Flexible Working Week: Nat's story

By Nat Jackson, Service Excellence Consultant

​​I’ve been at Guidant for coming up to three years now.
I joined Guidant straight out of university in 2017, after having done an internship with Guidant after my 2nd year at Cardiff University. The internship afforded me the chance to work in all areas of our business and I got the chance to meet and work with people across our business services, business solutions and our various on-site client teams.

Recruitment wasn’t an industry I had ever considered working in.
But having met the people at Guidant, it was an easy decision to join when I was offered a job the following year within the Compliance team, based in Liverpool Street, London. After six months, I moved to Business Solutions before taking up my current role with the Service Excellence team.

In the last 18 months, I’ve been working with the Service Excellence team in London to expand on best practice and implement improvements across Guidant globally. This means we get to work with every area of our business, and because of my unique position within the business, my responsibilities and the people I work with constantly change from week to week.

This role also means I’ve had the opportunity to do a range of things including designing bespoke recruitment processes, leading a global implementation of a B2B customer relationship platform, creating sales propositions and implementing new customer survey processes.

I’ve been working flexibly for most of my time at Guidant.

During my first six months, I left an hour earlier every Thursday so I could travel back to Chichester for rugby training. When I moved back to Chichester a year later, my manager was completely supportive, allowing me to work from home on Fridays.

Being accommodating and supportive of our people’s personal lives outside of work has been a huge factor for why I love working at Guidant, and it has allowed me to stay at Guidant for much longer than I would have at other companies.

Last year, I moved to Bristol to live with my fiancé.
While commuting from Bristol to London wouldn’t be the easiest thing to do, my first instinct was to speak to my manager about working from home more often, instead of looking for jobs in Bristol.

When I need to be at our Devonshire Square office in London, I’ll typically get up at 5:45 in the morning to catch a one hour 40-minute train. Alternatively, I’ll travel into London the night before to stay with friends or family.

Depending on how busy the day gets, I’ll usually aim to leave by 6 if I’m heading back to Bristol, or later if I’m staying in London for the night.

Working flexibly is great, but I’ve had to be pro-active in organising my week.
This is primarily so I can schedule important meetings face-to-face when I’m in London and structure my whole week. I usually prefer being in the office because I’ve got the chance to talk to people directly and to ask questions when trying to get something done.

At the moment, I work a lot with people in the US, so being at home is useful because I can join meetings that might be outside of the typical working hours.

On a personal level, working flexibly also means I’m able to continue playing rugby, or move to a different city, all while staying at the same company. Working flexibly also hasn’t stopped me from being able to progress. Internal mobility is a huge focus at Guidant, and I’ve never experienced working flexibly as a hindrance from the opportunities that I’ve been able to go for.

Giving people the flexibility to work from home is a win-win for both businesses and employees.
Employers know the cost of having to replace someone, especially when it comes to hiring someone that doesn’t fit the company or the role. It costs money, reduces productivity and depending on their role, can lead to loss of morale or negative attrition.

Offering flexible working and being accommodating of people’s lives outside of work, means employees will want to stay longer. With higher retention rates, employers will also be able to keep their best people.

Flexible working has a retention benefit, a financial benefit, and a culture benefit. Introducing flexible working should be a straightforward decision for businesses, and I believe this is where the world of work is headed!

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We’re proud to provide flexible working solutions for over 80% of our people. Come and join a team that knows the importance in feeling your best in and out of the office >