Six weeks ago we kicked off a short piece of discovery work to help us better understand how our colleagues are adapting to remote working across distributed teams. Over the past month or so we’ve been meeting with teams to discuss their dynamically created remote working strategies; the challenges they’ve faced, the opportunities they’ve grasped and the tools they’ve been using to deliver their services remotely during lockdown.
The objective of our work was simple. We wanted to derive valuable design insight which can be taken forward by the business and used to support the development of sustainable strategies for the future of work. Design insights form the foundation stones of our design and innovation work because they act as a catalyst for problem definition, idea generation, prototypes, tests and pilots.
It’s worth saying upfront that our sample group wasn’t scientifically selected. We spoke with colleagues who had either actively reached out to us or who we had reached out to ourselves having seen or heard something interesting in a post they had shared on Yammer or during the course of our day to day work with them. Whilst our observations might not, therefore, be inclusive of every colleague, we are confident that they are indicative. And that’s OK because the way we use our design insights is as starting points for further key lines of inquiry; validating them through the iterative process of design. We don’t need to have all of the answers now, we just need just enough design insight to make a start.
During our conversations, we’ve talked with colleagues on a range of issues, including:
Steep learning curves for colleagues not used to working from home;
Rapid deployment of IT hardware and telephony to colleagues;
Trust-based relationships when the traditional 9 - 5 disappears;
Adapting to a new style of leadership;
Becoming agile;
Adapting to the loss of human contact;
Re-writing the rules on what will and won’t work.
No travel between offices, but achieving the same or better outcomes;
The importance of keeping in touch with each other;
Becoming more social;
Noisey WhatsApp groups;
The loss of serendipity;
Being able to switch off when you live at the office;
Zoom fatigue;
And, staying positive in uncertain times.
We’ve recently synthesised our observations into a set of design insights which sit under 6 key themes:
Home-working
Leadership
Learning
Environment and sustainability
Communication
Mindset
We’ve found that whilst technology is often the focus of any discussion around working remotely, it’s actually the working culture that can mean the difference between thriving or surviving. We’ve also discovered that at least two of our teams have pivoted their service offer. Our Learning and Development team have migrated their training programmes online; shorter, more focused sessions are proving popular and effective with training colleagues and colleague delegates alike. Our Localities colleagues have also adapted to using a range of communication methods to engage with our customers and stakeholders; carrying out property viewings with customers via Zoom to joining partnership meetings with Local Authorities and other stakeholders via Skype. Across the organisation, teams have been flexible with their processes in order to do the best for their customers. Many of our Customer Contact Centre colleagues have embraced working from home for the first time, busting perceptions about what is and isn’t possible and our engineers are embracing the challenges of physical distancing to deliver a range of emergency repairs to help ensure customers remain safe and comfortable in their homes during lockdown. Colleagues have reported that despite being physically dispersed, they are often feeling more personally connected than ever and leaders are spending more ‘quality time’ with their teams, focusing on individuals as well as the team as a whole.
From what we have discovered, it feels clear that moving forward, any sustainable remote working policy will require consideration to be given to three key areas:
Communication - Making sure that there are robust communication channels in place to ensure remote workers feel connected to their teams, colleagues and the organisation as a whole, whilst also ensuring that they have space, time and trust to get on with their work without constant interruption or Zoom fatigue?
Online tools and services - Making sure that colleagues can work and collaborate efficiently without disruption or dissatisfaction?
Collaboration - Making sure that colleagues are aware of the expectations being placed on them, including but not limited to, required actions, availability and working hours?
It’s important that as we make plans to emerge from lockdown we also ensure that the new normal is well designed. This means, considering what’s desirable, feasible and viable whilst always maintaining a focus on outcomes and the overall impact of any change on customer experience.
Following this initial discovery work Innovation and Design have been commissioned to take forward two further pieces of work:
Designing a set of principles to inform how we use workspaces.
Designing a set of principles to inform how we work.
As part of this we will need to consider the findings of our early discovery work, in particular following up on those key lines of enquiry I referenced earlier:
How might we enable leaders to create those genuine moments that matter and build trust?
How might we enable colleagues to set their own schedules and work when it best suits them?
How might we ensure that colleagues who work remotely are able to feel connected to their team and the wider business?
How might we ensure that meetings are inclusive and remain focused in the new world?
How might we break down geographic barriers in order to increase collaboration in the new world?
How might we create space for serendipity within remote working communities?
As always we aim to move quickly as we want to better understand the options we have before the next announcement from the Government in early June. Keep tuned to the blog for updates, or subscribe to our newsletter to receive our latest blog posts direct to your inbox. We are keen to share what we are learning. If you are too, please drop us a line and we can grab a virtual coffee!
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Photo by Chris Montgomery on Unsplash