Implementing flexible hybrid working as part of modernising the employee experience: RSPCA

In a charitable organisation focused on animal welfare, a flexible hybrid working model has been adopted for its office-based staff as part of modernising the employee experience. Hybrid working has supported employee wellbeing, enabled a more personalised work-life balance, improved employee engagement, enabled the charity to recruit from a wider and more diverse talent pool and resulted in financial savings on office space.

Operational context 

Founded in 1824, the RSPCA is an animal welfare charity operating across England and Wales. Of its 1,700 employees, 1,100 work on the front line, as inspectors/ animal rescuers and in animal hospitals and animal and wildlife centres. A further 600 people work in support roles (for example, fundraising, finance, HR, IT, education, campaigning, animal science and policy, prosecutions, branch support and veterinary science), and 70% of employees are women.

Until 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, the majority of RSPCA desk-based employees worked from the headquarters office in Horsham, West Sussex with standard 9-5 working hours.

This case study focuses on the introduction of flexible hybrid working arrangements for support staff working in desk-based roles. The next focus for the organisation is reviewing how it expands more flexible and agile working for front-line staff, who currently have the option to work part-time. But the organisation is keen to see if more flexibility may be possible outside of the traditional rosters.

Redesigning ways of working

A combination of factors led HR and other business leaders to think differently about where, when, and how people work as part of the RSPCA’s modernisation plans, ensuring a more agile and future-fit organisation.

Need for greater focus on employee wellbeing and support for individuals’ work–life balance

In its 2019 employee survey, just 37% of employees agreed that the RSPCA cares about their wellbeing, and only 39% of employees agreed that the RSPCA helps colleagues achieve a good work–life balance. This data focused the organisation’s attention on understanding and addressing the issues, enabling people to adopt a more personalised way of working that suits their needs.

Jeremy Gautrey-Jones, Assistant Director People and Culture - Employee Experience, explains that employee wellbeing must be a priority at the RSPCA, especially given the nature of some jobs roles. For example, animal inspectors see horrific cases of animal abuse and neglect. He firmly believes that “they can’t look after animals if we don’t look after them”.

Planning for the long-term financial health of the organisation

In 2022, the decision was made to sell what was then the head office in Horsham, West Sussex, as the space wasn’t fully occupied due to the very flexible hybrid working model. In addition, with the UK’s cost-of-living crisis at that time, the organisation needed to prepare for a potential decrease in charitable giving as well as firm up money for future investment as part of its 2020–2030 strategy.

An alternative hub structure (with hubs in Horsham, London and Cardiff) was more cost-effective as well as suiting employees’ increased expectations for flexibility.

Promoting diversity

The RSPCA wanted to widen the talent pool it recruited from to attract a more diverse workforce, reflecting the diversity of the populations of England and Wales (the communities it serves), rather than that of just Mid Sussex (a district in the county of West Sussex).

Experience of remote working during the pandemic accelerated plans

Through enforced homeworking during stages of the pandemic, the senior leadership team saw that people don’t need to be in the office and be supervised to do a great job. They themselves valued having the increased flexibility and a 2021 survey of support staff (who were traditionally office-based) showed that employee expectations of where, when, and how they work had changed:

a low number of people were choosing to work from the office
83% of office-based staff said they wanted to work more from home in the future
71% of office-based staff wanted to change their current working hours arrangements
50% of people wanted a more flexible working pattern.

Implementing a hybrid working model as part of modernising the employee experience

Increased flexibility through a hybrid working model helped to shift the culture from one of requesting permission to work flexibly, to flexibility being the norm and the expected way of working.

A clear framework and supporting policies

The RSPCA wanted the hybrid model to be truly flexible, not just focused on where people work, but also when and how. Broad parameters and guidelines were drafted at an organisation level.

People can choose when they work from home and when they go into an office hub. The RSPCA doesn’t mandate a number of in-office days per week. However, there may be certain days or meetings for which people are asked to go to an office hub.
There are flexible start and finish times with core hours. Everyone needs to be working between the core hours of 10am–3pm, and take between a 30 minute and 1.5 hour lunch break. However, people can choose to start work anytime between 8am and 10am and finish anytime between 3pm and 6pm.
A 35-hour work week can be spread over 5 days, with people able to work some shorter or longer days around the core hours.
The hybrid approach can be combined with other forms of flexibility, for example a compressed nine-day fortnight model or part-time working.

The finer detail of where and when people work is agreed at a local level through manager and team-level discussions, taking into account role demands, individual needs and preferences and what works across the team.

In 2021, the RSPCA invited some of its office-based staff to trial the flexible hybrid working model for six months. It found:

62% of colleagues were utilising core hours and, of these, 74% wanted the core hours to be permanent
90% of eligible employees wanted to continue with hybrid working
7% of eligible employees said they were not enjoying the trialled ways of working – people were invited to one-to-one meetings to discuss their concerns and try to adapt the approach for their needs.

The decision was made to go ahead with the flexible hybrid working approach for office staff.

