December 2024
Welcome to your latest issue of HR Gamechangers, spotlighting creative people managers, sharing knowledge and providing updates on the ever-changing world of flex. In this issue, we have interviewed Nikunj Upadhyay, the Inclusion and Diversity Director from construction group, Wates, who has been instrumental in bringing a culture of supportive positivity to Wates’ 4,000 strong workforce.
The Labour government has started on its plan to Make Work Pay and it’s great to see a focus on making work better for all high on the agenda. Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the Employment Rights bill is part of a plan to “ensure it boosts economic growth and creates better working conditions for all.” The ongoing consultations will iron out exactly how the measures will be implemented and we hope to see detailed, practical guidance to implement the planned changes. You can find out our Timewise view on the legislation here. In our view helping employers to create flexible, good quality jobs is vital - if we can help your company to do this, please get in touch.
Our Early Years and Childcare report launched recently, the result of a two-year pioneer project, supported by JPMorganChase. We explored how proactive flexible working cultures could improve staff wellbeing and engagement in nursery and childcare settings, and help with recruiting new staff to this largely frontline sector with specific operating constraints. Read more about the roundtable we hosted with early years providers, policymakers and local and national government representatives to collaborate on ideas and sharing example of good practice.
We have been having interesting conversations with employers about work design and use of time in the workplace. With reports of low UK productivity, and record levels of people not in work, we have heard more local concerns from employers about an imbalance between workload and working hours. We are increasingly finding, in a range of sectors, that employees feel their work is intensifying and potentially impacting their health. In our client projects we can look at working hours and work structure, examine the impact of technology, and patterns of activity, to help ensure work is balanced across teams and leaves people feeling in control. We expect this to be a topic that gains more focus in 2025, with forward thinking leaders exploring what they can do to improve the way work is designed and organised in their organisations, to ensure their teams are happy, healthy and productive.
A huge thank you to those who have nominated themselves or colleagues to be featured in our future newsletters – please join the movement and nominate anyone you think we should be speaking to.
SPOTLIGHT ON...
Nikunj Upadhyay, Inclusion and Diversity Director & HR Director, Developments, Wates Group
Nikunj has worked for some of the best known companies in the world. She began her career as an HR Business Partner at a manufacturing company in India. She was hired by Accenture and then HSBC in HR roles before moving to the UK.
Nikunj took her first DEI focused role at Barclays. Then, just a little over 5 years ago, she joined Wates Group , one of the largest family-owned private construction, development and property services companies in the UK, which has famously made a commitment to advertise all roles as open to flexible working.
The workforce at Wates Group
Wates Group has 4,000 directly employed people. Roughly 60% are site and project based. Nearly a third (28%) of the Group’s workforce are women, 16% are from minoritised ethnic backgrounds, 4% have a declared disability and 4% are LGBTQ+. We have a healthy mix of people from all socio-economic backgrounds here.
We are in the business of managing, constructing or repairing buildings and land related projects. We are conscious that flexible working for someone onsite may look different to those who are predominantly office-based. This led to design flexible working principles for the business (it’s for everyone, mutually beneficial, involves give and take, is about the context, team and must be leader led) which acknowledges that flexible working is possible is on all roles, however, not all types of flexibility will work for all roles at the same time. Everyone knows they can use this as the starting point for a conversation for their own flex.
‘One Simple Thing’ concept
I have borrowed an idea from a construction company in Australia, called ‘One Simple Thing’. The idea is that there is usually ‘one simple thing’ that will make someone’s work-life balance better. For example, being at school pick up three times a week, leaving early to make yoga on Thursdays. Get this right, and you can unlock a person’s life and potential. It helped that this has worked for another construction organisation, albeit one in a different geography. It helps create an environment where people feel they have one another’s backs. Unique arrangements tend to cause resentment, and consequently, you begin a culture of ‘keeping quiet’ about your deal, which makes everything worse. This can be avoided by not treating flexible working as a ‘special treatment’. It works because everyone in a team knows what the other team member needs and everybody works together to see what’s possible. When we introduced this on our sites, folks liked the simplicity of the idea and once they had a conversation on what is my ‘One Simple Thing’, they got creative and made posters for their site, for people to physically write their answers on. And we found that a culture of supportive positivity bloomed. For example, if you put: ‘To feel like me I need to go to the gym two lunchtimes a week,’ a colleague can nudge you if you are heading off track.
