On 31^st July the company issued a communication to all People Leaders on Smart Working. The message within was to be cascaded to all employees.

Unfortunately it appears that this has not have been the case with a number of employees not hearing the message.

Further in a number of cases when Leaders have cascaded the message they have done so incorrectly, having misunderstood the contents.

To help clarify matters, the message from the UK&I Leadership Team was:

1. The current expectation of 40% (two day) office attendance remains in place.
2. The ‘majority of time’ rule, averaged over 12 months, which was to come into place from 1^st September, is now not happening.
3. At some point in the future, when all sites have the capacity to accommodate it, the expectation will move to an average of 60% (three day) office attendance (the period attendance will be averaged over a period to be confirmed).

Hopefully this helps alleviate any confusion, if you have any questions regarding the above, please speak to your local union rep.

AXA‘s Group Head of Culture, Inclusion and Diversity, Kirsty Leivers, has publicly stated in her update on the Global Pulse Results that “AXA is committed to achieving an average of 3 office days per week”, an increase from the ‘two days a week plus a majority of time over the year rule’, that is due to be introduced in the UK from this September.

Exactly when this latest change to the smart working rules will be introduced is unclear, Kirtsy Leivers stating “(AXA) are asking entities to take further steps to embed this Smart Working vision to increase time together in the office, through effective change management, leadership support, and clear communications.” but not providing a timescale for this to be completed.

Meaningful dialogue has yet to commence locally on this fourth change to the Smart Working rules in the last four years in the UK.

We appreciate that the moving of the Smart Working goalposts yet again will be upsetting and annoying for many members in AXA UK and whilst we will be unable to answer many questions at this point in time, please raise any concerns you have with your local rep so we can include these in the talks we will be having with AXA UK over the move to three days a week in the office.

AXA are today issuing comms to all staff detailing Smart Working rules exceptions and employee bases for location independent workers. Additionally some outcomes of the reviews of existing agreed exceptions are being communicated to individuals.

If you are impacted by the review or have concerns about the contents of the contents of the communications please speak to your union rep at the earliest opportunity to get their support during any process that may need to be undertaken.