Are you ready for Business Unusual?

5 changes we can expect to see in the workforce:

One of several symptoms will be felt and observed very soon amongst the workforce; most of which will have repercussions on their mental well-being and physical health and impact adversely on their productivity:

• Employee Engagement levels have most likely dropped quite significantly due to prolonged social isolation, increased levels of anxiety and lack of team interactions. Discretionary effort (‘going the extra mile’) might become harder to come by in the immediate future especially in organisations where there has been a voluntary reduction in salary and income.
• Employees’ priorities have changed. After this long stretch of remote working and home sheltering, many people have shifted their priorities and will be asking for more flexibility in their work patterns. Many have realised that they can be as productive, if not more, while working fewer hours remotely and enjoying a better live-work-play balance.
• Where and when to work. For millions of people, going to work before Covid-19 meant commuting to and from a physical office at least 5 times a week and for most businesses it meant having all employees turn up in the same location all at the same time. With strict social distancing measures, what used to be known as ‘normal’ working hours and schedules will simply not work.
• Technostress has or will most likely become a new amplified form of work-related Burnout in the post Covid-19 era caused by the phenomenal increase in the use of digital technologies and devices. Defined for the first time in 1984 by the American psychologist Craig Brod and officially recognized as an occupational disease since 2007, Technostress occurs when the person, subjected to information overload and continuous contact with most digital devices, develops a state of stress, or an abnormal response characterized by specific symptoms at the cardiocirculatory, mental and neurological levels
• Value of talent. One might argue that the risk of people losing jobs at this moment in time is significantly higher than the risk of people resigning voluntarily, and one would probably be right. However, job options will start opening up again and losing key talent might be a fatal blow for some companies. The pressure on companies to retain key talent has never been more critical. Even more perilous than a matter of life and death in my view as I will elaborate a bit further.

Lessons learnt

Companies who have survived the crisis management stage are now getting used to the new ways of working – remote working and virtual collaboration have become the ‘new normal’ since lockdown – from tactical team management level up to Board of Directors. They are now busy preparing for return to work ‘protocols’ which will mean drastic modifications in the workplace practices in terms of health & safety, office layout, and life at work in order to accommodate physical distancing and sanitary restrictions.

The first key decision is to choose which Communication style to adopt in the Return to Work process. The second key decision will be the Leadership style that you want to promote and practice. In these times of uncertainty and doubts, most employees will be expecting strong and steady Leadership from their CEO and Manager.

If you choose to adopt an open and collaborative approach, then a relatively safe starting point is to start with Lessons Learnt from this crisis. This will help to engage with your employees straight away and feel their pulse.
Here are a few thought-provoking questions to kickstart that process. What did we learn as an individual, team, organisation? What went well? What can be improved? What steps should we take to avoid same mistakes in the future? What behaviours were adopted during the pandemic that we want to preserve? How can we restructure to manage our costs today, and position our organization for success in the future? How do we make sure not to take downsizing too far? How can we reinforce new behaviours and build the right culture?

9 ways of shaping the future workforce

It is an understatement to say that the world will be very different post Covid-19, but most of us are still struggling to figure out what this means because our reality has been altered. The immediate reactions following the lockdown were focused on keeping companies afloat (only just) and rightly so, by making decisive moves to ensure sufficient funds were available to pay employee salaries at the end of the month and avoid insolvency. Some of these key measures have been to stop salary increases, freeze hiring, cancel events and slash all expenses for the rest of the year.

Time has now come to start asking the real questions. As best-selling author Yuval Noah Harari recently stated – our future will depend on the decisions that we make now. Either we sit and wait for others to lead the path and become their followers or we grab this unique opportunity to re-think, re-invent ourselves and create followers! Here are 9 actions worth considering to generate some ROI in the medium to long term.

1. Engagement = Productivity

Although this might not be very popular with your accountant at first, running an Employee Engagement survey might be one of the best ‘human-centric’ investments you can make post Covid-19. The timing of this survey should be carefully chosen of course and should ideally happen after any planned restructuring exercise. The main purpose will be to assess the state of mind of your people, their fears as well as their expectations and identify as accurately as possible the soft spots and weak areas which should be prioritised. Taking this step back from survival mode will save you valuable time and costs.

For example, one of the hot topics which should be tackled: Is your workforce ready to perform productively in a remote environment? Your organisation would benefit a lot from gaining powerful insights into the readiness of employees in terms of work habits, work relationships, and self-motivation and identify specific areas where they may need support and training.

