Hybrid working offers Innocent's creatives the best of both worlds

""Going forward at Innocent we have a hybrid approach. We can work from home, but we're also expected to be in office for some period of the week, which is the best of both worlds for most creatives. There's definitely a benefit to the flexibility of working at home, like being able to go for a walk if you want to clear your head," she says."

""Flexible working also opens up the workplace to people who would find it hard to work a standard 9-to-5 day, such as young mothers. 'That's such a positive thing for the creative industries,' Watkinson says. 'There's always criticism of the creative industries not being as diverse as they could be, so hopefully things like that flexibility, and like people being able to live in different places, will open it up even more.'""

"She's already seeing collaborations between people who would never have worked together before, simply because distance is no longer seen as a barrier, and she expects to see a lot more. 'At Innocent, we've got copywriters in all the regions we operate in, but the central creative hub has always very much been in the UK. But I can imagine going forward that perhaps we can open that up more for designers to be based all over Europe.'"

Innocent operates a hybrid model that allows employees to work from home while expecting regular office attendance to capture in-person creative energy and learning. Home working provides flexible benefits such as clearing one’s head with a walk and accommodating people who cannot follow a standard 9-to-5 schedule, including young mothers. Flexibility and reduced geographic constraints are already enabling collaborations between previously separated people and open opportunities to base designers across Europe. A fuller understanding and investment in available technology is identified as a key driver to enable further collaboration and distributed creative working.

Read at The Drum