Trust, integrity and a hybrid APS workforce
Originally published in The Mandarin
It’s APS middle managers who are expected to help their teams understand what work-from-home means on a daily basis. (Zennie/Private Media)
I’ve been reading Louder Than Words: An APS Integrity Action Plan, recently released by the APSC. I’m sure most Mandarin readers have too.
I like it for so many reasons. It’s strategic yet practical and offers tangible actions that can be implemented, today, by anyone and everyone.
It’s also ambitious, taking integrity well beyond simple compliance with anti-corruption obligations, to an embedded pro-integrity culture that it acknowledges will take time to develop and embed.
Its interdependent view of culture, systems, accountability and emphasis on SES leadership to set the right tone and demonstrate the desired and required behaviours provide clear guardrails for sustainable change.
It’s insightful and every sentence matters — if you haven’t jumped into it yet, I encourage you to do so.
I was reading it with a specific interest in how it could help with the hybrid/work-from-home challenge so many middle managers still seem to be facing. These are the people at the coal face, who are expected to apply organisational policies that may seem clear in writing but who also have to help their teams understand what work-from-home means on a daily basis.
It’s tricky because the jury still seems to be out on whether or not the hybrid model is here to stay. My daily newsfeeds try to convince me that everyone will eventually return to the office full-time; that office-based employees will be rewarded through promotions and incentives; that both options increase and decrease productivity; that employers need to focus on their hybrid offering to attract and retain employees … my conclusion is that no one really knows, but what do we do in the meantime?
We help the middle managers.
Middle managers are the ones who are usually left to make this work on the ground. Executive Levels 1 and 2 are often the productivity powerhouse of an organisation — and they find themselves balancing management responsibilities with leadership capabilities a very challenging shift in employee expectations, and possibly a sense of entitlement that might not always support their team’s performance and productivity goals.
They are the ones who are faced with team member explanations that someone couldn’t attend a meeting because they had to look after a friend’s puppy; or couldn’t come into the office on an agreed day because they had a parcel delivery due, or that team members wanted to work from home to avoid parking or childcare fees. (These are real examples.)
We understand and largely accept that working from home allows some flexibility around when you walk your dog, go to the gym, do the laundry, do the school run, visit the dentist, cook your meals, and even leave town and work from another location where your family can enjoy their holidays.
What we don’t really seem to understand is what is ok, what is not and how to ensure that the flexibility of time and place — the ‘when’ and the ‘where’ — are mutually beneficial for the employee and the organisation.
It may be that the key to unlocking this is in the ‘what’ and the ‘how’, and we do have some guidance on this:
The secretaries board Principles of flexible work in the APS confirms APS commitment to creating flexible workplaces that meet employer and employee needs, with a focus on the ‘when and where’.
The APSC definition of integrity as “doing the right thing at the right time” provides two of the three key elements for productivity in a successful hybrid model: the work to be done and the timing thereof — or the ‘what and the when’. I know the definition is strategic, but it can be applied at several levels.
The Louder Than Words: An APS Integrity Action Plan makes it very clear that ‘how we do it is just as important as what we deliver’ — i.e, with integrity.
Having established that there is flexibility in ‘when’ and ‘where’, but not in the ‘what’ and from an integrity perspective, not in the ‘how’, we’re reaching a good starting point to have the conversations we need to have, to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes.
These conversations about ‘doing the right thing’ are part of the suite of actions to be taken by leaders to build a pro-integrity culture – and in a work-from-home context ‘the right thing’ may need to be spelled out.
So how do you get started?
1. Create team awareness and understanding of the non-negotiables
If you lead a team that is still grappling with some hybrid challenges that are impacting individual and/or team performance and potentially team morale, I would start this conversation — either face-to-face or through some strategic communication first — to build team awareness and understanding of the non-negotiables:
‘what needs to be achieved’ — ensuring people’s role, responsibilities, and the outcomes they are expected to deliver individually and collectively, are very clear to them
‘how’ — with a focus on integrity, doing the right thing at the right time, to fulfil your own role and responsibilities in service of the Australian public.
When you are confident that your team has a shared, agreed and supported understanding of these non-negotiables, you’re in a good position to discuss the flexibility levers you do have. Expect this to invest some time and effort here, if you want your team to fully understand and align.
2. Engage your team in creative conversations on what is negotiable
The Principles of flexible work in the APS encourages “staff to be open-minded and purposeful in finding creative flexible working solutions that meet organisation and team needs”, so you have room to move here, that may seem outlandish at first glance.
Your flexibility levers here are:
‘where’ — here you and your team really do need to understand and agree on what types of work within the range of roles and responsibilities across your team, can be or are better done remotely, and which are just as easily or better done in person, via technology, or in a group. You can be creative with this — you may find better or different ways to achieve the same outcome, that allow for more flexibility.
‘when’ – while we are accustomed to the 9-5 with a bit of flexibility, and it can be irritating to not have people on call when we need them, it may be worth looking into when we really need them? For example, which types of work can be done at midnight with no further input from other team members; which need to be done at a desk and which can be done during a walk up a hill; can your team agree to holding no meetings during school run times …?
But how?
You can engage your teams on this topic in many ways — through individual conversations, team surveys, co-design workshops, ethical problem-solving and scenario-testing within your specific context – to flesh out what is and what is not ok.
If you do this, work, you and your team should have the answers to what is and isn’t ok — ‘ok’ being in the mutual interests of the individual, team and overall performance — and you should be able to put many of those ongoing work-from-home challenges to bed.
3. Secure it for sustainability
Imagine a world where all of this falls into place. You and your team find a way to balance their individual and collective needs for space, connection, and collaboration, with high performance and organisational objectives.
Lock it in — with an accountability framework that describes the agreements you have made, as well as the success criteria you all agree to, to maintain the model you’ve created. This way your team can monitor and evaluate its own performance, and it provides managers with a fair but firm basis for any important conversations they may need to have.
Over to you
Building a pro-integrity culture takes time, and it takes place on many levels. There’s significant guidance on what can and will be done at departmental levels, but if you’re ready to crack the nut at your own team, branch or group level — getting integrity into your work-from-home arrangements is probably a great place to start.
