How to win the RESTART Marathon by putting PEOPLE FIRST (Part 4: Tortoise, Hare, & HR)

The Tortoise, the Hare, and HR: Who will win the RESTART RACE?  

Peter R. Classen, Christine Zdelar - June 3rd, 2020

Part 4 Highlights: 

• As a leader, the decisions you make over the coming months will define you and your organization for years to come. Putting your HR team in the center of designing and quarterbacking your company’s RESTART is the best decision you can make right now for seven very compelling reasons. 
• The employees, sub-contractors, and service vendors that left the office 10 weeks ago are not the same ones that are returning. They have faced, and will continue to face physical, mental, emotional, economic, and existential threats. If you believe your employees are among your most important assets, protecting them and reviving them should be your #1 priority. This puts HR at the center of what comes next. 
• Considering everything from understanding employee relations laws to alignment with people managers, your HR team is probably the only one with the right mindset, existing business processes, deep situational awareness of your human capital to take the lead in your RESTART. 

Tuesday, May 26th, 2020 7:15am: The CEO and her executives are meeting early, as it’s the only time all day everyone is child-free, each being able to give their undivided attention to the discussion. “Ok, how do we get everyone back to work in the office?”

After what seemed like an eternity of back and forth, the CEO noticed the Chief People Officer and her HR director hadn’t been able to get a word in so far. The CEO was frustrated. She asked the others to give the CPO the virtual floor. “What do you think?”

The CPO started with the latest results of the employee pulse survey and feedback collected by managers during weekly 1:1s with their teams. The results? Close to 70% of the employees feared coming back too soon, with 15% being virtually “mortified” at the thought. Others said they needed a mental health break, but didn’t know how to ask for one. Some really didn’t like the idea: a return to wasting hours commuting on the metro each day. Why would we do that? Another bunch, 7% reported spikes in their productivity - this virtual work is amazing! - they said.

The CPO had also been connecting with HR professionals in their industry and shared plans other companies were considering. Everyone accepted that health & safety were going to be issues, and that’s an HR problem. But really, the scope of the problem was much larger. Markets were changing, as were acceptable ways of conducting commercial business. How was her organization going to change? The people that went home 10 weeks ago were not the same people coming back. The CPO referenced a recent skills gap analysis that revealed a glaring lack of situational awareness, mindfulness, and change management experience amongst managers and the leadership team. “There are many moving parts to this,” she said. 

The CEO nodded, asking her to go on. For the next 10 minutes, the CPO and her director described what they felt was needed for developing a restart strategy, discussing everything from mental health resources for employees to restructuring project teams to staggering work schedules to government guidelines (or lack thereof), and yes, even a complete rethink of work - could we not be leaner, more agile, more flexible? Did everyone really need to be in an office everyday? 

What the CPO helped others see was that in the long run, their organization would come out of this pandemic-induced economic shutdown with more resiliency and agility. She made it clear that work flexibility (i.e. hours, location) were going to be the best practice, and that the technology investments they had just made in remote work capabilities would pay dividends if used correctly. They only needed policies and team practices to allow remote, flexible work to happen. 

To the COO, she made it clear what dividends could be expected: operations would be leaner as cross-training investments were creating stronger “do-ers.” To Sales, she added that the ERGs (employee resource groups) and BRGs (business resource groups) were already well ahead, discovering new ways to serve their customers. For marketing, she pointed out the community and social engagement would have improved and enhanced their brands, in addition to massively helping on the side of attracting and recruiting talent.   

“Well, looks like you’re in charge,” said the CEO. “What do you need from us?”

2020: The Year of the Chief People Officer  

During the 2008 Global Financial Crisis, a strong CFO kept companies afloat and moving forward. A weak CFO left them dead in the water, or worse. As mentioned in part three of Grahampton’s RESTART series “Creating a Vision for a Competitive PEOPLE Advantage,” we discussed every organisation’s new reality - the next few months will define a company’s legacy for years to come. 

If, as a leader, you haven’t put your Chief People Officer or Head of HR in charge - it’s time to make that change. If you haven’t identified and empowered your brightest human resource business professionals (HRBPs) and made this necessary business transformation their sole focus - then who is leading your restart? 

From the strategic to the operational, the Covid-19 pandemic poses an unprecedented challenge to companies, one that requires an integrated, balanced, situationally-aware, and mindful approach. Many call it a restart. For those who have led through similar crisis situations, this is much more. It is a business transformation writ large. It is a pivot at multiple levels, where the many interconnected systems that worked well in the past, simply won’t do in the future. Creating a PEOPLE FIRST RESTART strategy is absolutely the job for all on the leadership, with Talent and HR being the thought-leading quarterbacks calling the plays on the field. 

