If there is one thing that everyone agrees on, it’s that the new normal will be the golden era of “hybrid working”: a combination of remote and office-based work that can meet varied needs from both employees and employers.

However, that’s where the agreement ends. Companies are asking: what do we need to do to make hybrid working work? What’s more important – equipment or policy? And will our company culture allow it?

Hybrid working is not a transition back to pre-COVID norms. It’s a new opportunity that can help organisations leverage the best of both worlds.

What we’ve found is that hybrid working is different from either remote working or “normal” office life, in terms of technology, collaboration, human capability and workspace. But with some careful planning, smart use of technology and the adoption of effective collaboration solutions, the hybrid working model may truly represent a new and improved future of work. Here are five things to consider.

1. Employees need tools that are purpose-built for hybrid working. When the crisis first hit, organisations scrambled to provide remote working technologies using whatever tools were available at the time, often with jury-rigged solutions that originally assumed to be temporary. Effective long-term hybrid working will require purpose-built, ultra-portable devices that allow employees to work anywhere. Features such as smart stand-by and long battery power will become much more important, because these features allow easy transitions between home, office, and everywhere in between.

In particular, hybrid working means more multitasking. A PC alone has limited multitasking capability, so it will be important to free up its resources for uninterrupted productive work, while personal assistant devices such as Lenovo’s ThinkSmart View handle collaborative and administrative aspects.

2. Office environments play a key role in creating connections with the dispersed workforce: Having an office space that is optimised for a hybrid working model is important to facilitate a dispersed workforce. When colleagues in an office huddle room can quickly and securely dial in a remote teammate, silo thinking is reduced. Devices such as the ThinkSmart Hub facilitate this kind of safe, collaborative environment.

Effective long-term hybrid working will require purpose-built, ultra-portable devices that allow employees to work anywhere.

3. Up-front planning is worth the extra effort: The dynamic pandemic situation, coupled with having a fleet of devices connected within and outside of your network using various applications and devices, have made IT environments a lot more complex. It can save headaches later on to engage an external IT service provider at an early stage. The right partner can help deploy devices, configure workspaces, and design a centralised IT management system. This frees up internal resources to focus on more strategic matters.

4. Ad hoc, personal communication is just as important as official communication: When teams don’t meet in person, many organisations have turned to official “town hall” meetings or mass emails to keep colleagues informed.

However, close integration of teams happens just as much through informal, ad hoc discussions as through official channels. Is your office set up to ensure these can happen on the fly? Both working practices and technology need to be carefully arranged to meet this need.

5. Hybrid working is most effective when corporate policy is updated to match the reality: Hybrid teams are different from fully remote teams and require different policies. It is important to establish IT and HR policies that make it clear how and where employees are allowed to work and which digital tools and equipment will be provided, as well as working hours, ground rules, and expectations. Employees will more easily thrive in a hybrid working environment when they have access to training resources on how to use new tools, and when cybersecurity hygiene is properly implemented.

The new normal will be the golden era of “hybrid working”: a combination of remote and office-based work that can meet varied needs from both employees and employers.

Hybrid working is not a transition back to pre-COVID norms. It’s a new opportunity that can help organisations leverage the best of both worlds. While there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and some restructuring may be necessary, finding the right balance can help maximise productivity, employee satisfaction, and corporate success.

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Australia was previously a huge manufacturer of a huge range of products that are now sourced offshore, but the pandemic has shone a stark light on the vulnerable position our reliance on overseas manufacturers leaves us in. The Australian Government has pledged to re-evaluate supply chains and put a greater focus on niche manufacturing within the country as well as investing $1.5 billion. The industry is responding by embracing innovation and increasing their ability to compete in a global market. This will provide more jobs for Australians, in addition to the 1.3 million the industry already employs.

With Australia’s reignited manufacturing industry set to boom, with more jobs, more innovation and more digitalisation, we need to be fully prepared to compete in a global market. The required digital capabilities will be essential for both existing and prospective employees to ensure we can take full advantage of the local sector’s anticipated growth.

As the Australian manufacturing industry prepares itself to fill essential skills gaps left by employee turnover, ageing workforces and halted migration, young people are in a great position to be able to fill the growing number of roles available to find secure employment. Whilst innovation is becoming a top priority and the utilisation of digital tools and technologies will become commonplace, future talent and existing workers will need transferable digital skills to keep up with the pace of change.

According to PwC, in the next 15 years, 33 per cent of manufacturing jobs will become augmented by technology, requiring a balance of human and machine resources. Whilst 30 per cent of jobs (640,000 approximately) will become fully automated.

People should be a priority for manufacturing businesses and upskilling them must be a priority, too. Here are some ways that a manufacturing company can invest in its people and future proof its business.

1. Provide learning opportunities for employees so they can grow

People are an organisation’s greatest asset and investing in learning and development opportunities for them has many benefits. By enabling them to learn new skills and become proficient on new systems, they are enabled to grow, gain confidence in their newfound skills, and potentially providing them with opportunities to move up into more senior roles, or into different areas in the business.

Throughout this process, employee engagement should be driven using recognition badges and leadership boards. These social reward structures also offer an opportunity to track employee engagement and performance.

