BKL partner Nick Bishop was among the guests on the ICAEW’s Insights In Focus podcast Managing talent in a hybrid world.
Hybrid working is now considered essential in recruiting and retaining talented people. While the rapid pace of change may have slowed since 2020, accountancy and tax firms of all sizes are still facing a mix of challenges and opportunities in managing the balance between remote and office-based working.
You can listen to the podcast via the ICAEW website (where a transcript is also available) or below.
Nick’s comments included:
“There are things we can do better when we’re at home in our own personal space without the distractions around us of the office. So, it’s trying to meld and get the best of both worlds for people at different levels throughout the firm.”
“One of the really big issues with hybrid working is if you are looking to progress your career quickly, sitting in a room by yourself doesn’t give you the best platform to do that.”
“If you’re hybrid working with people in the office two or three days a week, that’s when they get their impression of the culture of the firm. So, you always have to be really on it with what you’re pushing your culture to be, so that when they do work from home, they know exactly what the firm culture is.”
“You almost have two different sides to your job now. You have the side which is done at home with minimal distractions, and you can just get your head down and work. And then you have your time in the office, which is very much spent doing your meetings, your teamwork, your training. So actually, it gives people focus to their day.”
“Audits don’t need to be done on site anymore, we can do audits remotely. So is that going to change the relationships we have and does that change the expectations of our audit clients as well? So I’m not sure if that’s a loser at the moment, but I’m intrigued to see where that goes in the future.”
