Irish building consultancy firm ORS has scooped the 2022 Hybrid Way of Working Award from Great Place to Work. Additionally, for the fourth successive year, ORS also placed in Ireland's Top 20 Best Work Places.

Long before Covid, ORS was pioneering remote working in a sector that found it difficult to embrace. Its leadership team identified clever ways to attract talent during a time of significant skills shortage. It cultivated a unique work environment by listening to employees through surveys, providing work-life balance training, meeting individual preferences, and participating in in-person knowledge-sharing initiatives. 

Strong internal culture

Committees were established for cultural development, continuous professional development, health and safety, social and marketing. This work was undertaken to ensure a strong internal culture to support the vision of a better way of working. 

John Brennan, managing director, said: "We are thrilled to receive a Special Recognition Award from Great Place to Work Ireland for our Hybrid Working Initiative. While we have been hybrid working for some years now, the pandemic has inspired us to take it one step further by completely removing location as a barrier to work. Our team is in control of their workday, and the benefits to them and our business have been enormous."

"We truly believe hybrid working is the future of work. Our model offers flexibility between work and home life. Finding the right balance is key to making our teams' lives more fulfilling and rewarding," added Rachel Murray, head of employee experience at ORS.

In a survey of all ORS staff in 2021: 

  • 90% agreed that working from home increases productivity
  • 93% believed that they had the necessary tools for hybrid remote working
  • 97% voted for rigid policies to be avoided
  • 98% said yes, remote working improves work-life balance

This validation allows the leadership team to continue improving and building on the structures for distributed working. "We have found that staff satisfaction levels and productivity have risen substantially since moving to this model," said Brennan.

"We have also found that this success is heavily linked to how we developed our guidelines and how trust levels were increased. We have no rigid remote work policy in ORS. Research shows that successful flexible working is better suited to more informal arrangements and guidelines.

"Achieving strong mutual trust is key. This award is a testament to that, and we are all incredibly proud of this special recognition from Great Place to Work Ireland."