A leap into the unknown: Workforce lessons from the pandemic
As businesses struggle to return to "normal," traditional notions of the workplace are changing, and a whole new set of challenges await.
Employers worldwide have seen the deep and long-lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on workforces, families, suppliers, customers, and business operations. For employees, the impact has been fear, uncertainty, and stress: The Washington Post reports that people 20 to 40 years old felt “exhausted,” “overwhelmed,” “depressed,” and “pushed over the edge.”
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Naturally, this has an impact on their organization’s ability to survive and grow.
Beyond basic housekeeping
As American businesses struggle to return to “normal” operations, traditional notions of the workplace are changing, and a whole new set of challenges await. How does the workplace need to change? How can we make it safe and reassure employees that they will be protected? Are our HR policies “human-centered” enough to empathize with and help those who are struggling with commitments at home or through simple fear?
CEOs will need to make new kinds of “housekeeping” decisions to keep their organization successful in the coming year: offering flexible working schedules and leave policies, ensuring fair and equitable compensation and rewards plans, and through its HR programs providing support for physical and mental health, relief from financial stresses, and the chance for employees to build a level of resilience.
And they also need to acknowledge the current social justice movement, and provide a firm commitment to the social contract between employees and their employers.
As a senior leader with a global consulting workforce specializing in HR and benefits and advising thousands of clients, I’ve gained a unique perspective on how workforces are preparing for work in 2021. What follows are my thoughts on how we can move our organizations forward towards a successful 2021.
Leadership that serves people
Leaders can no longer be judged “good” based solely on productivity. “Beyond driving organizational performance,” says Dr. Vince Molinaro, author of Accountable Leaders, “leaders are now expected to advocate for [organizational and] social change.” The lessons of 2020 have shown that leadership itself needs to change to be effective.
“Servant leadership” is a concept that was popularized for business application in 1970 by Robert Greenleaf. This way of leading people focuses on what they need before considering what the leader wants. It’s characterized by supporting workers in meeting their goals (both at work and in their personal growth), involving their viewpoints in decision-making, and building a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration. Leaders who put themselves last, their workforce first, and sacrifice the most on behalf of their employees will be the ones who find longevity and success in the new normal. The need for servant leadership has been heightened by the people-related challenges brought forth by the crises of 2020.
Does this mean servant leaders are unwilling to face confrontation or make hard decisions? Not at all. Servant leaders need mental toughness and emotional strength to be able to put others first while also navigating their business to growth and profitability. Their twin goals are organizational results and the personal satisfaction of employees.
Open communication – to your employees, to your leaders, and your future leaders
Global Workplace Analytics estimates that “56% of the U.S. workforce holds a job that is compatible (at least partially) with remote work.” That will reshape how, where, and when work is done, and will continue to present enormous challenges to managers, leaders, and teams in effectively communicating with their staff.
Communicating often, with transparency, even when the messages are hard to hear, is more important than ever before. And even in lockdown or remote-work situations, nothing is more important than face-to-face (virtual) communication to keep the lines open and share both concerns and progress.
It means getting across a simple set of clear, tight priorities so no one is confused or overwhelmed when making decisions. It means communicating the importance of teamwork in solving the host of critical problems that will arise. And it means communicating calmly and with empathy in the face of those problems, to guide people down a path cleared of panic and misinformation.
One way to amp up the efficacy of your communications is to identify your next-generation tranche of “future leaders” – those high-potential, mid-level employees who show the greatest promise to someday be the successors to your C-suite. A key engagement theme for 2021 will be pulling that group of future leaders into key decisions, sharing information from “behind the curtain,” and empowering them to lead even before they have a named leadership role. This can accelerate positive change in your organization and raise a whole generation of talent to a new level of engagement. Introducing new perspectives can be the key to helping your organization more effectively cascade important messages and communications throughout the organization organically.
Anchored by values
A recent Workforce Listening Survey completed in September by Leading Indicator Systems (LIS) revealed that fear for the future has grown 11% among workers since April; linked to this fear are strivings for ethics and purpose.
This is where leaders can, and must, step in to help employees stay connected to their company’s “north star” – your foundation, your core, your stated corporate values. This is the time to stick to them and ensure they are more than words.
For Buck, our values are about putting people and clients first; integrity above all; being bold and brave; encouraging one another; acting as good stewards of the business; and redoubling our efforts and commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). These core values have repeatedly guided critical decisions that we’ve made through this past year.
You will need to lean on your organization’s core values to make the best decisions for 2021. There will be tough actions you need to take as this crisis continues. Using your corporate values – your organization’s identity – to chart your path helps to explain to your people why you’re making the choices you need to make, and that will go a long way to building the trust they need to get them through. And, if you realize that your corporate values are not up to snuff – now is a great time to update them.
Listen. Learn. Act.
The greatest lesson from all of this, for me, has come from the world-shaking movement around social justice that sprung to new life after the death of George Floyd. Happening in the midst of the pandemic, it tested even further the resilience and capacity of employers to respond to an evolving world around them.
Mary-Frances Winters, best selling author, D&I trailblazer, and CEO of the Winters Group, says in a recent Stanford Social Innovation Review article, that for organizations to effectively tackle this issue, they need to view “DEI not as a checkbox, but as a continuous process of examination and change to organizational culture.”
There are many activities that organizations can overhaul to take much-needed steps in this area; recruitment, hiring, promotions, pay practices, mentoring and coaching, and ensuring adequate representation of Black/indigenous/people of color (BIPOC) in senior leadership positions are all good processes to update, enhance, and test. But, as Mary-Frances points out, establishing this checklist of tasks and executing on them is not enough. A sustainable, systemic commitment to DEI is required to truly embed the spirit of these tasks into the DNA of your organization. Then, we can be sure that these well-intentioned actions will survive under future generations of leaders at our organizations.
Our new normal is one where our BIPOC colleagues, male and female, are finally properly treated, respected, paid equitably, and empowered.
Making us stronger
Beyond the workplace, an organization has an impact on its wider community. There is a social contract in play here, between workers and employers, between companies and customers, and between organizations and the communities they serve and live in. Every phase of the pandemic has opened up new ground for committed leaders – even if it sometimes seems that ground is opening up beneath our feet. I believe this all creates the perfect opportunity for great leaders to lead, and for good organization to become great.
Through the swirling year of crises, heartbreak, and awakenings, many organizations have been severely tested—and will continue to be. But what we’ve accomplished in 2020 is not lost; the economic, social, and human achievements are the foundation for 2021, and remind us the importance of putting our people first.
I’m hopeful that the crisis of 2020 will produce lasting and positive change – more open lines of transparent communication, a return to the values that we have identified as our foundation, and the catalyst that pushes us to implement equitable and inclusive talent management programs that are long overdue.
Dean Aloise is managing director at Buck.
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