Flexible Working
Just wanted to start a discussion on how the construction industry will change as a result of Covid-19. Arup have just made a big announcement about global flexible working, 3 days in the office a week and flexible hours. Allowing employees to work their 7.5 hours a day when it suits them but facilitating crucial collaborative work with teams coming into the office. There are many pros and cons to flexi working but I quite like the idea of this mix and it will be interesting to see how it plays out. Some other thoughts on flexi working:
- Time in the office is really important for developing junior engineers.
- Companies that do not offer flexi working may loose out as people seek roles in companies with a flexi policy.
- Line management of individuals is key to ensure that work patterns meet team and project outcomes.
Another area of interest is how construction firms can adapt to offer roles to people with disabilities. I have conducted a site visit from the design office with a person who uses a walking cane. He drove to the visit and the whole site was accessible due to AliMak lifts between levels (it was a tunnel site) and a few stairs he could manage here and there, see image below. This is particularly pertinent for design offices where people are employed for their brains! He is an Associate Principal with 20 years experience and a technical leader in retaining structures. Arup have been named in the Valuable 500 a global movement putting disability on the business leadership agenda. A campaign to get 500 national and multinational, private sector corporations to be the tipping-point for change and help unlock the social and economic value of people living with disabilities across the world. Because the potential of 1.3 billion should not be ignored.
Arup makes flexible working permanent for UK staff | Construction Enquirer News
Holdfast Training Services Trial Blog 
Not the construction industry but thought you might be interested to hear 8X’s post-COVID return to work plans.
After consulting with their staff and applying the transform problem solving techniques 8X will be adopting a 2 day office week with the remaining time flexible working.
To aid collaborative working all staff will be in the office on Tuesdays and another day that week as directed by department heads. The cynic is anticipating the 2nd office day will be Wednesday due to staff weekly commuting.
COVID has forced 8X HQ to look at how it operates and it believes its staff can work effectively from home. It also recognises the need for a physical collaborative environment to work successfully. This approach seems more practical in a Fmn HQ than at Unit/Sub-Units.
It will be interesting to see how their implementation works as there are clear impacts on the wider benefits of military life (PT / Sports / Gym / Mess activities) and practical work elements like access to secure systems or MATTs packages.
*The cynic in me
I’m with John Holland at the moment and they are also committed to implementing flexible working. On my project, Southern Queensland Correctional Precinct Stage 2, the plan currently being rolled out is to allow every employee to declare individual flexible working requirements. It’s a very personalised system, dealt with on a case by case basis.
Individual requirements have to be approved by your line manager which already seems to be onerous for line managers to keep up with. For that reason, employees are being encouraged to maintain a routine with their flexible working requirements – such as taking your child to sports or working from home on the same day every week. Slightly contradicting the ‘flexible’ in flexible working.
The project team is site based and everyone is encouraged to commute on a daily/weekly basis and for many this is a 3hr round trip. So although flexible working provides some opportunity for work-life balance there is definitely an ethos of just getting on with it and “it’s the nature of the job”.