It came from nowhere and caught us out. The overnight shift to full-time remote working was tough.
Business owners and HR departments across the country faced the highs and the lows of this unknown head-on reacting the best they could.
Eighteen months have passed and I hear and read of HR departments that are exploring full-time remote working, or suggesting a return to the office on a full-time basis.
Such a rigid approach is, in my mind, short sighted. Time needs investing in assessing the benefits of hybrid working.
This is a once in a generation opportunity to affect positive change across business, taking a pro-active person-centred approach by adapting and providing flexibility to peoples lives whilst clients and stakeholders remain accepting and understanding to the bumps in the road that will (inevitably) come with this.
It’s time to re-imagine how business runs. Guardianship isn’t about protecting the way it has always been done, it is about progressing the business to safeguard its long-term future.
I don't see the sense in sending everyone back just for the sake of them being there. Its time to be creative and adapt a more collaborative and social approach to employee-employer face-to-face interactions and listening and responding to what they say.
I read how we should champion HR and the struggles human resource professionals went through during the pandemic in reacting to change. I couldn’t disagree more. The cliques who write this stuff are likely the same folk that pushed back against the real workplace changes of the 90s and 00s because it took away their seat at the table just as the good biscuits were being passed around.
I smile when I hear an employee group is finding their voice. I'm proud my clients are listening to their people.
If you want to retain your existing talent whilst attracting the next generation you have to engage with an open mind and be prepared to adapt both policy and approach.
Hybrid working is here to stay.