Microlearning offers learners with limited free time the opportunity to upskill in manageable, shorter modules which help to increase knowledge transfer and engagement and increase development speed.

2. Choose easily accessible online training platforms

Many businesses have had to shift to a more digital environment, in all departments from operations, to sales, and distribution. In many instances, this has meant forgoing the old paper-based systems and having to quickly train their employees to use the company’s digitally enabled ERP systems more effectively. For some employees this may be the first time they are using an ERP system, so it is important to have easily accessible online training platforms that enable them to learn, not only the basics of how to use the ERP software, but also how to gain the most from the individual modules that are relevant to their specific area of focus.

3. Personalise your employee’s learning experiences

Today, everything from recommended restaurants on food delivery apps, to online shopping, or suggestions on what to watch via streaming services are all driven by AI. These recommendations are based on past choices, which are an indication of previous interest. Therefore e-learning experiences be personalised as well. An ERP solution provider should run training on a platform that offers personalised learning experiences, across all devices with modules that are less focused on heavy theory, and rather infused with useful practical applications, curated content, and microlearning assets. The platform should be able to identify each user’s particular area of interest and make recommendations of courses the user might be interested in enrolling in, in the future.

Employee engagement should be driven using recognition badges and leadership boards. These social reward structures also offer an opportunity to track employee engagement and performance.

4. Choose micro-learning to help time-constrained employees to study

Let’s be honest, many people battle to find the time to complete additional studies, and the longer and more intense the course, the more difficult it becomes to remain engaged and prioritise that required time. Microlearning offers learners with limited free time the opportunity to upskill in manageable, shorter modules which help to increase knowledge transfer and engagement and increase development speed. Because the modules are smaller, they often cost less which helps to reduce training costs for an organisation while still ensuring their employees are getting valuable learning transfer. A recent LinkedIn Learning survey recently showed that 58 per cent of employees prefer opportunities that allow learning at their own pace.

The future of work in the Australian manufacturing sector will be vastly different from what we know today, but it will offer unique rewards, opportunities, and challenges for those who want secure employment in an essential industry. By upskilling our manufacturing workforce with digital skills and investing in their learning and development, people will be able to find their feet in a radically new workforce as digitalisation becomes an inescapable reality.

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The competition for acquisition and retention of both customers and talent will be exceptionally intense in 2021. Coupled with relentless market challenges, industry disruptions and the new hybrid workplace models, its mission critical for C-Suite & HR leaders to step up and stand out with personal brands that inspire and influence with integrity.

The business case for personal brands
Consistently, global and national surveys ratify circa 80 per cent of consumers and employees trust organisations whose leadership have an active and engaging social media presence.

The Hootsuite Social Trends 2021 report saw a dramatic increase in social engagement during 2020 and that ‘people want to connect with people’. Their research indicated that 73 per cent of all marketers ranked new customer acquisition as their top priority for 2021, representing a 58 per cent year-over-year increase.

The global Brand Fog report found 93 per cent of people were more likely to purchase from organisations whose leader’s beliefs on social issues aligned with their own. And 75 per cent of employees felt it important their CEO communicated their opinions on social issues publicly.

Business advisory firm Brunswick Connected Leadership research found 60% of candidates would research the CEOs social media. Of significance, over 83 per cent (5:1) of employees prefer to work with organisations whose C-Suite leaders use social media factoring it as an important element for satisfaction and retention.

Standing out is about differentiating yourself in a way that is accurate but inimitable as everyone has a professional narrative that is unique.

Indispensable benefits
Trust and engagement is amplified with transparent personal brand management. Value touchpoints are vast across organisational and EVP brand awareness, talent acquisition, referrals, social proof, sales, marketing, networking, investor relations, product launches and feedback.

HR leaders need to embrace social media as a method to augment other talent attraction strategies and engage on a parity level. Top talent in the new working environments and commercial marketplace have more leverage now and are actively going to be reviewing leaders and people custodians with a steelier gaze.

HR leaders can also take a strong front foot to assuage bias perception of candidates who are reluctant to apply for roles. Diversity, inclusion, ageism and all other biases erode the hiring eco-system and candidate confidence. HR leaders who hold purpose and strong policies to knock these issues have a real opportunity in their personal brand narratives to address these issues and indeed they must.

And for industries which have an inherent degree of market mistrust (for example, finance, recruitment, banking, marketing) the need to ameliorate divisive perceptions via social media and personal brands is essential. This will positively impact new client acquisition and work towards changing reputations.

LinkedIn – the imperative platform
The undisputed professional social media ruler is LinkedIn. With over 722 million global and 11+ million Australian members its value for personal brand and engagement is implicit.

The doyen of recruitment activity from its inception back in 2004, today in 2021, the benefits to marketing, sales and networking are matchless.

However not everyone uses the platform in the same way but as the world’s largest database and Google indexed reference site it is critical to show up on LinkedIn with authority.

Google is the kingpin of searches and LinkedIn profiles show up on the first page. So even if LinkedIn isn’t the first touchpoint for referencing, all roads lead to Rome there.

Top talent in the new working environments and commercial marketplace have more leverage now and are actively going to be reviewing leaders and people custodians with a steelier gaze.

