"It all comes down to trust. By not mandating fixed office days, you are showing your employees that you trust them to know when and where they work best".

That's the view of Freya McDonnell, People Operations Manager at nPlan and our latest guest on our flexible workplace series.

nPlan uses AI to find and mitigate sources of delay risk on big infrastructure projects. They have around 55 employees across two offices in London and Australia. They have a flexible hybrid policy that empowers their employees to choose where they work each day. Some employees go into the office multiple times a week, some just once a month.

"Your employees know how best to deliver. You just need to show that you trust them. If they need to focus, they'll likely work from home. If they need to collaborate, they'll likely go into the office. Only they know where they will be most productive on each day.

"And productivity isn't the only benefit. Their flexible policy has allowed them to hire from a far greater pool of people. They work with Flexa to attract folks who don't want to work mandated office days.

"By moving to flexible hybrid, we've opened ourselves up to a much wider pool of talent."

To encourage their team to get together regularly, they organise regular team lunches, dinners and drinks, along with an annual whole company retreat.

I asked Freya what her top tips are for other People leaders to implement a successful flexible hybrid strategy.

"Number 1 is Trust. I can't emphasise that enough. You must trust your team to know how to deliver their best work".

"Number 2 is Visibility. If everyone knows where everyone is working, your team can be intentional about meeting up to build relationships and to collaborate. We show our working location in our Slack Status and in our calendar. Officely is great for this."

"Number 3 is Role Modeling. Ensure your senior folks are leading by example and are seen to be living and breathing your flexible policy so your juniors know it's acceptable."