Always looking forward
At Wates, we wanted to create an environment that is fair for all and where people can ask for support and get it. Our purpose is to reimagine places where people can thrive. For us, this starts with our colleagues.
Because we are a family-owned organisation, we have a collegiate culture whereby we take care of each other and are led by our People Promise of creating opportunities and relationships so that everyone who works for and with us feels included, invested in and treated with care.
This has informed a range of progressive policies here at Wates. For example, at Wates, we have a paid 52 weeks maternity leave and paternity/partner leave is 12 weeks at full pay. Partners and fathers can take this leave up to 2 years from the child being born/adopted, how they want to take, in discussion with their manager, so you don’t have to use it all at once.
We offered 4 weeks unpaid Carer leave, which was introduced in 2020, to be taken whenever you like. But our people fed back that it just isn’t easy to take unpaid leave in this way, so this year we updated it so that 1 week of the 4 is paid.
We introduced paid pregnancy and baby loss leave, which is available to both parents.
And we have partnered with Fawcett to support their work on menopause in the workplace, which actually fed into Davina McCall’s work. A high number of our female employees are aged 40+ and we need to be able to talk about what the menopause puts women through - if you can’t sleep at night, if you are having a hot flush - how can you work comfortably? Male colleagues have fed back that the training is even helping them at home with their partners.
What drives me
I am passionate about creating fair and equitable working environments. In my roles in inclusion and diversity across the past 10 years, I have become very aware that our societal structures are quite steeped in inequity. This is true for both geographies I have worked in, UK and India. Talent is hampered by that inequity. We need to take the lid off this inequity by questioning assumptions about long standing norms. My favourite example for this is to ask yourself and your business - in offering 12 months off to mothers and 2 weeks to fathers, what message may we be sending about expectations of men and women at home and work.
Personal Flex
I need to work flexibly for several reasons, and I have done so in several ways. My family are all in India. My mother has ovarian cancer and my manager has been very supportive, saying ‘do whatever you need to do’. I want to stay busy and work, so the organisation has enabled me to be in India when I need to and continue working from there, which is very helpful.
Recommended by LinkedIn
I am also doing a part time Masters in coaching for behavioural change. So it is about balancing work and studies, including classes which happen during the work week. Wates offer me autonomy to balance both these important priorities for me, and my manager trusts me and is completely onboard and supportive. This is why I am able to do this.
If I could change one thing, in terms of how people talk about flex…
Quite simply, I think flexible working is about making sure you have the balance in your life that works for you. Businesses don’t want anything other than a productive workforce and actually, that often means having a happy workforce, too.
To achieve that, we all need to be honest about what’s workable.
Too often, when people say ‘flex’, people think it means working from home. I want to change that so anyone can see that a balance that works for you IS a type of flexible working. Flexible working has to flexible, in the truest sense.
Can flex help prevent staff burnout in the childcare sector?
4 in 10 early years workers are leaving the sector - for good. Pay and progression are known issues. 98% of the entire workforce are women and they have a high level of need for flexible working. We say, it’s time to start looking at working patterns, too. Read more.
Interesting reads
Heads up
23 January 2025: A Timewise webinar, Ending the two-tier workforce, focusing on practices in sectors such as social care and retail
4 February 2025: CIPD’s Wellbeing at Work Conference, elevating wellbeing for a thriving workforce
5 February 2025: A Timewise webinar, Ending the two-tier workforce, focusing on practices in sectors such as transport, health and construction
5-6 February 2025: HR Minds Summit, exploring emerging trends, best practices, and disruptive technologies
5-6 March 2025: HR Vision London focuses on how HR technology and innovative HR practices can drive growth
23-24 April 2025: HR Technologies UK showcases demos and educational sessions for HR & recruitment professionals
Over to you
We welcome your feedback and thoughts on this newsletter - is there anything you would particularly like to see in the next newsletter? Let us know!
With best wishes,
The Timewise Team
e. info@timewise.co.uk | t. 020 7633 4444