The HR team are currently reviewing all of the people policies and the employee support on offer to ensure it aligns with a flexible working culture. For example, more support for working parents and carers has been introduced, including an employee network and IVF treatment leave.

Developing and supporting managers

A shift in management style was required, from management by visibility (input) to management by contribution (output). Detailed guidance was produced to support managers to lead a flexible team, including a guide to help them think about when and how often it’s appropriate to require people to be in the office. There are practical examples of why in-hub attendance may be beneficial:

connection and wellbeing
cooperation and collaboration
where training needs to be in-person
inductions
to use office facilities, eg printing, scanning, team activities
processing activities which can’t be done remotely.

Ensuring technology enables new ways of working

The pandemic accelerated the adoption of technology to support homeworking, including remote communications platforms. Cloud-based storage was introduced so that employees could digitally access documents remotely, rather than being reliant on paper documents in the office. In addition, the RSPCA undertook a large project to digitalise its historical paper-based storage system.

A ‘Hello Hybrid’ webpage was created which sets out the new ways of working and houses guidance for employees and managers on how to operate in a flexible hybrid way. For example, how to run effective online meetings, how to integrate your dog into the workplace and guidance for when people should get together.

Employees take responsibility for updating their online calendars to show their working times each day so colleagues know when to schedule meetings and when they’re not in.

Redesigning the office space

The hub office designs needed to reflect and enable the new ways of working. Different layouts and furniture options were trialled.

Within the new designs, people can choose to work in distinct spaces through the day, according to their personal preference and as their tasks require. Floor plans were produced as well as clear signage and banners in the different areas of the office to explain what each is for, for example:

“I am a touchdown zone. Use me for: quiet time, private meetings, quick visits”.
“I am a collaboration hub. Use me for: noisy activities, team work, creative space”.

People can choose a desk in their ‘team neighbourhood’ or in a ‘mixed neighbourhood’.

Leaders role-modelling the flexible working models

The chief executive’s support and wider leadership buy-in significantly helped to drive the flexible hybrid approach to work. As well as recognising the benefits of increased flexibility for their people and the organisation, many senior leaders commuted a long distance to what used to be the Horsham head office, and so personally appreciated the greater flexibility. Gautrey-Jones believes leadership role-modelling was essential to its success:

“Our CEO, Chris, was a big advocate of our hybrid model and could see the benefits for diversity and modernising how we worked. He championed it by working hybridly from different locations, including home and our London hub.”

Outcomes 

The RSPCA used several data sources to track the impact of its hybrid working model:

office utilisation and entrance turnstile data
staff surveys
drop-in sessions for staff, messages to the ‘Hello Hybrid’ inbox, focus groups
team leader interviews
people metrics, eg diversity, engagement scores.
The new flexible hybrid working approach has had a positive impact for staff and the organisation:
employee survey responses to, “do you feel the RSPCA cares about your wellbeing?” increased from 37% (2019) to 64% (2023)
employee survey responses to, “do you feel the RSPCA helps colleagues achieve a good work-life balance?” increased from 39% (2019) to 65% in 2023 and then to 70% in 2024
employee engagement scores increased from 61% in 2019 to 73% in 2023 and then to 80% in 2024
the employee survey response rate was significantly higher in 2023 and 2024 than in 2019
ethnic diversity of those able to work in a hybrid manner has increased from 1.79% in 2020 to 4.1% in 2023 – Gautrey-Jones says a core benefit for RSPCA is that “hybrid working has transformed the diversity of our support functions”
employees said the new ways of working had enabled them to be more productive
estate strategy savings: 50% on running costs through moving to the office hub structure and capital savings from the sale of the previous Horsham office.

Gautrey-Jones summarises:

“The future is a hybrid model for our support staff, but this is still new and developing and we need to learn as we go and from others. We trust our people to work flexibly and we know that flexibility is important in our busy lives. Making sure it is sustainable and achieves good physical and mental wellbeing is really important as well as achieving a good work-life balance.”

What’s next?

Many front-line employees already work part-time, but the RSPCA is now looking at how different forms of flexible working can be implemented in front line roles. This is important to avoid a ‘them and us’ feeling between front-line and office staff.

Top tips

Trial approaches and don’t be afraid to end them if they’re not working. For example, RSPCA successfully trialled ‘no meeting Fridays’ but a social app for the workplace wasn’t utilised.
Be clear to employees if hybrid working is an informal working arrangement or a contractual right. The RSPCA found this distinction helps people understand they may be requested to go to the office, for example to work in person as a team each month.
Encourage people to use their time in the office hubs purposefully. RSPCA used its organisation acronym to give examples of the benefits of in-office time:
- Reconnect
- Socialise
- Prompt new ideas through conversations
- Collaborate
- Ask what your colleagues are working on, solve problems and expand your knowledge.
Listen to feedback on ways of working from employees and ask specific questions to managers. Most people personally value work flexibility and want the organisation to be successful.
Hybrid working has many wellbeing benefits but physical health becomes more challenging if people are not moving as much. Include ways of working that keep people moving.