Head of people: 'As you move to a more distributed workforce, you've got to be overtly stating what your culture is and reinforcing that with people'
The traditional nine-to-five structure of work is rapidly giving rise to a new era of flexibility. As employees strive to tailor their workdays to meet their individual needs, it’s becoming clear this shift is not a passing trend, but a defining reality of the “future of work.”
This is an exciting transformation in the field of human resources, according to Danielle Ross, head of people, AU & NZ, at fintech start-up, Revolut.
“I feel we’re so lucky in HR, it’s such an interesting time where it’s a real pivot from the way we’ve done things in the past to the way we’re going to do things in the future.”
Unlike most organisations in New Zealand and Australia that offer hybrid working arrangements, Revolut’s “design your own workday” initiative provides almost unlimited flexibility to its workforce, she said.
“When you first join the organisation, the expectation is that it's remote-first and we've created the tools and we've got the systems that really support you to be able to do that, but we want you to have the ability to design how you work and how you perform your day. You can integrate the work you’re doing with the life you have – it’s not one or the other.”
For Revolut, offering this level of flexibility has allowed them to attract a high bar of talent but also aids the organisation’s diversity goals, she said
“That’s something that having a remote-first employment proposition really allows you to tap into; when you limit yourself to one location for only people that can come into an office, you don’t get that diversity.”
Revolut has also established physical office footprints in multiple locations to provide true flexibility to its workforce.
“Some of our younger team members who are in share housing absolutely appreciate having that office space to come in to, but then others might have different things going on in their lives and don’t need to come to the office,” said Ross.
The company also offers employees the chance to work internationally for up to 120 days a year – at one point, the organisation had 20% of the team taking advantage of this perk, she said.
“Nobody had noticed any difference in terms of the outputs and deliverables so that was a great point to go, ‘Hey, this actually really works, we’ve got the systems and the tools, and everything is happening in a way that can engender that for our people.’”
While embracing true flexibility presents the challenge of adapting cultural norms to accommodate dispersed teams, Revolut is committed to crafting a culture that supports employees to thrive while working in this environment.
“As you move to a more distributed workforce, you've really got to be overtly stating what your culture is and reinforcing that with people in whatever avenue you can,” said Ross.
To support the culture and workflows, Revolut leverages the power of new technologies.
“We don't use email at all, everything's on Slack,” she said emphasising the need to use technology to its fullest capacity.
“I think that the tools that underpin it are so important. If you haven't put in place your performance systems, great collaboration software – instant communication tools like that are really important to be able to make it feel like everybody in the organisation is instantly accessible.”
Alongside technical tools, employee wellbeing is key to consider, said Ross.
“Once people are out of sight, you’re not really knowing what’s going on for them, so you’ve got to enhance that manager-employee communication. [It’s about] really make sure that you’ve empowered and educated managers on how to have those conversations and make sure that they’re having them.”