Elements of personal brands
There are five key elements that coalesce how a person is perceived and experienced. Rhetoric (perceived) must meet reality (experienced). Congruency is vital. And whilst the notion of disingenuous PR brand spinning is unacceptable, there are adroit ways to communicate which is accurate, candid and creative. Below are the five elements which follow after self-reflection, reality checking, creative marketing mindset and courage.

1. The why and ‘why below the why’. The drivers below the hyperbole.
2. Goals, values, passions. Your small and bigger goals for your career and organisation. This can and should incorporate the social issues that matter as appropriate. Of course social responsibility endeavours, volunteering, sporting and board activities sit here.NB: Refer research above from Brand Fog aligning social issues and leadership trust.
3. Personality and character. The nuances which are uniquely yours. Your vibe does attract your tribe. It’s pointless crafting a narrative of dissimilar traits to reality.
4. Equity, skills, unique value, education genius which is demonstrated and factual. Some leaders, and dare I add, women can often struggle here. Reality statements are not value judgements’ and there is a thick line between bragging and chest beating to stating actuality with clarity and confidence.
5. Visual, appearance – a photo tells a thousand words. An accurate representation of how you show up in a meeting either in person or via Zoom is essential.

Whilst the above just touches on the elements, it must be said that creativity is not deceit but crafting messages without clichés and banality. Standing out is about differentiating yourself in a way that is accurate but inimitable as everyone has a professional narrative that is unique.

HR leaders need to embrace social media as a method to augment other talent attraction strategies and engage on a parity level.

Summing Up
It is simply vital for all C-Suite, management and HR leaders to take their personal brands seriously to inspire and influence genuinely. It not only maximises success and opportunity but is a barricade to negative market assumptions. The implementation of branding needs consistency across social media, LinkedIn and websites.

In a swirling sea of competition and noise, personal brands which are transparent and trustworthy are pre-eminent pillars of organisational strength and leadership.

Image Source: Unsplash

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During the Covid-19 pandemic, many office-based workforces across the globe switched to working from home. Six months in, we are seeing a range of cities being impacted by the pandemic in different ways – some are still in lock down, while others are seemingly well on the way to the “new normal” as they attempt to bring employees back into the office. However, it seems likely that, even if/when the pandemic passes, there will be a permanent shift towards a greater number of employees working fully or partly from home. Employee surveys generally report that there is a desire to continue some of the remote working practices, at least for part of the working week. So what will this mean for the workplace, and will this have an impact on office locations, housing and pay?

The direction of travel
There is no doubt that many employers are reluctant to encourage their employees to recommence travelling to work in offices, due to the continuing circulation of the virus, despite it now being possible for them to do so in some locations.

For example, in the UK employers have discretion (providing the workplace is “COVID-secure”) to determine which of their employees they could bring back to work in the office. However, it is reported that half of the UK’s office workers are still working from home. In Asia Pacific, employers are adopting a cautious, phased approach to transitioning back to the workplace guided by jurisdiction specific government policies as well as their business continuity plans. More specifically, Australia has seen the pandemic impact different locations to varying degrees with Victoria currently in differing levels of lockdown whilst Western Australia is moving towards a “new normal”. In Singapore, employers are required to implement work-from-home arrangements except where it is not reasonably practicable to do so.

What remains consistent across most of the globe is that employers must adopt relatively stringent precautions to continue to manage the potential of community transmission and the risk that this poses to their employees who have returned to work in the office. Such precautions requires that social distancing is permissible in the office space and may include strategies such as staggering work and break hours, implementing shift or split team arrangements, ensuring regular cleaning of workplace premises and appointing safe management officers to assist in the implementation, coordination and monitoring of the system of safe management measures in the workplace. In certain jurisdictions, employers found in breach of the requirements risk having stop work orders or fines imposed against them.

Home advantage?
When the pandemic eventually passes, will employers want to – or be able to – return to the office-based working arrangements of the pre-pandemic world? This seems unlikely. One could argue that the pandemic has brought forward the inevitable permanent shift towards flexible and agile working. Even before the pandemic, there were prevailing winds pointing towards a greater degree of workforce empowerment. For example, in 2019, the Telecommuting Act was implemented in the Philippines to regulate working from home arrangements. Employees who are working from home must be accorded the same treatment (including rate of pay, rest periods, workload and performance standards, training and collective rights) as employees working at the office. More recently in the UK, a Government minister has publicly backed the idea that employees in the UK should have a legal right to work from home (although messaging from the UK’s Prime Minister seems to suggest that this is not Government policy) and in Australia, public health orders in various locations continue to provide employees with this right, at least for the time being.

Irrespective of any actual changes to the law, it is going to be more difficult for employers to use the same arguments as previously used to justify the need for employees to attend the office on a full-time basis. This will be particularly hard to justify where working from home during lockdown has had little impact on, or in fact increased, productivity. Indeed, the lockdown may flip the convention about working from home on its head. The “new normal” for some might mean that working from home is the default, and face-to-face meetings the exception. This added flexibility could generate a number of benefits such as;

• assisting in the much-needed (and keenly in focus) rebalancing of gender diversity in the workplace;
• little to zero commuting time; and
• the flexibility for employees to focus on their health and wellbeing through exercise or time with family and friends.

