[Interview] Working at Apogee with Laura Bradley

A recent development is Apogee’s implementation of a hybrid working model – which, according to Laura, while not suited to the lead generation team, works incredibly well for the telesales team.

“When the telesales team are in the office and it’s a buzzy atmosphere and there’s people on the phones constantly, that’s a great time for them for them to be on the phone themselves. But because they’re salespeople as well, there’s a lot of admin tasks for them to do, which could be quite difficult to do in a loud office; so they get that nice mix where they can be at home to concentrate on those elements of the role that they need quiet for.”

“Whereas with the lead generation team, not a lot’s changed for them. We know that the role can be done from home, but it’s just not done as effectively, and I think they’d all agree. When your motivation to do a particular role is helped and aided by people around you doing it, I think you need to be office-based.”

Whilst Laura was always in the office before 2020, nowadays she likes to mix it up – generally working from home for one or two days a week.

“In the early days, it was very difficult, because our children were at home too. I was fortunate at the time, because my partner was furloughed, so he took over most of the learning and keeping them in check… but it didn’t stop them from walking into my office during a Zoom call and announcing that they wanted their slide out! (laughs). But during that time, we’d all go out as a family for a walk at lunchtime, and it was some of the best times of my life. Even though we were going through something awful, I remember some of those times really quite fondly, because we got all that time with our children that we wouldn’t have had ordinarily.

“For me, Carl Day was just phenomenal. He trusted us enough that he knew we would always get our work done, and if that meant we started a little earlier in the day, or we worked a little later, if we got the job done, it didn’t matter. He gave us the trust.”

So, should businesses adopt a hybrid working model? According to Laura, it all depends on the role.

“We’ve seen it in the credit control department, in logistics, in the telesales team… with hybrid working, you don’t see any major drop-off in activity, output, or motivation levels. If anything, motivation levels can be higher in certain roles, by giving people that flexibility. As long as the job gets done with good quality, then I think other businesses should. It’s all about showing your people that you trust them, and I think that goes a long way.”