The Transition

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy

If you have been keeping up with this blog and like me have been still working hard, you have probably been doing so from home. My blogpost from April2020 explored our challenges with Teams, Zoom and the whole working in your PJ’s (bottom half only though)!

Its fair to say, if you are lucky enough to be able to do your job remotely, like me you have probably adapted by now to it. I feel sorry for the many people who’s jobs do not allow working from home. Many of those, have found work has often evaporated, or often as a matter of course puts them in potential danger. I say thank you now, to each and every one of them, for keeping the plates spinning during 2020. Without you all, 2020 might truly have unraveled.

I’m convinced having chatted to scores of friends, contacts, colleagues over this year, that there is never going to be going back to exactly as we was. Particularly at work.

I don't know who originated this, but big credit to Clare, who first shared with me 8-)

Interestingly back in Feb/early Mar 2020, I was starting a big piece of work with a medium sized social housing landlord, with over a hundred staff, who had only just moving into some new serviced offices. Little did they know that over the next nine months, those plush offices would only ever be about 15% full. Now no one I know there can imagine a total return to the old ways.

A friend of mine who lives locally, who I have known a couple of decades, has worked the last nine months from home, with his other half doing the same. Clearly that’s been a bit claustrophobic at times. It could help you connect with your partner better or maybe hasten a breakup of course!

His employer, a nationwide waterways charity, has decided its quite liking most of its staff working from home. Its planning to mandate it as universal going forward. In fact it appears to have plans to sell off offices, probably some nice canal-side locations, which might become quite valuable with housing planning permission. So you can see the rational.

How does my friend feel?

Well he’s not overwhelmed to be honest, as you might expect.

That’s not what he signed up for initially in his job and he wont receive any compensation, his extra heating expenses, are regarded as offsetting his fuel he might have used traveling to work. Now, I’m no HR expert (although I have procured a few HR/Payroll systems in my time). Maybe one of my hardcore HR expert contacts, might be able to clarify what employment law might mandate around this? Please comment!

So, mid-Covid19 we have moved forward faster in nine months, than in the last nine years, for work flexibility. However, would it work for many of us meshing home and work life going forward? Going back to pre-industrial times, home and work was often the same thing. During Medieval times, most working-class English people lived in work-homes. The single-story, one-room houses were “a combination of kitchen and spinning/weaving/dressmaking workshop, bedroom and dairy, dining room, butchery, tannery, and byre.”. It was ‘all hands on deck’.

I’d like to question, without coming across as a Luddite, if we would all totally embrace a return to all that?

I think I know the answer, but I would love to hear your take on it.

I have worked independently for nearly a decade and I miss being in an office with colleagues you can lean over to and bounce ideas, questions (and sarcasm) off. Collaboration is an essential part of a healthy work-life balance, for people. It also adds value to the organisation, its staff and its customers.

It will be interesting to see how companies manage the balance here, with a particular emphasis on SocialHousing. I would not like to see service to residents to be reduced. If practical, this situation and the experience of the last nine months, can improve service to tenants and other residents. That would be my hope anyway.

Related Post: Don't let your self-servers down, You might not get a second chance....

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

The Longcut – Transition.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.

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Working from Mario's Café

If you do the Twitter thing, follow me at @HousingITguy
or LinkedIn here https://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy


I heard an interesting story a few weeks ago, about a senior manager having read in a magazine article about Agile Working. They thought, “Nothing wrong with that” and fancied getting the staff to try it.

The week before leaving for a big chunk of annual leave, somewhere exotic hopefully, they declared, “get yourselves Agile, out of the office, make it happen by the time I return”.

As you might guess, it wasn’t a storming success.

Now, there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with Agile working, but to make it a success, some planning is essential. There’s more to it than just working from the Italian café that does great flat white’s. Also, its good to think when its best to implement too.

Some of the common drivers around this, that I have encountered, include:
•    Introduction of new or emerging technologies. Maybe we can now provide tablets, apps or smartphones to staff, so they can carry out more work, where it actually originates
•    Office re-location or refurbishment imminent
•    Management structure change. New directors, CEO or senior managers, moving to an organisation, might want culture to change, to improve productivity or motivation.
•    Expansions and merger activity

In all of the above, “just get on and do it”, has rarely been practical or effective on its own. It generally needs a mini-project team putting together, consisting of a range of staff. So who should be included? Spookily enough in a project to build a short to medium term digital transformation plan, for a UK housing group, we are currently answering that very question.

Be sure to give this transformation or change management team a useful name, that will help later with joined up communications. ICT & HR need strong representation. The former as they are the engineers to plumb the IT/telephony tech in securely and the latter even more, as working patterns may need to change, even contracts of work if core hours and locations of working may change. HR teams tend to like a move to Agile working, as a modern, flexible work environment, improves prospects of employing interested and high quality staff. 

Operations / facilities will also have a lot to bring to the project, as processes may change, office layouts or the need for one or more offices, may change and they will almost certainly be interested in the costs & benefits of a move to Agile working. Can an office environment be planned and made flexible, sizing to fit the new work habits, created by Agile working.

Comms and marketing should also get involved, to keep staff informed about progress to expectations that have been set. If offices, self-service or the wider digital offering are to be re-branded, think about a consistent approach. Once the tech is in, testing starts internally, have these teams engage with customers. This might be to outline that better self-serve offering, or to spread the good news that service will be transformed, by staff doing more for customers in real time.

Finally, have a sponsor from above. The CEO or a key director, putting their weight & gravitas behind the project is key. They may need to reassure staff as to what can be expected and that the appropriate tech and training will be provided, to ensure when you go Agile, all staff have the right tools to do a better job. Also what new policies will look like, when working away from the office, homeworking and aspects such as health & safety, security of data & GDPR implications.

Lastly, going Agile means more of an emphasis on getting work done, rather than where its done. In the past, it was permissible for managers to expect to see ‘bums on seats’, during core hours. Moving to a more ‘trust-based’ model can be one of the hardest transitions to make. Again, leadership for that is best to come from the very top of the organisation.

If you are considering self-service, see you in October, at a new special conference

Related Post: Ensure you actually allocate a realistic amount of time to your transformation project 

Catch the blog monthly archive at https://soundcloud.com/housingitguy/

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I would be pleased to connect with you on LinkedIn - http://uk.linkedin.com/in/tonysmiththathousingitguy Message me with any issues or queries, you would like to be explored in this blog. We generally receive a couple of suggestions each month.

Saint Etienne - Mario's Café.
(c) Tony Smith, Acutance Consulting www.acutanceconsulting.co.uk 07854-655009


Access a quick list of our Social Housing ICT blog posts here

Could we help you or your organisation? Our contact details are here , get in touch we will be pleased to chat about your problems and help with your organisation issues.
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