What will happen to the office?
Ultimately, these changes could be a win-win outcome, in circumstances where employers may no longer need to maintain the cost of large city-centre offices which accommodate the entirety of their staff. So, is the office dead? Probably not.

Employees still want and need to meet colleagues face-to-face, even if not every day. Many employers will want at least a partial return to the office on the basis that they can show some clear benefits from interaction in person.

One possibility is that some employers will move away from large city headquarters to having a smaller city-centre office (for meetings) and a number of satellite offices in suburban areas (the so called “hub and spoke” model). IWG, a flexible workspace provider, has reportedly seen a surge in demand for use of their suburban office space and anticipates a rise in the hub-and-spoke model following the pandemic.

In Australia there has also been discussion of the potential re-purposing of existing facilities – will the reduction of foot traffic in shopping centres and suburban retail precincts result in the creation of work hubs providing suburban offices for many large corporates? Only time will tell.

Where will the workforce live?
Even if a greater degree of emphasis is placed on working from home going forward, employees may still want to live within relatively easy reach of city-centre offices. Commuter towns are likely to remain popular places to live (albeit the concept of what might count as being “commutable” where it may only be for a journey once or twice a week, may change). This is certainly on the agenda for both employees and employers alike; when Google recently announced that employees should work from home for the next 12 months, one of the reasons for this was reportedly to enable employees to sign a year-long tenancy in less expensive locations (although, interestingly, Google has also confirmed that it will still build its London headquarters, colloquially known as the “landscraper”).

It also seems likely that employers who offer flexible and agile working will continue to be attractive to job candidates, and they may be able to increasingly tap into the talent pool of workers who are not willing or able to travel into city centres (eg for health, childcare or lifestyle reasons).

Will there be an impact on pay?
Will a migration out of large cities impact employees’ pay? The idea of salary-by-location has been popularised by headlines about Facebook’s plans to align salaries in the USA with the cost of living in an employee’s home location. Whether this idea takes off will ultimately be determined by the market. As always, there will be competing factors. The war for the best talent (wherever they may reside), does not look likely to slow down any time soon in certain sectors. Perhaps the cash that businesses save as they possibly downsize to smaller city-centre offices, will simply be channelled towards paying for talent?

Then again, we are likely heading into a global recession. There are likely to be more job-seekers than there will be jobs, at least temporarily, which may result in lower average pay because there is high supply but low demand for labour.

A more interesting and potentially controversial issue will arise if remote working becomes the new norm, and the talent pool potentially becomes national, if not global, including people in countries (or areas of a country) with much lower wage expectations.

If the late twentieth century saw many blue-collar jobs outsourced to less costly locations, perhaps the logical extension (hastened by the changes brought about by the pandemic) is that more white-collar jobs can be outsourced in the tech-driven twenty-first century? Perhaps, but the outsourcing of white-collar jobs to areas with cheaper labour costs is not something that is new. Where it has been possible, many employers have already done so, taking advantage of remote working technology. Of course, the issue for the immediate future is that most of the talent pool for skilled jobs is still clustered locally, living around or within commuting distance of the world’s major cities, with corresponding pay expectations. That seems unlikely to change until the magnet-like pull of living and working around cities is weakened and skilled labour migrates.

Preparing for the post-pandemic workplace
What is clear is that the case for innovation has been made. Early signs indicate that employers should assume that their office-workers will operate in an increasingly flexible and agile manner post-pandemic. For employers who wish to be on the front foot, this shift may give rise to strategic opportunities to reduce the costs of maintaining large city-centre office space, and there may be scope to better retain and attract talent. To successfully navigate these issues, employers should consider early workforce engagement, and involving stakeholders from across all areas of the business with regards to shaping post-pandemic workplace strategy.

Despite complex industrial frameworks, we have seen a period during which employees have dramatically altered when and how they work and many examples of improved efficiency and productivity. The drive for additional flexibilities will mean that regulation needs to catch up with a dispersed workforce. Government support through schemes such as the Australian JobKeeper payment and the UK Job Retention Scheme have provided employers with the ability to maintain the employment of employees whose roles have been most impacted by the pandemic. However, employers are now looking to the future of how teams will be able to collaborate and move forward.

“The workplace of a post-pandemic world” was co-written by David Palmer, Tim Leaver, Natalie Gaspar, Drew Pearson, Fatim Jumabhoy and Rebecca Lim of Herbert Smith Freehills.

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The internal employee threat is still a leading cause of data breaches. According to the latest report by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC), over a third of the 518 notifications it received over January-June 2020 (34 per cent) were caused by human error.  This is likely to increase as companies continue to work remotely during the pandemic.

Each cyberattack is costing Australia an average of $3.9 million. Organisations cannot afford to continue allowing preventable attacks take place when resources to protect against human error are available. As such, cybersecurity education and training must be re-evaluated to ensure all employees remain cyber-vigilant while working from home.

HR staff must work closely with technology leaders to identify key areas where their team’s actions will have an outsized impact on protecting their organisation, employees and the data their company has been entrusted with.

