Doing business in a COVID-19 world: Empowering employees to succeed in challenging times

The dramatic change in work over the past year and a half has impacted so many, so widely. First, there was the sudden shock as lockdowns spread across the planet and businesses shuttered, curtailed operations or shifted to remote work. Then, this year, just as some people started going back to their workplaces, the new COVID-19 delta variant surge made it clear that it’s not yet time for business as usual.

Today, many in jobs requiring them to be in or return to a workplace worry about safety. Others who’ve honed fully remote work routines to the point of absorbing expanded domestic responsibilities—like caring for family members in need—have found themselves in a frustrating bind when faced with a sudden expectation to return to the office.

I spend a lot of time thinking about what’s best for F5 and our people as well as the industry as a whole. I believe passionately that employers need to do all they can to help their employees thrive in challenging times—to provide options that help them balance work with life, as COVID continues to reshape it.

There have been a wealth of articles on this topic, but I appreciated how this one calls out a couple of simple steps organizations can take to help employees navigate our tumultuous times.

The first is for employers to be transparent about when and how decisions affecting employees are being made, and to share updates on back-to-work decisions with as much advance notice as possible in order to give everyone ample time to prepare.

The second is to pay greater heed to what your people want and expect, and make it a policy to meet those expectations—for both the welfare of your people and the betterment of your business. To me, the magic here is that active listening and targeted follow-through conversations can drive retention and development of top talent while improving engagement and satisfaction across our workforce.

For F5, the ultimate payoff for taking steps like these will arrive when we’re able to build a corporate culture that truly welcomes all and enables success across a workforce whose diversity mirrors that of the broader global community. Achieving a truly inclusive environment, I’m confident, will unlock significant new competitive advantages.

A healthy corporate culture prioritizes respect. It empowers people to be successful by bringing their most activated, authentic selves to work—driving passion, innovation and breakthrough business performance. That’s why I consider stewarding our culture to be the most important part of my job at F5. And it’s why transparency, active listening and open collaboration are and will remain among our core cultural touchstones.