How do you reposition resources and effort in a way that’s more supportive to our priorities and that includes changing how we work? She said: “The pandemic really brought home opportunities. Moving into the realm of councillors, Dr Sharman said hybrid meetings had led to higher member participation in meetings and briefing, but the downside was that “you do lose that sense of the politics of running a meeting – trying to judge what people are thinking and generating a consensus”.įor Susie Faulkner, corporate director, customer transformation and resources, at Haringey LBC, the pandemic had opened opportunities for engagement with the community, but had also demonstrated a need for better IT equipment. People in difficult circumstances may feel they have to home work because everyone else is.” Where people are is not something to easily make assumptions about. “There’s a need to help people who are often in isolated circumstances. "People in difficult circumstances may feel they have to home work because everyone else is." I do caution in any review that we cannot generalise too much. Many of the office workers need to be in touch with clients and part of a wider framework. Nick Sharman, research fellow at University of Nottingham and a former councillor, warned: “Local government is very complex and there’s a danger of seeing it in too simplistic terms. ![]() She said “constant review” was the key to making things work in the new era. ![]() She also noted how the council “let quite a lot of our estate go during covid,” with three of the five city centre buildings owned by the council sold off. To overcome that reluctance, Leeds City Council is having “set-piece events to get people to come in to collaborate,” and Ms Cox added: “We are finding that is the best approach: getting people in for collaboration, not just to sit there with headphones on.” Some people prefer never to set foot in the office again and others really miss the office.” However, she added: “What we have found is we have a range of perspectives. Hybrid working has proved to be “very popular” with staff, and the council is committed to it for the future, hoping to move towards a situation where staff spend two days in the office and three at home. “We are finding that is the best approach: getting people in for collaboration, not just to sit there with headphones on.” Most of the staff at Leeds City Council were also already enabled for hybrid working at the start of the pandemic, so it had 8,000 people working from home “almost overnight,” the council’s acting head of communications and marketing, Donna Cox, said. Sometimes the keyboard warrior comes out and amplifies the situation.” Collaboration We are also finding an increase in low-level disputes that might have been resolved face-to-face. He noted some of the challenges: “We are finding it is taking much longer with inductees to understand the culture of the organisation. In their opening comments, the participants were asked to sum up how their organisations and staff had been impacted by the covid-induced changes. These were some of the key issues discussed at a virtual LGC roundtable discussion about how councils can adapt to the post-covid era of hybrid working, held in partnership with Virgin Media O2 Business. The pandemic brought about many changes to our daily lives and routines, but while many things have started to return to pre-covid norm, one change looks set to remain with us for the longer term: hybrid working.īut arrangements that see many employees dividing their working lives between home and the office poses many challenges for local authorities as they try to maintain morale in teams, ensure everyone is included, integrate new members of staff and look after frontline workers. Nick Sharman, former councillor and research fellow at University of Nottingham ![]() ![]() Martin McFadyen, head of public sector at Virgin Media O2 Business Martin George, deputy editor, LGC (chair) Susie Faulkner, corporate director, customer transformation and resources, Haringey LBC Scott Crudgington, deputy chief executive, Hertfordshire CC Donna Cox, acting head of communications and marketing, Leeds City Council
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