While technologies such as firewalls and endpoint protection have a clear role to play in keeping organisations safe, employee education is one of the best ways an organisation mitigate against cyber threats and manage risk. Technology alone isn’t enough, organisations must develop a culture of cybersecurity awareness, education, and training, which is impossible to achieve without the help of senior HR leaders.

Driven by the COVID-19-accelerated move to remote working, HR leaders are increasingly collaborating with IT leaders to devise policies, frameworks and training to better support and educate employees on how to be cybersecurity-aware. At the same time, HR has a clear role in helping to fill the cybersecurity talent pool gap to ensure organisations maintain a strong security posture. It’s estimated nearly 17,000 more cybersecurity workers are needed by 2026 and HR professionals will play a pivotal role in helping to close the skills gap.

Evaluating the skills gap issue
According to our research, inadequate education, leadership and funding are major barriers to Australia’s cybersecurity preparedness. Across Australia, most business decision-makers believe a lack of security expertise is a challenge for their organisation, with 65 per cent observing recruitment of skills to be a struggle.

Compounding these issues, is the apparent confusion over cybersecurity responsibility within organisations and a lack of understanding of the specialist skills required. A common oversight is tasking IT staff with cybersecurity in addition to their other key responsibilities, rather than treating cybersecurity as a role in itself. This is where it is critical for senior HR and IT leaders to closely collaborate to determine specific skills requirements.

Technology alone isn’t enough, organisations must develop a culture of cybersecurity awareness, education, and training, which is impossible to achieve without the help of senior HR leaders.

How HR can play a role in cybersecurity?
Ultimately, cybersecurity is about managing risk. To do that effectively, HR staff must work closely with technology leaders to identify key areas where their team’s actions will have an outsized impact on protecting their organisation, employees and the data their company has been entrusted with.

The mindset of an organisation’s HR team can set the culture for the entire organisation. Disengaged employees are an attractive target for cybercriminals to exploit. Therefore, the onus is on HR leaders to take their organisation’s security seriously and work with the necessary business and technology teams to set the right attitudes, culture and processes to keep it secure.

Organisations must be proactive in their response to today’s cyber threats. With the ever-evolving security landscape and the never-ending search for skills and best practices to overcome these threats, collaboration between senior leaders is key.

Most importantly, by fostering a workplace that prioritises cybersecurity awareness and training, and has the tools to effectively find suspicious activity, organisations will be on the right path to strong cybersecurity hygiene.

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At the beginning of 2020, ‘emotional intelligence’ was labelled by LinkedIn as one of the top five most in-demand soft skills for employers. With the rise of Artificial Intelligence and smart technology, businesses are recognising they need their staff to excel at ‘soft skills’, or as I like to call them essential skills, for jobs of the future. Fast forward to the second half of the year and a lot of things have changed for workplaces due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the demand for essential skills has only been reinforced. Workplaces went from office-bound jobs to remote working almost instantaneously. With this global shift in the way work is done, essential skills such as high emotional intelligence (EQ), which include concepts like flexibility, adaptability, creativity and resilience, are now more important than ever as teams navigate uncharted waters.

Emotional Intelligence is a combination of emotional and social skills that influence a person’s overall capability to cope effectively with the demands and pressures of work and life. Employees with high EQ have the ability to perceive, express, understand, and regulate their emotions to build better, more healthy respectful relationships that will then help achieve business goals. Workforces with these abilities are better placed for success for a number of reasons: greater resilience and mental wellbeing, stronger team communication and cohesion, higher self-regard and assertiveness, greater employee loyalty, lower employee turnover, and better problem-solving abilities.

The business risks of low EQ and how to spot them
Some of the biggest misconceptions of EQ are that it means being ‘emotional’, ‘touchy-feely’ and nice all the time. In reality, the more emotionally intelligent someone is, the more they understand how to channel their emotions for a positive result. It’s about being smart with your emotions. People with high EQ know how to get the best out of themselves, their relationships and others. They understand the meaning of their own feelings, how their emotions influence their behaviour, how others are feeling, and how to best support them.

Common red flags for employees with low EQ are those who generally don’t take responsibility for their own feelings, but blame others for them, they often let things build up and then blow up, and they often overreact to life’s minor events and struggle to remain in emotional control. They often lack empathy and compassion, tend not to consider others’ feelings before acting, and generally lack self-awareness of their own emotions and the emotions of others around them. This can lead to a number of bad outcomes for workplaces and businesses, including:

Out of touch: If your business seems to be unable to consistently develop strong, positive client/customer relationships there could be an emotional connection (EQ) problem. Your teams have to be able to relate to customers and show empathy in resolving their issues. If there is unwillingness to understand a client’s goals and needs this can result in unhappy clients and lost business opportunities.

Biased decision making: Has your team come with presumed knowledge of what clients want without first seeking feedback from your customer? Poor decision making will occur if you make assumptions on what you think a client should have rather than exploring and truly understanding what a client needs and problem solve on how to support this.

Low productivity: People with lower EQ are often unable to deal appropriately with conflict and differing values; they are derailed by others’ negative or ‘hot’ emotions. These individuals struggle to manage themselves and are unable to help others reclaim their rationality during difficult exchanges. They are often unable to solve problems or manage conflict efficiently. Consequently, they are often less productive at work and might also derail others in the team.

