Amid all the uncertainty - there’s a big beating heart, and powerful voices.

In reflecting on 2019, it struck me that uncertainty is our watch word, and we’ve now moved on from that well-worn phrase - “the only constant in life change”.

The big challenge we continue to face in our places of work - but also in communications - is, attracting and retaining the best people. It’s a tough gig when there’s so much volatility all around, in financial markets, continued political upheaval, fake news and the fragmentation of messages and polarised opinion 24/7. Combine this with a generation of people coming out of school, college, university or an apprenticeship, who simply demand and expect more, and frequently get it. What should we focus on?

A question on authenticity and trust: can the best businesses be the last ports of call in society for people seeking something to believe in, and a sense of belonging? (The lack of faith in leaders of all hues and organisations is not a new conversation in recent years - politicians, law-makers, religious leaders, our Royal family, financial institutions – our faith seems to have been so fundamentally shaken, as a result of credibility all across the board having effectively crumbled and gone).

The answer to the question above, I would hope is yes, but only if our commitment to hearing the unfiltered voices of our people is absolute, expressed simply and can cut through all of the “other noise” to be shared.

Am guessing a number of people reading this have pored over their company strategy in the past. You might have been asked for your view, or input into the mission statement, or the vision, considered your position on corporate responsibility, or maybe brainstormed how best to share it all. It no doubt required consultancy, or a considerable agency spend along the way, to “hard-boil the message” down to its essence. But what is all that monumental effort and soul-searching really about? In the name of continuous improvement, all of it is well meaning, of course it is, but it’s conceptual and is the corporate hook that you need to hang your coat on. A strategy simply expressed and consistently shared can be useful, but it doesn’t have much of a pulse.

Reflecting on the year just gone, I’m a part of team who are trying to keep it simple and who are attempting to share more of our stories than ever before, and across multiple platforms. Stories about how Laing O’Rourke is building hospitals, power stations, rail lines, sewerage systems, road networks, city centre retail, residential accommodation blocks and many other core parts of the infrastructure - that the UK economy needs both pre and post Brexit and the forthcoming general election. That’s an impressive pipeline of work, and surely it tells it’s own story? Well not quite, because the Herculean effort that’s required is a humbling thing to observe close up, and it entails thousands of human stories and moments of genuine inspiration and endeavour at all levels to make it all happen.

It surely goes without saying that “it’s all about the people”, which is a hackneyed cliché at best, or a slightly tired and overused word like “engagement”, so your communication effort has to go much farther than that. Your best people, e.g. pretty much everyone that works for your organisation, are the beating heart of what’s driving your success. They are the blood pumping through your veins. And you have to give something, continuously, if you expect to get something in return.

True believers also have to take responsibility, make it safe and be the ones sharing the messages that matter most in a consistent (responsible) way, and encouraging people to follow their lead. That’s much harder work than it sounds. Over the last two years in particular, we’ve been encouraging people in Laing O’Rourke to share more, but you have to put yourself out there and prove that you mean it, and crucially are prepared to do it yourself. If you build it, yes they will come. Luckily that old adage is still a reliable one!

This could require your leaders to share things about their personal lives on internal social media or in face to face forums. But equally it may not. It could mean live web broadcasts where people share knowledge or have the ability to have unscripted conversations with their leaders. To get to the beating heart you have to make the time available, it can’t be lip service.

For leaders I’d suggest it’s less about (to use a modern buzz-phrase), “living your best life” and more about being a decent corporate citizen who’s got time to listen. Wellbeing, and an increasing focus on mental health and sustainable working, all require us to drive dysfunctional relationships and ways of working out of our daily and weekly cycles.

At Laing O’Rourke we’re blessed with some of the most intelligent and articulate individuals in our industry, who understand the complexities and challenges we face in construction, and how to deliver major infrastructure projects. This is no mean feat but it’s our people on the ground - our hard hats - who continue to inspire me most.

To listen to our men and women, young and old, from diverse backgrounds (and with a diversity of thinking) talking with great passion about their education, or their apprenticeship, or just sharing genuine emotion about what working in the industry means to them, is a constant shot in the arm. From the female graduate, to the junior quantity surveyor, or the many experienced construction managers and professionals we have, to the digital engineer pioneering innovation, the belief is flowing through them. But we’re all working hard and moving so fast, so we must be brave and make the time to pause and reflect, making sure we capture this spirit.

And yes, we have great stories to tell, because every job or project we build has the potential to leave a legacy behind, and creates so much pride for all involved (including for the communities we work in).

As we continue to put significant effort into sharing more of these stories, in reality we’ve probably only scratched the surface. If you’re interested, head over to Laing O’Rourke’s YouTube, LinkedIn or any of our other official channels to hear those voices.

What I do know is that the more our people are celebrated in an unfiltered way, and their colleagues and peers can see more genuine reflections of people who look like them, we will continue to attract (and I hope) retain the best the industry has to offer. And we will have to keep providing the platforms, the conditions and the atmosphere that allows them to share their best work (which feels like just the minimum requirement moving forward).

One breakthrough here in recent months was in the feeling that a tipping point was being reached internally, where a lot of the “news” we were sharing back to our people - was actually self-authored content. Construction as an industry can be epic in scale, and so staff pictures alone have provided a rich source of interest and interaction. A picture, a thousand words.

So while there’s uncertainty all around, don’t believe the hype - and as Sly and The Family Stone once said - “listen to the voices”. There’s a job to be done in every organisation, in your organisation, and I’m sure it’s an extremely worthwhile one. Looking beyond the outcome of Brexit or the general election, the responsibility we have to support our people, in the role they play in the future of our societies, is massive.

Your people are the beating heart of your organisation, listen to their voices and keep giving them the platform. Make that difference, stick to it and hold your nerve.

You might find it’s more powerful than anything else you can do in 2020.

And it will certainly put tomorrow’s rolling news-feeds into their true perspective.