Flexible Working & An Interview With The Chancellor

​My interview with the chancellor

Last week, I had the opportunity to interview Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, about the future of business and entrepreneurship in the UK under the new Labour government.
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This is a new style of content for me, but it seems like many of you really enjoyed it.

If you haven’t had a chance to watch it yet, I’ll leave the links to the full video on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook below.
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TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ben.askins/video/7445673451643325718
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DDR8zwQNuae/
Facebook: https://fb.watch/wmRMUGZhvs/

The best way to approach flexible working

You may know this already, but I’m a big fan of flexible working. Not only do all of the numbers (with regard to employee satisfaction, happiness and productivity) point in an overwhelmingly positive direction, but it just makes logical sense.

Obviously, there are certain companies and industries that it doesn’t work as well for - I’m not disputing that. But for many employers, providing employees with a flexible work environment where they’re treated like adults is just a smart move on both a personal and commercial level.

That said, there seems to be a common objection to flexible working, where bosses and managers are concerned about how they can track employees working hours under flexible working conditions.

And my short answer is… don’t.

Rather than worrying about how many hours your employees are working, track outputs instead. Agree on weekly deliverables and deadlines and as long as those deliverables and deadlines are hit, it shouldn’t matter what hours were spent doing it.

Why self-reflection is important

If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, then you’ll be aware that I get sent a lot of ridiculous workplace posters and notices that have been put up by ‘genius’ management teams.

But this week, I wanted to share this particular example with you all as I thought it was such a great reminder that, quite often, poor management and leadership has more to do with ignorance than bad intentions.
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And well, I think the image speaks for itself, so I’ll just leave it here for you all to appreciate.