The Department of Management adapted to a novel way of working over lockdown as well as after their return to campus. Here's some insight from Finance and Operations Manager Catherine Osley on how her department succeeded in adapting to blended working.
Tell us about how you and your team started moving towards new ways of working?
The use of Teams to message and meet others became essential overnight in lockdown as staff quickly adopted it; but the use of Teams as a "phone" system has proved much less successful, with very few calls being made and received.
Another point is that it was hard to break the habit, without a formal FWOW programme, of thinking of certain offices as being for certain sub teams. Staff have generally been reluctant to work away from their assigned office even where they have access to other options. Meanwhile with online/hybrid meetings here to stay, we lack individual pods where staff can join online meetings without disturbing their colleagues.
Which tech, space, and behavioural changes happened to accommodate blended working?
A university environment is a particularly challenging one to offer blended working in, and some days such as Fridays are particularly quiet on campus. A technical issue we faced was that during lockdown from March 2020 onwards, the department had to provide laptops on an ad hoc basis for staff who did not have a viable personal laptop. This lead to staff having to make do for months on personal devices, some of which weren't really fit for purpose, and also had to compromise with non-professional office equipment at home. As staff were asked to return to campus for the 2020-21 academic year, it was possible to take a slightly more considered approach to tech and to provide some more staff with laptops.
Did new work patterns emerge to accommodate School need and individual preferences?
As we were moving to a brand-new building in December 2021, we ensured that as part of the relocation, all staff still waiting for an LSE-issued laptop would get one, and we would provide new dual monitors for all professional service staff desks. This ‘future proofing’ strategy was intended to ensure that, if needed, the department has the capacity to pivot to a hotdesking model. With interchangeable equipment, any staff member can sit at any desk. This was a very big departure from pre-pandemic times when just trying to log onto a different desktop for the day wasn't easy; any time someone wanted to move offices, all the kit had to be moved by DTS or porters. This new, inherent agility has been one of the biggest wins.
However, it did need to be supported by other policies, such as ‘all staff can have access to all professional service staff (PSS)'s offices’ and storage for personal belongings which we are still working through. There are also questions around adjustments for staff, such as height-adjustable desks or special chairs, and how that might be managed.
What have you learned from working in a blended way?
Treating staff according to their individual needs and requirements is probably more achievable now. During lockdowns we learnt to be more accommodating and sympathetic to the needs of others, and this culture has persisted. One of the challenges of blended working for us has been knowing which staff are where, and when. Without the benefit of the desk booking app we have been using our annual leave spreadsheet to ostensibly track who is on campus, to ensure there is broadly sufficient campus ‘presence’.
Another issue is that a staff member who would have had to have called in sick in the pre-pandemic world, now might suggest they work from home despite feeling ill; this is part of the over-arching issue of a blurred work/life balance that many staff speak about. A related issue is that some staff are concerned that if they install Teams to their personal mobile, they will get out-of-hours calls.
What advice or best practice would you share with colleagues about the challenges and successes of blended working?
Almost everyone's come to appreciate the flexibility we now enjoy, compared with the old world. One issue is that when staff come to campus and sit in an office on their own all day, or with perhaps one other person, they say they wasted time (and money) on their commute and could have done exactly what they did on campus at home. This can lead to even fewer staff on campus and so some colleagues rarely see each other in person. So more ‘all in’ days and other initiatives are planned for 2022/23 to address this.
In spring 2022, the idea of ‘Community Days’ were introduced, to have the entire department come to campus on the same day once a month. These are very popular and helped to address that sense of disconnection. A lunch or other treat is laid on and the days are busy and buzzy. The department intends to work more on how to bring staff together, to develop soft relationships and to work out what ‘collaboration’ actually means.
It's interesting in how easy it was to disconnect people from set desks, now that they aren't sat at them five days a week. Staff have got into the habit of being able to work to their own schedule, fitting in other commitments but also according to pure preferences (which is why we see more people on campus, on average, on a Thursday than a Friday).
The FWOW concept has not ‘spoken’ to academic staff at all – these staff will presumably continue to have their own allocated offices for years to come. We've also had to consider the needs of PhD students in the new world and to develop an IT strategy accordingly. A key objective is to ensure our PhD students feel welcome and supported in the department and encouraged to spend time on campus, with their fellow students, as part of our research community.