Where are you going?

The DNA of Work

English - January 11, 2022 08:00 - 33 minutes - 22.9 MB - ★★★★★ - 1 rating
Management Business hybrid working new ways of working activity-based working improving productivity culture change organisational change employee engagement workplace experience work from home strategy remote working Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed

Previous Episode: We've come a long way

Next Episode: Leaders are a team too

To kick off 2022, we share one organisation’s ongoing journey to establish a hybrid way of working. The British Heart Foundation (BHF) is a major UK charity and has been a much valued AWA client over the years. Executive Director of People & Organisational Development Kerry Smith and Head of Organisational Change Sarah Cousins share their story – from before the pandemic hit in 2020, to their plans and expectations for 2022.

Covid-19 has, as for many organisations, changed the way BHF operates, how it raises funding to support its research and how it runs its retail operations. Mirroring these changes, its way of working has also significantly changed – fundamentally through embracing transparency, honesty and involving staff in planning the future way of working. The challenges of the pandemic to people’s wellbeing, mental health and sense of certainty have created a much greater awareness of what their community need. People are at the heart of everything – even more so than before.

Our guests discuss their “flexibly connected” programme; the creation of working together agreements; how they are supporting managers to consolidate the skills they need to manage hybrid teams; the evolution of blended location employment contracts; and their move into a new, smaller office, which has 50% less desks and is organised around activities, not neighbourhoods.

So much has changed since March 2020 - so much of it for the better!

AWA Host: Karen Plum

Featured guests:

Kerry Smith, Executive Director of People & Organisational Development, British Heart Foundation https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerrysmithj/ Sarah Cousins, Head of Organisational Change, British Heart Foundation https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahcousins/

British Heart Foundation website: https://www.bhf.org.uk/

BHF’s new office: A “walk-through” was commissioned to help colleagues feel part of it, to understand the space and find their way around. It’s generating excitement about the new modern, cutting edge office and encouraging people to come back when the time is right.

CONTACTS & WEBSITE details:

AWA contact: Andrew Mawson [email protected]

Advanced Workplace Associates: https://www.advanced-workplace.com/

AWI contact: Brad Taylor [email protected]

Advanced Workplace Institute

Music: courtesy of bensounds.com

Want to know more about AWA?

Thanks for listening to the DNA of work podcast