Siemens IT teams and the “new normal” culture: staying connected for mental health and employee wellbeing

For IT people – that’s the general assumption – working from home should not present a problem. They are technologically savvy, and certainly perfectly equipped … and all they do all day long is look at a screen anyway. Correct?

While the large majority have adjusted to the “new normal” situation, according to various ‘pulse-checks’, people still react differently. Not all IT people find it easy to work from home, underlines Daniela Peine, Business Psychologist and Senior Project Manager. She sees two extremes: some will “disappear from sight”, making it hard to discern what it is they do and how they do it, and how they feel. Others are so active that it becomes obvious that they are not experiencing a sustainable work-life balance.

Hanna Hennig, CIO at Siemens, is aware of this challenge: “let’s not underestimate the psychological change which an individual goes through that’s now working almost 100 percent from home. In the long term, we are missing something if we see each other on the screen but are physically detached from those multiple feedback experiences brought about by team meetings. The mere exchange of information cannot replace body language.”

Already at the beginning of the lockdown, measures were taken at Siemens IT to reduce feelings of isolation and loneliness. Sonja Hoppe, Head of Business Excellence at Siemens IT Applications Platforms & Digital Solutions and head of a team of 30, explains: “we soon started to enter into more intensive personal exchanges, carried out more virtual interaction, and again stand-ups, frequent virtual team and ad-hoc bilateral coffees to check how colleagues are and to exchange experiences. We also had a virtual offsite with joint learning and fun elements organized by highly creative team members. The preparation for our virtual Christmas cooking has just started with a call for favorite recipes from the various countries of the team members.”

She summarizes her experience: “as a leader, I had the feeling that all this brought me into closer contact with people than had been the case before – in particular with those colleagues with whom I do not share the location.”

The experience of employees has been similar. Respondents in surveys said, “we see you care about us, we are important to you, also from a human perspective.”

This positive feedback has shown to Sonja and Daniela that they are on the right track. It has motivated them to invest time and energy in the context of mental health and wellbeing in times of the new normal. Sonja says:

“Mental health is really the foundation of everything. You may be having access to the best technology and tools, and you may engage in corporate culture work – but if employees are not mentally healthy, none of this matters.”

This is why mental health is an important topic in the “NewNormal@IT” initiative. Daniela comments: “to us, it is all about creating awareness among colleagues and leaders to be mindful to themselves and to pay attention to others. We aim at self-responsibility and the strengthening of social ties.” It is all about connectedness and team spirit, communication and empathy. It is about building and expanding trust and creating the feeling of belonging.

Here’s the approach: there is no global rollout of a rigid program. Instead, Sonja and the NewNormal@IT team rely on flexible pull: “we promote existing offerings – also in new modern formats. We identify and multiply best practices in our community. And we try out and experiment with new formats. We want to present multiple approaches and ideas to everybody which they can test and adapt to their needs.”

For this purpose, they resort to the offerings of local Siemens EHS organization such as social counseling in Germany and EAP providers in India as well as in the U.S..

Another piece of the puzzle in this approach to strengthening self-responsibility and self-organization is the integration of the initiative GROW2GLOW. In this company-wide network, trained coaches usually coach women only. Daniela has convinced to include, for a limited period of time, also men from IT in the “three hours of free coaching.”

This is a measure which Sonja welcomes strongly: “I believe in the power of coaching very much. It is a special gift to spend dedicated time with an educated coach to jointly and openly look at a personal or a business challenge from a different perspective.”

According to the IT colleagues, there is no doubt that all these measures aimed at strengthening the mental health of employees have a great impact on the performance of the company. Hanna says:

“During the past months, we have learned a lot – and we have witnessed the art of ‘making things possible’. This means that working outside the office well and productively is absolutely possible. This has triggered a real culture change”.

This cultural transformation includes leaders signaling to their employees that nobody questions their productivity just because it may not be possible to reach them at a certain point in time, e.g. when they are busy looking after a family member. Part of this, too, is an openness to address topics, to try out new things in the virtual space, and to dare commit errors. And to laugh about them together.

In this kind of culture, being human with all its facets is understood as a valuable contribution to work. Sonja comments: “this is exactly what we mean when we say, IT fully embraces the New Normal.”