Rates of blended or hybrid working among civil servants have been as high as 97 per cent in some government departments as arrangements that began during the Covid-19 pandemic continue to be formalised.
Departments have published individual blended working policies based on guidelines issued last March which detail everything from the minimum number of days staff are expected in the office to a requirement to conduct health and safety assessments on home offices.
The minimum number of days of office attendance varies from two or three per week in many departments to as few as four per month in the case of the Department of Social Protection. In general, guidance states, no employee should work remotely 100 per cent of the time.
While the process of formalising remote working arrangements continues, departments that provided The Irish Times with figures for levels of blended working show a high uptake among staff.
Of the 414 staff at the Department of Tourism and Media in October, 402 (97 per cent) were working in a hybrid arrangement. Since then, 337 applications for blended working have been made and, if all were approved, this would mean 81 per cent of its current 416 staff would continue to split their working time between their homes and the office. Twelve staff are currently working full time in the office and none is working from home full-time.
Figures provided by the Department of Public Expenditure suggest that almost 97 per cent of its 450 staff have been in blended working arrangements – either interim or formalised – in recent months. All of its full-time staff are required to work on-site for a minimum of three days per week.
Fifteen staff are ineligible for remote working as they have “customer-facing roles” and all others were said to either be in interim hybrid arrangements that mirror the formal blended working rules or have been formally approved to work remotely some of the time.
Mandatory professional health and safety assessments of staff members’ remote working environment are taking place on a staggered schedule. The number of staff formally approved for blended working arrangement so far stands at 174 (38 per cent).
Others wishing to continue working from home for some of the week must complete their applications ahead of a deadline due to be set within the first quarter of this year.
Department of Health records show that 577 – or more than 88 per cent of its 651 staff – were working in a hybrid arrangement as of the end of October. Fifteen staff were working full-time in the office at the time.
The department said health and safety assessments of remote workstations are ongoing but “until such time as they have been completed, applications that meet all other requirements are ‘approved in principle’”. It said that at present no blended working arrangements have been rescinded due to the remote workstation failing to meet health and safety standards.
Department of Health secretary general Robert Watt wrote to staff in June telling them that the policy had been developed based on lessons learned during the pandemic “taking what initially seemed impossible and turning it into a successful business model which created a new normal in terms of how we work”.
The Department of the Environment had 537 staff as of October 31st and had received and approved in principle 314 applications (58 per cent of its workforce) for hybrid working arrangements pending the completion of the health and safety process. Nine staff were working in the office full-time. Its blended working policy allows for staff to attend the office a minimum of two days per week or 40 per cent on average over agreed periods.
The Department of Finance provided details of its staffing arrangements on Tuesday, October 18th. Of its 324 staff, 191 were working the full day in the office with 111 – or 34 per cent – working remotely and 22 on annual leave or absent for other reasons. The department’s blended working policy says office attendance patterns would be driven by business needs, allowing remote working for two or three days a week.
The Department of Social Protection had 6,938 staff as of October 3rd. Data for September shows that 3,950 staff – just under 57 per cent – were in blended or hybrid arrangements working one, two, three or four days remotely. Some 2,984 were working from the office with zero days remote while four were working all five days remotely.
The department’s policy stipulates working in the office for a minimum of four days per month but also says: “In practice working arrangements will vary based on the nature of the work and business requirements and it is expected that most staff ... will work more than four days per month in the office.”