2. Provide flexibility

The world of work will never be the same again because employment and flexibility will become inseparable. Flexibility for some could mean reassigning more time for self and family. For others it could mean flexibility to have a secondary source of income, e.g. running an e-commerce portal or being a freelance webinar speaker. If your operations are severely affected, consider introducing a voluntary special leave policy on a temporary basis whereby individuals can opt to take paid or unpaid leave. Be mindful that there could be some employees who are willing to take additional time off and welcome a break, but others may struggle financially if they lose pay. You might consider offering a shorter working week or other flexible arrangements in the immediate to short-term. In any case, workplace policies and contracts of employment as we know them need to be completely reviewed to accommodate flexibility.

3. Create an elastic workforce

The impact of Covid-19 on work is far more profound than just changing where people work; it is also fundamentally altering what work is performed and how we perform it. According to a recent Mercer survey, many firms are already experimenting with different work patterns such as rotating schedules, split shifts and ‘hybrid’ teams (mix of onsite and online) in order to accommodate the transportation and movement restrictions which will be applied around the globe. Needless to say that certain industries like Software, Consulting and Business Process Outsourcing and to some extent Manufacturing have been operating in this elastic way for many years, but the challenge will be for more traditional workplaces in the Retail or Banking sector, and many small and medium businesses.

For example, Indian Tech giant TCS recently announced their decision to adopt permanent remote work for 75% of their 450,000 employees globally over the next 2 years. They believe that decentralising work will help organisations become more resilient and agile. A survival race will be on for companies to find their staffing equilibrium as quickly as possible and keep on trying until they reach at least the same productivity levels as before.

4, Lose fat, keep muscles

It is no secret that downsizing will be one of the main cost-reduction measures, but the danger lies in not knowing when to stop cutting. Typically, when companies start a restructuring exercise, past performance and future potential are usually the top-of-the-mind criteria for executives when choosing who stays and who goes. And in this very painful and draining process, the decision-makers often blindly assume that the ones they keep onboard will remain loyal and motivated to fight on no matter what. Some will argue that it is a risk worth taking and admit that it is a small price to pay in order to guarantee fairness and recognise good performers at the same time. In normal circumstances, it was reasonable to assume that past performance is a good predictor of future performance. Is this assumption still valid in the current situation?

Similarly, the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) will certainly be quite popular because it does not sound as brutal as redundancy can be for reducing fat, but it can be equally fatal. If not coupled with effective transitions and handing over, VRS could just be another incinerator of priceless expertise and knowledge. I would argue that the risks can somewhat be mitigated if more weightage is given to their technical skills and behavioural competencies and more particularly how critical and relevant they are or will be for the core activities of your business. The pressure on companies to retain key talent has indeed never been more perilous.

5. Anticipate future skills

Here is something else your accountant will not be happy to hear about: the cost of a rehire or replacement. In order to further mitigate the risks of losing key talent and expertise, it is recommended that organisations must carry out a resourcing risk assessment, anticipating the skills which will be critical in their new business model, identifying essential areas of the business where few employees have the required skills and investing time in cross-training and upskilling.

According to well-known futurist and strategic advisor Bernard Marr, 3 out of the ‘8 Job Skills to succeed in a post-Covid world’ will be related to Technology & Digital, namely tech savviness, data literacy and coding skills. Just to illustrate how fast things have evolved, none of those skills appeared in the ‘Top 10 skills in 2020’ published by the World Economic Forum[ii] which was still valid a few weeks ago. It is therefore imperative that organisations start anticipating their skills requirement and more importantly start defining actions to close the gaps between the people they have and the people they will need using competency assessment tools.

6. Accelerate digitalisation

This crisis has witnessed an exponential increase in the use of digital technologies and devices, overnight. Digital collaboration and video conferencing tools such as Microsoft Teams, Google Meet and Zoom have become instant hits and are now an indispensable aspect of the life of several millions of people across the globe. As an example, Eric Yuan the CEO of video conferencing app Zoom, said that daily users ballooned to more than 200 million in March from a previous maximum total of 10 million. This sudden surge has logically also resulted in many concerns over data privacy and confidentiality and a new phenomenon called “Zoombombing” has even been created. I have personally witnessed a dramatic increase in phishing attempts and spam emails during this lockdown and it is not a coincidence.

