Prepared by Jonathan Smale
Priority Area Description Links to Flexible Working 1. Workforce
planning
Managers are equipped with the skills and competencies to successfully workforce plan to support the organisation to achieve its business objectives and outcomes.
Managers recognise that the workforce of the future will need to be adaptable in its use of workspace and technology, agile in its approach to work and responsive to the needs of our customers.
Managers need to consider how utilising mobile technology to deliver new and more efficient ways of working will impact on resource levels required and where, when and how these resources are deployed. As the concept of ‘work’ in the 21st century
moves further away from ‘a place you go’ towards ‘an activity you do’, managers will be able to utilise a more geographically diverse supply of labour especially in areas where there are skills shortages or hard-to- fill posts.
The current make-up of Merton Council’s workforce is heavily skewed towards the upper end of the employment age spectrum with over 35% of existing employees within 15 years of retirement. The programme will support the provision of flexible retirement options for staff approaching, at or beyond retirement age. It will also provide the modern work environment, working
practices and access to technology to attract younger workers from the ‘networked generation’.
2. Recruitment and retention
Ensure that the
organisation has a clear and effective
recruitment and retention system and plan of key workforce skills and behaviours (including talent management and succession planning).
Investment in up-to-date mobile technology and creative, versatile workspace will help develop a positive reputation as a modern- forward thinking organisation, supporting the attraction and retention of the most highly talented individuals.
Mobile technology provides the ability to access and update e-recruitment systems and online assessment tools in real time from interview rooms/assessment centres.
3. Organisational and workforce development
Managers are equipped with the skills,
competencies and infrastructure (e.g. IT)
True flexible working requires a change in mind-set about how employees do (and view) their work and, as such, is not a technology or property-driven programme
deliver new service delivery models that include flexible working, customer service and the desired
organisational
behaviours. To support this, the council will provide new skills, abilities and
competencies for the workforce including learning and development of key skills for future service delivery.
programme of cultural change.
Flexible working supports the creation of an agile and ‘adaptive’ organisation which adapts to changes in the external
environment as a natural process, not one that has to be forced.
Flexible working better serves the fluid organisational structures and less tightly defined job roles that are replacing the traditional bureaucratic structures and rigid, detailed job descriptions of the past.
Maintaining hierarchical, multi-layered structures will act as a barrier to innovative flexible working practices.
Flexible working also supports cross- disciplinary project-based ways of working, fostering a culture of teamwork and collaborative working across departmental boundaries.
Flexible working both depends on and enables:
- an outcome- focused culture, where performance is based on results achieved rather than hours worked/presence in the office - a management culture of trust and
empowerment rather than ‘command and control’
- a focus on employees as self-disciplined, self-directed individuals who are
personally responsible for their own careers
Flexible working requires, and will help to drive, an overall improvement in the Council’s IT capabilities in order to optimise the use of mobile and flexible technology. Flexible working supports the Councils
Management Competencies project and other leadership initiatives. The need to manage more flexible/virtual teams effectively makes management
competencies such as outcome-focused performance management, coaching, team building, communications, change
management and delegation/empowerment more important than ever.
change, with ‘flexible work options’ that allow staff to adopt work patterns or arrangements that are tailored to their personal requirements.
True flexible working requires a shift from the traditional notion that workspace is assigned to individuals and breaks their link between the workstation and the individual. We need to be mindful of situations where staff have furniture, equipment or
adjustments tailored to a health need which may not enable them to be as flexible in their approach.
Well managed flexible working can reduce sickness absence, for example by giving staff greater control over where and how they work. This could reduce the temptation for staff to come into the office when they are ill and spreading illness to colleagues. Care must be taken, however, to ensure that accessible technology does not put undue pressure on staff to work when they are feeling unwell and need to be resting, or to allow work time to encroach on personal time.
Flexible working fosters an empowered culture where staff have greater
responsibility and control over what they do and how they do it. Research shows that a lack of control is one of the greatest
contributors to work-place stress; therefore flexible working has the potential to increase levels of motivation and employee well- being.
Research by the Health and Safety Executive found that organisational change is one of the most significant causes of work-related stress. As a major change programme impacting on working practices, effective communications, engagement and development in support of the change process will be critical at all stages.