But HR being seen as strategic leader wasn't always the case. 

Historically speaking, for most of the 20th century HR was treated as an administrative function, a Cinderella, certainly not viewed as contributing to strategic management or corporate strategy. But as the nature of work and markets evolved, so did the role of HR in a modern, successful organization. 

With the decline of industrialization and the rise of the knowledge economy, a company’s most valuable resource is no longer its physical assets, but instead, its human capital. In response, the priorities of the HR team have shifted from compliance, pay, and benefits administration to including every CEOs’ newest focus - talent management - its acquisition, on-boarding, management, development, retention and advancement. 

And this makes sense. If your most valuable asset is people, and people are becoming trickier to find, harder to retain, and also happen to be the highest-fixed cost of your business, then your people strategy should include safeguards. They deserve to be managed as well, if not better, than any other valuable assets on the balance sheet - using techniques befitting their size, scale, and complexity. People matter and now, more than ever. 

So in the restart race we have the Tortoise. The risk manager (and the ill-equipped) who overemphasizes risk, sees the downside, and plans the RESTART with concern, uncertainty, and fear in mind. His core assumption - rightly or not - is that with a detailed plan and detailed procedures, the external risks (health, social, economic) can all be mitigated down to an acceptable level. 

Also in the race is the Hare. The numbers-focused manager (and the desperate) who sees this as a race where speed matters most. Restart faster, innovate faster, be faster - that’s what she thinks is the key to success. That is her core assumption. The Hare approaches the RESTART with boldness, certainty, and courage in mind.

Finally, the newcomer in this race, Human Resources. They are people-focused and view this race differently. They see its length, and know that speed is not enough. They see the compliance issues, and know what they will have to track. They see the race course itself, and recognize that this will be very different from other races. Yes, they see operating challenges and market chaos, but at the same time, they see opportunities. Opportunities to become more resilient, to use remote work more effectively in the future, to address “out of office” issues that reduce “in office” productivity and engagement.  

Who will win this race? If only one can win, and the competitors are either tortoises or hares, we think the winner will be HR. If your people are your most valuable asset and to win this kind of race you need to leverage all assets, then the advanced understanding of HR, an organization’s Builders and Keepers of Talent, will win.

For many organizations, this is asking leadership to take a major leap of faith. To give HR more than an equal role in today’s executive decision-making. We understand that. There are, however, some arguments that can make this leap a little less intimidating for those who have just recently latched on to the idea that neither a tortoise nor a hare strategy is going to guarantee success. 

Seven reasons why HR is uniquely positioned to see your organization through to the new normal:

#1 HR has (or should have) a strong understanding of the current state of your employees and what they are capable of today.

The horizontal nature of HR means that they are in the best position to have a comprehensive understanding of well-being, job satisfaction, motivation, and commitment for your entire organization. While managers may be able to report back on their individual teams, HR can synthesize data and devise a strategy based on the complete picture. HR more than any other function, should be able to answer the question: what’s different about our people now?

#2 They are the closest to the legal ramifications of your company’s RESTART

Getting back to work after this economic-lock-down / initial pandemic period subsides is legally complex and will remain ambiguous. With restrictions beginning to ease, employers are already seeing employee complaints and lawsuits based on their timing in opening up the office. OSHA, CDC (if you’re based in the US), State-level Health, and other government guidelines and regulations must be followed to a tee during your RESTART, and your HR team has the subject matter expertise to take this on this ongoing research and compliance challenge.  

#3 HR and your people managers are already in lockstep

They key to successfully implementing change in any organization is securing buy-in from your people managers. They, after-all, are the linchpin between HR decisions and your people. It is your people managers that will have 1:1 conversations with employees, communicate changes, field questions, and ease anxieties. Members of your HR team have already built strong, supportive relationships with your people managers and know what keeps them up at night. They are in a perfect position to design what changes are going to work and then effectively sell the RESTART strategy to your people managers. 

#4 Plus, HR has no conflict of interest

With your HR team, there are no sales targets to hit, release schedules to manage, or commission checks to collect. The sole focus of your HR team right now can, and should be, to understand and care for the well-being of employees. To make them productive, to retain them, to retrain them, to make them happy employees who produce happy customers (See the detailed “happy employees = happy customers” equation in part 3 of this series). HR’s performance will be judged on their ability to time and plan a RESTART successfully, without being influenced by competing priorities. 

#5 HR knows what skills exist and which skills will need to be developed for operating in the new normal 

Chances are that HR knows the skill inventory, training status and performance status of each employee through their individual employee records. As new activities, new ways of working and new demands on employees emerge, it is HR who will be in the position to rapidly assess what can and cannot be achieved, and who can and who cannot do the required job. HR makes RESTART plans real by answering the question: is this action achievable? 

