WLP304 Transitioning to a Hybrid Workplace

<p><span style="font-weight: 400;">David Stoddard is COO and Partner at Barnett Waddingham, a leading independent UK professional services consultancy at the forefront of risk, pensions, investment and insurance, with almost 1,500 employees in 9 offices. </span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">(By the way, Pilar was very impressed by their website,</span> <a href= "https://www.barnett-waddingham.co.uk/comment-insight/news/2022-best-companies/"> <span style="font-weight: 400;">have a look</span></a><span style= "font-weight: 400;">.)</span></p> <p><span style="font-weight: 400;">David is the Chief Operating Officer, one of 100 partners, and he leads the non-client facing areas of the business, including the transformation across the business - Work Smart. The company has 9 offices across the UK.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Pre-pandemic, the office was at the centre of the work and the hub of connection.<br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">David and his team surveyed the employees through a regular pulse check throughout the pandemic, as they were concerned that people felt disconnected and were going through difficult times. They surveyed how people were feeling, what was working well, what wasn’t working well, etc.</span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 400;">Some of the things they found when they surveyed their people confirmed their expectations, like people seeing a benefit of working together, and the benefit of having more time to work in a focused way, and the work life balance that the pandemic had provided. It was also very clear that everyone’s experience was personal, and had different views on what the best ways of working were.</span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span> <span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /></span><span style= "font-weight: 40