Undoubtedly, mankind’s relationship with technology and internet has radically changed during this crisis. As Rahul Varma, Chief Talent Officer at Accenture Technology summarised it beautifully: “we must bridge the physical distance by digital intimacy”. Social distancing has forced us to seek new ways to connect and entertain ourselves. Even the most reluctant and anti-digital amongst us have been forced to learn how to use video chat to be able to connect with family and friends or just simply to stay abreast of the news. Most of these technologies have existed for some time; we were simply not using them in a meaningful way.

What does this mean for businesses? Well, as most of your workforce shifts to work remotely and as other critical operations, such as finance and investment, are forced to rely even more on virtual connections, your IT infrastructure will be under stress. The strain threatens to hamstring your operations and might make systems more vulnerable to cyberattack. Make sure your IT systems and your cybersecurity are both up to the challenge.
Coming back to software applications, I also believe that organisations must start exploring the use of virtual solutions for managing their people given the travel restrictions and physical distancing. There are a number of software available on the market, some AI-powered, which can be easily plugged into your existing HR Information System (HRIS) which can enable to virtual screening and interviewing of candidates, remote onboarding and even digital HR assistance. Although to be fair, price and affordability will remain a deterrent for companies to take the leap forward, these virtual solutions definitely have future market viability. Alternatively, outsourcing of these processes could be a longer-term strategy for cost-reduction.

7. Embed Virtual Learning culture

The term “e-learning” was first utilized at a computer-based training (CBT) systems seminar in the US in 1999. Other words also began to spring up in search of an accurate description such as “online learning” and “virtual learning”.  Although businesses in developed countries began using e-learning to train their employees since the 2000′s, the way people at national scale have used technology for remote learning, distance education and online learning during the pandemic is quite staggering. And this trend is bound to grow even further as long as physical distancing and travel restrictions prevail.

As pointed out earlier, companies need to review their manpower requirements and should invest time in cross-training, upskilling and re-skilling their workforce. They can do it by leveraging on existing learning platforms and online resources such as Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning or HBR with nominal investment, sometimes free.

8. Get closer to your customers

“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need before they realise it themselves.” – Steve Jobs (2011)
I find this quote to be very pertinent in the current situation. You might be thinking… after losing so much market share and customers cancelling their orders, talking to your clients and customers is the last thing on your mind. Well, you would be wrong! This is exactly the right time to value and nurture relationships with your customers and turn them into trusted partnerships even if there is no business at stake. This crisis is hitting everyone very hard – your suppliers, sub-contractors, third party service providers. Did you find out how they are doing and whether they need any support? If there is one lesson to be learnt from Covid-19, then it is about being more human in the way we do business. Being there for your customer during difficult times might not guarantee future business, but at least it will guarantee you have a friend to count on when things get better.

9. Corporate citizenship

While focusing on all these internal and external aspects, businesses should not forget the Community. More than ever before, we should show our support to the less privileged people in our society. Not because we need publicity and media coverage, but because we sincerely believe in making a difference and feel socially responsible towards them. Simply choose a good cause and make it count!

On an ending note, let me say that, whatever you decide to do, everything starts and ends with Leadership. We should all stop and think about what we have learned about leadership during this crisis. In these times of uncertainty and doubts, most employees will be expecting strong and steady Leadership from their Managers and CEO. This is the time more than ever for the top Leaders and high potentials in your organisation to rise and shine. The definition of a Leader has probably changed forever. What does it mean therefore for your organization? How to identify these leaders among your workforce and cultivate these capabilities in others?

Human Resource (HR) departments and HR leaders will have a leading role to play over the next months to advise, support and drive most of these strategies and actions. To be able to look after the interest of employees, they should start by looking after themselves. As business owner and leader, your responsibility will be to:
·       Define clear objectives and priorities for your HR function for the next 6-12 months and make sure they are properly equipped to deliver same.
·       Train your HR Leaders to have ‘meaningful and impactful’ individual conversations in order to rebuild confidence and trust amongst employees.

Whilst the Covid-19 pandemic is the most difficult time humanity has come across in the last 100 years, it can also be a time of unprecedented innovation and creativity. If anything, it would have helped us “build greater resilience and efficiency in our organizations, and help our people live healthier, more sustainable lives.”

Sources

[1] ‘The Technostress: definition, symptoms and risk prevention’ by Marta Chiappetta, 2017
[1] Future of Jobs Report, 2015
[1] How the Coronavirus Crisis Is Redefining Jobs, Harvard Business Publishing, April 2020

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Boston Consulting Group