According to a new McKinsey survey of 100 executives* from various industries and across different locations, nine out of ten firms will combine remote and on-site working in the post-pandemic future of work. During the epidemic, production and consumer satisfaction have both concurrently increased, according to the report.

In light of this news, Microsoft is working on a new version of Outlook, its email service, in anticipation of the broad adoption of hybrid working, in which people split their time between home and work. A new MS Outlook feature will ensure staff can collaborate across different working environments. Every day, it seems, a major corporation makes a new announcement about its ‘future of work' plan, and experts seem to agree that hybrid is the way to go.

At Ascento, we have embraced remote working and now we’re moving towards hybrid working when required. Many companies and their teams have spent months analysing policies and strategising on how and, more critically, where the workforce might resume some kind of normalcy following the pandemic.

So to help you and our client base, we’ve put together 10 tips on how to make hybrid working work for you, so here goes:-

So to help you and our client base, we’ve put together 10 tips on how to make hybrid working work for you, so here goes:-

1. One to one sessions - To begin with, schedule one-on-one sessions with your personnel in order to better understand their requirements. While some people benefited from the flexibility of working from home, others might require face-to-face interaction in the workplace.
2. HR policies - Ensure you communicate clearly with your employees or partners. Communicate your expectations and develop HR policies to clarify how and where your employees could work, and established flexible working hours, all while ensuring that employees were held accountable at specific times.
3. Technology that serves - Put money into the right technology to ensure employees have more autonomy, whilst bridging the physical and digital worlds so they can work efficiently no matter where they are.
4. Virtual and the physical - On an office-by-office basis, tailor your policies to the wants and needs of our employees. We now have a full understanding of remote working, virtual gatherings and online meetings. Now is the time to consider flexible practices and solutions that can work for teams and collaboratively within companies moving forward.
5. Personal development no matter what - Continue to train staff no matter where they work the most ‘hybrid wise’, this is in light of a survey by Lane4 consultancy* suggesting that almost three in 10 employees received no training to support their professional development while working in a hybrid environment.
6. Treat everyone right - Consciously remember staff who work remotely within your business structures and practises, since the Office for National Statistics suggested employees who worked predominantly from home were less likely to receive bonuses or pay rises.
7. Flexibility matters - Try to think differently or outside of the box as physical space and remote interactions will continue to play a significant and relevant role in our workplace culture, thus for the time being, a model that gives individuals more flexibility in where they work is likely to be the best option. It is also critical that businesses alter their workplace environment to make it a place where people can collaborate rather than just work for the sake of working.
8. Cyber proofing - As a matter of urgency, business leaders must examine corporate resilience and cybersecurity initiatives. It is critical that they consult their personnel. According to IBM, 'human mistake' is responsible for 95% of successful cyber-attacks. Ensure this process is consultative to strengthen working relationships with staff, thus meaning less costly mistakes happen in future.
9. Customers needs and wants - If you work in B2C, try to evolve everything as leaders must think more like customers and assess if current products and services are satisfying changing demands and expectations.
10. Survey your staff - Ensure that you field the opinions of your staff via employee opinion surveys and digital focus groups to understand how our people are feeling, what matters most to them and what support they may need. This means you are always in touch with how people are feeling and you can work quickly to resolve anything that arises.

According to Personnel Today, the number of employees reporting mental health worries is up 24% since May 2020, research has revealed from Mental Health Awareness Week.

I qualified as a Mental Health First Aider in July 2019 and the course had a profound affect on me. The Mental Health First Aid course is designed to provide employees and managers with the expertise and confidence to recognise symptoms of mental illness in the workplace. It teaches them how to help workers who are struggling with these problems enabling them to seek assistance.

The main outcomes of the course are to ensure you have:-

• a thorough understanding of mental health and the factors that influence it
• practical knowledge of the causes and symptoms of a variety of mental illnesses
• confidence to step in, reassure and support a person in distress using the mental health first aid action plan
• enhanced interpersonal skills such as non-judgemental listening
• knowledge to help someone recover their health by guiding them to further support - whether through self-help resources, internal support such as EAP, or external sources such as their GP
• an understanding of how to keep themselves safe while performing their duties
• a quick reference card for the mental health first aid action plan

'A Plan for Jobs’ Extended

Following on from the recent Government Budget 2021, it was announced that extra money was available for the apprentice cohort from April 2021 onwards on top of the total package of support amounting to £30 billion made last year. As part of the economic response to coronavirus, the government launched ‘A Plan for Jobs’ and subsequently, this has been extended out with further incentives for employers also.

As we have seen in our working lives, the pandemic has accelerated the switch to Digital by 4-6 years as noted by the European Investment Fund (EIF) and remote working “Zoom like” meetings are now the new-norm.

With Digital and Management skill gaps being discussed in many media forums, now is the time to take a look at apprenticeships that are vocationally aligned with industry and their employees, to positively impact job roles and workplaces in the UK.

The hard work of leaders, tutors and staff at Ascento Learning and Development has been recognised within a recent report following on from our recent progress monitoring visit from Ofsted.

One of the biggest adaptations organisations have had to make as a result of Covid-19 is the mass migration of staff from the workplace to their homes. In April this year, figures show that 46.6% of the employed population did some work from home and that 86% of those did so as a result of Covid-19.

The graphs below illustrate how this is broken down via region and age group.

As we find ourselves in the middle of the second national lockdown in 8 months and with countless industries and whole sectors being on the brink of collapse, the subject of training and developing staff is understandably not at the top of anybody’s to do list at this juncture.

1. Have a dedicated workspace

I have left my November Blog contribution until now as we look forward to the new democratically elected US president and look forward to the possible impact that a more outward-facing America will bring to the world economy and stability. At least now we can look forward to a period of increasing certainty and confidence. Whilst writing this I am also pondering the uncertainty that the latest COVID 19 lockdown is having and will continue to have on us all. Economically the Bank of England figures estimate an 11% contraction to the economy in Q4 compared to the same Q4 last year. In economic terms, the percentage is enormous and certainly, whilst not a ‘Crash’ level definition is unsustainable. The bank has pumped into the economy (Quantitative Easing) an additional £32,000 per household during 2020. An unbelievable figure, that will ultimately mean the amount of money the UK Government is borrowing, especially, now that the furlough scheme has been extended to March 2021 will be way past 100% of Gross Domestic Product.

During most of August, I was on leave and enjoying the remains of the summer heat and the last of the lighter evenings. Consequently, I didn’t sit down and capture any musings in the form of a blog. That didn’t mean however I didn’t have lots to capture or wasn’t constantly musing about what the autumn would bring for us all.