‘Our big fear was that productivity might drop’

It took a pandemic to mainstream flexible working. But, incredibly, many firms are now willing to offer their employees choices to work from home or go into the office (or a mix of both) following the unprecedented working from home arrangements imposed on most office workers during Covid-19 restrictions.

Greg McCann from the award-winning fintech company FinTrU says that before Covid the company was very much office-based, yet when the workforce began working from home it “worked like a dream”.

“Our big fear was that productivity might drop but it went up a little and we continued to hire people all through Covid,” explains McCann. FinTrU, which offers outsourced regulatory services to investment banks, more than doubled its staff in Derry in the last two years.

“We like to encourage people to come [back] into the offices in Derry now as we’ve lovely new offices but we surveyed our workforce six months ago and took the decision to be employee-led,” says McCann. So employees can book desks in advance for the days they want to go into the office or choose to work from home fulltime. “We actually have a much better situation than we had before – flexible working is one of the few silver linings coming out of a very dark period,” says McCann.

The video game developer Hypixel Studios has always had remote workers. The mix of creatives and techies involved in gaming seems to be a good fit for flexible working. “We benefit from our remote-first model because we can hire people who work in remote parts of the United States, in Brazil or a small town in France,” explains chief executive Aaron Donaghy. The operations team and some designers are based in offices in Derry but many other workers – employees and contractors – are based at home.

“We operate on a trust by default. The people who work for us are passionate about gaming, you don’t have to check up on them, they self-manage,” says Donaghy. Hypixel, which was acquired by Riot Games in 2020, is currently developing the Hytale video game. “There is a big shortage of good talent so we tell the [prospective workers] who we are and if they are mission oriented, they find our open approach and transparent processes refreshing,” adds Donaghy.

Paul McElvaney, the founder and executive chairman of Learning Pool, says communication is the key to a happy workforce. The company, which provides online learning services to governments and international companies (the UK houses of parliament, Fifa and KFC are among their clients), offers full flexibility to their staff.

“Previously everyone came into the office to work. Now, the reasons they come in are to collaborate, meet their team members, fix problems and brainstorm,” says McElvaney.

He says Learning Pool has adapted to the changes. “We thought that our work culture was inextricably linked to the office environment and that the switch to remote work would have tested our culture but we’ve found that we have been able to recreate the work culture outside the office.” By way of example, he says the company now hosts weekly updates with 400 people on a call from Northern Ireland, the UK and the United States instead of in-person meetings. The company’s workforce doubled during the Covid-19 pandemic.

For logistically reasons, if Learning Pool employees work remotely for more than three days a week, they have to agree that with their managers as their established working pattern. “But if you want to work two days at home, that’s the new normal. You can consult with your manager if you want to change those two days,” he explains.

McElvaney says that most people who choose to work from home, are well set up now with home offices in converted garden sheds or adapted rooms. “We mainly rely on people to make sure their home working environment is comfortable, safe and that it supports productivity. Sometimes, we will get into the middle of that but it’s pretty rare for it to be a problem.”