Work from home recommendations lifted this week, and some bosses are keen to get everyone back in most of the time, but don’t want to force people. So how to do it? Let staff write their own rules, or tell them they can work wherever or whenever they want seems to be paying off – for those that make the office “so bloody good people want to come in”. Chris Howatson, Aimee Buchanan, Tom Frazer, Laura Nice, Sian Whitnall, Nick Behr and Virginia Scully on how they’re tackling living – and working – with Covid.
What you need to know:
- Agencies need to define back to work policies. They want to rebuild culture and connections, but don’t want to dictate.
- Kaimera is in ongoing “beta mode” while OMD is largely delegating responsibility to team or departmental heads.
- GroupM accepts “we’re not going back” to pre-Covid rigidity.
- Half Dome has gone fully flex – telling staff they can work where and when they like.
- Howatson + Company took the same approach, after spending $1m fitting out offices during Covid. Now it is 80 per cent full.
- Hatched let younger staff write the back to work policy – and changed its three-day in position as a result.
Kaimera: Beta mode
“If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that rigidity is a banana skin, and adaptability is a much better way to fly,” said Nick Behr, CEO of Sydney-based independent media agency Kaimera.
As such, he says the firm keeps its flexibility policies in constant “beta mode”. But he agrees that culture is the kicker: “You can’t create it if you aren’t together as a team.”
As such, the company has “flexible policies for individuals based on their needs,” which he said goes beyond where they work and when. But he agrees with Pedestrian TV boss Matt Rowley’s view that young people are most at risk from missing out on professionally formative years, and with other agency bosses that “human interaction sparks innovation” for client brands.
“The importance of that creative spark can’t be undersold,” said Behr, “and it just doesn’t happen over interminable Zoom meetings or a barrage of Slack messages.”
You can read the full article on Mi3 here.
