Building capabilities for a resilient workforce

Day 4 of the Work Reimagined Festival

We’ve heard it over and over again this week — lockdown 3.0 is different; there are no novelty sunny walks, very little banana bread, no clapping — people are tired, and the honeymoon period of the first lockdown is well and truly over. Remote working has lasted longer than anyone thought — and to sustain successful remote working requires a particular set of skills, techniques and mentality — it’s not simply a case of moving the offline world online.

The penultimate day of the festival explored the skills needed to survive and thrive in a hybrid world. At its core, this conversation is about having the right people for the job, making sure they’ve got all the tools and training they need at their disposal, and backing them with a strong business culture that fosters resilience. Here are the headlines from the day:

• The talent pool is bigger and better. Insurer Simply Business said their latest recruits, who were all onboarded remotely, are excelling. Hiring from non-geographically specific areas has provided the business with access to a bigger pool of high quality, diverse talent; and their new team members are resolving customer calls quicker and progressing through the induction material faster than ever before. “We mustn’t be complacent though”, said their Global Talent Lead “we still need to take them through a certain onboarding journey to make sure they’re set up for success”. The importance and change in onboarding was a theme that continued through the rest of the day’s events.
• Remote interviews have the potential to reduce unconscious bias in the recruitment process. Equally, it could provide a whole new set of data points to create unconscious bias of all kinds. So, helping candidates set themselves up for success was thought to be a simple way to mitigate this. Simple guidance, for example, on how to present themselves; neutral backgrounds, proper framing and good audio — the online equivalent of “wear a suit and shine your shoes”. All these tips for candidates during an interview stage should help mitigate potential bias in the world of video interviews.
• People are actively seeking to learn the skills they need to thrive in a remote working environment. This isn’t normal remote working. It’s ‘trying to work from home during a pandemic’ . Homeschooling, health concerns, social isolation, monotony, financial worry are just a few of the pressures that are making it more than just ‘remote working’. It’s not sustainable, and people are crying out for skills, techniques and support to help manage it all. According to the Senior Director of Employee Comms at Linkedin this is a clear trend. On Linkedin Learning there’s an uptake in courses on time management, productivity, mental wellness and techniques to manage stress. People are recognising that building their ability to thrive in the remote working environment is not only a vital work skill, but a life skill too.
• You’ll need the proper foundations to thrive in a hybrid world. The pandemic forced many businesses to implement home working practically overnight and many are still doing so on a make do and mend basis. This isn’t sustainable without reliable, secure and usable infrastructure to support a business and its people. Having the right technology and creating a suitable environment for all will be paramount to successful sustained hybrid working. Sensée, the work from home business outsourcing specialists, have been outsourcing contact centres for over 10 years and also help businesses with the right tools and suite of processes to enable a virtual workplace. The Sensée CEO says it’s not just the tech and processes but the right people — brilliant homeworkers have a desire to work in a flexible way, understand the requirements, need a little less managing, are more autonomous and have really good psychological resilience. The tools and infrastructure needs to support this.
• Fostering company culture in new ways. Settling in to a new company is hard enough, without the additional challenge of remote onboarding or being unable to have that first walk around the office to say hi to people. Coupled with that, it’s easier to work remotely effectively when there’s already an established relationship between people and you understand the rules of engagement, and interaction. Yes, one of the answers is tech — there are so many great tools out there, we’ve experimented with Miro assault courses, zoom ‘chat roulette’, always-on Teams co-working spaces, even ad-hoc quizzes in the middle of company meetings — all to foster connection between remote or new teams. But the key is arming your people with not only the right tech but the knowledge on how best to use it. For more info on how to create rituals to foster connection, chat to jack.metcalfe@fluxx.uk.com.
• HR professionals are raving about OPQs. Since the pandemic, Occupational Personality Questionnaires have become essential tools in supporting the hiring process. The People Director of a very well known international brand swears by it; “we hired a very senior member of the team 6 months ago, and we were able to identify the additional areas where we’d be able to offer support from the outset”. Maybe the OPQ has become a surrogate for those water cooler moments, providing an effective way of getting to know someone in a remote world.
• Be inspired by others. Reimagining the way we work is a huge topic and none of us have all the answers. Ageas Head of Marketing Strategy and Insight says the ability to learn from partners they work with is the key for preparing for what’s next; ‘Bringing in expertise and knowledge from the right experts is something that’s been really valuable for us to look to the future.”

The concept of hybrid working has been proven, there’s a huge opportunity from both an employee and employer’s perspective. Now, we need to be smart about how we move into the next phase — away from crisis mode and into the deliberate; what are the skills, support systems and technology needed by your team so they can thrive? Every business is different, so every business will have to address the reality of what a hybrid world looks like for them.

We’re always happy to share what we’ve learned, having worked with a number of clients supporting them to reimagine the way they work. Drop me a note at Paul@Fluxx.uk.com to have a chat about some of the work we’ve been doing.