SFE Insight | Reflections from our Ways of Working Report, Gillian MacLellan

Gillian MacLellan, Employment Partner, CMS

When it comes to future ways of working, each organisation is different. So what can we learn from each other?

Last week we launched our Ways of Working report with SFE, bringing together firms from across Scotland’s financial and professional services industry to reflect on and discuss the growth of hybrid working and what it means for employers and employees.

The report reinforced that when it comes to hybrid, we are at a bit of a crossroads. 87% of employers are offering a hybrid option, up from 46% pre-covid-19. While that's a sizeable 41% increase, it’s noteworthy that nearly half of SFE’s members had pre-covid hybrid work policies. This might go some way in explaining why, generally speaking, the industry adapted quickly to homeworking in the early days of lockdown. What has changed, is that hybrid has become standard practice for most employees.

It's when we look at how firms are dealing with this change that we begin to see variation. 36% of employers said they do not require staff to attend the office on a set number of days, while 36% required staff to be in at least three days per week. These findings indicate that no dominant model for hybrid working has yet emerged. Every firm has its own business model and its own strategy. Every firm has its own workforce, which varies in size and location. Every firm has its own clients and customers with different wants and needs. Recognising the diversity between different businesses is a good first step in understanding this variation in responses.

Yet there is pressure on firms to introduce long-term policies that meet changing employee expectations. 81% of employers said job applicants ask about hybrid working approach at the first stage interview, while 77% of employers have seen an increase in the number of applicants from outside of their usual catchment.

So what can firms learn from each other? Here are my key takeaways from the report and our launch event last week.

Carrot vs stick

A key finding in the report that resonates with what I’ve been hearing from clients across multiple sectors, is that firms have been encouraging rather than mandating a return to the office. We heard some excellent examples of what types of ‘carrots’ have been used to entice employees back in to the office from one SFE member at our report launch event, including townhall events, market stalls and a new scheme where staff can buy cheap and healthy takeaway dinners from the canteen. These forms of encouragement are a good way to boost office presence, create stronger culture and support the wider economy.

But what happens when ‘carrots’ alone are not achieving the optimum working model that your business requires? We heard from another SFE member which does mandate a minimum of 60% in the office, and who did not believe it had impacted their staff retention. The trick to succeeding with  a policy of this nature, they said, was removing barriers and ensuring the office was a positive and collaborative space where people wanted to work. This brings me neatly to my next point.

Make the most of your space

We all have days where we simply need to get our heads down, whether we’re getting through paperwork, crunching numbers, or responding to emails. For most people, homeworking works just as well, if not better for completing these types of tasks effectively. But when it comes to things like team-working, knowledge sharing, training and mentoring, the importance of a healthy office culture simply can’t be beaten. Adapting the office to suit these types of working practices is therefore essential for many firms.

We found that 70% of respondents have reconfigured their office space to allow for more collaborative working areas and reduced desk space. For one SFE member, actions included investing in new air conditioning, virtual desktops and lockers, and creating a new hot-desking system designed to provide employees greater flexibility and freedom to collaborate. Other examples we’ve seen include firms dispensing of cubicles and creating new meeting areas with social furniture layouts, and investing in touchless technology and new ventilation to improve office hygiene.

Practice what you preach

One standout insight from our report launch event was the importance of leadership in helping firms to manage the hybrid transition. Leaders are responsible for creating a positive culture within organisations, and the best ones lead by example. With pressure to meet expectations from current and future employees, it’s more important than ever for leaders to heed this old mantra.

For firms with minimum office day requirements, employees want to know that mandates are being applied fairly and consistently, and that senior staff and line managers are playing by the same rules. Employees also want to feel like they are being listened to and that their views are being taken seriously. Employee engagement has become more complex with the growth of hybrid and in order to navigate this, leaders and management must be able to take on feedback while communicating decision making effectively.

 To sum up

These are just some of the insights that have come out of our joint Ways of Working study conducted with SFE and there are more questions around the hybrid transition that need to be explored. For example, do employers continue to pay for extensive office space that is only ever partially occupied? Do they continue to reward based on geographical location when the majority of working time is being spent at home?

One thing that’s clear is that there is a real opportunity here to make the future of work more flexible, more collaborative and more productive for everyone. There has been considerable progress made since the pandemic, but reaching the next stage of the hybrid transition will require further knowledge sharing and thought leadership. We see this survey as the start of an important sector-wide conversation on ways of working, and we’re looking forward to being a part of this conversation as things continue to progress in 2023.