In this last chapter I want to bring social responsibility to the conversation. Social responsibility will be more important than ever, which we value highly as an organisation, so how did we manage this time of crisis?
The quote above from Liggy Webb is an excellent summary all four chapters. This should be our mantra from now on – in fact, it should be our mantra whenever we are struggling. It’s not only relevant to us as individuals, these words are very powerful from an organisational and community point of view.
- Revisit your business: we always say HR should be supporting strategic business decisions. Bring the numbers to the boardroom and explain why remote employment can be beneficial. Bring in real ideas on performance management in time of crisis. Support the IT department in getting up and running. Be the bridge between the people and the business
- Your image counts: Employer perception will be a very important part in the future; the virus has accelerated this trend. HR needs to come up with creative ideas to avoid lay-off and increase financial growth. Technology can be a great ally here. as with collaboration and cross-functional projects
- Create inclusive policies: Inclusion will be more important because the impact of the virus is ultimately financial too and we need to ensure we are including everyone in the organisation in our plan. HR might need to revisit salary sacrifice schemes, for example. What is salary sacrifice? This is when an employee exchanges a specific amount of income before tax for a benefit like pension contributions or child care vouchers. Companies such as Salary Finance are offering very interesting products to combine this idea with financial well-being. Social media will quickly surface policies not fit for purpose, likely through Glassdoor and Kununu employee reviews. Monitor these during the crisis and post crisis to learn about your communities in the business and to improve those policies. Create surveys and measure the pulse in your organisation before implementing changes.
- Enable communities and let people share their story and heal. Again, this is where HR will work hand in hand with the business to enable those conversations and create safe spaces for people to share their concerns.
To finish with a positive note, we need disruption and the challenges we confront in life make us better. Sometimes things happen and they force us to revisit what we were doing with more critical view and we gain a better understanding of our actions. We need to grief for the losses and look at ways we can avoid this happening again, learn from the circumstances and rebuilt.
GOOD TRENDS WE SHOULD EXPECT
- Less commuting time, more quality time, better work-life-balance
- Less pollution due to less commuting, greener world
- Better strategy when choosing between face-to-face meetings and virtual ones, more time for your personal life, less travel
- Better time management, higher performance
- Increase in organisations allowing remote working, change of status quo
- Shift to online consumption, change in business model
- Shift of attention to the concept versus timing
If you are hungry for more content on how to manage stress, resilience, check Liggy Webb’s BiteSize Book series here!
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