Chances of a smooth move to hybrid working look increasingly remote

So many company executives were impressed by the ability of their staff to cope with lockdown-era home working, they got a bit carried away with how it would change the future organisation of their business.

The backtrack is on. Firms, especially tech companies, which created the impression of a purely remote working future, are all talking now about “hybrid”, “flexibility”, “re-imagining the office”.

In any company there will be a percentage of staff who can’t wait to get back into work. For others, depending on their age, commute, whether they are parents or are just sick of colleagues, working from home is a far more attractive prospect.

The obvious solution is to cater for the best of both worlds with a hybrid model where employees are obliged to come into the office at least two days per week for example.

As economies start to put the pandemic behind them, the reality of how this new hybrid model might operate is coming into view.

How can large organisations operate a model where some of the people are consistently outside the office some of the time?

Aside from challenges around planning the size and layout of the office building, there is the question of whether to be a “remote first” or an “office first” business. Logistically it will be very difficult to organise on a both first basis.

This will drive the scheduling and structure of sales meetings, sales pitches, think-ins, planning meetings.

Google appeared to backtrack in the other direction recently. Having suggested that employees should only be allowed 14 days of flexible working – and only if given permission – it is now offering staff the option of working three days in the office and two days “wherever they work best”.

An interesting choice of phrase.

Who gets to decide where they work best?

Permanent TSB announced 180 new jobs during the week – and also said that more than 1,200 staff, or around half the total, had applied for permanent flexible working arrangements. This means they can work from home up to three days per week, adopt a four-day week or avail of job sharing to have reduced weekly hours.

This looks like a great deal for staff and fair play to the bank.

But when it comes to the future of remote working, as one senior executive in a large services firm said to me last week, it is “an evolving situation”. Everybody is responding on the fly, and don’t be surprised if they gradually change their minds.

Companies will face the challenges of having to ensure they are still getting an appropriate level of productivity from their remote staff. Firms have resorted to using monitoring technology during the pandemic to ensure staff are doing required tasks.

The Irish Congress of Trade Unions raised concerns about this earlier this month. Online tools that can track the number of mouse clicks by a worker, how many emails they send in an hour and time spent on social media, are being used by some companies.

This gets really tricky when the technology includes taking screenshots or using cameras to monitor whether people are at their desks or not.

There’s an old joke about a boss who walks across the office to a member of staff at his desk and says: “Why aren’t you working?”

The employee replies: “Because I didn’t see you coming.”

Businesses may have used monitoring tools for years in the workplace, but they could run into legal difficulty when a person is at home.

Employees who want to get away from sky-high housing costs in Dublin might dream of heading down to Tipperary, Cork or Clare, where they could keep their job and work from home.

The hybrid model could become a big challenge here. The rural idyll looks a lot different if you have to commute a very long distance a couple of days a week.

Couples looking at securing mortgages for cheaper houses in rural areas will have to get mortgage approval showing long-term ability to pay, in what might become a more uncertain future so far from the office. Legitimate questions are being asked about the impact working from home might have on future promotions.

Then there is the shared cost of technology, equipment, energy bills. Some remote workers may be directed towards a form of self-employment, with the lower levels of job security that brings.

There are so many issues to be worked out – both by employees and employers – about how all of this is going to work.

As we hopefully move towards seeing Covid-19 in the rearview mirror, executives are starting to feel they might have got caught up in the moment a little, when it comes to revolutionising how their entire organisation operates.

O’Connor exits from the Mainstream board  

Mainstream Renewable Power founder Eddie O’Connor didn’t just put his foot in it recently, with some extraordinarily inappropriate and insensitive comments about Africa, democracy and tribalism.

He chose a hell of a time to do it.

Mr O’Connor made the remarks at the Dublin Climate Dialogues event on May 19. He apologised afterwards, saying they were inaccurate and made up of harmful generalisations about the continent of Africa.

But the damage had been well and truly done – and last Thursday he resigned as chairman and a director of Mainstream Renewable Power.

Mainstream announced at the start of this year that Norwegian group Aker Horizons would acquire a 75pc stake in the company, placing an equity value on the business of €900m.

This brings a big payday for O’Connor, but he remains an investor in the company. The transaction only formally closed on May 11, a matter of days before O’Connor made his comments. Aker also shifted its public listing from Euronext Growth to the Oslo Bors (or stock exchange) as recently as May 21, putting the firm very much in the spotlight at home.

Aker has a strong track record in environmental projects and is big into carbon capture. However, it will rely on Mainstream’s presence, experience and contacts in Africa as a bridgehead into renewable power on the continent.

Mainstream has a sizeable African joint venture, co-owned with British group Actis, called Lekela, with projects in South Africa, Egypt and Senegal. According to the Aker prospectus published for the Oslo Bors listing 10 days ago, Mainstream is the second-largest developer and constructor of renewable energy in South Africa.

Eddie O’Connor will be replaced as chairman by Aker Horizons CEO, Kristian Rokke. As part of the Aker deal, the Norwegian company is taking a 46pc stake in another O’Connor business called Supernode, which is developing a super conductor cable for the industry.

O’Connor is on the board of Supernode along with former politician Pat Cox and Kristian Rokke.