When we started the trial, we put in place a number of measures to help track and understand its impact, both at an individual and organisational level. This included monthly staff surveys, regular line manager check-ins, and interviews for each staff member with an independent HR consultant at the start and mid-way point in the trial.
Halfway through, we're already seeing that staff are adapting and feeling the benefits of the new ways of working. At the start of the trial, only 38% said their work-life balance was good. Our surveys are now showing that 100% of staff have seen an improvement with 63% of staff saying their work-life balance has ‘increased significantly’.
Staff have said that the trial has allowed them more time to focus on their life outside of work whether that be to spend more time with friends and family, rest, volunteering or long weekends away. We’ve also received positive feedback about how the new patterns of working are helping people feel more productive:
I'm so much happier as a result [of having additional time].
One month in I feel I've had to adjust to the new working pattern, but can already see an improvement in productivity and think it'll only (hopefully) get better as it continues.
During the trial, we’ve also been just as busy! We hope that events like the Autumn Conference in November are a testament to how we can still deliver to our members and London’s communities, while testing these different approaches to how we work and we’re pleased to have received so much positive feedback from members on the conference:
A superb conference. I came away from there buzzing and filled with so much insight. Absolutely fantastic – well done to the whole team.
It was the conference of the year. A really fantastic format, excellent content and contributors and the right balance of input and engagement.
However, we also knew we wouldn’t get everything right straight away. At the start of the trial, there was feedback from some staff that maintaining working relationships felt more challenging, so we’ve worked hard to think about how we use our time together in the office and streamline some of our processes. The trial has been a great way to create the space and time to test, listen and adjust as needed.
We’re also learning things that we don’t yet have immediate solutions for. For example, we are aware some of our part-time staff have had a different experience from our full-time staff, so we are thinking about how we can address that and ensure the same benefits are felt throughout the whole team should this become a long-term way of working.
But there have been some areas where we have been able to make changes to the trial more immediately following responses from the team. The split between time spent in the office and at home was one area where we’ve made changes in response to feedback. Before the trial, 60% of our time was office-based, with one ‘core day’ for the whole organisation. For the trial, this increased to two ‘core days’ and a third ‘floating’ day, but some staff told us this wasn’t always very useful, as it meant their office days didn’t always now coincide with those of colleagues. Taking this on board, we’ve shifted to having two ‘collaboration days’ a month in addition to our core days. These are planned at the start of each month through our regular meeting structures and are focused on what you’re working on, and most importantly who you need to work with to make it happen. Some of these collaboration days involve functional teams, whilst others may be more cross-cutting where larger projects need the time and skills of different colleagues.
What’s next?
We will be monitoring how things go as we head towards the latter part of the trial. So far, the results feel positive, but we are still eager to learn everything we can about the impact on staff and the organisation. We are also thinking through the implications should trustees approve this as a longer-term position. One of the most important things for me so far has been creating the space and willingness to adapt and improve. We look forward to updating you on the final stage in due course, and remember, if you’re piloting or considering flexible ways of working we’d love to share our learning so please get in touch –grace.perry@londonfunders.org.uk
