Moray Council approves smarter working plans
Moray Council has today (Wednesday 28 June) agreed to adopt smarter ways of working indefinitely, including hybrid working for some of the workforce.
The Smarter Working approach will fully embed the existing flexible working policy for office based staff, providing the opportunity for sustainable hybrid working. This has demonstrated improvements in morale and motivation among staff by supporting health and wellbeing through improved work/life balance, while continuing to maintain the requirements for service delivery.
Councillors gave approval to the full business case for the Smarter Working project, with funding of £82.3k for 2023/24 and £25.4k for 2024/25 from reserves to provide essential equipment to facilitate hybrid working and support staff in the transition.
A report to the council set out that approximately 79% of people whose office base is the council HQ campus will be working in a hybrid way, spending about two fifths of their normal working time in the office and three fifths working from home or elsewhere, depending on both the needs of the service and individual circumstances.
As services embed smarter working, capacity in offices will be released as staff relocate to the HQ campus. Moving to a smaller office estate is anticipated to secure savings of £100k and other opportunities will develop for partner organisations to co-locate in the HQ campus.
Council Leader, Cllr Kathleen Robertson, said after the meeting: “Smarter Working will increase the council’s efficiency and effectiveness and is an opportunity to secure recurring savings through rationalisation of our buildings and estates. It enables us to be closer to our communities and work with them to ensure that services are accessible and designed and delivered to meet the needs of local people in the best way possible, maximising the use of digital and other technologies
“Agile ways of working supports a better work-life balance for our staff, and means less travel, saving time and money, and reduces our carbon footprint.”
The first phase of the Smarter Worker approach includes employees in the HQ campus (which includes the Annexe building) and 9 North Guildry Street, with subsequent phases involving Southfield, 232-240 High Street, 11 North Guildry Street and Beechbrae in Elgin, Buckie Townhouse, Cluny Square and the Phoenix Centre in Buckie, and Keith Community Hub.