There are many forms of SMART working – it can describe a place of work, for example working from home, or a type of contract, such as part-time working, flexitime, job sharing and shift work. The SMART Working workstream seeks to promote all type of SMART working practices across the Savings and Investment Industry. Our mission is to encourage organisations to attract and retain the best and most diverse talent in order to cultivate inclusive multigenerational workplaces, and also to support and encourage all individuals to remain within the investment and savings industry throughout all life events.
Our 2024 objectives are:
1/ Data
Collect and distribute data relating to member firms returning to the office. We will add new related questions in the DP’s annual Goals and Progress Tool, in order to better understand if there has been a shift in the hybrid trend. This will allow us to gather insights for future campaigns and initiatives
2/ Allyship
- Continue organising event(s) and initiatives, whilst collaborating with other workstreams, in order to use SMART working as an enabler for all aspects of diversity. We aim to ensure we look into these topics with an intersectional lens
3/ Rewards of Cognitive Diversity:
• Organise a “Recruiting for Success with Flex” social media campaign whereby we collaborate with partner firms, who promote job searching for SMART roles and those firms with SMART working practices. This will allow us to continue promoting flexible hiring practices which ensure that diversity is supported in our member firms and also promoted in the wider society
• Continue the rollout of the social media campaign #FlexBeyondHybrid to highlight different flexible working styles, which will include short profiles (both written and videos) on SMART working from both men and women in the Investment and Savings Industry
Our call for action outlined in the SMART Working Manifesto for Change, presents a challenge to the investment and savings industry to ensure flexible working is encouraged and developed more strategically within organisations. For firms to retain and attract best and most diverse talent it’s important to bridge the gap between a reactive approach to remote working and a more inclusive long-term framework for smarter working that is future fit for a post-pandemic workplace.
Now more than ever it is even more key to ensure our industry embraces the SMART Working Manifesto for Change which outlines explicit actions firms should take in order to adapt a more sustainable and strategic approach to flexible working.
