Incremental’s flexible working policy gives me the power to effectively manage my work-life balance.
Hello! I’m Kimberley Watson and I have recently started working at Incremental Group as a Senior People Business Partner, with an additional focus on Early Careers projects. I am 4 months into my role here and have loved it so far! It’s a great company to work for, and everyone has been supportive and helpful. Not only that, but from day one of joining the team I have been given access to the same company benefits as those who have been here years before me. Flexible working has been a company benefit that has been particularly valuable to me as a working mum with two young children.
Flexible working
Flexible working means spreading working hours over the week (or year) beyond the regular nine-to-five routine. It’s a way of working that suits an employee’s needs, for example, having flexible start and finish times.
Within the first week of starting at Incremental, I changed my working hours to fit around my young children finishing school. This arrangement also allows me to take them to their after-school sports clubs. I still work a full-time working week, but start and finish earlier on Monday and Friday.
The change in my start and finish times does not affect my working relationships as I am still working a five-day week, so can easily fit meetings with colleagues into ‘normal’ working office hours. I tend to spend the extra time I have in the mornings by doing admin and having some focus time, which helps me to clear my to-do list before I get stuck into meetings and other group activities.
Best of both worlds
Incremental offering their employees flexible working hours means that I can have the best of both worlds: working full-time in a career that I love, whilst also being able to spend time with my kids when they finish school. It is important to me that I am there to pick them up and ask them about their day. In the summer months, finishing work that bit earlier means I can take my boys cycling, take them for some ice cream in the sunshine or go exploring outside.
Above: Me with my husband Graeme and two sons; Noah (age 8), and Finn (age 5).
Hybrid working
As well as offering flexible working hours, Incremental is a hybrid working organisation. This means employees can choose to split their time between a home working space and an office building, providing further flexibility.
Despite living an hour’s drive away from my closest Incremental hub, I come into the Glasgow office at least once a week because I like catching up with colleagues in person. Not only that, but the office space is super slick and a great environment to be productive in. I tend to work from the office on my longer working days to maximize the time I get to spend in the office. I also try to schedule meetings with my Glasgow-based colleagues on these days, so we can take advantage of face-to-face working.
Incremental Group has been flexible in terms of placing the decision of when to come into the office into the hands of each individual, i.e., there is no set quota for how often you should be working from the office, versus working from home. This flexibility meant I could apply for this role with the confidence that I would be able to do the job to the best of my abilities while making it work around my family life. Pre-covid, hybrid working was not commonplace, and not living in a city meant the daily commute would have been too much with young children. Hybrid working has really opened possibilities by removing some of the barriers experienced by working parents.
For more information on Incremental’s flexible working policy, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. If you enjoyed this blog, check out this blog by Ken Starbuck, who takes advantage of another Incremental benefit: working compressed hours.