FMJ.CO.UK INTERVIEW FOCUS
OCTOBER 2020 25
place and now there’s an opportunity to
do things di erently – particularly when it
comes to technology and the purpose of
the workplace itself.”
The success of the digital workplace is
governed by the tools and functionality
given to remote workers, for it determines
how productive they can be. Clarke adds:
“Technology must be easy to use and
intuitive, systems must work seamlessly
and perhaps most importantly, support
has to be readily available when things
go wrong. FMs o en ask us for plug and
play capability and this must now extend
beyond the o ice.
“The priority now is to turn lockdown
quick fixes into longer term solutions,
particularly regarding secure file
sharing, collaboration and customer
communications, to ensure that employees
feel supported and are productive wherever
they are working from. Agile tools,
infrastructure and support tie the digital
and physical environments together and
they have to work in harmony.”
VALUABLE BUSINESS TOOLS
One particular requisite business tool that
has been strained over the last few months
is the telephone. Many FMs realised their
outdated legacy phone systems couldn’t
support agile working adequately and in
some cases, required someone to remain in
the o ice to field calls and take messages,
according to Simon Burlison from
telephone answering and live chat provider
Moneypenny.
He said: “The phone is a fundamental
requirement of business yet many firms
couldn’t transfer calls between remote
teams, who relying on voicemail to the
detriment of their business or were having
to give out mobile numbers or rely on
message taking during lockdown. None of
these things are sustainable approaches,
nor do they put the customer first.
“This has highlighted how the focus
of remote working tends to be on new
exciting tools to support team work – but
almost at the cost of the old faithful.
The pandemic experience has reiterated
just how essential communication is to
successful agility. How can employees be
productive if they can’t readily take and
transfer telephone calls or be accessible to
their clients?”
A NEW PURPOSE
How employees will use
the o ice when a sense
of normality returns
has also been the
subject of widespread
speculation during
lockdown. The question
of whether the o ice
will be needed at all
has been posed by many.
Clarke believes its role is still
valid but talks of reinvention. She
said: “The o ice doesn’t need to be
the place of head-down every day working
anymore. It needs to be a destination – a
place that gives the quality experience,
tools and interactions that employees
can’t get from working from home
such as socialisation, community and
collaboration.”
Research from Claremont’s annual
Workplace Insight Report highlights
that 55 per cent of workers expect the
workplace will change significantly post
COVID, while research from Yahoo Finance
suggests that most UK workers do not
want to return to the o ice, a er almost six
months of home-working. Clarke believes
that giving employees a new experience in
the o ice will be part of getting over this
hurdle. She said: “Progressive employers
won’t be asking their people to come back
to the o ice every day. O ering a blended
way of working and making the workplace
experience feature rich will be key steps to
our continued reinvention of the way we
work.”
Moneypenny knows that employee
transience is the new norm but that it must
not be at the cost of client care. Burlison
said: “Clients must receive the same
seamless services and accessibility
wherever teams are, which
requires the use of cloud based
technologies, VOIP and video to
ensure they are contactable.
Clients may have been accepting
of delays to returned calls, or
having to leave messages with
switchboards, at the start of the
pandemic but not anymore.
“It’s important to remember
Ann Clarke, Director future workplace, Claremont
Simon Burlison, Moneypenny
Moneypenny knows
that employee transience
is the new norm but that it
must not be at the cost
of client care.”