Agile Working can mean many things. Some view it as a way of reducing the demand on office space; others focus on reducing travel time or substituting expensive face to face meetings with on-line alternatives.
All of these address the cash strapped times we live in but the most progressive organisations, the ones with grander and more sustainable visions, take a wider view of what Agile Working means to the way they work and to the potential benefits.
Take Scottish Water for example. Shirley Campbell, Head of HR & OD is a passionate advocate of Agile Working who positions it strategically and sees it as a benefit to employees, the organisation and ultimately to Scottish Water’s vision of being ‘Scotland’s most valued and trusted business – one that we can be proud of’
Interview by Steve Gillies, Head of Agile Working BT
Interviewed by Steve Gillies, BT’s Head of Agile Working she talks about the 3i’s of Agile Working – Improvement, Individual and Image. For Shirley, Agile Working is more than a tool for reducing operational costs. She sees it as a strategic enabler.
“When we talk about Agile Working we usually focus on the organisational benefits. Things like being able to work from multiple locations reducing travel time, decreased carbon emissions or simply being able to communicate better through new ICT tools.
I’m excited about these but I’m most excited because our new workstyles (Fixed, Fluid, Field and Free) help us to make Scottish Water a great place to work.
Whilst efficiency benefits are the most visible part of what we are doing I like to emphasise three less obvious but more important aspects of Agile Working which are part of our longer term vision.
First, Agile Working helps us improve our business across the board whether it is better service delivery, more efficient processes or better knowledge sharing. It does this through a culture of positive challenge – where we continuously ask if we can do thing better and challenge each other to improve what we do.
It’s also great for our employees as new ways of working are introduced, new ICT tools provided and opportunities to learn and deploy new skills develop. Mastery of these will help us develop a 21st Century workforce equipped as well as any for the challenges ahead.
If it helps us improve and it helps our employees then it’s great for our brand image. We all like to work for an organisation we can be proud of – one that customers, neighbours, friends and family admire. Our vision is dependent on the adoption ofmodern working practices and further improvements in our working environment.”
BT is helping Scottish Water achieve its Agile Working vision and I can vouch from my personal involvement that it is already a great place to work.
The people are dedicated to their customers, passionate about water quality, highly skilled and keen to learn. They have a positive culture of self-challenge that sets them up well to be successful with Agile Working.
What do you think? Let us know in our BT Let’s Talk LinkedIn Group.
