Clavister : The future of Clavister, Covid-19 and our working ways

Since March 2020, Clavister has been working remotely, observing the effects of the pandemic and awaiting the right time to make a change in the way we work.

Ensuring the wellbeing of our employees and business continuity have always been the priorities. To facilitate the quick transition to remote working, we provided technology which allowed them to access our network and data securely. While an enforced change for many, the need for scalable tools that enable seamless access into ever-more data hungry workloads hosted across numerous applications and sites were already becoming an essential aspect of doing business today. The pandemic has accelerated the process. At Clavister, we're proud at how quickly we transitioned and, in turn, empowered other organisations to do the same.

As we look forward, fundamentally, we believe the future of productivity and a successful working environment comes from listening to the needs of our staff. So, to best develop our company strategy as the world learns to live with Covid-19, we've put their priorities first.

What our employees want

We carried out a staff survey to see what type of working setup best fits our employees needs. This is vital to developing a program that is sustainable for the future of the Clavister workplace.

The pandemic, in many ways, has been an eye opener to the benefits of remote working as what became overwhelmingly clear is that our staff appreciate the benefits it provides. 91.5% said that they had enjoyed remote working in some capacity and the unanimous response was that they wanted to hold on to that flexibility, with no one desiring to return to the office full time. Indeed, they identified several benefits, including their work life balance, healthier lifestyle habits and greater control of their working environment. Positive changes to productivity have also been observed as people feel they work more efficiently at home with more opportunities to focus and the ability to conserve their time better.

However, the downsides of remote working were also noted, such as reduced social interaction and greater degrees of isolation between colleagues.

Our response

And so, the desire does truly seem to be flexible working with a hybrid strategy in place, giving employees the opportunity to come into the office if they desire.

In the short term, from September, we are keen to re-open the office to all employees to create a space for that vital social interaction we are all missing. For those of us who are vaccinated and keen to get back to in-person communications and meetings, we will be creating opportunities for that to go ahead.

However, we are also maintaining our commitment to flexibility so that staff will not be expected to return to the office full time. If staff do not feel comfortable coming into the office, we passionately feel that they should not feel forced to.

To ensure all have the same experience, we'll centralise our cross-functional communications to make sure engagement is consistent and we'll continue to provide the technology that enables seamless, secure access regardless of location

We are also committed to giving staff an ergonomic working space wherever they are. We will be investing more into home spaces, while continuing to offer the most comfortable office.

The results

We hope to give staff the spaces they need to flourish, with or without Covid restrictions. There will be times that call for in-person social interactions, however, we also recognise there is a lot of value in focus time and the flexibility that comes from being at home. Our approach is designed to best account for all of these factors, creating the optimum environment for our employees, and Clavister, to thrive.