Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has told employees they are free to work from anywhere for the rest of the year, whether that’s at home or in the office.
Angela Tangas, Dentsu Aegis Network Australia’s CEO, says the company's decisions have always been to put the wellbeing and safety of people first.
"We took a leadership position and acted quickly, and were able to mobilise 100% of our staff to work from home in only three days," she says.
"Ensuring smooth continuity of client delivery, and supporting how our own clients adapt to working from home was also critical and the results have been excellent."
DAN, when designing its return to work, used a survey to gauge how employees are thinking and feeling in the current environment.
And most (93%) employees said that they were comfortable to maintain the current work from home arrangement.
In a statement to staff, the company outlined its return to work plan, called Be the best you, which includes a phased opening of offices across Australia from July.
DAN’s technology consultancy business, Davanti, has developed a purpose-built app to help manage the phased office openings.
The app allows people to book or register in advance when they want to work from the office, which will help the company control building capacities in real-time and respect social distancing measures.
To support ongoing organisational listening, the app also contains a wellbeing feature to capture quick checks on how employees are thinking and feeling at any given time.
This data will be used to help inform DAN’s flexible working arrangements and decisions throughout the year.
“In returning to work, all businesses will face a fresh round of decisions and, for employees, a fresh range of emotions," says Tangas.
"Rather than things simply going back to normal, we saw an opportunity to embrace the positives that isolation has provided us.
"It was important to me that all our people had a voice in designing what our future work environment looks like based on what matters most to them and their individual situation.
“We’ve proven that working from home is possible and effective. Our teams have embraced the next normal in how they support our clients and partners in a digital ecosystem, from leading virtual pitches and innovation workshops to running engaging events and festivals.
“In many ways, working remotely has increased collaboration within our business and created an open teaming environment, enabling us to seamlessly bring the best of our capabilities together to solve client opportunities or challenges from anywhere. So, when considering our return to work plans, we thought ‘why change a good thing?’
"We’ve therefore opened it up to our people to decide how they work for the remainder of the year. We’ll begin to open our doors in a phased approach in line with government restrictions for those people who are craving the office environment or have client arrangements, but the big shift we’re introducing is the choice to work from anywhere until the end of 2020.
“Of course if our clients need us in the office we will be, but at the same time I think all businesses will be having similar thoughts and discussions about whether physical face-to-face meetings are needed."
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