1. Emma Edgeley – Long Business Change Officer
Smart Working
Emma Edgeley – Long
Business Change Officer

2. What do we mean?
Flexible?
Agile?
Smart?
We are empowering employees to work where, how and when they choose, to maximise their productivity and deliver the greatest value to the business

3. What is involved?

4. What are our drivers?
Being able to meet the demands of the customer more effectively
Opportunities for developing value via increased employee productivity and loyalty
Improved work/life balance
Accommodation – making workplaces fit for 21st century whilst reducing on premise costs
Tri council partnership – success

5. How do we achieve it? Buy in from senior management
Managers need to be enabled, encouraged, supported and motivated to successfully manage flexible arrangements
Teams need to be aware of how other people/ teams work and good practice championed
People need to spend time talking about agile and share experiences of all employees whether office, home, remote working
Some people want, like, need and are more comfortable/ used to being governed by rules around work hours and will require coaching /mentoring support and skills
Working hours/arrangements need to be aligned to improve and support a range of flexible practice i.e. - toil, flexi

6. “Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so”
Measuring our success
“Measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so”
– attributed to Galileo
Managers are used to managing people they can see, where as they should focus their efforts on managing business objectives and outputs
However performance management needs to be innovative (not all roles are equipped to quantify outputs)
Clear performance measures help us to understand what we need to achieve and how this will be evaluated
Monitoring can be destructive if badly applied
We need to move to a trust based system. Is it better to be descriptive rather than defining actual measures?
Command and control days have gone
Performance measures should take account of customer expectations and organisations goals
People need to be accountable

7. Managing Cultural Change
Championing good practice and embedding it in our culture
Dispel inaccuracies such as:
Team work demands increase
Charter to skive
Flexible working is asking for a favour
Engaging with new working practices norms
We need to make people more accountable and managers more enabling
Develop of a culture of trust
Do you feel trusted?
Do you trust your staff? If not how do you remedy this?

8. Staff Feedback People Team collaboration is of upmost important
Potential for loss of knowledge gained by being in the office
Will feel isolated working alone
Will core hours be removed?
Need the trust of managers to work from home
How to best manage performance
Staff left in office will have to take more phone calls
Equipment
What equipment will be given to work at home?
What are the DSE implications for working at home?
There is not enough space for me to work at home
Who will pay for the increase bills if working at home?
Broadband – my infrastructure is not good enough
Broadband – Will have to upgrade contract to accommodate usage, who will pay?
Will require IT Support for set up at home and during non-core hours
Processing
How will printing work, will it become centralised?
Paper records still used, I will need to access them
How will telephones been managed if I am at home?
How will I attend meetings if I am at home?
Pool car system – will not work with flexible working
I do not know what the new technology looks like so it is hard to visuals working smarter.
IT and processing can be remedied relatively easily
How do we manage our people?
Business Change Programme – preparing 50% of workforce to work in new ways with less reliance upon the Nordon office
Working with teams to move forward – trialling different options so on day one we can hit the ground running

9. Timewise Pilot
Timewise - The pilot is designed to develop a toolkit of resources and skills.
The accreditation is based upon the Council/s having an improvement plan in progress by April/May 2015 which will be designed to:
Assist employers to attract and retain people who have a diverse range of skill, knowledge and experience
To promote improved workforce flexibility in local businesses.
Other councils participating in the pilot are: Carlisle City Council; Stoke-on-Trent City Council, Leicestershire County Council and Enfield and Waltham Forest Council.

10. What are the benefits? Attraction and retention of staff
A leaner and more responsive organisation
Greater knowledge sharing and resilience
Greater input into work / Ownership of working style and routine
Greater job satisfaction
Reduced stress levels and wasted time
Reduction in accommodation costs
Reduced dependency on office premises
Reduced travel time
Reduction in CO2 output
Good for employer, employee, tax payer, environment

11. Group Discussion and Feedback
Measuring Performance
Managing Cultural Change
Communicating Effectively
Accommodation and Technology

12. Measuring Performance Feedback from CMT 16/12/14
How are we measuring now?
Articulate how we measure in future
Identify team ‘outputs’
Quantity
Quality – Customer Satisfaction
Speed
Identify customer expectations and publish new standards
Telephone enquiries – call backs
Appointments system
Standards – revisit what they are
Streamline
Analyse your business requirements
Develop productive work programmes

13. Accommodation and Technology Feedback from CMT 16/12/14
Communication Black holes
Mobile
Broadband
Need to map these areas
Officer Reports
Information from providers
What technology do teams require/define functions requirements:
Flexible contracts
Just text or more complex req?
Sometimes people need to work together
Development of staff, mentoring
Some work processes need people working together (accuracy)
Ability to make decisions must be clear
Schedule contact time

14. Managing Cultural Change Feedback from CMT 16/12/14
Demands trust in employers from managers and vice versa
We all need to understand the psychology of working differently
People need to understand a new way of working
Feelings of threat (change) arising from different ways of working
Is it mandatory?
More effective communications e.g. from office to home
Risk workforce feel they are being manipulated to meet customer and councils demands (24/7, accommodation)
Threat to performance if not done right
Office working does not dictate successful performance
Fears of isolation

15. Communicating Effectively Feedback from CMT 16/12/14
Many staff are currently working flexibly, need to communicate this
Need to set and manage expectations
Establish what will be provided/paid for
Need to set expectations on policies and standards
Need to sell the benefits to combat reluctance or resistance