Introducing Agile Working

"As a manager who encourages Agile Working in my team, I am a huge advocate of it.  If my team have a good work/life balance, are engaged & motivated and can work in the right environment for them, then they are more productive and provide better support to the business.  My team work hard and are incredibly committed to the Society. They know what they need to deliver and strive to exceed expectations. They often put in a high level of discretionary effort and so offering them the opportunity to work in a more agile way is a no-brainer.  Having managed field-based teams in the past I know that you don’t need to physically be with someone to know if they are working hard.  You can see that from the work they produce and the results they deliver."

Clare Moore, Chief HR Officer

"I joined Midcounties in 2017 and having worked with the flexibility of “Agile working” for almost 5 years it was bit of a shock to the system reverting back to a 9 to 5 schedule.  CIT trailed agile working prior to the lockdown, and the slogan we adopted “Work is an activity, not a location” certainly proved to be the case.

With the advent of Microsoft Teams, Office 365, OneDrive, we have the ability and flexibility to work from any place, any time. For me, this meant I could work from home more often, move my shift, or split my shift (i.e. take a timeout during the day) while still maintaining the support and commitment to my team, fellow managers and colleagues.

In order to make the most of Agile working, it is vital to ensure good communication with colleagues, and external partners, keeping calendars, out of office messages etc up to date, ensuring you are contactable at the agreed times. One unexpected benefit I experienced as a result of agile working, colleagues make more use of video/audio chat, mobile phones and the number of emails decreased."

Shin Thandi, Technical Support Service Manager

"I have worked for Midcounties for 8 years and after returning from maternity leave for my first child I requested to work 4 days a week under a formal flexible working arrangement. Since 2017, I have worked on an agile basis which allows me to juggle my work and home life and give me a real balance between the two.

Agile working enables me to work from home as well as in the office, and I generally finish at a time that enables me to collect my children from school and nursery to spend some quality time with them and then continue with my hours in the evening.  This really suits me and the hours in the evening are valuable as it is a dedicated time away from phone calls, emails and meetings so highly productive. 

To enable the agile working to work well and not impact on the Society, I am flexible with my working arrangements so I can attend business-critical meetings so there is minimal impact on the service I provide to our internal customers."

Susan Barguss, Head of HR Food Retail

"I have worked for the society for nearly 30 years within various roles which have always been office-based. Around 12 months ago my department became part of the agile working trial for the society and I must admit it has been life-changing for me.

My role is responsible for both Food and application support and I have a Project team and an application support team reporting to me. Agile working has allowed me to plan my day without having to consider the travelling and traffic that can easily add up to two hours a day. The flexibility of working from home or a location nearer home has allowed me to plan my day and weeks well in advance.

Having the trust given to us to plan our day and the transparency of our whereabouts plus being easily contactable is a combination that works really well for both me and the society."

Tracy Edwards, Head of Business IT Management - Food IT

"I have now been Agile working for many months now (even before the lockdown period) and for me, it has brought a lot of benefits. I believe it has allowed me to manage my time a lot better over the last few months and bring a lot of convenience to my working day.

It goes without saying that the flexibility of Agile working is a great benefit as meetings and projects can be completed successfully from home. This way of working allows me to log on after hours to complete important pieces of work at night, allowing for a productive day the next. In turn, providing a better service because I often find myself picking up work and resolving calls well within the timeframe instead of leaving them until the next day.

It has definitely helped increase my productivity even further, completing various tasks ahead of and on time. This way of working has allowed me to communicate with senior members of my team really easily, as we are only a ‘Microsoft Teams’ call away from each other.  It allows us to engage more quickly with increased learning.

Agile working, has made me more aware of using my time wisely & effectively which has helped me develop and shape my future as well as benefitting the team I work in."

Arfan Salim, Application Support Analyst