Best Practice
Myth or
reality?
Julie Phillips, chief operating officer of
CHS Group UK, on getting the basics
right for successful flexible working
F
“Trust plays a very
important role –
you have to respect
your team to
control their daily
schedule and work
environment”
lexible working is a wonderful idea, but
employers can be slow to embrace the
change as business owners worry it could damage
productivity. It’s not a view we share at CHS
Group, where it’s one of the founding principles
of the company. Our experience has been that it
is very beneficial and boosts productivity.
When I joined CHS Group back in July 2014 I
thought it was an amazing and novel opportunity
to work for a business which allows me to work
from home full time with flexible working hours. I
was intrigued to learn from our CEO and founder,
Emma Cartmell, back in 2009 that she started the
company with a very clear vision.
Emma felt as a business owner she gained
certain flexibility around her working day but why
should only the business owners and directors of a
company benefit, why not every single employee?
The CHS Group culture was born!
Five years on, I am happy to report we have
grown to a team of 11 and currently looking to
increase this further.
We knew we needed to focus on three main
areas to make sure our culture was aligned and
met our business strategies and objectives but still
offered flexible working for all staff:
• We agreed the basis of our core values and use
them as our guiding principles to define the
behaviour we expect from each other and how
we work together. The team embrace these
values and are measured against them as part
of our KPIs.
• We took time to get the right technology for
our business. Flexible working often means
remote working too, but this should in no way
be isolating. Our technology gives us the right
tools and processes to work collaboratively.
These tools help us to stay productive, visible
and operate as a tight-knit team.
• Communication and a meeting rhythm are
sacrosanct in the diary. We have set meetings
for the full team every week which allows us
to touch base as a business. We make sure our
meetings have a consistent agenda with the aim
to make sure everything is on track, that we’re
connected as a team and we solve any issues.
Flexible working has provided great payback for
us as a team, resulting in increased staff morale
and engagement, fierce loyalty to the company,
reduced absenteeism and a reduction in staff
turnover. Trust plays a very important role – you
have to respect your team to control their daily
schedule and work environment.
I recently spoke to a number of my family and
friends and came to the conclusion that in today’s
corporate world, flexible working is still not the
status quo and is still difficult for employees to
approach management to discuss and this made
me ask the question, why?
I am the first person to admit that it’s not all a
bed of roses; it needs to have a clear and widely
understood goal otherwise it will merely be a
policy which sounds good on paper. It requires
dedication and resource to implement and
also needs to live and breathe throughout your
organisation.
All I do know that everyone working here at
CHS Group is fully invested and proud in the
culture we have built and that is a way of life for
us all but with that we know we have to work hard
every day as the fundamental principle of flexible
working is that the needs of the business must be
met. It’s a classic ‘all for one and one for all’ policy!
July — 37