Improving Working Lives in Fife

The Swiftwork Approach

Aim of the Project• Develop a teamwork approach to flexible

working

• Sustain and improve on business performance

• Train managers, supervisors and staff to manage flexible working

• Support flexible working pilots

• Improve work-life balance in Social Services

Swiftwork’s experience• DTI Challenge Fund – approved consultants

• Wirral Social Services

• North Ayrshire Council

• Stockport Social Services

• Chester City Council

• Wakefield MBDC

Our approach• Partnership working – management, staff, trade

unions, human resources

• Consultation and communication

• Building skills and confidence through training and support

• Embedding principles through policy and guidelines documents

Project activities

• Scoping the project• Communications• Survey• Focus groups• Task force• Pilots• Managers’ workshops• Policy/guidelines documentation• Pilot evaluation

Impact on the culture

Keys to Success

• Gaining the commitment of senior managers

• Supporting the managers who will be operating the policies

• Getting employee buy-in

• Pilot everything

How do we achieve this?

1. Establish the business case

2. Engage partners and staff in the process

3. Set out ground rules

4. Involve managers and staff in pilots

5. Provide training workshops

Business Case

• Survey for the real answers

• Alerts managers to the realities of:– Costs of absence– Recruitment/retention difficulties– Changing demographics– Morale/Motivation

Guidelines for Success

Changes in employment options are voluntary. The purpose is to help all individuals, irrespective of their role, to achieve an appropriate work life balance…

… nothing can be guaranteed, changes that may damage service provision are not likely to be agreed.

… shared responsibility – individual, team, manager

 … every initiative will be subject to a period of trial during which time any affected party can demonstrate benefits or detrimental effect.

…decisions on flexible working will be “reason neutral”. The employee does not have to provide a reason for requesting a flexible work option…

Supporting Managers

• Pilot process– Shared responsibility– See it in action– Develop trust– Clear policy backup

• Training workshops– Explore benefits + barriers– Look at own WLB– Work out practicalities

Virtuous Circle of Work Life Balance

When a manager helps employees balance their work lives with the rest of their lives ...

… they feel a stronger commitment to the organisation, they invest more in their work ...

… so performance improves ...

… and strong results encourage the manager to continue to practice these principles that help employees strike this work life balance

-

The bottom-line benefits

The effective implementation of Flexible Working will allow you to:

• Compete in the market for the best people

• Expand the pool of high quality candidates

• Boost productivity

• Improve customer service

• Increase employee morale

• Reduce absenteeism and lateness

• Keep valued employees

• Reduce costs

• Increase commitment to business goals

• Be recognised as a world-class employer