A Northern Ireland-based Financial Planning firm took the unusual step of closing its offices for a month in July and allowing staff to work remotely.

AKFP (Aiken Kennedy Financial Planning) is based in Lisburn, County Antrim, and decided to close its offices during July, allowing all of its eight staff members to work remotely in an experiment to increase productivity. It hailed the experiment as a great success and plans to repeat it next year.

AKFP is a Financial Life Planning firm following a holistic model and is run by Chartered Financial Planner Roger Kennedy and partner Andrew Aiken.

Having streamlined all systems, staff were able to access everything required via the cloud, with calls into the office being shared and diverted to an allocated mobile. The firm’s clients were made aware of the decision, so that face-to-face appointments could be scheduled appropriately and the company’s staff remained available.

A company spokesman said: “All staff worked collaboratively for a positive outcome for their clients and reaped the benefits of being able to change venues, eradicate long commutes into the office and above all, increase the happiness of employees.”

Due to its success, AKFP Group is looking to role out the initiative again next year, as the whole morale of the team was lifted during the trial, according to the firm.

One of the company’s founders, Roger Kennedy, director & Chartered Financial Planner, APFS, DipPFS, ACSI, CertPFS (DM), said: “All of our clients and the whole team were really supportive of the initiative. All client queries were dealt with efficiently and in line with our service levels. Working remotely enabled my team to spend more time with their loved ones and get out on a summer’s day (providing they had completed their task list)!”

Paraplanner James Gordon, the firm's technical manager, added: “I was able to spend more time with my family, which as a result gave me an increased drive to deliver for clients and complete my daily tasks.

“There is a high level of trust in the office and it’s a great feeling to be given the flexibility to do this. We did have to visit the office occasionally to review post, but that wasn’t a problem.”