Out of Adversity Comes Opportunity

We’ve had a crazy few months as leaders and HR professionals, but perhaps now is a poignant moment to stop and reflect on what lessons we can learn from how our organisations have fared through this unprecedented time of crisis, and to think about what our new priorities should be?

Our well thought out HR strategies are now turned on their head with completely different labour market conditions when we return to any sort of BAU. Barriers that have held back progress on areas such as flexible working have dissipated overnight and those with digital skills are now coming in to their own.

Let’s look at the silver lining to this crisis, this huge disruption has already broken-down barriers that HR have been trying to tackle for decades! Overnight, years of resistance fell away and new ways of working realised.

Let’s ride that wave and seize this great opportunity to continue the significant cultural shift!  

The transition period to come will be long and disruptive, and will require a sustained effort in difficult circumstances, as well as resilience and innovation. We will be in a different world to the one we left, the economic Hunger Games where only the fittest organisations survive.

To survive in this volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world (thanks Bennis) significant cultural change will be needed very quickly.

Now is the time to set the course and steer our organisations out of this situation, and in to a new era.

Whilst we are ‘unfrozen’ let ensure the changes needed are at the forefront of our people strategies!

So, what can we do right now to start shaping organisations that are fit for the future?

1.      Build trust

High trust environments lead to less ER issues, greater adaptability to change and higher levels of innovation, all essential skills for organisations that are fit for the future.

An effective communication strategy is vital. Regular, informative, honest and accessible for everyone, even those without access to technology or with lower IT skills. Communicating via different channels for different groups.

High trust environments centre around employee involvement. Employee forums are great for taking regular temperature checks of the organisation, as are pulse surveys. There’s no reason why a ‘virtual’ employee voice group could not be established if you don’t have one already? Effective reporting lines and buy-in from leaders is essential.

Inclusion is fundamental to high trust environments, if you have had to build a virtual infrastructure it is important to ensure that everyone can access it. A ‘one size fits all’ approach when it comes to most things excludes certain groups, especially IT. Being flexible with how and when work is undertaken will also ensure people with caring responsibilities or environments not conducive to home working can work around their own requirements.

High quality feedback will allow you to identify if certain groups are feeling excluded.

2.      Wellbeing and Mental Health

Providing employees with the strategies to cope with change and manage challenging times is an investment which will lead to a more resilient and sustainable workforce when we are facing a sustained and enduring period of challenge.

Focus on the bigger picture and see the ‘war’ not the ‘battle’, NHS Central and North West London seem to be doing a great job with this: 

1.      Review your learning and development provision and priorities

The learning and development provision and support that is put in place right now is building the workforce needed to get us through this challenging time and ensure our people have the skills needed to adapt and innovate moving forward.

Learning happens all the time, whether formal or informal. It might be through coaching, buddying, shadowing, external networking, micro-learning, social media, a portal or via training. A strong learning culture supports workforce agility which is really important in volatile times, enabling people to learn new skills very quickly and easily adapt to change. Learning in this way should be encouraged through effective reward and recognition practices.

Giving permission and building in time for employees to undertake self-directed learning during this time will support a strong learning culture, as will signposting to resources such as those on https://www.futurelearn.com/ or the open university for example.

If you are looking to make a cultural shift then leadership development will be a requirement. It is very hard for people to change their leadership style and very hard for cultures to change if they don’t. Leadership styles can be somewhat fixed, however there has never been a better time to try to enact change as leaders are already having to adapt to this new way of working and work out how they will be successful in this new environment.

Summary

We are faced with a unique opportunity right now. Our organisations are in a state of flux and how they settle will very much depend on decisions we take right now. Strategically shaping our workforce to give us the best possible chance to survive what’s to come has to be the priority.