Home and work base
The principle of smarter working is to provide employees with options to allow a flexible approach to work most suitable for the task. Employees can divide their time between:
- their traditional work base or campus
- home
- out in the community
Managers will support their employees’ choice as long as the operational service delivery needs and needs of the team to interact in person are met. On average, employees will work two days per week at the workbase. This will depend on the availability of managed workspace or a service hub. Employees who wish to work predominantly at home or the work base must agree such arrangements with their line manager.
It is expected that individuals will reside within reasonable commuting distance on the basis that there will be a need to attend their work base. Heads of service, assistant director or executive director can agree for an employee to reside elsewhere within the United Kingdom where physical attendance at work is not required. The work base will still be within Lincolnshire, and any need to attend will be at the individual's own cost.
Employees cannot work outside of the UK permanently. Any request to work overseas temporarily can only be approved in rare circumstances; for example, international restrictions on travel are imposed whilst overseas. An executive director must authorise all approvals, and the council's insurers notified.
We recognise that employees will need to work from their office or other provided work base for some roles. This does not prohibit some home working where circumstances allow.
Individual employees who are contracted to work from home will continue to do so. Due to their circumstances, working from a work base is not operationally possible.
We expect that most business meetings are conducted on Microsoft Teams because:
- individuals will be present at work at different times
- access will be from different locations
- we need to maintain reductions in:
- our carbon footprint
- business mileage
- lost time through travel
Employees can book managed workspace at any time (dependent upon availability).
Individuals need to plan work commitments. They cannot be compelled to attend the work base at short notice. Meetings via Microsoft Teams and face-to-face are of equal stature.
We recognise that for some meetings, unless speaking, cameras should be turned off, for example, committee meetings. It is the chair's decision whether individuals should be visible on their camera for all other business meetings. If employees have connection issues, they should notify the chair in advance.
All meetings, when diarised, should respect the need for breaks. To support an individual's wellbeing, they should not be stacked back-to-back. Meeting chairs will be asked to act responsibly in managing the time. They should ensure that meetings finish 10 minutes early or provide a break mid-way through meetings. Business Support will introduce a standing agenda item of a five-minute break for meetings lasting one hour or more.
Services will determine which meetings will normally be held via MS Teams, hybrid and which meetings will be normally delivered face-to-face.
