Hybrid working is good for you - Nikki Slowey

High profile detractors of hybrid and remote working are banging their drums to march everyone back to the office. What a pity they don’t understand how far out of step they are with the vast majority of Scottish workers – and employers.

Nikki Slowey, co-founder and director of Flexibility Works

Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he was too distracted by making coffee and eating cheese to work well from home. His Minister for Government Efficiency, Jacob Rees-Mogg, has got the civil service in his ‘back to the office’ sights. Even business magnate Lord Sugar has weighed-in with a tirade of ill-informed comments about home workers and productivity.

Yet our research with more than 1,000 Scottish workers shows the vast majority (84%) either already work flexibly, or would like to. This includes flexibility on time, and how much work as well as location.

What’s more, Scottish workers value flexibility more than salary when it comes to finding a new job. While almost two thirds (63%) of Scottish businesses told us flexible working had a positive impact on their business. Only 7% said it was negative. Seven in 10 (69%) Scottish employers think flexible working can boost the Scottish economy.

This backs up reams of existing academic and real-world evidence that flexible working improves productivity, staff engagement and retention, and reduces sickness absence, as well as making people happier.

The latest comments are an inevitable part of our post-Covid recovery as companies can finally decide for themselves whether they want to keep, or ditch, changes to working patterns made in response to the pandemic.

There will always be differences of opinion. And no one size fits all. But there’s the rub.

Flexible working has to work for the individual, their role, team and their organisation. It will inevitably look different wherever you turn.

Particularly for parents and carers and industries such as retail, healthcare and logistics, where people clearly can’t work from home, flex on hours and how much work is vital. It’s not all about location.

It’s true increased home working, and other forms of flexible working, do create new challenges around nurturing creativity, and training staff, particularly those early on in their careers. We’re in unchartered territory now with employers trying out different solutions. There will inevitably be some bumps in the road.

And we know that implementing flexible working in a way that feels fair to staff working in very different roles can be complicated. Yet our work with companies shows that overall people don’t mind colleagues having different working patterns, so long as they feel the process itself is fair and applied to everyone consistently.

The last two years have been enormously disruptive and incredibly tough on everyone. But for many, increased flexible working has been the silver lining. Demand for flexibility was already high before Covid but it took the pandemic ‘experiment’ to convince many employers it could work. Our research suggests workers will simply vote with their feet if they’re now forced back into rigid ways of working.

Over a third (35%) of Scottish workers are considering changing jobs. Two thirds (64%) say flexible working is a priority, compared with 60% who say salary.

These figures rise among groups including parents and people with a disability. It’s highest among the unemployed.

Simply demanding everyone goes back to the office is exactly the kind ‘one size fits all’ solution that no longer works for people or for business.

Nikki Slowey, co-founder and director of Flexibility Works