What kind of organisation are you?

What motivated you as an organisation to start your flexible working journey?

We wanted to attract and retain high calibre staff from diverse circumstances and backgrounds, many of whom need some flexibility in order to work. We also felt that giving people more autonomy to deliver their work where and when suits them and the business would boost their wellbeing and enhance productivity because people would be less distracted or worried by some of the everyday challenges we all face, such as needing to fit in a doctor’s appointment, deal with a poorly child or elderly relative, or wait in for a tradesperson. Our new agile working policy makes dealing with those challenges much more straight forward.

How and when did you start introducing flex/more flex?

We’ve always offered flexible working in a more formal sense, for example part time or compressed hours. But like many employers, the pandemic showed how we could all work in a less rigid way that worked better for our people and actually delivered better outcomes for our tenants too.

In March 2024 we introduced our agile working policy. This applies to all staff, regardless of their role, though we are upfront about the fact that some roles do require people to be on-site, or working at specific times. But where we can be more flexible, we are.

Flex today – what are you doing right now?

We continue to offer formal flexible working including part time, or compressed hours.

But our agile working policy also offers all staff informal flexibility over where and when they work, so long as business needs are met. This means that where possible, people can work from home some of the time. We expect people to come to the office for things like team meetings, training, 1-1 meetings and collaborative tasks.

Our people also have more flexibility over when they work. We don’t have core hours, or set start and finish times, so if someone needs to go to an appointment, or school event, and make up the time later that’s fine. Or, if they’re a night owl and have a report to write, they can work later into the evening. We just ask that people are clear with their team and in their calendar about when and where they will be working, and that they are still responsive during ‘traditional’ working hours.

In addition, we’ve introduced ‘agile leave’ which is up to 12 days of paid time off a year, and is in addition to annual leave. Our agile leave is in recognition of the fact many members of staff work above and beyond their hours when required, and replaces our previous toil system. People can take a whole, or half, day off for any reason.

What challenges have you faced?

When we rolled out the policy, we realised we needed to clarify more practical details about when and how to use agile days, in particular over whether they can be tagged on to annual leave (which they can’t).

We spent time with line managers to make sure that they were confident in supporting their teams.

Impact of flexible working

We’ve had great feedback from individuals and teams. One person said the extra flexibility had been ‘life changing’ and many others have commented on how it’s had a positive impact on their whole family. People have told us that teamwork has improved, and our employee survey data shows morale has definitely been boosted.

Flexible working means that people need to organise their time in advance and plan what tasks they will do, when and where. The team’s contribution is measured by their outputs and productivity rather than by the hours that they work. This means everyone takes responsibility for their own performance.

Our sickness absence has reduced, and we have very low levels of staff turnover, both of which we feel are linked to our more flexible ways of working.

The future of flex in your organisation

We recently discussed the possibility of a 4-day week with the team, and they concluded themselves it wouldn’t work for our business because having team members working on different days would lead to confusion, and reducing our customer service to four days a week would take us away from our purpose as a business. This conversation highlights the maturity of the team and culture of the organisation.

Agile and flexible working will continue to evolve to meet changing needs and expectations. Any changes we make will be developed with the team and nothing will be set in stone so that we can continue to be a dynamic and forward-looking team.

Top tips for flex

1. Spend time thinking about and designing your employee engagement to build in regular conversations and safe ways for people to speak up. This will give you a real picture of what is working and opportunities for improvement.

2. Consider your values and strategy and think creatively about how you can offer more flexibility whilst working towards your future. This will prevent you from making changes that take you away from your purpose.

3. Once you have an idea, just try it for a fixed period, learn and then adapt. This will help to develop trust with your team and create a collaborative, innovative culture.

Time to Flex
We developed this story with Barrhead Housing as part of our Time to Flex project in partnership with East Renfrewshire Council. Thanks to funding from the Scottish Government, we’re supporting local employers to enhance their flexible working, including for parents.