Emap Advertising
Background
Emap Advertising (EA) sells advertising across Emap owned radio, TV, digital and magazine brands. EA's human resources policies and practice is established at group level. There is a people and culture team that is focused primarily on development rather than transactional HR and policy development. Emap Advertising embarked upon the work-life balance project not in response to particular problems, but to keep ahead of the competition, to promote its reputation and be fit for the future. It has an inherently dynamic, creative and vibrant culture reflecting the nature of the business and the industry as a whole.
Key Initiatives
Focus groups
These were run at the outset of the project and covered about 85 staff (approx 33% of the business) representing a cross-section of the business and all levels. The format ranged from groups of 8-10 people to paired interviews and a series of one2ones. All of the directors were consulted on a one2one basis at this stage. The information from these helped to focus activity for the workshops and the development of new schemes. There was also some informal consultation amongst industry clients and competitors, much of which demonstrated a friendly cynicism about the prospect of success for the project. This is mainly due to historically long hours and a 'work hard/play hard' culture across the industry in its broadest sense i.e. media, publishing, advertising, etc.
Internal communication
Proposals were initially presented to the Board to make the business case for Emap and to engage the Board and get buy in. The Board were supportive of the principle of introducing flexible working at Emap and could see the benefits, in particular, of being a pioneering company in the advertising sales sector thereby creating a competitive edge. At the same time, the Board remained cautious given the huge pressure on sales targets and the need to rule out any risk to profitability and client relationships. Communications to all staff were made via EA's established routes and by utilising an organisational residential weekend in continental Europe for a creative, people led, and interactive presentation about the project.
Manager workshops
Manager workshops were set up covering about 40 key managers and including all Board directors. These were interactive and participative, drew on practice elsewhere and focused on real life scenarios and solutions. The workshop objectives were:
- To increase understanding and support for EA's work-life balance project;
- To increase understanding of the business benefits of improved work-life balance;
- To increase confidence and knowledge about people and work management issues in flexible environments;
- To listen to managers' views from their individual and team perspectives.
Managers participated enthusiastically and constructively once they were in a workshop and there was little sign of the cynicism that can be a feature in some organisations.
Manager one2ones
Managers were encouraged to explore the possibilities within their teams and to establish core customer service needs as well as individuals' aspirations for a better work-life balance and to develop team pilots proposals. The pilot proposals focused mainly on variations of flexible hours schemes, with a small number seeking homeworking and compressed hours. Each proposal was discussed with all managers to ensure rigorous thinking and measurement of success before presentation to the Board.
The Board decided that ideally it required a spread of types of schemes and a cross-section of the organisation. It was also concerned to minimise any negative impact on the business and wanted to mitigate that risk as far as possible. It therefore requested the WLB Forum to make firm recommendations to go ahead with up to six pilots, based around those criteria combined with the need for a demonstration of good planning and rigorous measurement.
Pilot schemes
Six pilots were subsequently launched and the managers were encouraged to develop their schemes in accordance with the following core principles:
- Business first i.e. there should be no detriment to the business and a strong hope that new ways of working would benefit the business;
- Locally invented schemes which meet specific local business, client and team needs;
- Devolved responsibility which encourages managers to facilitate team self-management and supervision to promote individuals and teams being personally accountable for their output and hours;
- Team based ground rules to support positive peer pressure in 'policing' the success of the pilots;
- Evidential based pilots to give the Board and managers confidence and to demonstrate the business case for extending, refining or curtailing the scheme(s) on a corporate basis at the end of the pilots.
For their six-month duration the pilots were subject to:
- Ongoing informal monitoring between a nominated pilot link person and the people and culture team;
- Regular monitoring and review by the manager and team itself;
- Informal half way point discussions with the Swiftwork's work-life balance consultant, who was also available for trouble shooting and other advice and assistance;
- Refinement as necessary to ensure maintenance of service levels;
- Formal measurement against baseline information on a corporate and team basis.
'Loyalty Break' scheme
This scheme was developed in response to strong input at the focus group stage from people across the business that an opportunity to take a career break of some kind would enhance loyalty and bring benefits. A draft policy plus associated guidance notes and application process has been developed. Formal commencement was originally delayed due to time/resources constraints within the people and culture department (it could not be launched without adequate support, particularly at the outset when demand was likely to be relatively high). It has now been launched.
Key Outcomes
The pilots have required managers and teams to develop various new ways of working to facilitate the flexible hours schemes and to provide evidence of impact. Examples include:
- Extending hours of service to clients through extended cover of departments;
- Corporate lunchtime window from1-2pm - this has been extended in pilot teams improving lunchtime cover;
- Development of time monitoring/recording systems by teams;
- Log in systems to record arrival/leaving.
Some key areas of impact are:
- Increased efficiency i.e. reduced hours but increased productivity;
- Reduced sickness;
- Reduced / eliminated lateness with associated reduction in need for management of problem;
- Reduced stress - especially in relation to travel;
- Improved management information;
- Reduced guilt in people taking time owed to them by the business;
- A feel good factor amongst people;
- Improved time management and awareness of personal responsibility.
These are all issues highlighted by managers in the post-pilot discussions. The fact that schemes had been invented and driven by the teams, with positive peer pressure within the team to ensure team ground rules are adhered to, was also mentioned as a key success factor.
Summary
Feedback from a department manager:
"The scheme has been a fantastic success. The results show that the team have minimised overtime therefore becoming more productive and efficient during their time in the office. There has been no evidence of any negative impact on the business or customer service, and in fact the business impact shows positivity with upsides in reduced queries and the achievement of the budget. The measurement criteria speak volumes and our recommendation would be to continue with such a motivating scheme and roll it out. One consideration may be to allow teams a certain element of control over some of the ground rules so as it suits the demands of their particular environment."