handbook/handbook-main/guides/chalet_time_policy.txt

# Chalet time policy

This document describes how people should spend time when not on client work. This is known as Chalet Time.

Chalet time should be used to build skills, grow Made Tech’s business and contribute to Communities of Practice.

## What is chalet time?

Chalet time is when people are not on client work. For example...

- A two week gap between someone finishing the software engineering academy and going onto a client project.
- A week between a new starter joining the company and their first client project.
- A lead designer having three days between their current client project and the next.

Occasional chalet time is a common part of a business like ours, as client work isn’t always going to perfectly match our skills and availability. It's a good time to focus on other activities.

## Getting started in the chalet

Please follow these steps when you join the chalet.

### 1. Join the [`#chalet`][1] Slack channel.
This channel provides up-to-date information on chalet activities and practices. You can use it to ask questions and arrange collaborative work.
### 2. Add mandatory chalet meetings to your Google Calendar.
You can find Google Calendar links for chalet meetings pinned to the top of the [`#chalet`][1] Slack channel.  
Members of the Chalet are expected attend these meetings, so that we can:

- Help people use their chalet time well
- Share opportunities and events
- Help people with blockers
- Build a sense of community

### 3. Join the [Chalet Community Board][2].
Use this board to discover tasks you can undertake while in the chalet, including work with Made Tech departments and Communities of Practice. You can also learn about chalet members and their current projects.

## Responsibility for using chalet time usefully

Chalet members and their line managers will be responsible for ensuring this time is used usefully.

Line management should therefore focus partly on:

- Agree weekly goals to use chalet time according the highest priorities
- Check progress against goals for chalet time in bob
- Agree a plan to get someone onto billed client work
- Identify blockers someone has doing activities with their chalet time
- Identify if someone needs help reaching out to a part of the organisation, so that they can assist or shadow. This could involve introducing someone to a team or advocating on their behalf.

Each Head of Capability Practice is ultimately accountable for everyone in their practice using chalet time the right way. This will be measured by the average amount of people’s time billed to a client, also known as utilisation.

## Priorities for chalet time

The priorities for using chalet time will always stay the same, but the activities that a chalet member should do will depend on their roles and availability.

If there are no activities that need to be done that match the chalet member's role and availability, chalet time should be used for the next highest priority. For example, if there are no activities that someone could do to find new opportunities on client teams or new business and revenue, that person should do hiring activities.

### 1. New opportunities on client teams

1. Billed opportunities, where clients pay for someone’s time
2. Invested opportunities, working on a client team, but not billed to begin with, showing value first
3. Shadowing, getting experience of how teams work

### 2. New business and revenue

1. Bid writing - leading / pairing / shadowing / case studies / research
2. Support marketing team create content, like blogging, case studies, talks that promote Made Tech

### 3. Hiring

1. Pairing on interviews
2. Outreach to potential candidates

### 4. Research and development

1. Product development
2. Research projects

### 5. Communities of Practice (CoP)

- CoPs have regular meetings and ongoing activities. To participate in these, search Slack for channels starting with `#cop`.
- CoPs will post opportunities to the [`#chalet`][1] Slack channel and the [Chalet Community Board][2].

### 6. Learning time

- Reading
- Training courses
- Conferences
- Pairing and group learning

### 7. Holiday that can flexibly be moved

## Booking & scheduling chalet time

### 1. New opportunities on client teams

Billed or invested time will be booked by the Scheduling team, just like when someone joins a client team. The chalet member will fill out timesheets for time spent in this team.

Shadowing should be recorded as ‘Bench/Chalet’ in timesheets.

### 2. New business and revenue

Bid writing will be booked by the Scheduling team. The chalet member will fill out timesheets for time spent on the bid.

Marketing activities should be recorded as ‘Bench/Chalet’ in timesheets.

### 3. Hiring

This time should be recorded as ‘Hiring’ in timesheets.

### 4. Research and development

This time should be recorded as ‘R&D’ time in timesheets.

### 5. Communities of Practice

This time should be recorded as ‘Bench/Chalet’ in timesheets.

### 6. Learning time

If your learning activity will make you unavailable for a delivery (eg. a conference or exam) please book this as 'Learning Time' in Bob and let your line manager know. Record this as 'Learning Time' in timesheets.

Learning activities that won't make you unavailable for a delivery (eg. reading, group learning) should be recorded as ‘Bench/Chalet’ in timesheets.

We're actively reviewing the Learning process so this may change. If you have any questions please post them in the [`#supply-learning-and-development`][4] Slack channel.

### 7. Holiday

Chalet members will [book holiday][5] in the normal way.

## Responsibility to make activities visible and doable

Various parts of the business will be responsible for making people aware of activities they can do with chalet time:

### 1. New opportunities on client teams

A list of live client accounts is pinned to the [`#chalet`][1] Slack channel. This can be used to learn about clients, and to find opportunities to join client teams.

Line managers of chalet members will help find opportunities and advocate for them to join client teams, either billed, invested or shadowing.

### 2. New revenue and business

Each week, the Bids team will send the Scheduling team details of bids that chalet members can contribute to.

The Marketing team will share tasks that chalet members can do to promote Made Tech. These will be posted in the [Chalet Community Board][2]. If you need more information about a task, ask the person who created the ticket or post in the  [`#team-marketing`][3] Slack channel.

If you have an idea for a blog post contact James Holloway of the Marketing Team. You can also contact relevant CoPs and teams for input.

### 3. Hiring

The Scheduling team will give the Talent Team Coordinators access to the Kimble report of who has chalet time. They can be asked to do extra hiring interviews, or undertake training to do so.

### 4. Research and development

The R&D team will add tasks to the [Chalet Community Board][2]. These tasks often involve helping to build products or research new opportunities.

### 5. Communities of Practice

Capability and Delivery Heads will maintain a visible backlog of tasks in the [Chalet Community Board][2]. Chalet members can undertake these to improve their community of practice.

## Length of chalet time activities

Chalet time activities must be able to deliver some value in small blocks of time: half day, 1 day or 3–5 days. This is so that chalet time can add value if someone joins a client team at short notice.

Some activities may need more than 5 days. These should still be able to deliver business or personal value in increments of a half day, 1 day or 3–5 days.

[1]: https://madetechteam.slack.com/archives/C03F23K2RL0 "Chalet Time Team Slack Channel"
[2]: https://trello.com/b/7lSGB2Xw/chalet-community-board "Chalet Community Board"
[3]: https://madetechteam.slack.com/archives/C01MMH7DGUA "Marketing Team Slack Channel"
[4]: https://madetechteam.slack.com/archives/C0226JKA39T "Supply Learning and Development Slack Channel"
[5]: https://github.com/madetech/handbook/blob/main/benefits/taking_holiday.md "Taking Holiday"