Why Yorkshire Housing believes this is the new way of working as it prepares to move into new Leeds HQ

Nick Atkin, chief executive of Yorkshire Housing, told The Yorkshire Post: “The nine-to-five is being reset as we stand here now. It will take several years for it to fully work its way through.

“Coming out of the pandemic, there are generally two types of organisations. There are those trying to return to before Covid ways of working and I think they will increasingly struggle to recruit and retain really good people

“There are others that have gone down the route of flexibility, which will enable them to scoop up the very best talent.”

Yorkshire Housing, which has the equivalent of 700 full-time staff, has benefitted from flexible working. Mr Atkin said: “As people choose to work more flexibly, it means we’ve also been able to widen our service offer.

“We’re now able to do things earlier in the day, later in the day and also on the weekends. Previously we weren’t able to offer that.”

Employees have been given free rein as to where and when they work. The organisation has adopted an open diary that allows staff to communicate their movements and work patterns for the day.

The business was already on the path to flexible working when the pandemic hit, making the switch to home working much easier.

Mr Atkin laughs off suggestions that home working has impacted productivity and says the biggest issue for Yorkshire Housing has been “stopping people from working too long rather than people not working and underperforming”.

He said that different people perform at their optimum at different times in the day and flexible working can bring the best out in staff.

Mr Atkin added: “Too many employers treat their employees like children and have quite a paternalistic approach and then get really grumpy with them when they act like children.

“We have a very adult, grown-up relationship with colleagues, which is based on trust. We now deliver better results than at any point in our organisational history.”

The challenge has been to break the ‘nine-to-five’ way of thinking about work and Mr Atkin says it comes from leaders leading by example.

“It’s fine you saying everyone can work flexibly but if you don’t actually do that yourself then they’re not going to feel comfortable doing that,” he said.

Despite that, it is investing in turning its new space into a hub with Jenny Hill, founder of Ingo Interiors, leading the design.

She said: “This isn’t an office. That was the first thing, to get rid of that notion that people need to come back into the office.

“I don’t think people should be encouraged to come here because they have to, they should come here because they want to.”

With the downsized space the housing association wouldn’t be able to accommodate everyone working from the new hub at the same time anyway. It also has an in-house maintenance team that goes out to properties.

That is why it has adopted the approach of “hub, home and roam”, enabling people to work from anywhere they see fit.

This flexible approach to work has enabled Yorkshire Housing to retain talent as well as attract talent in places as far afield as Amsterdam.

The right time for the place

The Place is a net-zero commercial building developed by Citu. It’s in the heart of the Climate and Innovation District of Leeds, and forms part of the wider £500m regeneration of the South Bank area.

Nick Atkin said: “People are looking at their carbon footprint and their business’s carbon footprint in its widest form.”

The new space will be decked out with water features, wellness cubes and a rotating amphitheatre.

Jenny Hill said: “I’ve created a space that hopefully enables staff to come here whenever they want to and do whatever task they need to do.

“I want Yorkshire Housing’s character to be in the building.”

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James Mitchinson