Background
"Before we introduced flexible working in 2004" said Clare Corrigan, People and Learning Development Manager of Wrigley Company UK, "there was a long hours culture that many on the commercial side wanted to see tackled." Transatlantic expectations - differing time zones between colleagues in the US, the UK and Europe - made it difficult to establish clear boundaries around an individual’s working hours.
Apart from the long-hours culture, deadlines are normally extremely demanding and the ideal resourcing levels were often unobtainable. FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) is an industry characterised by low margins, and salaried staff regularly worked unpaid overtime hours. Indeed the culture at Wrigley seemed to thrive on the unspoken need to work long hours.
The Wrigley Company UK is committed to positive change for its employees and has a history of different initiatives aimed at developing and motivating staff. It looked to flexible working as a way to address their concerns.
Wrigley also wanted to attract talent to the company. Its location in Plymouth was seen as a challenge when it comes to attracting talent away from the big cities such as Bristol and London.
Key Outcomes
"Everything changed when we introduced flexible working", said Clare. People found they were working 2 to 3 hours a week less, with some people saving up to 7 hours a week hours, yet productivity and performance improved. For example, in Customer Services the team that piloted flexible working was the only team in the department to meet its key performance indicators. The positive impact on morale and motivation was noticeable. It was also able to retain two valued employees on full term contracts, who were planning to go part-time. One of these was returning from maternity leave and the other from long-term sick leave.
"It was very much a team- based solution", said Clare. "The range of flexible working practices introduced depended on each team’s job requirements." With the help of flexible working specialists, Swiftwork, each team was encouraged to develop its own work patterns taking into account how they would meet their targets, the impact on customers and colleagues as well as their own work-life balance.
One Sales team introduced flexible hours to suit the client which, as one employee noted "I found by flexible working it is a lot easier to execute the call rate required, whereas standard hours don't give you this flexibility and hitting the call rate is harder to achieve."
"Our customers’ needs are better met", agreed his colleague. "Flexible working allows us to meet clients when it best suits them. Stock control, for example, generally start early and finish early." "Yes", said xxx "and if you are on a sales drive it gives you the incentive to go for more calls."
In the Finance department, some team members chose to start and finish earlier, others to continue with summer hours, some to compress hours while others kept to their traditional working hours. Yet, every deadline had been met on or before time and the team reported no negative impact on their work. Also, the team reported feeling less stressed, more focussed, more motivated and more committed to company.
Most teams found that it help develop efficiencies. "It actually makes people plan better and be more effective", said xxx in Marketing. "It made everyone use their diaries better. The trust and empowering is good and it brings us up there with the modern world and top 100 thinking and, of course, it gives us a better work life balance."
"In appreciation of the flexibility I am more likely to work whatever hours are required to ensure objectives are met", said xxx.
Naturally, there were a few issues to resolve, such as team meetings and communications, but now, two years on, the new ways of working are fully embedded and "there is no way we would go back to the old ways of working", said Clare. "It has definitely helped with peoples, workloads, helped us to work smarter and enhanced our reputation as an employer of choice. We were also very pleased to win a UK Skills Council Award in 2006 for our Flexible Working and Personal Effectiveness training course, designed and delivered by Swiftwork."