Homeworking is set to change businesses for good
Since the pandemic, working life has changed for ever, meaning that reducing costs, increasing productivity and boosting staff wellbeing are all possible.
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These twin issues (WFH and Office space) have been on the agenda for many since well before Covid ... indeed I started 'playing' with permutations back in 2008 (for probably obvious reasons).
As so often, initial conclusions were hardly startling - including:
* Individual welcoming / suspicion of WFH was strongly correlated with personality type (i.e. not just the more obvious type of work);
* Productivity gains from WFH were closely aligned with type of work (individual vs team based), and less so with seniority;
* Use of technology as an alternative to face-to-face interaction was seen as a poor substitute (verging on antagonistic) as a direct correlation with age.
[There were loads of other findings, some more / some less interesting].
BUT the 'fun' started when trying to create a single 'solution' that took into account all these non-complementary factors.
The closest we got (before Covid descended) was triggered when I noticed the coincidence that we were (like so many) trying to achieve an 80% re-charge rate - and that represents 4 days out of a standard working week.
So ...
* Senior staff were ordered to WFH for 4 days/week AND to spend a pre-scheduled 1 day/week in the office - and told to target achieving 100% re-charge whilst WFH (taking into account time saved from not commuting and freedom from interruptions), but to focus exclusively on the needs of office-based staff when in the office (i.e. no shutting the door and sneaking in a bit of their own work).
* Junior staff were encouraged to seek assistance/support 'on tap' from Senior Staff (who could choose to apportion their efforts as they saw fit between individual mentoring / specific problem resolution / mini-workshops or whatever).
The theory was that the most junior (and typically young) appreciated the camaraderie of being part of a team and being able to get help when needed, whilst the most senior were most productive when not being interrupted and enjoyed the freedom to share knowledge when not conflicted.
This was already looking promising when Covid descended, which fortunately didn't have any major instant impact as we'd already sorted out all the technology (without Cloud apps!), but before we'd worked out a policy/procedure for staff moving between obviously 'junior' and 'senior'.
I'll stop there before this becomes longer than the article (although there's a lot of permutations of the details that will affect different organisations in different ways)!
Not just junior staff.
On 1st March we sold our commercial agency , the owner effectively retired and his two staff have left for the new employer's office under TUPE. Whilst I work mainly for a different property business the agency acted for us and for years they shared our office, so I had generally three others in the office to chat with etc for all these years, and back when younger the owners also came in most days so there was another two to add, a happy family of six, plus lots of meetings- lawyers, architects, surveyors , contractors etc back when we developed as well as invested.
Now, the dust nearly settled (we give up old office end April),I am sat here alone in this really nice office( 950 sq ft for one person and our paper based records) with stunning views over the water at The Shore , Leith, cafes and bars on the doorstep etc etc, very cosmopolitan.
However I am now just nipping out to see if I can get my hair cut on Easter Monday- (not so much of a holiday up here)- is this me seeking some human contact / speaking with someone not over the phone. (I did deal with Vodafone this morning on phone for 1.5 hours but not a lot of talking, most of that time on hold)
Whilst I worked happily alone at home when I had the practice I could at least pop down and see the family to break the day, I do find this office solitude a little wearing.
As Gary Neville said in another context ‘hard work will beat talent if talent doesn’t work hard’. For those of us who have to work hard to keep up, the attitude of many of the more able allows us to go further than we first thought possible.
Good for us as individuals less so for the profession or the country as a whole.
We are 100% remote so obviously this is my preferred approach.
A lot has been made of the difficulty of training remotely but I suspect that it is the partners who are struggling as new trainees have had 2 years of remote education so are quite capable of learning this way rather than sitting in a physical office outside their manager’s door. I have yet to take on a new trainee so I may be proved wrong but I see remote training working well in other types of business.