Let’s think about flex
In recent years, flexible working arrangements have become an important policy tool for addressing key workforce challenges.
By varying the scope of how, when and where people work, employment opportunities can be extended for many people who have previously struggled to access and thrive in work.
Organisations that have successfully implemented flexible work designs have seen beneficial outcomes regarding staff recruitment and retention, improved work engagement and wellbeing, and greater inclusion for groups such as carers, disabled and neurodivergent workers, and young people.
However, making flexible working work requires more than just the development of policy. And it goes beyond simple consideration of the government’s nine types of flexible working , which - ironically – can sometimes be rather inflexibly applied as a one-off contractual change for people, never to be revisited.
An agile approach to flexibility in the NHS
Over the last five years, agilab – a University of Sussex and NHS collaborative forum – has been undertaking research and regular knowledge-exchange to better understand how to implement flexible working effectively.
Through this academia-practice forum we have developed understanding that safe, fair, inclusive and valued access to flexible work can best be achieved through decent, agile work design.
Decent, agile working uses digital tools and innovative practices so that the times, places and ways in which people work can be customised to effectively meet changing worker and organisational needs.
Managerial mindsets are the key to successful implementation
From five applied research projects in the NHS, and 13 online conferences attended by over 200 NHS trusts and special-interest groups, we have found that decent, agile working is most likely to be successfully rolled out when managers and decision makers adopt enabling mindsets.
Enabling mindsets involve understanding the importance of (i) designing work to meet mutual (individual and service) needs; (ii) customisation – one-size-does-not-fit-all workers and all roles; and (iii) experimental, ‘learn as you go’ approaches.
Adopting these mindsets means that managers are open to extending understanding about what flexibility can mean. For example, in roles where it may not be possible to change where people work, how or when they work can be adapted instead. This is achieved by making use of knowledge and relationship resources – that is listening to the employee voice, undertaking small trials and evaluating these for key outcomes, familiarising themselves with academic research and in-house policy and guidance, providing digital skills and infrastructure to support new ways of working.
When decent, agile working was not apparent, it was clear that managers and decision-makers often held mindset blockers.
Mindset blockers involve outdated or stigmatised attitudes related to flexible work, notably that, (i) some roles, staff grades and people could or should not be given flexibility; (ii) offering flexibility to some staff is unfair and would be seen as ‘special treatment’; and (iii) offering flexibility creates the wrong optics in current socio-political climates and so should be avoided.
Managers holding these mindset blockers were often lacking knowledge and relational resources and had fixed views on what arrangements do and do not work.
Changing mindsets to address key challenges through decent, agile working
The NHS has been pioneering in its development of policy, resources and guidance to support flexible working. Indeed, it was in 2020 that ‘we work flexibly’ became a key premise within the NHS’s ‘People Promise’ directive. The missive of flexible working has been embedded in the 10 Year Health Plan and is expected to be a major part of the forthcoming NHS Staff Standards and 10 Year Workforce Plan.
Through the work of agilab, we have developed a range of research reports, along with an evidence-based managerial toolkit to support managers and decision makers in finding agile solutions to workforce problems and to adopt more enabling mindsets.
These resources are available on our website and can be used to accompany the new ‘Think Flex First’ campaign. Our hope is that this can increase staff satisfaction rates with flexible working opportunities (currently standing at 58 per cent in the latest NHS staff survey).
Importantly, the agilab resources include an abundance of exemplars to demonstrate exactly how colleagues across the NHS have successfully rolled out decent, agile and truly flexible work arrangements and how this has benefitted staff and service-users alike.
Decent, agile working for all
The world of work is constantly evolving and the current pace of change can often feel unsettling for workers, managers and organisations.
Adopting a decent, agile approach through open and enabling mindsets means that change can be seen as an opportunity; an opportunity to trial new practices related to flexibility and to engage with staff and teams to co-design work that meets employer, employee and societal needs.
By freeing up thinking about what flexibility can mean, and by putting principles of safety and inclusion at the heart of any work arrangement, a decent, agile approach to work can be transformative – not just for the NHS, but for all organisations.
