Remote working
LISTEN TO OUR PODCAST – Richard Plaster from Law at Work and David Bailey from RBC to discuss the all-important topic of remote working. Their conversation includes: the different terms in use, the role corporate culture has played in the transition, managing performance and productivity, and more. It’s certainly not a discussion to miss.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that remote working can be adopted successfully on a much larger scale than previously thought. Working remotely doesn’t have to be full-time arrangement, part-time remote working can be balanced with more standard days in a central workplace. Establishing a new ‘hybrid’ solution can provide long-term benefits to your company, your employees and your community.
This Remote Working Toolkit is a free resource for companies who want to establish a ‘new normal’ way of working, providing guidelines, downloads and inspiring case studies to help you shape the best remote working solution for your business.
What are some of the benefits?
- Supports business continuity
- Increases employee recruitment and retention
- Uses your workspace more efficiently and could help to save money
- Contributes to your environmental goals
- Reduces the commute time, costs and stress for your team
- Helps employees balance work and home life more easily
- Increases employee productivity and job satisfaction
This Toolkit includes:
- The difference between remote working and flexible working
- Checklist to prepare for and implement remote working
- Top tips for managing remote working
- Managing the wellbeing and resilience of your staff
- Duty of care and your legal responsibility
The difference between remote working and flexible working
“Remote working” and “flexible working are two terms on everyone’s lips. At the moment, they are being used almost interchangeably but they are two different concepts.
As businesses transition to find the best working model for their team and service, it’s important to understand the difference.
Remote working, or working from home, is a work arrangement that allows employees to perform their usual job duties at an approved alternative location. Employees can work on a full or a part time basis from a remote worksite including their home, a shared workspace or an alternate work location, within guidelines set out by their employer.
Flexible working, often known as ‘flexitime’, is a work schedule arrangement in which employees continue to work a full day but with varied work hours outside the typical nine-to-five workday. Flexible arrangements are usually established with guidelines from the employer, including a set range of start and end times and, if required, core working hours when all staff must be working.
Flexible work schedules allow employees to balance their work and home commitments and to work the hours when they feel most productive. Many companies will have flexible working policies with staff contracts that outline the procedures for requesting and formalising a flexible working solution with an employee.
Toolkit to implement remote working
Below are the key steps you should take to implement it, along with tools and templates to help.
Implementing and managing your remote working arrangements is essential. In larger organisations this will often be overseen by an HR team, with input and guidance from IT and senior leadership, however, for smaller companies, identifying one person to lead and co-ordinate activity is advisable.
It’s useful to find out how your staff are feeling and their levels of desire to engage in or continue with some form of remote working. It can also highlight if there are any ongoing challenges that you might need to factor into your plans.
You need to ensure the necessary technology is in place to allow for continued remote working and your plans align with your company policies on data storage and security. Consider creating guidelines around remote computer access, availability of equipment, communications tools and virtual meeting programmes.
It’s important to understand the rights and responsibilities of both employer and employee when working remotely. Review your policies and contracts for:
- Insurance
- Data protection
- Health and safety
- HR
Richard Plaster, Executive Director at Law at Work has compiled a fact sheet outlining the items to consider on remote working including contracts, employees wishes, supervision, liability and location.
Creating guidelines helps to clarify roles and responsibilities and establish parameters. Some businesses avoid introducing formal policies for remote working, preferring to keep the option more flexible than the contractual flexible working options.
RBC have kindly put together guidelines to Building Remote Working and an editable Way of Working team charter for you to work with. The guidelines ask you what you need to consider, how to be an effective team while working remotely, what are the guiding principles for effective team work, your approach and what tasks will ensure a smooth transition with maximum engagement from your employees.
Put in time to present the new guidelines to your team and follow up by sending out the guidelines. Also have them available for future reference in a shared folder or intranet. Transparency is key to a successful programme. Provide the opportunity for staff to follow up with you on a 1-1 basis if they have any individual queries.
Royston Guest hosts this webinar on how to lead remotely and it comes with a checklist to help leaders through to process on how to lead remotely effectively and productively.
Jersey Post recognised the need pivot and to provide a more flexible way of working, where employees have the choice to meet their own particular circumstances but continue to meet the needs of the business. To achieve this, Jersey Post chose to invest in change. We’ve put together a case study on how Jersey Post achieved this.
Jersey Post case study: Communicating the change to remote working
Effectively managing remote workers is vital to the success of introducing this new way of working. Provide training for all your people to outline the technology tools, company policies and guidelines and expectations for working remotely. You might also need to support your managers and leaders with specific development on managing remote teams.
As an employer, you have a duty of care to your employees. Whilst this covers things like providing a safe working environment, it’s not just about creating a physically safe place to work. It’s important to also consider how to protect your employees’ mental health.
Active Chiropractic have written a blog giving their top tips for improving physical and mental wellbeing when working from home.
Ironing board desks and kitchen chairs – as Covid-19 rates rise, many of us are WFH again
You can also find additional information in our Wellbeing section.
By evaluating the programme you’ve put into place, it’s more likely to succeed. The best way to gather feedback is by talking to your team, conducting focus groups and an annual staff and manager survey to determine the impact of introducing remote working. You could include questions about communication; technology; teamwork; productivity and morale.