Toxic culture: Cultivating an environment where everyone respects and trusts one another creates a culture of support and mutual benefit. This type of positive environment is enjoyable and rewarding for those who work together. Employees and leaders with low EQ will struggle to build a positive and collaborative culture. They tend to foster a blame culture and make feedback overly personal by attacking others and pointing fingers. Unfortunately, this can lead to higher employee turnover and loss of good talent.

Inability to cope with changing conditions: In the current climate, workplaces have seen a lot of change. Those with low EQ will struggle more with change, not because of technical knowledge gaps, but because of an inability to manage stress and a lack of understanding of how to channel their skills in new ways.

Poor interpersonal relationships: With the shift to remote working, many workforces are working exclusively from home. An emotionally intelligent workforce will find ways to stay connected and work to support each other’s well-being through these challenging times.  Whereas a workforce with low EQ will fail to connect and check-in with each other, they will become isolated and struggle to ask for support. Personal relationships will decline and the quality of work and decision making will suffer.

How to improve EQ in your workforce
Whether or not your workforce is presenting some of the above signs of low EQ, it is important to proactively consider how you can strengthen EQ in your workforce for better business success. As opposed to IQ, EQ can be trained and improved. Similarly, it can be ‘lost’ if not continuously developed. Training EQ  begins with education around what emotional intelligence is and understanding your own emotions and default behaviours. It includes education on how an emotionally intelligent person would evaluate and act in different work situations. In particular, there are three key areas employers can focus on for developing EQ. These are:

1. Learning how to give and receive feedback
2. Recognising the symptoms of stress in others and in themselves and identifying default behaviours to stress
3. Being able to identify and label the kinds of emotions and what triggers them

Role-playing different scenarios with feedback can provide employees with best practice techniques to build greater EQ. Ask employees to reflect on how they managed previous situations and see if they can identify what they could have done better. Ideally, these practice sessions will have an experienced coach to help guide discussion as you need to ensure that individuals feel supported and are in a safe environment to share information and be honest about themselves.

In addition to training sessions, employers should also consider implementing a number of supporting processes in the workplace to foster and reward higher EQ. These include:

1. Implementing systems and processes that enable better collaboration and connectedness between people
2. Removing barriers that break down or threaten the EQ of your business and teams
3. Acknowledging the importance of EQ in your business and making training part of every employee’s development
4. Recognising and rewarding behaviours that display high EQ
5. Implementing and monitoring company values that speak to high EQ behaviours
6. Building a culture grounded in trust, honesty and openness and running away as far as you can from a blame culture
7. For hiring – using assessment tools that evaluate candidate EQ

Finally, leading by example is key. Business leaders need to demonstrate EQ in their own behaviour and decisions, providing a benchmark for the ideal workplace behaviour and communications.

Image Source: Pixabay

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1. What are three key issues that need to be considered by HR managers when transitioning to working from home (WFH)? What are the short-term and long-term steps that organisations can take to overcome these key issues?

COVID-19 and the enforced move to working from home has put HR under the spotlight and for the most part, they’ve risen to the challenge. HR departments are generally well trained in their ability to plan for and respond to a crisis, but it’s another thing to sustain such plans for an extended period – and at this point in time, into perpetuity. Even so, there has never been a better time for HR to demonstrate their value to the organisation, especially at a time when non-revenue generating business functions are being scrutinised.

While there are many challenges HR managers have had to consider in transitioning their organisations to working from home, here are three of the most pressing ones to consider. Being a volatile and uncertain environment, the points are not mutually exclusive:

Communication platforms – stabilise the ship

Firstly, HR managers should be thinking about the organisation’s communication channels and platforms and how these can be leveraged to cultivate a sense of purpose for staff working remotely. While there’s no shortage of platforms to choose from, the challenge for HR managers is to use these channels to communicate the organisation’s values, culture, policies and procedures — things that tend to happen naturally when teams are in the same place. Most will have these platforms already in place; however, their true impact and value should be tested to ensure they resonate with employees.

HR managers have an important role to play in ensuring clear standards for engagement and communication, as well as the organisation’s vision and purpose, are communicated regularly and consistently through all channels and via leadership. Messages should be consistent from the top down and HR managers can prepare execs and other managers with briefing packs on how to manage people working from home, especially as they face challenges such as homeschooling, blurred boundaries between work and home, and the effects of social isolation. Providing consistency is crucial — working from home should be something employees can predict and plan for each day in order to create the least amount of stress for them at an otherwise very challenging time.

Consider the things that people enjoyed and appreciated in the office environment and emulate it for the digital setting if you can. It’s also wise to have as many data points as possible across the communication platforms that you’ve adopted to gather information and take pulse checks that can help inform decisions about ways of working and what may need to be tweaked.

Staff wellbeing – take care of your people first

The next but equally important issue to consider is staff wellbeing in the remote working environment. HR managers should be demonstrating certainty and stability to reassure employees and generate a sense of calm. Staff will be feeling uneasy about job changes, new expectations and potential or actual lay-offs and they’ll likely be feeling the effects of isolation from their colleagues.

