Wellbeing, woman in tech and beer talk – is hybrid working really just flexible working?

Six working weeks into 2022 and it’s been crazy busy, credit to those that stick to weekly week notes!

Wellbeing

Starting 2022 I was determined I was going to improve my health and wellbeing, addressing some of the bad habits and weight gain I’d developed during the pandemic. This has started with trying to take control of my diary which some say is horrendous, and may sound like relatively simple steps but I assure you, it’s a challenge. What I’ve done:

• Scheduled 1 hour every day to make sure I get some amount of break at lunch – not eating and working through, I’ve only had two days where I didn’t achieve this and managed at least 20 mins away from the laptop other days
• Challenging the need for virtual meetings – can we use the tools to collaborate instead, this has been received positively and successful of 2/3 occasions including a repeat meeting
• Building focus time of 2 hours into my diary on a Monday afternoon and Friday morning to have space to think and plan, this is important as there is so much going on but has been a bit hit and miss

I would say it’s a work in progress, but I’m trying hard to be a good role model and along with increasing exercise (spurred on by the team walks) and reducing alcohol intake (despite a beer festival) and catching a horrible cold, I do feel I have more balance in my life.

Woman in tech

At the start of February I attended the first woman in public sector IT strategy forum in real life, in a stunning setting.

Who knew so many woman were working in the sector! Pre pandemic when I attended technology or digital transformation conferences and events, it was still predominantly male, but digital events like localgovcamp had a much better mix and felt very different. I felt like I didn’t quite fit in either world.

The quality of the presentations at the forum was excellent, with honest sharing and learning, interspersed with stories of woman’s career journeys. There was a theme of saying:

‘I’m not technical’

and to be honest that was my first thought when I saw the title of the event. Even though our Head of ICT says I’m more technical than him I would never think to apply for his job.

Woman talked about a career game of snakes and ladders, getting to the position they are in due to luck, being in the right place at the right time, and the support of a man either in the workplace or at home (I have said these things, and was fortunate my husband who worked in the public sector changed his working pattern to help with childcare. I recall the top trumps game of whose meetings were more important if we needed to stay off work unplanned for some reason, the pressures that people face juggling caring responsibilities and work).

It made me reflect on my own career journey, existing in a team for a number of years outside of IT which was allowed because we weren’t technical. We were even called Mickey Mouse IT, yet I was writing system specifications, using SQL to interrogate systems, testing applications etc. We compound this still now continually explaining digital is different – there are valid reasons for having separate digital functions but that’s a whole other blog! Digital is about technology, buts it’s also about data, design and people, and getting the balance of those right is what enables digital transformation.

I’ve thought about where I have been discriminated against but not even noticed at the time due to the environment, not confident, or too shocked to respond. Compared to what others deal with it was small scale without detrimental effect.

The shift of focus to Digital and Data feels like it has enabled more woman to enter the sector but we need to acknowledge these are vital technology roles. We need to shake up our recruitment practices and be more creative to enable greater diversity, we’ve seen the big tech companies take active moves and do just this. It was great to see following the event some new recruitment approaches:

‘Made Tech is launching its academy for design and user research. They will hire people to train, with a salary starting from £22,500 to £25,000, depending on location. An opportunity to learn from experienced designers and user researchers, getting real public sector experience.’

‘LOTI are running a Data Careers Day on the 1st March where you can learn about what a career in data looks like working for London Councils.’

Yes we can do more with schools to educate about the opportunities, but we are losing people mid career. We know there in not enough capacity in the market place to fill the roles we need (even GDS are poaching from my team now!) and need to grow our own. There is a real opportunity to embrace diversity, do something different, and I would love to hear others ideas of how we might do this.

I have never been in a conference room that had such warmth and support. It felt emotional at times, but totally inspiring. It was also noisy and tiring with sensory overload after 2 years working from home.

My takeaways from the forum:

• Roles that deal with the business relationship/people aspect of digital transformation are valuable technical roles
• Say yes to opportunities, don’t hold back, figure out how after
• Own the room, project confidence
• Be true to who you are, don’t change to fit in
• The need to continually call out colleagues who are not being inclusive
• The challenges that still remain over legacy tech in order be data driven and digitally transform
• We need to work harder on creating good leaders and organisational culture

Leadership is more important than ever to create diverse organisations, and it made me more sure that the work we have been doing with adapt2digital. is right to help develop modern leaders and I can’t wait to advertise places for our second cohort of quantum leaders.

Hybrid working

We’ve been thinking about how we best support leaders, as well as individuals and teams to develop skills to operate in a hybrid world. I was challenged at the beer festival, isn’t hybrid working just flexible/agile working?

Flexible working is about the days /times people work to better suit the needs of individuals, Agile working is then taking this further to work in difference places, so combined you have the anytime, anyplace approach to work.

I do think hybrid working is a step change beyond that. It’s how we effectively blend our physical and virtual worlds and focus on the human centred aspects, which we have learnt through the pandemic are so important.

• working from home people tend to work more hours and struggle to disconnect
• colleagues who have disabilities have felt more connected and included in the workplace when operating virtually
• you have to make an effort to stay connected with each other in different ways when dispersed
• you can’t just replicate the physical world in the virtual world and need to consider how you use collaboration tools
• there are pros for virtual working we don’t want to lose.

I think for hybrid working, modern leadership, well-being, and inclusion is important, and I don’t recall these topics being talked about in the context of flexible and agile working. You could argue these things aren’t hybrid specifically, but actually what modern organisations should be about – people and human-centred leadership.