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Nick Atkin is chief executive of Yorkshire Housing
Forget the office: social landlords should adopt the ‘Martini principle’ and work anytime, anyplace, anywhere
A new approach to working makes sense for both colleagues and customers, and the sector must embrace it – even if COVID-19 recedes, writes Nick Atkin
One of the most commonly talked-about issues when the post COVID-19 landscape is discussed is the future of work.
It’s clear that the world of work will be very different when we emerge from the pandemic. It has challenged several of our long-held beliefs.
The first of these is the nine-to-five. This concept stems from the early 19th century when, to maximise output on production lines, factories needed fixed schedules for their workers. It took until 1926 for it to really catch on, when Henry Ford set an eight-hour workday to boost productivity and profits.
So why do we still have offices? Technology means we don’t need to be in an office together from 9am till 5pm. Our documents are online, and we can run meetings by video and collaborate remotely. Many colleagues can work from wherever they have an internet connection.
“It’s clear that the world of work will be very different when we emerge from the pandemic. It has challenged several of our long-held beliefs”
The traditional concept of the office is outdated and largely irrelevant. Yet, the design of an office as a place to concentrate workers is still very much the same as it was a century ago. Then there’s the cost.
Premises are the largest cost in many organisations’ budgets after salaries. The average occupancy of an office desk is often less than 30% of the working day – and less than 10%, if you take non-working hours into account.
Every year the average person spends more than 250 hours (a month’s worth of workdays), and over £700 on their commute. Less commuting also leads to greater job satisfaction, more money spent locally and CO2 reductions equivalent to 44 extra fully grown trees for every commuter.
A new approach makes financial sense for both businesses and employees.
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So what will replace it? Those old enough to remember the iconic Martini adverts will be familiar with the phrase “anytime, anyplace, anywhere”. This phrase equally applies to how we work but just as importantly, our customer service offer.
There are now many other options that offer a new blended approach to the office. The rapid shift in ways of working forced on us by the coronavirus pandemic has demonstrated that radical change is possible.
Work is something you do, not somewhere you go.
Workspace needs to be designed around providing space for collaboration, mentoring and learning opportunities, as well as meeting in person.
“One challenge is how to keep people connected with the work that they do and their colleagues when working remotely”
Enterprise Ireland has announced an investment fund of €12m to create these new workspaces. The Welsh government has also taken the first steps, by establishing a number of hubs across the country.
These hubs need the fastest internet connection, they need to be professional spaces that people are happy to use to host clients and business partners, and they need to be integrated into their local communities. It won’t do if they are dingy spaces with tired old furniture, unreliable Wi-Fi and a second-hand printer. If someone’s first experience of this new way of working isn’t 100% positive, it just won’t work.
One challenge is how to keep people connected with the work that they do and their colleagues when working remotely.
For Yorkshire Housing this will be a blended approach based on a guiding principle of encouraging people to work closer to home, interchanging between the three options of hub, home and roam.
All the chatter about changing the way we work is fine, but often focuses on employers and employees. We need to look at this through the lens of the customer.
The foundation of any new working approach needs to be based around a complete overhaul of the customer experience. The majority of landlord services are still delivered in a very traditional and outdated way.
We know the days of people wanting a nine-to-five service that they have to travel to are in the dim and distant past. Our customers want easy access to services that embrace the Martini principle.
A customer contact centre will no longer be the mainstay of the service delivery model. Many are already moving towards an omni-channel approach. The default service offer is increasingly self-serve for those who can/prefer this, supported by our investment in technology and automation. This then enables us to divert these resources to provide more intensive support for those customers who really need this.
A new working offer provides much more flexibility in terms of when, where and how our people will do their work. This is turn provides a real opportunity to completely rethink the customer offer, without additional cost to the business.
Our customers and our colleagues lead complex and busy lives. Consequently, the option to provide more flexibility acts as a real accelerant to enhancing the customer experience, while also acting as a key factor in both recruiting and also retaining the highest-calibre staff.
Organisations that choose to follow a different path might increasingly find it tricky to recruit and retain the highest-quality people – both customers and colleagues.
Nick Atkin, chief executive, Yorkshire Housing
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