selves to work. This openness demands a different approach to management, mindful that performance and productivity are still essential to every business. Building trust and relationships is about knowing your people, understanding them and understanding difference and diversity.
Rico Bel: Having grown up in a performance-driven business world, dominated by machismo – I now see how transparency and trust beats stoicism and remoteness for execs. Saying that you are uncertain or struggling with work pressure is not a weakness. It enables people to see that you bleed, just like them and that wins trust and respect. That goes for all aspects of management, but as we are talking about performance, it very much needs to reflect when discussing KPIs and targets.
ACROSS THE ORGANISATION AND CONSIDERING THE DIVERSE ROLES WITHIN, WHAT UNIQUE MANAGEMENT CHALLENGES DO YOU FACE WITH WHITE-COLLAR VERSUS BLUE-COLLAR WORKERS?
Matthew Collington: My experience of HR in factories is a typical scenario – a three 12-hour shift pattern or a four ten hour shift pattern is quite normal. From a productivity and workforce planning point of view, so long as the work and time issues are achievable and the workers can cope, it is an established example of how people’s working week can be compressed. As for white-collar workers, the notion of compressing to a four day week is more complex.
Lauren Homer: I feel that we must not lose sight of what it is businesses are established for, output, productivity and/or services. People management has the dichotomy of meeting more complex employee expectations with business needs and the reality for situations in which remote and flexible working are not practical, there are challenges.
Heather Garrett: Agreed, unavoidably, it’s about context and managers who are capable to work with positives as well as negatives. We are an international school group and a large majority of our people are teachers – they can’t have a flexible work/life balance – but they do have very nice long holidays! That’s the vocation, the life and the proposition in simple terms.
Louise Tofts: Similarly, our people across sales, finance, marketing and HR are all very different in terms of motivations and expectations. They have different KPIs, performance metrics and needs. We’re very standard outside of commission and pay, but our intent is to individualise and with such a wide demographic in our business, it is a sizable undertaking.
Simon Garrity: At Protime, I’m senior in age by comparison to what is a generally very young company. I feel very valued and the trust across the business enables people to manage their own work/life balance. That doesn’t mean performance is not a priority, it very much is.
Rico Bel: This big change and increasing dynamism means team leaders and managers are under pressure and I would urge you to support them on this bumpy journey and do not underestimate the differences across generations.
DO YOU THINK THAT REMOTE WORKING MAKES PEOPLE MORE VULNERABLE?
Lauren Homer: There are elements of vulnerability, because those that are regularly in the workplace will be more prominent and have regular face-to-face human interaction with peers and managers. How can we develop future leaders if they don’t know how to deal with people face-to-face?
Sarah Lee-Boone: We must not underestimate the value in coming into the office to meet colleagues and socialise and collaborate. There is the danger that extroverts will feel they are missing out and introverts will be more introvert.
Laura Jayne Gordon: I have a different perspective, of course we have to be aware of not alienating people, but essentially, remote working can bring greater diversity into a business that will enrich the organisation with their diverse experience and backgrounds.
THERE SEEMS TO BE A DICHOTOMY IN THE TUSSLE BETWEEN A LEVEL OF EMPLOYER PATERNALISTIC SUPPORT AND EMPLOYEE INDIVIDUALISM AND AUTONOMY.
Matthew Collington: I don’t necessarily think the two need to be at odds – paternalistic is a certain connotation – it’s moving away from being a leader that orders what employees do and holds them accountable. These are significant shifts in mindsets and relationships that require consideration.
Lauren Homer: This is where psychometric testing, particularly for people managers, is so important and what is revealing is looking at behaviours in the workplace people’s lives, not just their career record and workplace profile.
Niamh Newman: There are operational challenges – not knowing where people are, what day people are working from home or taking leave. Are your clients going to be served in the same standard as before? It’s important not to stipulate too many rules and except that, until the culture of flexibility is truly embedded, we will continue to see this tussle.
Sarah Lee-Boone: We need to develop and support people to be accountable for themselves when they are working from home, creating a safe space, based on transparency and trust, choice and a practical level of autonomy. This must lead from the top, with senior staff rolemodeling good behaviour, both about their own schedule and that of their staff.
Simon Garrity: Social interaction is something that we all need and the social side is definitely the sell for me with hybrid working. If people are working entirely remotely, encourage them to work occasionally in hubs, which are in most towns now and encourage them to build up a network acquaintances.
Rico Bel: One of the big concerns to emerge over remote working is that colleagues who are present in the workplace often, will be selected for promotion and opportunity. That is going to have to be addressed, if it is happening, because it flies in the face of equality and inclusion. Lest we forget, a culture that encourages regular communication, just to check how people are, can go a long way.
DO YOU SENSE THAT THERE IS WORK/ LIFE BALANCE AND OPERATIONALLY SUSTAINABLE BALANCE TO BE HAD?
