Agile Working in Professional Services at
UCL
A vision of the future
What is Agile Working in Professional
Services?
•
In keeping with the UCL 2034 vision of innovation and the key enablers of valuing
staff and delivering a sustainable estate to meet the University’s aspirations, Agile
Working fits well with these themes.
•
A key vision for the future of Professional Services in UCL involves a review of
current working practices to make improvements in the way we work together
both collaboratively and individually in our respective Divisions.
•
Cultural change is needed within Professional Services to embrace new ways of
working to allow us to work smarter and to maximise our productivity and become
a more Agile workforce.
•
Adoption of flexible working practices will embed Agile Working values
What is Agile Working in Professional
Services?
What does Agile working mean?
• The ability to work in variable locations to complete the tasks necessary to your
job on any given day. This may be in an office at a desk with your team, breakout
area, in a library, in a café or at home.
• The ability comes from being given the appropriate practices and processes to
allow you to work in a variety of locations.
• Removes desk ownership: A clear desk policy will apply to all.
What does Agile working NOT mean?
• Contracted Homeworking
– The transition to agile working will not in itself mean a move to contractual
homeworking. Working from home on an ad-hoc basis with the agreement of
your line manager but without any change to contractual terms and conditions
may be part of an agile working solution.
What is Agile Working in Professional
Services?
Key objectives
• Supporting the 2034 Vision for UCL and a number of its key
enablers
• Contributing to financial and environmental sustainability
• Making efficient use of space and ISD capability to enable an
agile workforce that can work in more than one location
Key benefits of Agile Working
Agile Working has a number of benefits and is not just about reducing the footprint that
Professional Services occupies.
•
Freedom to work in the best location making the best use of time and resources
•
Reduced time travelling by avoiding having to always return to your desk
•
Will utilise the latest ISD developments such as desktop@UCL
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Allows teams to work more flexibly and improve cross-divisional collaboration
•
Encourages the development of new working practices that allow client facing teams
to spend more time with their clients around the university
•
Making time together count - in many cases enabling people to be more flexible in
how they work means that when they are all together it encourages better use of that
collaborative time and maintains team cohesion.
How to make Agile Working work
New ways of working both in-house and remotely
•
Meeting in touch down areas (less formal)
•
Virtual meeting technology
– Go to Meeting, Powwownow, Microsoft Lync, Skype etc.
•
Conference calling
•
Document sharing made easier through new ways of storing data via
– Desktop@UCL to be rolled out across Professional Services
How to make Agile Working work
New protocols need to be decided by each Division including:
•
New ways of managing:
– Team etiquette e.g. local filing / booking systems
– Building management e.g. clear desk policy and room bookings
•
New ways of working:
– Individual etiquette e.g. diary management, opportunities for learning new
ways of working with additional resources. Taking individual responsibility to
maintain team and customer communication and continued collaboration.
Implementing agile working
•
Within Professional Services, Estates, HR, PACE and CAM are moving to a
new UCL building known as Bidborough House
•
The move to Bidborough offers a unique opportunity to introduce an agile
working approach as part of the move to new premises
•
Following the move to Bidborough House, other Professional Service staff
will be moving to or around Torrington Place and Maple House. It is
expected that agile working will also be introduced as part of these moves
•
However the focus of this presentation and the current work is on the initial
move into Bidborough House. Detailed work on the introduction of agile
working into the departments moving in/around Torrington Place or Maple
House is not expected to start before May. But those departments may wish
to consider what agile working will mean for them including discussions with
their staff about the concept.
