With 58% of people in the UK believing that working away from the office would help improve their motivation levels, is agile working the new way forward?
Here are a few tips if you’re considering offering agile working to your employees…
- Define agile working
It’s true that agile working can mean different things to different companies. It’s up to you to define an agile working environment. This could include home-working, hot desking or flexible hours. It’s also important to outline new processes such as using technologies and protocols. For example, will you be using monday or Basecamp? Or creating your very own project management system?
- Determine who will benefit from agile working
Not all departments will benefit from agile working – sales, for example, may prefer to stay in-office as they thrive on friendly competition from their colleagues to meet targets. However, creative departments may fare better working out of office as it may encourage them to come up with new ideas as they’ll be situated in a less constrictive location.
- Provide support to agile workers
Agile working can open up some problems – people may be more distracted while working at home, so it affects their productivity. That’s why it’s important to ensure you give regular support to your employees if they fell they’re struggling with working away from the office.
- Talk to your employees personally
Work out whether you want agile working to be an option or compulsory. If it’s the latter then it’s better that you talk to your employees before making the changes, as it could affect their childcare responsibilities or anything else they have going on in their lives. If the changes you want to make are going to affect more than 20 employees and will be made over a period of 90 days or fewer, you’ll need to hold a collective consultation.
- Don’t forget to change contracts of employment accordingly
When you’ve gone through all the necessary consultations with employees, private representatives and trade unions, and everything has been agreed, you’ll need to change the contracts of employment. This should include core hours worked, when they need to attend meetings in person, the fact that they are responsible for ensuring they take rest breaks, ensure their environment is distraction-free and so on.
- Compliance with confidentiality and data protection laws
It’s vital that you ensure all paper and electronic documentation is kept confidential. If staff are using their own laptops you should ensure they have proper malware and anti-virus software installed. All employees must also make sure their passwords are long with multi characters.
A note about formal flexible working or remote working requests
If an employee has been working for you for at least 26 weeks then they have the right to formally request to work flexibly. This doesn’t mean you have to accept it if it will adversely affect your business, but you can’t make them explain why they want to work flexibly.
Got a query about agile working? Contact Alison via email for more information.