You are currently reading Issue 55: Agile Working, May 2016
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Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

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Ending Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5 for a more fruitful digital economy – Jacqueline de Rojas, Area Vice President, Northern Europe, Citrix

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Jacqueline de Rojas is President of techUK alongside her role as Area Vice President for Citrix in Northern Europe, working to help people and businesses to work anywhere, anytime and on any device. She is also a Non-Executive Director of the Home Retail Group PLC. Jacqueline studied European Business at Middlesex University.

Jacqueline de Rojas - Citrix
Jacqueline de Rojas

“…Organisations can’t keep going through the motions of a flexible working policy without making the essential changes to culture. With many companies still measuring dedication on face-time, it’s important that business leaders lead by example to truly encourage a working-anywhere culture…”

What a way to make a living

Working nine to five used to be the way to make a living. But this changed two years ago, when all UK workers were given the legal right to request flexible working. The daily routine of commuting to a fixed place of work was uprooted, providing greater opportunities for companies to accommodate a greater number of personal situations and working patterns.

Since then, there have been innumerable studies professing the benefits to individuals of mobile working, citing the potential for a greater work-life balance, better productivity and overall improvements to workers’ personal health and wellbeing.

For organisations, there is also the potential to engage a far greater workforce: whether its mothers who need their job to accommodate them picking up their kids from school, or those with long term illnesses or disabilities who are unable to make the office commute every day. There is also the opportunity to significantly reduce corporate real estate costs. Indeed, BT successfully reduced its office space by 40% – saving €725 million a year – thanks to its flexible working project, BT Workstyle.

Less-is-moreThere are also clear macro benefits to flexible working. Indeed, a more flexible workforce could reduce the number of commuters at peak periods, decentralise the economy through engaging more rural workers, and even has the potential to significantly boost the UK’s GDP and economic output.

Most importantly, there’s significant support amongst workers. Shortly after the legislation was announced, 94% of UK knowledge workers polled said they would work from home for about two days per week if they could.

However, wind on to 2016 and we’re certainly not there yet. And while there has been great progress, large hurdles still remain that we need to overcome before we can hold up Britain as a flexible working beacon.

The ‘tipping point’ for flexible working

Benchmarking how far we have come, new research – commissioned by Citrix and carried out by Lancaster University’s The Work Foundation – has found that from next year working away from the office will become more common than the traditional 9am – 5pm working day.

Most interestingly, the paper also predicts that by 2020, over 70% of organisations will adopt mobile working.

This is all very encouraging, especially given that flexible working is so important to me personally. However, there are still a number of – largely cultural – challenges preventing the widespread uptake of working from anywhere. For example, more than a third (37%) of managers believe flexible working will result in them working longer hours, one in five (22%) say it makes them feel disconnected from their team and 28% felt it could block them from overseeing the work of others. A quarter (24%) of managers also admitted that all work is still currently carried out on their company premises.

Knocking down the cultural barriers

So how do we address these issues to foster a culture where mobile working is both accepted by employees and successful for the organisation? Well, to me, flexible working is most profitable when the benefits to the organisation and the individual are aligned – and defined as a formal agreement.

The Work Foundation study also suggests the most successful forms of mobile working requires three key commitments:

  1. Leadership: Chief Executives and board members should set an example with their own approach to mobile working and wellbeing. In doing so, they should set out to lead cultural change in which employees are measured on outputs rather than visibility – building trust across the organisation.
  2. A new approach to people policies: More than half of workers believe the adoption of mobile working would require changes to terms and conditions and performance management. These policies should be transparent and visibly agreed with staff, with focus on outputs and outcomes rather than ‘presenteeism’ and hours worked.
  3. Careful planning: The introduction of new technology and ways of working takes time, careful planning and implementation. It is critical to ensure that individuals are comfortable with their technology and recognise individual preferences.

Organisations can’t keep going through the motions of a flexible working policy without making the essential changes to culture. With many companies still measuring dedication on face-time, it’s important that business leaders lead by example to truly encourage a working-anywhere culture.

It’s also important that companies deploy the right technology which provides seamless, fast and secure access to the work network to ensure that remote workers are as productive as their office-based peers.

We are on the edge of a work-based revolution that could not only improve the lives of employees, but also enhance business performance and provide cost-savings as well. We are at a tipping point, and we must ensure that we focus and rally support to create a wider business culture that allows everyone to achieve their potential – no matter where they’re based.

 

http://www.citrix.com/

https://twitter.com/citrixUK

https://twitter.com/JdR_Tech

https://www.facebook.com/Citrix

https://www.linkedin.com/company/citrix

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