Blue Chip Issue 85

BLUE
CHIP
COLUMN
How flexible are you?
And going forward, will you remain flexible?
Rob Macdonald, Head of
Strategic Advisory Services,
Fundhouse
Rob Macdonald has held
several senior positions in
the investment industry.
At Fundhouse, he acts as
a consultant and coach
to financial advisors and
develops and facilitates
training programmes in
behavioural coaching and
practice management. Before
joining the financial services
industry, Macdonald was
MBA director at the UCT
Graduate School of Business.
He is co-author of the book
Rethinking Leadership and has
consulted, written and spoken
widely on a range of topics.
Macdonald has a Master’s
degree in Management
Studies from Oxford University
and is a CFP® Professional.
In a recent LinkedIn post, Martin Lindstrom,
a global leader on organisational and brand
transformation, poses the following conundrum
about two hypothetical companies:
One company says, “Everyone is back in
the office all the time – five days a week. I
expect you to show up at 8am and stay for
the day.” Another company says, “You know
what? We’re going to provide flexibility to
our workforce. There might be certain days
when we decide that we’re all going to come
together because we want to collaborate in
person, but other days, you can work from
wherever you want. You can work from home.
If you want to come into the office, you can,
but you’re not required to. You’re going to
have flexibility.” Now, which company do you
think is a more attractive place to work? My
guess is that the answer is fairly obvious.
Think of your financial planning business.
Which company are you? How much flexibility
do you offer your employees? And very
importantly, how much flexibility do your
employees want? Since the start of the
pandemic, different companies globally
have had different approaches to workplace
flexibility, and of course the nature of the
business has an influence on how much
flexibility is possible.
In the technology sector, Twitter and
Facebook implemented policies at the start of
the pandemic that allowed employees to opt
to work from home permanently. Apple, in
contrast, has been pushing for a return to the
workplace for all employees. Its initial return
to office policy for employees was that they
all had to be back in the office on Mondays,
Tuesdays and Thursdays. Now Apple has
softened this position, requiring employees
to be at the office on Tuesdays and Thursdays
and giving them the flexibility to choose their
third day back in the office.
Apple’s softened stance on flexibility
was still not enough for many employees.
In an open letter, 1 400 of Apple’s 165 000
workers objected to the policy, saying,
“Stop treating us like school kids who need
to be told when to be where, and what
homework to do.” One employee who felt
this way was Director of Machine Learning,
Ian Goodfellow, who resigned in protest at
the return-to-work policy, stating: “I believe
strongly that more flexibility would have
been the best policy for my team.” (Quoted
by Zoe Schiffler on Twitter.)
Goodfellow was no ordinary employee.
He previously worked for Google where
he developed a system enabling Google
Maps to automatically transcribe addresses
from photos taken by street view cars. His
work in artificial neural networks and deep
learning have won him many accolades. In
2017, he was one of MIT Technology Review’s
35 Innovators under 35 and in 2019 he was
included in Foreign Policy publication’s list
of 100 Global Thinkers. After only two years
at Apple, it’s no surprise that he has joined
a company that offers greater flexibility, his
former employer, Google.
And this is not an isolated incident. The
recent 2022 PWC Global Workplace Hopes
and Fears Survey indicates that the Big
Resignation is a reality. In the next 12 months,
PWC predicts that one in five employees will
switch to a new employer and that almost
50% of employees want to be able to choose
where they work.
During the Covid pandemic, professional
financial planning businesses successfully
delivered their services to clients despite
at times extreme lockdowns. Employees
worked remotely, flexibly and most
importantly productively. While there may
be a yearning for more in-person interaction
from many clients and employees, a desire
for greater workplace flexibility is also real.
The dilemma going forward is whether to
remain flexible or not. The answer may lie
with the employees you don’t want to lose,
as Apple found out.
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