Barbora Hrozekova, Philanthropy & Global Engagement (PAGE) Office Manager, explains how blended working has helped create positive new work methods for her division –including adopting "anchor days" and "together days" – following their move in Clement House.
Tell us about how you and your team started moving towards new ways of working.
Philanthropy & Global Engagement (PAGE) started introducing blended working in our department about July 2021. We were working to the deadline of having to vacate the 6th and 7th floor of Clement House to relocate to the 5th floor, then we welcomed other divisions into the building. So to prevent our staff from feeling anxious about these changes, especially from changing from working at a set desk every day to hotdesking, we ensured that all staff had information in advance about matters such as hotdesking, getting new office equipment such as AV screens, and their lockers. We did this with weekly or monthly email updates to keep them in the picture, as well as having standups (fortnightly meetings); colleagues said they really appreciated being kept in the loop in this way.
A survey was done after the move in autumn of 2021 to see how people felt about it. Overall the response was positive, with colleagues saying it opened up a new chapter for them with more flexibility as they were both working from home and from the office, despite adjustments having to be made with people now working in a hybrid way.
What tech, space, and behavioural changes happened to accommodate blended working?
Blended working was challenging as instead of just using your laptop at home for everything and being able to make all calls in private, staff in the office now had to deal with AV screens and needed to keep confidential conversations private, so had to book meeting rooms. Staff learned best practice, and embraced the new office tech; we also had support from DTS and the FWOW group. We helped each other as a team as well with shared information about the best ways of working between our team and other divisions; this collaboration at work succeeded.
Did new work patterns emerge to accommodate School need and individual preferences?
Senior leadership dealt with it really well, and were as accommodating and supportive as possible. One benefit was that some colleagues needed to take their kids to school so had to work slightly different hours around this commitment, so blended working made the school run easier for them.
Another positive change was that some colleagues said they could manage their time better, as they mainly did meetings in the office, and at home they could concentrate on writing reports and strategies, without having to do meetings as well.
What have you learned from working in a blended way?
Our experience shows that although obviously some jobs are front-facing, such as student roles, but mainly we can work effectively both online and at home. This is why blended working has been a positive thing for LSE to embrace, as it gave people flexibility over both their work and personal lives. Not having to commute every day gives us more time to work, and of course having your laptop rather than a set desk frees you to work anywhere you like on campus!
What advice or best practice would you share with colleagues about the challenges and successes of blended working?
One benefit of blended working is working with different colleagues and different neighbourhoods lets you get to know different people across the School. It opened up new friendships with other colleagues, and of course helps work as you can physically sit to someone to work on a project together, as you couldn’t during lockdown.
We also introduced “anchor days” where the whole team comes together once a week or month for meetings and discussing plans, which improves team spirit and works really well for everyone. Another successful idea was introducing “together days” so that every three months the entire division comes into the office to give us a chance to see everyone, and do some bonding! It’s always nice to see each other in real life rather than online.