One of BP's corporate values is the aim of being an employer of choice. With that aim in mind, when faced with the reorganisation of its world headquarters at Dyce in Aberdeen, BP wished to provide its 2000 staff with opportunities to work in ways that afforded each person a choice of workstyle that best suited their individual needs, while delivering team, business, real estate and facilities benefits.
BP appointed Advanced Workplace Associates (AWA) to set-up and manage its flexible working programme. This was subsequently incorporated into a wider programme of initiatives, branded (by AWA) as bp4worklife - where the bp4 stands for "better people, better places, better processes, better performance".
In our role as managers of the bp4worklife programme, AWA guided and supported each business unit through a process that helped them decide whether - and to what extent ? flexible styles of working were appropriate for their operations. Having developed and approved a business case, the proposition was then implemented in office and/or home as appropriate.
Each business was offered the support of a change management process, designed to help the people make the necessary transition to new styles of working. The combination of workplace and behavioural change was vital for success in the move to fully supported flexible working practices.
Benefits already identified by BP include:
- The ability to accommodate increases in headcount without the need to provide additional workplaces
- The ability to accommodate the reorganisation of team structures without attendant exposure to workplace churn
- A less stressful work environment
- Support for people to work at home, better supporting their home/work life balance aspirations
- Improvements in individuals? productivity
The workplace options and workstyles introduced for each business unit were monitored and formally reviewed following an initial period of operation. This was carried out in order to assess the degree to which they are achieving the aspirations of the business unit and its employees.