Matthew Collington: Research seems to point to a sensible arrangement where most people that can, attend a workplace two-to-three days a week. That seems to be a ratio that all parties can agree to and where connection and autonomy can balance out.
Laura Jayne Gordon: More companies are trying to gain some ground on this ratio and it’s likely to settle more generally at three-to-four. It will be interesting to see what happens and whether the majority will grow accustomed to that as the accepted benchmark.
Matthew Collington: All the indications are that people will vote with their feet.
Simon Garrity: Agreed, nine-to-five was a format that should have been resigned to history a long time ago. Realistically, there’s no going back and HR has to hold the line and champion hybrid and flexible working as the future of work.
WHAT ABOUT ELEMENTS SUCH AS KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERAL, WHEN EXPERIENCED PEOPLE LEAVE?
Lauren Homer: That leans into the cliché water cooler moments and there is a distinct difference between that and the occasional virtual touchpoints. We need to build that into the culture of communication, so that knowledge management can work.
Niamh Newman: We need to build rapport as well as trust between colleagues and teams and that is obviously more difficult through a screen. But these elements are part of the change and we need to develop managers to drive this.
Rico Bel: Definitely one of the most complex aspects of hybrid and remote working is knowledge management and transfer. With regards to the younger people entering the workplace, that really isn’t the concern, in terms of knowledge transfer. Right now, people with irreplaceable experience are leaving in significant numbers because of overwork and that is really disruptive and potentially damaging, if their expertise is walking out with them. The situation is worsening and the big question is why? My opinion is, businesses are trying to achieve massive change by maintaining convention and not adapting.
Matthew Collington: It’s about conveyance of culture and equally, adopting technology to meet the changing needs of hybrid working and that means AI tools, which catalogue and curate skills and knowledge and it is clever enough to realise that people are multi-skilled and are not pigeonholed. This is an area where clearly there is a shortfall, but technology can provide solutions.
Sarah Lee-Boone: This is a massive issue, particularly in large organisations, you don’t always learn from your nearest manager or team member, you pick up information, skills and knowledge constantly, subconsciously. Now there needs to be a more structured process, not just around knowledge share, but succession planning.
Louise Tofts: With technical skills, this is more straightforward than say salespeople, who use emotional intelligence and that is hard to achieve through AI training. Face-to-face with a manager or trainer, they’re able to pick up the nuances that are quite hard to see via technology.
Simon Garrity: In humanistic areas such as sales and customer service, the human quality is so important and typifies the importance of emotion in the workplace and in building business relations. This says to me, let AI in to handle the repletion and provide the time to people to work on those areas of trust, through having the freed-up time for quality interaction. This is where the AI and human synergy must develop to thrive.
HOW DO YOU CURRENTLY MANAGE OVERTIME AND IS YOUR CURRENT SYSTEM EFFECTIVE FOR HYBRID AND REMOTE WORKING?
Laura Jayne Gordon: This points to the discussion point, should productivity be measurable by time? With more traditional shift workers, not much has changed, but with middle managers for example, they could be working more hours, but are they more or less productive? Is a more random work pattern counter-productive?
Lauren Homer: The other important issue is pay. If a shift worker is asked to work overtime to complete an order, they will be paid. But middle managers are expected to complete their work whatever, because of their perceived higher remuneration.
Simon Garrity: This is at the heart of our discussion, the always-on, presenteeism culture. There needs to be a right to disconnect above people feeling compelled to finish tasks at all costs. That goes back to a culture of trust and utilising tech effectively. This also differentiates overtime and flexitime – the latter is about time providing space for people to plan and schedule their own workload, rather than struggling against the clock to hit deadlines. The question is, how do we empower our people to use flexitime effectively? This should be the adult conversation supported by culture of trust and self-responsibility.
Matthew Collington: Autonomy and flexibility, as opposed to flexitime per-se, is more aligned to the modern hybrid setting. I wonder if this will be an issue for the Fair Work Agency as we gather more data and experience about the realities of hybrid working and the various anomalies and dichotomy it reveals? The Danish model is interesting – a country of only three million working people, as opposed to 33 million in the UK – Denmark doesn’t have a National Minimum Wage, but people are paid enough, so that they can make a reasonable contribution to society for the work that they do.
Sarah Lee-Boone: The area of pay and overtime is huge and the legislation is going to change considerably in the next few years, which will bring challenges.
Louise Tofts: In a hybrid working environment, in which people have more autonomy than ever, developing and supporting people to take ownership for their own burnout is fundamental to avoiding stress.
Simon Garrity: Which is why whenever I hear there is a productivity problem, I say to myself, “it’s not, it’s a culture problem.” How we view time in the context of work, has to change – contracts, how people are paid – by the hour/week/’month – will be largely irrelevant and the influence of the youngsters coming into the workplace will force both radical and nuanced changes to the conventions of work, productivity and time.
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