Guest blog: The way we work now - time to come off the see-saw. By Susan Clews, Chief Executive, Acas
/The debate around hybrid working can polarise opinion, with many recent surveys indicating that while employees tend to prefer one way of working, employers expect another.
We naturally feel more comfortable with winners and losers in these kind of debates. Imagine a see-saw. If all the weight of research and practice points to working from home being best for productivity and wellbeing, then it has its feet firmly rooted to the ground. Office working is left stranded with its feet dangling in the air.
What we have at the moment is a slight impasse – for example, research last year from The Centre for Economic Policy Research found that while 20% of workers want to work at home five days a week, another 20% want to work rarely or never from home.
For many, the ideal compromise is hybrid working, but for others this simply means that neither homeworking or office working are truly effective.
What do we do?
Here are my three pieces of advice:
1. Focus on interests and not positions
Acas advisors are very well versed in the difference between interests and positions. The trick is to focus on the former, what’s really driving someone’s requests, rather than the latter, the rather fixed position people often adopt to get what they want.
We are often told that employees’ interests are best served by positive wellbeing and good work-life balance, while employers’ interests rely upon high productivity and the ability to manage staff efficiently. Of course, there is no reasons why these interests aren’t compatible. A survey from CIPD suggests that 41% of employers believe flexible working actually increases productivity, compared to 18% saying it has a negative impact. And let’s not forget that mental health campaigners have been focussing on the need for work to provide a greater sense of community in order to tackle the blight of loneliness.
2. Build your own evidence base
Staff surveys will tell you what staff need. And your customers will tell you what they need. During the lockdown Acas adopted homeworking virtually overnight and it worked for us. Now we are taking a blended approach because it suits our business model and our customers.
If the critical data concerns productivity and wellbeing, as it often seems to, then ask yourself how these are measured and if your understanding of them has changed? Productivity is not merely the time people sit at desks and wellbeing is not all about walks in the park. As a leader you don’t have to follow trends but, equally, why ignore new, innovative ways of doing business?
3. “Hybrid working doesn’t work be accident”
This is a quote taken from the Institute for Employment Studies report ‘Lessons from Lockdown. No Going back’. The real lesson here is that no change is going to be successful without the planning stage. The pandemic required many organisations, Acas included, to be creative and spontaneous with the way it worked. Now is the time for reflection and reviewing what worked well and what didn’t. For example, have all-day office meetings been replaced by all day zoom meetings? Has the fun gone out of online quizzes? Do staff still cherish the extra time they have with family and friends?
Every experience will be different. Whatever you do, weigh up the evidence with staff, managers and unions and engage in genuine consultation. That way, preferences and expectations will start moving closer together.
Friday 20th May is National Work from Home Day, but I hope this won’t spark a see-saw argument about office working versus homeworking. Instead, let’s have a deeper conversation about what all types of working patterns have to offer. You can read the Acas advice here.
