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Flexible and Mobile Working in the Public Sector

13th January, Birmingham

Public sector organisations are under increasing pressure to ensure their services are focused on the citizen whilst achieving efficiency savings and productivity gains; Flexible and mobile working practices can help significantly in achieving this goal. It can save up to 30% on office and facilities costs; increase output by up to 20%, reduce environmental impact, significantly improve staff satisfaction and reduce average sickness rates by 4/5 days per year.

This highly interactive, one day workshop will provide delegates with the practical skills and knowledge to assist with implementing flexible working and overcoming cultural resistance. It will offer practical, step-by-step advice and will impart skills and understanding that participants will be able to use immediately upon returning to work.

Participants will gain the skills and knowledge to:

1. Develop effective flexible working policies that will suit the participant’s own organisation.
2. Help develop trust between staff and managers.
3. Adapting the leadership style of middle/senior managers to accommodate flexible working.
4. Get heartfelt buy in at all levels.
5. Overcome hurdles; recognise and deal with the excuses
6. Identify which type of worker will thrive in a flexible workplace and who is more likely to struggle.
7. Manage by output (rather than physical attendance).
8. Fulfil insurance/legal and health and safety responsibilities.
9. Benefit from specific 'quick wins'.

Workshop Format

This workshop is a highly participative, interactive and practical event dealing with your own, real-life issues, questions and concerns.  Delegate numbers will be strictly limited to 40. Delegates will be invited to state specific objectives at the start of the workshop, which will be adapted to incorporate these.

Who should attend?
This workshop is designed to meet the needs of middle and senior managers in local authorities and other public sector organisations involved in developing, managing and implementing flexible working policies within their organisation.

Workshop programme:

09.30 Registration.

09.45 Introduction and objectives
Facilitators introduction and delegates introduce in small syndicates. Delegates will suggest additional objectives that will be captured and referred to throughout the workshop. The workshop has an outline format that will be adapted to suit the delegates’ objectives, encouraging interaction, sharing ideas and learning practical skills. There will be ample opportunity for networking.

10.15 Understanding flexible working
Facilitated discussion extracting the key characteristics of flexible working; myths versus realities.

10.35 Benefits, hurdles, reasons, excuses
Facilitated discussion to differentiate between the hurdles and the excuses, but also illustrating the benefits and potential pitfalls.

11.00 Break - Delegates will be organised into syndicate groups and introduce over coffee

11.20 Resolving the issues
Exploring the factors that need to be addressed and likely solutions on route towards successful flexible working including practical and people based issues. To include all the aspects that have not been fully addressed in the morning session:

· Constraints of Government Connect
• Measuring output
• Developing trust
• Team sprit
• Health & Safety
• Allowances and equipment
• Trade Unions
• Getting buy-in
• Communications
• Technology enablers
• Quick wins
• Getting started
11.50 Case studies and questions
A review of case studies from various organisations to draw generic conclusions.

12.40 Lunch

13.20 Defining the goal. Dreamer, critic, pragmatist
A practical syndicate exercise to identify what delegates really want from flexible working in their organisations as well as what is realistic and the potential barriers to be thought through.

13.50 Exercise conclusions and lessons.

14.20 Coffee – Detail syndicates for next exercise to meet over coffee

14.35 Putting it into practice and letting it happen
A practical syndicate exercise in groups of 5 to develop individual skills required to make it happen in the workplace. Delegates’ role-play as a manager, a facilitator, or a worker in accordance with a brief and personal objectives.

15.10 Exercise 'wash up'
Review, lessons and feedback from the syndicate exercise and issues or objectives that need further resolution.

15.35 Conclusion
Review progress towards objectives and developing solutions. Action plans and next steps.

16:00 The workshop will finish at or by 4pm.

The facilitator
Following strong positive feedback this is the fifth such workshop Jon has conducted for PSF.

Jon Watkinson MBE MBA MA
Jon is a Senior Manager with The Project Network Ltd specialising in project implementation in the public sector. He is a regular and popular speaker on flexible working in the public sector. He delivered a successful 4-year change programme for Centre for Defence Analysis, a division of an MOD. He initiated New Ways of Working and the supporting IT infrastructure for London Borough of Lambeth, has worked with Runnymede Borough Council, Middlesex University and the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on change management projects. Jon has conducted similar facilitated workshops for Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, Cambridge County Council. He bridges the gap between the technical aspects of IT and the practical delivery to the business, including the behaviour change aspects of organisational culture that are required to harvest the benefits of technology. Jon has a predominantly change management background, in IT and the government sector, but also has project management experience in the private sector for clients including:  Dell, Accenture, EDS and Vodafone and HP. Following training at Sandhurst, Jon served as a British Army Royal Engineer officer specialising in bomb disposal and was awarded the MBE for leading the unit doing bomb disposal clearance of Kuwait after the first Gulf War.