Hybrid Working at Navigator

Here at DMS Navigator we have had contingencies in place for several years so that if for any reason we were not able to work from the offices, we could easily switch on from home and work remotely without it affecting support to our customers! We had put this to the test several times as part of our auditing for being ISO27001 compliant.

We then moved to allowing our employees to work one day remotely from home. As they had already evidenced that they were able to do this and work effectively! So why not?  

This massively paid off when the pandemic hit, except for our Implementations team, the whole team were able to setup working from home with no impact to our business and they had already had prior experience of working from home. Albeit nobody did foresee how long this would end up being for! Thank goodness those days are gone – scurrying to look for wood!  

As we started to come out of lockdown and employees were allowed to start returning to the office, we changed to a permanent hybrid policy. This allows employees to work from home two days a week and be in the office three days a week. They also have an additional 10 days a year to use for working from home when required.  

A lot of companies have now moved to permanently working from home. However, we decided not to do this for several reasons:

• For a well knitted and blended team, working remotely does not achieve this. You lose the general chatter and socialisation through a virtual world which is important in better knowing your team members and building a relationship.
• Touching back on the above point, socialisation. As humans, even as some of the shyest people, social interaction is so important for our wellbeing and mental health. As much as we sometimes don’t think we do, we need people around us!  
• Lone working is just that, lonely!  
• Performance and attention to tasks began to drop – as the world began to open again, work was no longer the only thing keeping people busy anymore.
• Assisting employees to continuously better themselves (continued personal development) was hard in a virtual world and it also took double the time – i.e., if you have a question for your team, all you need to do in the office is stand up and walk over to the required person (this also gives others the opportunity to listen in and learn as well) and ask the relevant question. In the virtual world, you pinged a message and waited for a reply and then booked a 1:1 call session with whoever had the answer.  

It is amazing how much you learn from others when you are in a face-to-face setting!  

• It is easier for Manager to identify when a member of staff is struggling – whether this means in themselves or with their work in general. Body language speaks a thousand words.  

I could go on as to why we decided hybrid working was best for both ourselves as a company and our employees! But they are some of the main reasons.  

Some of our employees were a little reluctant at first but as soon as they were back in the office they stated, “it is great to be back with everyone again, I didn’t realise quite how much I missed it”.  

For our onsite employees who do work from home on a permanent basis as they are up and down the country etc. for their job role, we hold a “Pizza Thursday” every month where they all come into the office. The main purpose of this day is so that these employees can come into the offices and see other members of their team and the rest of the team departments. This allows them to still feel integrated with everyone else.  

What are your thoughts on hybrid working? Did you remain permanent WFH, switch to full-time back in the office or, like us, opt for hybrid working?

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