Implementing agile working
Phase 1a:
Initial occupation of BH by PS staff (HR,
May 15
Estates, PACE, CAM) and the adoption of agile
working by those groups
Phase 1b
Decant of Laws to BH
June/July 15
Phase 1c
Move of Registry to TP, Restack of Finance in
TP and move of Finance staff to TP/Maple
House
TBD
Bidborough House
Bidborough House is a modern, open
plan six storey office building which is
located a short distance from Gower
Street at
38-50 Bidborough St, Kings Cross,
London WC1H 9BT
Acquired by UCL in 2014
Approx. Travel Times by tube:
Victoria : 15 mins
Paddington : 20 mins
Waterloo : 20 mins
London Bridge: 20 mins
Agile Working in Bidborough House
Example floor layout
“Team A Neighbourhood”
“Team B Neighbourhood”
Centrally shared space
Static Desks
Flexible Desks
Informal Spaces (e.g. Kitchens and Breakouts
Meeting Rooms
Alternative Workspaces/Drop ins
Bidborough House
The Bidborough House relocation programme marks the first step in a phased
repositioning of teams that will start in May to help facilitate the Agile working in
Professional Services and support our new agile workforce
Bidborough House
Project activities so far:
 Project Board formed – made up of all the PS Leadership Team (Sep 2014)

 Bidborough House Project Team formed (Oct 2014)

Nominated departmental champions: Finance and Business Affairs - Liz
Mooney, CAM - Rachel Anderson, DARO - Jennie Campbell, Estates Valerie Cooper and Ian Wright, Student Registry Services - Andy Saffery,
PACE - Steve Cross, HR - Anne Skinner and Annie Watts, and ISD – Darren
Livermore (Oct 2014)
 ‘Briefing on space moves and flexible working’ from Rex Knight (27 Nov ‘14)

 All Professional Services staff communication inc. report sent (w/c 24 Nov)


 Open Day at Bidborough House – 100+ visitors (18 Dec ’14)
Bidborough House
Project activities going forward:
 Desktop@UCL to be rolled out to Professional Services (from late Jan ‘15)
 Director and Manager briefings (Feb 2015)
 Distribution of manager’s briefing pack and drop in sessions (Feb 2015)
 1-2-1 meetings with staff (Mar 2015)
 Detailed planning for occupation of Bidborough (Apr 2015)
 Phase 1 move to Bidborough House (May 2015)
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
Preparation for Managers Conducting 1-2-1 Sessions
•
•
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Start with an introduction to divisional director’s/senior management (Tuesday
10th Feb) and an introduction to managers (Thursday 12th Feb)
Workshops for managers with the project team
– Each manager will attend one of the six workshops with the project team to
discuss any questions or concerns before doing the 1-2-1 consultations with
their staff
– Managers will be provided with questionnaires and materials to support their
1-2-1 sessions
– Workshops run over two weeks from 16th to 27th February 2015
Managers will run the 1-2-1 sessions during March
Project Team Drop-In Hours
– Throughout March, there will be a schedule of sessions when the project
team will be co-located and available for anyone to drop-in to discuss issues,
questions or concerns
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
Why have staff 1-2-1 sessions?
•
Managing the change to agile working:
– The staff 1-2-1 sessions offer an opportunity to discuss new ways of working
directly with your teams
– Discussing individual circumstances and preferences
– Determine whether the individual needs static or flexible working
arrangements
– Developing new management protocols that work for your function
•
The staff 1-2-1 sessions will assist the Project Team with:
– Building preparation
– Ensuring that ISD resources and hardware is allocated to each employee in
Phase 1
– Ensuring that any ergonomic furniture in use is captured and provided for
each employee
– Identifying training needs
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
New ways of managing
Managing new ways of Agile working – involve greater sharing of schedules with colleagues
and managers, and updating about work-in progress.
Adopting new working patterns – where appropriate options can include:
• Flexible working hours
• Ad hoc working from home arrangements
New ways of working
Teamwork protocols to be established – where appropriate options can include:
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•
•
•
•
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•
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A requirement to let others know where and when you are working
Clear reporting structures
Sharing of calendars and schedules
Use of electronic document management systems, to ensure work is easily accessible
Ensuring equality through flexible working practises
Etiquette in online communications, and behaviour in virtual meetings
Signposting availability for phone contact or online discussion
Fairness in use of space when in the office.