HR departments should be creating feedback channels for staff to provide their say on how the working-from-home experience is tracking. Regular surveys are a helpful way to gather these insights so that HR can finesse the organisation’s working-from-home model and ongoing flexibility policy. If surveys are not appropriate or are generating low participation rates, consider researching new ways to check in with employees – there are a range of digital platforms in the market that allow organisations to receive feedback in a low friction way while also creating consistency (our team at Your Call use https://www.15five.com).

Adapting policies and procedures for the remote work setting – adjust to the new normal

HR is responsible for ensuring that all staff have access to and understand the organisation’s policies and procedures for a variety of operations and situations. It’s likely that these policies will need to be reviewed for the working from home context to ensure that they are still relevant and feasible and that they can be enforced in this setting.

2. What security issues does WFH present to a company? How can companies deal with these security issues?

Having teams working remotely across many variable locations does present security risks for companies. These include things like insecure internet connections, other residents in the home who may be exposed to confidential conversations or documentation, and poor personal device security protocols to name a few. There is also increased risk of theft of an organisation’s property when it’s dispersed across so many locations. Organisations may also find that the pandemic prompts a fair bit of rationalisation for things like under-reporting and less stringent practices when sharing documents and accessing the cloud.

While the security profile and needs of different organisations varies widely, HR managers should be helping people to avoid silly mistakes that could result in privacy or security breaches. For example, not having a time out password, or leaving work computers set up where others may be able to access them. HR can help staff by providing clear guidelines for these scenarios and developing and communicating policies and procedures for passwords, accessing and protecting confidential documents, and even being aware of scams that may be circulating.

Companies should also consider supporting staff with access to a VPN and antivirus programs for their personal devices if they are using these for work purposes, along with digital safety education resources.

3. Will there be a need for companies to introduce additional support services for staff that WFH? What support services would you advise for companies who will be affected long-term by an increase of remote employees?

There’s little doubt that companies will need to be looking at supporting staff to work from home in the longer term, whether it’s a hybrid model of working in the office and at home, or exclusively at home.

To support a future remote workforce, HR managers can start by assessing what supports are already in place for staff and what unique challenges people in different roles are facing in their work – then how each role can be better supported in the home setting. For example, a profile of frontline customer staff may show that they are on the phone to customers for the majority of each day and that they are having repeat interactions with people about COVID-19. What supports should be in place for these staff? It could be access to specialist counselling, a subscription to a mindfulness app, and training on how to manage difficult conversations or to be more resilient. Yes, it’s important to have company-wide support programs but specific job roles will require tailored support, more so now than ever.HR managers should also be thinking about expanding Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to cover domestic violence, financial hardship, and relationship and parenting matters. They should also provide staff with tips on how to set up a healthy and safe workplace at home and encourage regular breaks from work and other activities that improve wellbeing at home. Human interaction and socialising are also vital, so implementing ways for this to easily and regularly occur for staff working from home is crucial.

4. How will WFH affect the relationship an employee has with their team and their managers? What guidelines, policies, or initiatives can an organisation implement to manage these effects?

One of the positives we’ve seen from working from home during COVID-19 is that it has been an equaliser for a lot of people. The formality of board rooms and suits has been replaced with a view into people’s regular lives, with relaxed clothing, kids and pets included. This less formal arrangement serves to humanise staff more, from execs to frontline staff, as we’re all in the same boat juggling work and personal demands.

On the other hand, the ability to read body language when the workforce is remote is compromised, and this combined with some employees being less likely to speak up in a team can make it difficult for managers to identify potential issues affecting a staff member and to be proactive in responding.

The best thing that organisations and HR leaders can do is to identify and train leaders within smaller work groups who can be responsible for keeping teams motivated and on track, and to watch out for any fractures in working relationships or signs of poor mental health. Building a resilient and cohesive culture in the organisation doesn’t happen overnight, so hopefully there was a solid base to begin with that can be strengthened to support better team relationships in a remote work setting.

5. What are some strategies that companies can take to avoid inappropriate behaviour, such as online bullying or harassment, while working from home?

HR managers should make it clear from the outset that the values and behaviours that were encouraged in the office environment apply equally at home. Likewise, they need to reinforce that behaviours that were inappropriate and unacceptable in the workplace won’t be tolerated in the remote setting. It’s also a good idea to consider ethics training for staff, especially when isolation and other stresses may contribute to people making uncharacteristic choices or actions.

6. How does transitioning into a remote workforce affect a company’s whistleblowing policy? Will companies need to shift or reinforce their approach to whistleblowing within their organisation?

An interesting outcome of remote working is that reports of historical or systemic wrongdoing have been shown to increase as people feel safer to report from afar and when they don’t have to face a perpetrator at work.

However, people can also get confused about when to speak up and what warrants use of the organisation’s whistleblowing framework. In this case, HR managers should encourage a ‘when in doubt, speak up’ approach to potential wrongdoing and people who do speak up should be treated with respect and compassion, and thanked for their concern.

Hopefully, those HR managers, leaders and staff who haven’t given whistleblowing much consideration previously are realising it’s a powerful tool in the remote setting, where a lack of oversight and supervision of staff may be exploited.

