Resigned to it?

Resigned to it?

At the outset of the pandemic who could have predicted the journey and where we would be two years later?

With many professionals in the second quarter of 2020 adjusting to working from home, remote working enforced by the lockdowns, parents juggling jobs with childcare and home-schooling, many workers also taking on caring responsibilities and a whole “new normal” emerged.

Although initially there were teething issues around working from home, the world of Zoom introduced workers in their swathes to the pros and cons of conference meetings and the new meeting opening lines of “Hello, can you hear me? Can you hear me now? “.

People worked from their kitchens, spare rooms, under the stairs, anywhere they could set up their laptops. For some it proved challenging being away from the hustle and bustle of office life and missing the human interactions of coffee or water cooler chats. Whilst for others it was a welcome relief from the tiring daily commute which allowed them more family time along with an appreciation of what they had been missing out on. There is no denying we all learned much and reflected on quality of life going forward.

Thus the Great Resignation was born, workers reassessed their lives, their work, their legacy and some decided it was time for change. Many reasons have been presented for the Great Resignation – from people wanting a healthier work/life balance to those who decided to look for better opportunities/rewards elsewhere.

Even prior to the Pandemic recruitment firms and employers had highlighted the skills shortage they were facing, especially in the Technology and Healthcare sectors, and so the great resignation has increased those issues further leaving employers scratching their heads wondering how to not only retain their existing talent, but also how to attract new talent in a market where suddenly employees are holding significantly more cards along with a bolder mindset.

With the many benefits including reports of increased productivity from working remotely and flexibly it would foolish for employers to not harness the lessons we are learning.

So what are the options employers are considering? Firstly, the acceptance that some kind of more flexible model of remote working is now here to stay and that the 5 day office based week may well be an exception rather than the norm. Hybrid models are increasingly listed on job adverts, flexible working they say will be considered. Indeed the Government published papers in late 2021 set to allow employees to request flexible working arrangements as a day one right when starting a new job, whilst currently employees must wait 6 months before they can submit a request. Employers would also have to respond faster than the current maximum of 3 months as well as providing an explanation if the request is denied. Other options include compressing work hours, reviewing reward and recognition and trials into a 4 day week.

At the end of 2021, according to Timewise, only 1 in 4 jobs were being advertised as flexible, the reasons are probably complex including understanding what types of flexible the employers and sectors can offer, which will also require a change in culture as well as training for managers on how to rethink work to be more flexible.

We recognise that introducing the changes to introduce different flavours of “flexible” require changes in mindset and culture and this is why we believe by introducing a flexi-consultancy we take baby steps towards rethinking and redesigning work projects to facilitate those people who require a greater degree of tolerance around working hours and working remotely.