What is the difference between STATIC
and FLEXIBLE ?
• STATIC: Need to use the same desk whenever they are in
the office because:
– They require access to very specialised technology or equipment
located at a particular desk
– They have assistive technology or equipment that cannot easily be
moved between desks
• FLEXIBLE: Can use any available desk or workspace
because:
– They are not static workers
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
What will be provided to staff?
• Static Workers will be allocated a permanent desk at Bidborough House together
with:
– A pedestal for storage
– A replication of current PC set up will move with them to Bidborough
– Desk is not owned. There will be a clear desk policy to allow desk to be flexible
when not in the office due to holiday, training, sickness or being offsite for the
day.
• Flexible Workers will be provided with:
– A laptop if they don’t already have one
– Shared desks setup with standard monitors, keyboards, mice, docking stations
and phones
– A personal locker space (in lieu of a pedestal)
Similar facilities and equipment will be provided to subsequent moves to Agile
Working where appropriate.
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
What else will be included?
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Desktop@UCL
– The new desktop setup including modern applications, more data storage and a
remote access facility will be rolled out shortly to all teams in Professional Services
which will be helpful for both Static and Flexible workers
Team storage
– Current storage situation will be audited in Feb ‘15 and where needed team filing
will be provided. Additional storage required will also be captured during staff 1-2-1
session with managers.
Environmental Sustainability
– Prior to the relocation teams will be encouraged via their Green Champions to store
only essential filing in their new location, aided by the Desktop@UCL service that
will provide more easily accessible electronic storage
Clear desk policy
– Clearing away your desk at the end of the day will be required to facilitate agile
working across the office. If a static worker is away (annual leave or sickness) their
desk can be used by flexible workers if needed.
Agile Working case studies
•
•
Part of the proposed staff 1-2-1 sessions will involve exploring new ways of
managing staff and training that may be available.
Examples taken from our own staff where successful roll out of Agile Working has
been experienced…
I am better able to support the
teams
who deliver the sustainability
outcomes if I’m based with them. In my case
it means that I need to be in Hampstead
Road in order to work with the Procurement
team and in Torrington Place to work with
Facilities Services. Given that I also hold the
role of Estates Division Safety Office flexible
working becomes essential rather than
desirable. Once you get used not being
based in one location it becomes really
liberating.
Time and attention become
valuable resources which I can now use to
achieve more – but with much less stress! Tony Overbury
On balance we found that a very
small
number of people required a fixed
desk in order to carry out their
responsibilities, even people with adapter
chairs could be flexible within a zone
because chairs can be moved around the
office. This, however, was the most difficult
aspect of the change, staff became very
stressed and concerned when their longestablished working styles were challenged
so a robust, transparent and fair set of rules
for everyone concerned was required. Once
we moved in to the new space, staff settled
very quickly and began to appreciate the
benefits of open plan working and the
opportunities it presented to integrate
across teams etc – Derfel Owen .
Professional Services staff 1-2-1 sessions
Further Information
• A dedicated web page will be set up on Transforming UCL
to support the plans, which can be used as a resource for
mangers and staff with helpful local information, a
timeline, maps, etc.
• FAQs
• Links to Resources regarding agile working practices,
including e-learning modules
• Contact details for project team members and area
champions
Image of
Form
Next Steps
You will shortly receive an email asking you to sign up for a preparation
workshop.
If you have any further questions:
• Contact Lee Jenner lee.jenner@ucl.ac.uk
• Or your Agile Working Champion:
– Finance and Business Affairs - Liz Mooney,
– CAM - Rachel Anderson,
– DARO - Jennie Campbell,
– Estates - Valerie Cooper and Ian Wright,
– Student Registry Services - Andy Saffery,
– PACE - Steve Cross,
– HR - Anne Skinner and Annie Watts, and
– ISD – Darren Livermore