#6 ...and they know what skills will be needed in the coming months and years and how to build them

By accepting that the market has changed, industry has changed, the business environment has changed, consumer thinking has changed, and employees have changed, then it is not hard to imagine the scale of re-skilling that is going to be required. Training to create new skills, bring in new ideas, and formalize new understanding is what HR does. The professional development function of HR is going to be extremely important in the “business transformation” that we are calling a RESTART. Without the capacity to rapidly build the necessary internal skills and knowledge (and to know the timing of when these skills can be available to deploy) no RESTART plan is going to get very far. 

#7 HR will live and breathe whatever RESTART strategy and game plans that get created (and whatever else comes next)

Over the coming months, HR will be a front-line leader of the implementation of your RESTART. It will be up to HR to implement staffing changes, interpret government guidelines, plan office logistics, and care for the health & well-being of your employees. HR will also, heaven forbid, have to execute Plan B: a second office closing in the light of a renewed wave of novel Coronavirus cases in your geographic area. Having a deep understanding of your organization's RESTART strategy (and its Plan B) will be critical in ensuring a successful execution of the plan. By providing HR with the opportunity and resources to design a thoughtful, integrated RESTART strategy, you are setting them and your organization up for success. 

What to do if you are a Tortoise or a Hare? 

If you are a Tortoise or a Hare, don’t be upset. No, Hares, you haven’t lost the race. Your boldness, courage and ability to act with a sense of urgency , and courage are essential. Tortoises, you aren’t being rejected. Your concerns, uncertainty, and your ability to perceive risk are equally important and necessary perspectives that must be accounted for. The issue is that neither the standard Hare nor Tortoises mindsets are going to work for this type of race. 

If we accept this to be the case, surely one would recognize that it would be inappropriate to put Hares in charge of formulating a strategy and game plan that require a Tortoise point-of-view. Same goes for you, Tortoise. You can’t think like a Hare, and we need some Hare thinking as well. The only thing we all might all agree on is, that regardless of the final strategy and game plan, PEOPLE are going to implement them both. PEOPLE are going to make the difference. And who is best at writing a PEOPLE-centric plan? That is HR’s superpower, and we need to be using that superpower now. 

Creating a PEOPLE FIRST RESTART strategy is absolutely the job for the entire leadership team, with Talent and HR leading the team to victory. HR is your thought-leading quarterback, in sync with the coaches while also calling the plays on the field when the contest gets going.

To plan and execute a RESTART, businesses can connect and mandate teams in ways that ensure their PEOPLE will feel safe, motivated, and capable. 

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In summary: Every organization is in need of a balanced, integrated approach that acknowledges the uncertainties we still face, the need to get on with figuring out how to live and work WITH Covid-19 (not AFTER) , and the centrality of people in the RESTART race.. To win the RESTART race we need a RESTART TEAM, and a strategy that requires the right data and contextual knowledge that is applied with empathy and situational awareness. Because there is no such thing as a RESTART in a knowledge-based business that does not rely on your PEOPLE, it is your HR team that is uniquely positioned to carry your organization through a post Covid-19 RESTART.

 PDF copies of this article will be available on Grahampton.com in the coming days.  

Next Parts in this Series:

Part 5 - BEST PRACTICES from those who are PUTTING PEOPLE FIRST.

Grahampton: Supporting Organizations and their Restarts

Check out Grahampton & Co.’s support services for supporting “Restarts”, “Leading in Times of Crisis and Challenge” and the other work we do at www.grahampton.com. 

About the Authors: 

Peter R. Classen is a Chief Transformation Officer, crisis navigator and a speaker-author on “leadership in challenging, high-stress, and uncertain business environments.” As relevant to the RESTART conversation, for almost five years he Chaired a multinational Steering Committee that guided the creation of a playbook for governments to better manage Post-Disaster Reconstruction Programs (i.e. National Restarts). The thinking he and his committee and the work of the program guidance development team are still in use in more than 25 countries around the globe. Over the past two and a half decades he has helped ~35 organizations respond, restart, and recover from disasters. Find Peter, our partners, and our teams at www.grahampton.com. 

Christine Zdelar is an Associate Partner of Grahampton, and an expert in change management - why it is necessary and how organizations can better design and manage their change agendas. Christine is known for her talent management capabilities, and especially for architecting people-first organization change strategies and for developing adaptable, highly-resilient, and ultra-productive teams. She works across industries from emerging tech start-ups to the Fortune 100 and has over a decade in the product development function. In addition to the HR consulting she currently supports, she is leading an international research effort exploring the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the employee psyche and how employees-of-the-near-future will think, act, and perform.