We held a virtual staff briefing this month with the executive team. Other than car parking, the subject that dominated the chat box was the issue of home working. My organisation is not unique, in that this area needs further work to enable meaningful engagement with our staff.
The questions called for clarity on the future, in addition to the need for some principles to guide managers in approving individual requests to work at home. Another recurring theme was the perception of fairness among colleagues: those who work from home do not have to commute and there is a perception that homeworking is easier. This is largely due, I would suggest, to policy differences on home working, which in the NHS have been locally led.
Since the onset of the pandemic, in line with national guidance, our trust saw a rapid shift to remote working for many support teams, upending many existing work practices. Tech giant Microsoft (2021), whose software has enabled much of the new remote working, recognised that the pandemic was causing not only a public health crisis, but also ‘technological, social, and cultural disruption’. Looking forward, Microsoft (2021) expects some of those who used to work from offices to continue working remotely and others to adopt hybrid models that will involve a combination of working from the office and working remotely. The current situation presents us with a unique opportunity to:
- Understand the nature of work itself
- Improve remote support for a range of work practices
- Use what we have learnt to date through remote working to improve in-office and hybrid practices.
‘There is an opportunity for the NHS to learn from how other large organisations have developed systematic approaches to the options available to staff’
Although NHS Employers has issued some useful guidance, Enabling and Supporting Staff to Work From Home, the NHS has understandably focused less on a systematic approach to home working and more on the delivery of care to those affected by the pandemic and, latterly, to those whose care was postponed due to the pandemic.
There is now an opportunity for the NHS to learn from how other large organisations have developed systematic approaches to the options available to staff. For example, at the start of the pandemic, researchers across Microsoft came together in a cross-company initiative to co-ordinate efforts, with the goal of understanding the impact of remote work and identifying opportunities to support new working practices. The projects that emerged from the research/fieldwork employ many methodologies, ranging from small-scale, formative interviews with customers to large-scale modelling exercises and even EEG measurements of electrical impulses in the brain. The Microsoft (2021) report outlines findings from a study of over 30 000 people across 31 countries.
Lessons for employers
This research into an extraordinary year, while acknowledging that it is not focused on the health sector, does reveal trends for leaders to consider across the NHS. The content is fascinating, and below is a summary of 10 points to consider:
- Flexible work is here to stay: hybrid work is inevitable
- Leaders are out of touch with employees and need ‘a wake-up call’
- High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce
- Digital overload is real and climbing
- Generation Z is at risk, and will need to be re-energised. This generation is struggling more than other generations
- Shrinking informal networks are endangering innovation
- Teams are more siloed in a digital world
- Authenticity will spur productivity and wellbeing
- A tough year made work more human
- Remote opportunities are more attractive to diverse applicants.
The Microsoft report also explores strategies for a way forward:
- Create a plan to empower people for extreme flexibility
- Invest in space and technology to bridge the physical and digital worlds
- Combat digital exhaustion from the top
- Prioritise rebuilding social capital and culture
- Rethink employee experience to compete for the best and most diverse talent.
In conclusion, for many colleagues, returning to the workplace remains a stressor—life has changed for many—and they are seeking support to be enabled not to return to the same old conditions. Many think they are just as able to fulfil their role from home as they were previously able to do in the workplace. However, this will need to be carefully considered, as I have heard from some staff who have remained in the workplace that they have been picking up additional work to compensate for colleagues' who have been working remotely.
What does appear inevitable, as previously stated, is that hybrid working is here to stay. This means that, as leaders, we must carefully consider any proposed strategies so we can move forward and enable the necessary changes.