“The easiest place to hide is in the office” - prepare yourselves for a future of remote working

Businesses are reacting in different ways to the prospect of a more remote and flexible working culture. Are they adapting effectively? And how does agility impact productivity both in and out of the workplace?“Remote working has had a bad press,” said People Management’s editor, Robert Jeffery, as he opened a panel session timed to coincide with the CIPD Annual Conference in Manchester. “In the popular imagination it’s associated with skiving, lounging around at home.” Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s former CEO, banned it a number of years ago, and the remote and flexible working culture that underpins how many work has still continued to receive regular criticism. But at the same time, as Jeffery put it: “There has been a renaissance in the concept of being agile”. He said agility means having a results-oriented mindset and being more flexible with your working practices – “undoubtedly at its core it’s about facilitating more remote working” – and many more companies are showing an interest.During the panel session, three experts gathered to discuss the challenges and opportunities of flexible working.Blurred linesKsenia Zheltoukhova, head of research at the CIPD, explained that people are changing the ways in which they approach their careers and interact with the working environment. The CIPD conducted a 2014 survey (following one it carried out in 2005) asking a representative sample of UK employees about their career preferences. It revealed that where people used to stay loyal to the same organisation for the majority of their working life, this is now a rarity.The boundaries between our work and personal lives are blurring and both are being defined in new ways. We are seeing a transition away from what Zheltoukhova called a ‘hard line’ – leaving work and not thinking about it entirely – towards a ‘blurred line’ where you might pick up calls or messages at home. “There is pretty much no concept of the work life being separate to the personal life in younger generations,” Zheltoukhova explained.As the definition of work-life balance changes, particularly for young talent businesses are looking to attract, organisations must prepare to adapt. Matthew Collinge, senior enterprise account manager at Adobe revealed that those organisations who accept and embrace the shift are thriving; those that are “hamstrung” by manual and paper-based processes are falling behind. Too busy to change?Zheltoukhova said that “one of the more frequently cited barriers is a focus on ‘in-the-now’”. Our hectic schedules at work and home mean we have no time to rethink the work process to introduce more flexible working.In the CIPD survey, 58% of people said operational pressure was the top barrier to greater workplace flexibility. This came as little surprise. “You could argue [that flexibility] could provide greater benefits in terms of productivity and people’s wellbeing,” said Zheltoukhova. Empowering people through techCollinge said the shift in working expectations has created an experience-led business: “Technology creates an expectation that employees need to be able to interact very much in the here and now. We should be able to do anything, any time, anywhere, on any device.” Collinge stressed that people like to work – and even prefer working longer hours in jobs they enjoy. So it’s important to empower them through technology – “one of the key perks you can offer them” – which is there to help work flexibly and in more time-effective ways.“Technology is rarely a barrier to flexible working,” said Zheltoukhova. “It’s more to do with culture and communications.”Trust the talentZheltoukhova said that people like to have control and structure over their space, working hours and how they work. Employees are actively searching for this flexibility, and their expectations have massively changed. “When asked ‘Why would you work extra hours in the day?’ 14% of people said to match their preferred pace of working… less than two in three people said they were at the same work station all day.”Collinge said that even with people moving around a lot more in their careers you should still do what you can to retain talent: “Create the right environment for employees and ensure they add value.”David Jackson, assistant director of human resources at Manchester Metropolitan University, agreed, and stressed the importance of focussing on the value add and the deliverables, not the inputs.“The easiest place to hide from your boss is in the office. If you are in the office all day, no one questions what you are doing,” he said. “All these assumptions take place – they must be really busy and hard working. When people work remotely, those assumptions don’t take place.”He said the answer lies in developing “adult-to-adult relationships”.“If you don’t want people to act like children, treat them like adults. Trust them to work remotely,” he said. Jackson also credited the ability to offer flexible working for bringing in some of his best talent. “I had people taken significant salary drops to work with me because they are working remotely. I’ve hired better people than I had a right to be able to hire. It cost me nothing – and I have engaged people, high performers. If you’re trying to poach my best people, you’ve got to start high and match what I have on offer in terms of flexibility.”Inconsistencies lead to resentmentZheltoukhova reported that three-quarters of organisations said they provide working from home as an option. Yet only 7% of employees work remotely most of the time, and around half never work remotely. So the number of people who actually take it up is relatively low; it doesn’t work for everyone.But with a quarter of people not thinking they have that option, organisations should be wary of inconsistencies and lack of clarity.“Often, pockets of an organisation will have flexible approaches and pockets won’t,” said Zheltoukhova. “There can be resentment – it can cause a ‘wall’ to come between people who have set hours and those who can choose their hours.”Adapting a range of operational processes, as well underpinning it all with a supportive culture, is crucial. And, as Jackson put it, “if you don’t offer the perks of remote working to people, they will be poached”.This event was hosted in partnership with Adobe. To learn more about Adobe Sign, please follow the link here

“The easiest place to hide is in the office” - prepare yourselves for a future of remote working

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