Employer Stories:
Print firm McAllister Litho Glasgow (MLG) operates its print works from 7am to 7pm. Workers have a say in choosing their shift pattern and working hours as long as the necessary equipment is available. Janette McAllister, managing director explains why this approach was adopted.
Employer Stories:
Print firm McAllister Litho Glasgow (MLG) operates its print works from 7am to 7pm. Workers have a say in choosing their shift pattern and working hours as long as the necessary equipment is available. Janette McAllister, managing director explains why this approach was adopted.
Key takeaways
- Print firm MLG allows workers to choose when they carry out their contracted hours, so long as it’s during the factory operating hours of 7am to 7pm.
- Office staff can work from home if they want but usually choose to be in the office.
- The team are happier and are more willing to work overtime and support the business when big contracts come.
- MLG paid their team an extra £500 a month for seven months over the winter to help with the rising cost of living.
Key takeaways
- Print firm MLG allows workers to choose when they carry out their contracted hours, so long as it’s during the factory operating hours of 7am to 7pm.
- Office staff can work from home if they want but usually choose to be in the office.
- The team are happier and are more willing to work overtime and support the business when big contracts come.
- MLG paid their team an extra £500 a month for seven months over the winter to help with the rising cost of living.
What kind of organisation are you?
MLG is a litho and digital printing specialist, delivering brochures, catalogues, programmes, direct mail campaigns, marketing collateral and more to clients across the UK and beyond. Of our team of 40, 33 are frontline workers who operate factory equipment and cannot work from home. We are a family run business and pride ourselves on looking after our team.
What motivated you as an organisation to start your flexible working journey?
We are a team and we need to work together. If someone needs a bit of flexibility and we can provide that, we will because we know we’ll benefit from that person’s loyalty and hard work in return. We support our team however we can. Over the winter we gave everyone an extra £500 a month for seven months to help with the rising cost-of-living. It’s not something we’ll always be able to afford to do but we were in a position to help this last year, and so we did.
How and when did you start introducing flex/more flex?
My husband Brian and I bought the business in 2013 and we’ve always been flexible where we can. We can’t give flexibility on where most of our team work but we can give flexibility on when they work their hours. So long as we’ve got the right equipment free for when someone wants to work, that’s fine with us.
Flex today – what are you doing right now?
Our factory colleagues work full time, either 36 or 40 hours a week, and our factory is open 7am to 7pm each day. Most people choose to work three 12-hour shifts but there are several who work more shorter shifts. Three team members work four 10-hour shifts and have Wednesdays off. Most people work a compressed working week so they generally have time for dentist appointments and life admin on their days off. But if something comes up on a working day they can swap shifts, move their hours around that week, or use some annual leave, whatever works best for them. Most people stay on the same shift pattern, so they know exactly when they’ll be working and can plan their lives around it.
Our office team can work from home, we certainly don’t mandate them coming in but they all seem to prefer it and are usually in the office unless they’re expecting a tradesperson, or have an appointment that’s easier to work around at home.
We encourage people to talk to us about what they need. The first thing I do each morning is walk around the factory floor chatting to people. I know straight away if someone is stressed. Just recently one member of staff told me he had some things going on at home and he popped out for a few hours the next day because he needed to. It was no big deal.
What challenges have you faced?
Occasionally people don’t like their shift patterns and don’t tell us because they think they’re doing the right thing to help the business. Once we find out we rectify the problem. We’ll always accommodate changes if we possibly can but if we don’t know someone’s unhappy we can’t do anything to help.
Impact of flexible working
Having some flexibility means our people are much happier. And for us as a business, we benefit hugely from their ongoing loyalty and hard work for us. We’re only as good as the people who work for us. Without them we couldn’t deliver for our clients so it just makes good business sense as well as being the right thing to do.
The future of flex in your organisation
We’ll always be limited by location and best use of our equipment. But otherwise we’re open to anything and always will be.
Top tips for flex
- Good communication is key. As with all businesses, there are some things that just have to happen. We have commitments to our customers and we have to have some people on site when we open at 7am. We make sure everyone is aware of these, and of any particularly big contracts we know are coming in. If you keep everyone informed, you get more out of them because they feel more involved.
- If you’re flexible with your team they will be flexible with you. For example, we’ve just had a big job that comes in three times a year and means we have to run 24 hours a day for a few weeks to complete the work. I don’t have to twist anyone’s arm to work extra hours, they know it’s coming and it’s an important contract for the business, so they help us because they know we help them.
“We are a team and we need to work together. If someone needs a bit of flexibility and we can provide that, we will because we know we’ll benefit from that person’s loyalty and hard work in return.”