Community Integrated Care has introduced a four-day week for head office and support function staff, as part of offering workers more flexibility.
People can condense their normal hours into four days and then have Monday or Friday as a non-working day, while being paid the same as before. This is optional at the moment, but the charity is encouraging staff to take advantage of it.
At the moment this offer is available to over 300 employees in its finance, human resources and other support functions, but the charity said the next step is to expand the offer to its 6,000 frontline care workers.
Community Integrated Care is one of the biggest social care charities in the country with an income of £130m. It is based in Widnes, Lancashire, and under the flexible working arrangements staff will only need to come to the office for meetings and training.
Before introducing the new arrangement last month, management surveyed staff and found that 82% were positive about the idea of a four-day week and 81% were keen to reduce the number of days they spend in the office.
‘Ensuring that our colleagues can achieve a positive and healthy work-life balance’
Community Integrated Care said the changes build on adaptations made during the pandemic.
Teresa Exelby, chief people officer at Community Integrated Care, said: “Our colleagues have shown us how well they have adapted to a remote and hybrid working approach over the past 18 months, so we’re thrilled that we’re able to build on these successes as we navigate our way through the post-pandemic workplace.
“Listening to our workforce is hugely important to us and it’s clear that employee expectation for a flexible approach has altered dramatically in recent months. This move has been built with our colleague’s voices at the heart of it, giving them the freedom to choose and build their own ways of working.”
The charity also hopes that having more flexibility and hybrid working would make it attractive to prospective employees and improve overall productivity.
Exelby added: “Our hope is that by ensuring that our colleagues can achieve a positive and healthy work-life balance, this will in turn boost the wellbeing and productivity of our workforce. Ultimately, our main goal is that this all leads to us delivering the best lives possible for the people we support.”
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