What is Dynamic Working?
Dynamic Working describes working arrangements in which the working location and to some degree the working pattern that staff operate under are flexible from week to week.
Typically staff who are Dynamic Working will work the majority of their time from campus but will also spend one or more days a week working from their homes. They may also on occasion vary the times of day that they work to suit their own and or business needs, although the total hours worked should remain as before.
Why have we introduced Dynamic Working?
During and since the pandemic, staff have done a tremendous job under very difficult circumstances.
Whilst the experience of remote working has been challenging in many ways there have also been many benefits reported by both our staff and the wider workforce particularly around the ability to achieve a better work/life blend.
As have now moved to a stage where staff are not required to work from home, we wish to retain the benefits achieved through remote working whilst bringing our staff back onto to campus to make sure we generate the vibrant and welcoming atmosphere that we are famous for.
For this latter reason we have set an expectation that most of our staff whose roles lend themselves to Dynamic Working will work from campus for the majority of their time.
Before implementing the Dynamic Working arrangements we consulted extensively with staff and generated a set of guiding principles which have informed the arrangements put in place.
What Benefits do we aim to achieve?
Dynamic Working will help to drive our aspirations in the following areas:
- A reduction in our Carbon Footprint
- A focus on sustainability and our role within it
- Cost savings in our estate for deployment elsewhere
- Enhanced efficiency and effectiveness in our operations
- Increased staff engagement and retention
How are we approaching Dynamic Working?
Dynamic Working is being handled through informal arrangements between managers and their teams. This allows us to have the flexibility to adjust the arrangements to suit individual and business needs and to means the arrangements can be more easily modified if they are not working optimally.
What is the plan for Dynamic Working going forward?
We are taking a phased approach. In the first phase Dynamic Working arrangements are being implemented to see how well they work.
We are currently running a pilot in the Hazlerigg & Rutland buildings to look at how hot-desking arrangements and meeting room use will work for staff undertaking Dynamic Working.
Once we have established settled patterns of Dynamic Working and understood from the pilot what works for people, we will move forward to gradually roll out arrangements to rationalise the space that is freed up by Dynamic Working.
This will take time and further pilots are likely to be undertaken as part of the process. This rationalisation of space is critical to allow us to meet out aspirations around sustainability and estate cost reductions.