CEREDIGION County Council’s Cabinet is likely to give the go-ahead to allow staff to continue to work from home, with a decision due next week.
The move, a leftover from the pandemic when offices were shut, was backed by the vast majority of staff in a survey, but councillors have raised concerns over the plans that leave council offices almost empty making staff harder to get hold of.
Despite concerns, and two thirds of Cambrian News readers wanting staff to return to offices, Cabinet members are recommended to push ahead with making the trial permanent at a meeting on 5 September.
They are also set to push forward with plans to repurpose now under-used buildings in Aberystwyth and Aberaeron, where hundreds of desks remain empty as more than 40 per cent of staff work from there “less than monthly”, a report prepared for members said.
At its highest point this year, desk capacity in council buildings were at just 63 per cent.
That high, recorded on 21 June, is way off the average – with desks averaging a 30 per cent occupancy level over the past year.
Council leader Cllr Bryan Davies, said that “staff feedback has shown that hybrid working has been embedded in working practices, with benefits including increased productivity, improved collaboration, greater flexibility in balancing work and home life and helping the environment with less travelling.”
“With high numbers of staff choosing to work in a hybrid way there are significant opportunities to transform the space formerly occupied by desks and meeting rooms to provide a range of new uses or deliver services in a more integrated way, both internally and with external partners and agencies,” he said.
At a scrutiny meeting in July - where members urged the Cabinet to ensure that anyone working from home attended offices for meetings regularly - former council leader Keith Evans, who represents Llandysul South, said he was “not a huge fan of hybrid working”.
“If you ask a child if he wants to go to school or stay at home the child will want to stay at home,” he said.
“It didn’t come as a shock to me that staff wanting to work at home.
“I don’t think you can effectively and successfully manage services in a hybrid approach.”
“Removing the opportunity of working in a hybrid manner may affect the council’s ability to recruit or retain staff who wish to work in a flexible manner,” the report warns.
Cabinet members are recommended to “adopt hybrid working as a permanent option for employees able to work as efficiently remotely as in the office”, and “to develop a Hybrid Working Policy to replace the current Interim Hybrid Working Policy.”