Driving Visibility and Flexibility in Hybrid Work

Tim Wilkinson-Hall, Head of Knowledge & Culture at Chess, discusses happiness and growth at work, and how hybrid working has changed the way we work at Chess. Including:

• Happiness and Growth at Work >
• From Office, to Remote, to Hybrid Work >
• Our Challenges >
• Our Solutions >

'A great place to work, a great place to be a customer' is a statement that encompasses our ethos. Our current goal is growth, and our people are the key drivers. Therefore, we help our people to deliver their best without compromising their work-life balance.

Happiness and Growth at Work

To ensure we build this vision, our chairman David Pollock delivers happiness training to all members of the Chess family. This training teaches that 'in order to be successful, you need to be happy,' a quote many of our people work by to strive and attain their goals.

In line with our growth ambitions, the theme of our summer conference was 'Let's fly'. This line encourages our people to take all opportunities to further their personal development, ascending them towards their personal goals and helping them grow as individuals.

However, the concept of growth is also propelled to our customer base, as the more we grow as a company, the better equipped we are to help you grow as a business.

From Office, to Remote, to Hybrid Work

Remote working was a huge challenge for all office based businesses around the globe, but here at Chess, we made it as smooth as possible for our people and our customers. Our transition was aided by the culture we've built and the technology we provide. The attitude and energy of our people had everyone eager for the challenge and ready to make our technology as adaptable as us.

From the 2021 company survey, we concluded hybrid working was the best fit for our people so everyone had access to the working environment that suited them. We ensured this did not alter Chess's success, communication, or culture by combining our comprehensive remote working system with the opening of new hubs to enable face-to-face team meetings when required.

Hybrid Work According to our People
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Our Challenges

The transition to hybrid working requires collaboration, flexibility, and visibility more than ever. Therefore, when planning for this model, we needed to find a system to ensure our culture, productivity and success were not compromised.

Our Solutions

Collaboration through Teams - Our solid relationships with technology leaders and partners have subsequently helped us thrive as a company by keeping our working life simple, effective, and efficient, whether from home or the office. One of our major partners that helped with this is Microsoft. Teams supported our people to continue working together remotely as an effective communication platform that creates a working environment as if you were in the office. A valuable feature of Teams is the presence icon that syncs with your outlook calendar letting your colleagues know your availability.

Visibility through Outlook - Continuing with the systems sync, another critical platform we have found invaluable is the Outlook calendar which has enabled our teams to keep track of their daily activities while booking personal time when required. This gave us visibility as employers but also gave our people flexibility to manage their work time around their home life. Outlook has enabled our people's time to be managed effectively and efficiently, prioritising their productivity from anywhere around the globe.

Summary

At Chess, we are a fast-moving, everchanging company. Therefore, if something is not working, it gets changed. We strive to maintain simplicity and efficiency across all processes, functions, and goals, aiding our success. Consequently, we have evolved into a forward-thinking company, ensuring we have solid contingency plans for the unexpected. This culture is only made possible due to everyone having the correct attitude and energy toward their career, striving for happiness and success that enables Chess and its customers to fly.

You can be assured our people are here to help you work securely anywhere, anytime, as you know, our chess family is doing the same.

Let us help you fly through your transition to hybrid working. If you have any questions on how we can help smooth your transition to hybrid working, please get in touch with our team, and we would be happy to help.