I love Ofwat’s agile working arrangements and for me it’s a major factor in what makes Ofwat a great place to work. I use the agile working to help manage my wellbeing as well as my work.
Typically I work for one or two days a week from home. When I work from home I use my commuting time to adjust my working day to fit in various domestic bits and pieces. It’s a really flexible way to work. It’s rare that I cannot work from home – most routine meetings can be accommodated over phone or by Skype.
By Friday I sometimes find that I am very tired and agile working allows me to take the afternoon off… In return, I quite often work early on a Saturday morning when I am fresher and more effective.
Finally, I use agile working to manage health appointments, and when coupled with working from home, means I can pop out to the GP or dentist and do my work round it. I can even deal with e-mails via my Ofwat iPhone if I find myself with a long delay in the waiting room…
The best bit is that Ofwat trusts me to manage my time like this, so long as I make it clear in my diary where I am, what I’d doing and how to contact me… and I deliver what I’m expected to! And of course the other side of the deal is that Ofwat sometimes needs me in the office on a specific date and time. This is only fair and agile working isn’t all a one-way street.
Helen Parkinson, Strategic workforce planning lead