It's been a couple of weeks now since the Festival of Work and I’ve now had time to distil all the interesting ideas. Whilst there were a lot of great presentations, and alas some rather thinly veiled sales pitches, for me there were some clear themes that kept coming up, no matter the topic.
Ways of working continue to change as we navigate a working world post lockdown. One thing’s for sure: the traditional Monday to Friday being in an office for the same amount of time as everyone else, is fast becoming the least preferred option of workers and a lot of employers too.
With perspectives changing on what our long-term priorities are, coupled with the swift advancement of technology, (we’re seeing news stories of robots taking over some jobs), the shape of work needs to keep pace. It’s fuelling a movement for work to fit in alongside life, rather than the other way around.
Various studies, including the 4-day work week research conducted by the University of Cambridge has shown, with the right amount of thought and planning, this can have huge benefits to all involved. From an individual level, having more autonomy to do the things we would like to do, as well as working, means that exercise can be incorporated more easily into a workday, time can be spent with loved ones, and opportunities to give back to a local community become a lot more appealing and feasible.
This in turn benefits the workplace; having employees who are more satisfied with life tends to drive higher levels of productivity. The aforementioned study reports 71% lower levels of burnout in those who have a 4-day work week. That’s staggering. It’s not just the time in work that people are talking about though, it’s looking at hybrid ways of working too. Companies are finding alternate ways to train new staff. Yes, it might have been easier in the times gone by to have your workforce all under one roof and communicating face-to-face, but think of the breadth of skills and great people you might be missing out on because of geography. Get creative with alternate ways of creating a water cooler – encourage conversations to become asynchronous. Or why not offer company away days that don’t always revolve around everyone coming to the head office?
Of course, it isn’t a magic bullet, there is an incredible amount of planning needed to create more flexible working, and what works for one company may not be at all appropriate for another. Listen to what is going on out there, don’t be afraid to try something and fail. Learn from it and then attempt something new. One thing that is for sure though - this topic isn’t going away anytime soon.
Skills will always be a hot topic in the world of L&D. Investors in People delivered an entire presentation on this which was so interesting, and threads of what they delved into were definitely present in several of the other talks. There is a growing question around the traditional route of leaving school, getting a degree and then joining the world of work. Is this really the best use of one’s time?
There are jobs that will exist in five years' time that we do not know we need just yet. With continued advances in tech, the core skill we all need more than ever is adaptability. Being able to think flexibly about your own skill set and how it can be applied in other ways, or being unafraid to jump in and reskill yourself in something entirely new, no matter where you are in your career. This way of thinking is paramount.
This would also require workplaces to alter mindsets quite drastically from a hiring perspective. The idea of what a “good” candidate is likely not going to stay the same. There was an idea that was shared more than once in various guises about providing the right onboarding support for your new joiners, and this may also involve a training programme. Similar to the rise in popularity for apprenticeships, there could be the opportunity to build onboarding training which also involves reskilling, upskilling and identifying areas for skilling in a less formal but more ongoing basis.
I’d love to hear your thoughts, has your workplace been experimenting with alternate ways of working?
Steph Charlesworth
Customer Delight Manager