Flexible working arrangements specifically homework have been on the rise for many years, the pandemic made this a necessity for many. It is acknowledged that certain workplaces will look to have employees back to the office as soon as is practical, others could be adopting flexible working arrangements to include homeworking.
The Office of National Statistics have confirmed that before the COVID pandemic 1.7 million people were working from home, that figure now stands at 20 million*.
According to research by McKinsey, 41% said that they are more productive when working from home*.
The desire to work from home has been echoed not just around businesses but in education as well. Where before it was seen as necessary to be onsite due to the need to access systems and documents, now increasingly, there are solutions to work around this.
The use of Zoom for example rose from 10 million meeting participants in December 2019 to more than 300 million daily meeting participants in April 2020*. There are also many other meeting platforms in use, but what this showed was the ability to work as a team remotely. Collaboration systems are also proving useful to share ideas collectively, rather than in multiple email messages or phone calls. You then end up with recorded meetings, downloadable notes, shared presentations helping you to work collaboratively and in one central location, rather than actions written in notebooks that are never tracked, shared or recorded. There is no need to type up minutes after the event as everything can be done electronically.
This is also being seen in school systems and particularly in relation to HR. The need for a centralised HR system for schools and academies has never been more prevalent.
Our SAMpeople software system provides an online platform, accessible from any location, with centralised case management, documentation and personnel files. Your administration team could all be at home and have access to the system enabling them to work remotely.
With full integration with school data systems SAMpeople also reduces the amount of time spent entering information into duplicate systems, providing staff with much needed time back in their diaries. Expert HR templates within the system developed by our team/ HR education specialists FusionHR, allow staff to be able to draft letters, policies, assessments and return to work documents much quicker and all online, saved in one place for other users to also access should they need to.
SAMpeople allows appraisal and performance management to continue despite the effects the pandemic brings. Remote appraisals can be carried out and outcomes recorded and then shared with employees all within the system. Objectives can be set for staff development, tracked and employees can upload progress and evidence using their online employee portal, again accessible even if they are working at home.
Risk assessments can be logged in the compliance section with tasks set for next review dates. Contracts and updates to policy documents can be drafted in the system and then shared with employees to electronically read and accept.
SAMpeople also incorporates the SAM software for staff absence management, so that your data is all kept in one place and links with existing school data systems. SAM currently supports over 500 schools to reduce absence. It provides bespoke triggers, absence watchlists, an overview dashboard for multi-academy trusts to oversee all schools as well as a COVID dashboard for separately tracking COVID absences. Within the employee portal staff can also request leave from anywhere and monitor TOIL and annual leave entitlements.
If you would like to know more about SAMpeople or SAM, please take a look at the website, call us for more information on 01924 907319 or join us for our next demo to see how the systems could help you.
Source: https://edexec.co.uk/how-covid-has-modernised-the-role-of-the-sbl/