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‘It only takes two poorly managed days in the year (performance review time) to destroy the motivation we have created over the other three hundred and sixty-three’

‘I can’t wait for my next performance review’, said no-one ever…

In a survey conducted jointly by the SHRM and Personnel Decisions International, 32 per cent of HR professionals surveyed indicated that they were “unsatisfied” or “very unsatisfied” with their organizations’ performance management systems. Even those in charge of the process show a high degree of dissatisfaction for the process!

Have you just had your half-year or full-year review?

What is it about the process that brings so many bad memories for humans?

Is it because they are the work equivalent of the school report system and parent-teacher interview? Only this time we don’t have our parent(s) with us for support or for a good old-fashioned lecture.

Do you remember your very first school or parent-teacher interview?

I can.

It still sits with me some forty-six years later. I was in Grade 2 and seven years old when my teacher told my mum in front of me that “Mark did well but could do better in everything he does…” Can anyone else relate to this experience? What does that even mean?

The ride home that evening was a lecture on trying harder and not being lazy.

How can you as a manager make this process less like a bad memory of a distant report card and more of a moment of development and reflection on a year of effort?

Here’s my 3 tips on the Manager Do’s and Do Not’s that will be helpful in creating a better experience for both the manager and the employee:

The Do’s

It makes sense to make sense
Humans are sense makers, we thrive on understanding and making meaning of things. It’s no different for the performance review. A smart manager will talk about the ‘why’ this is being done, ‘how’ the process works and ‘what’ the expectations are to keep checking progress in along the way. Don’t assume or think of the process as something that happens after the work is done. This is part of the work.  

Could it be that the process is dehumanising and demotivating the very people who we rely on to spend some discretionary effort? Think about this before the next review session.

Have regular formal conversations
Schedule these formally at least monthly during the year. This is so important to ensure that as a manager you have a catalogue of evidence from both a technical delivery and behavioural aspect of your employee’s progress at half and full year. It also means you won’t be running around in a panic at the last minute and miss some important data to represent the actual versus perceived performance.

Always be timely and honest with feedback
Even when it feels easier to step away and avoid a tough conversation, you must tell people what they need to hear and not what you think they want to hear. This only creates more friction when you raise the unraised issues in order to justify a review outcome long after it ever occurred. This will erode any level of trust built immediately.

The Do Nots

Surprise people by digging up issues from the past
All managers should have a “no surprises” policy, usually in the form of weekly or fortnightly conversations which review both performance metrics and behavioural observations. Bringing something up from three months ago to justify a rating will only infuriate a team member and show you’re a conflict avoider and not to be trusted. Surprises end up damaging the trust contract and have long-term implications on personal and work relationships.

Patronise by saying ‘three (3) is still a good score’
If it’s not a five (5), then most humans will be very disappointed, so don’t roll this one out post-review. We all believe we are doing an amazing job and if you haven’t regularly been having conversations outlining some areas for improvement throughout the year, this will fall on deaf ears. It’s a sign of a desperate manager who has nothing more to say, kind of like the last very bad excuse you can come up with.

A smart manager will talk about the ‘why’ this is being done, ‘how’ the process works and ‘what’ the expectations are to keep checking progress in along the way.

Blame it on the process
Never roll out the old chestnut when everything else has turned sour and you feel like you’ve dug yourself into a huge hole. Hiding behind the robotic process will only show how weak you are when things get a little heated. You can make the process better, and before dropping this on the table, think about the long-term stench it will leave on your relationship with those in your care. You are only protecting yourself here.

Perhaps there’s a message in this?

Could it be that the process is dehumanising and demotivating the very people who we rely on to spend some discretionary effort? Think about this before the next review session. Two days in the year handled poorly shouldn’t destroy the good work of the other three hundred and sixty-three.

Perhaps you should throw the old manuscript out and create a more human one. Something that truly recognises humans and how they influence business performance and metrics.

More care and less compliance.

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Many of the conventional wisdoms strongly held by some leaders, about how to influence productivity and engagement are being challenged through these times.  Those who for example hold firm to the belief that people can’t be trusted to work if not supervised, are especially struggling to adapt.

As any leader who has been at the helm of a team distributed around the country or globe can attest, these are not new challenges, just new to many leaders.  HR people have an essential role to play in guiding leaders to confront the realities of the circumstances we face and find new ways of working and achieving the business outcomes that are needed.

Get back to basics
There is no magic wand that can make the job of leading teams simple, at the best of times, let alone these.  Now is a good time for a back to basics strategy that has leaders focused on clarity, coaching and accountability.  Clarity means that people understand what is expected of them and where the key priorities lie.  It also means they have some insight to what leaders are thinking the future might hold and how they intend to respond.

As any leader who has been at the helm of a team distributed around the country or globe can attest, these are not new challenges, just new to many leaders.

Irrespective of whether leaders are leading remotely 100% of the time, or through a blended model that includes some in person interactions, the fundamentals of success remain unchanged.  Connection and communication are key to optimal performance.

Enable connection
Start by working with leaders to identify the routines that will ensure their team continue to feel a sense of belonging and connection.  Its essential that leaders deliberately influence collaboration, and a well-planned and facilitated team meeting can go a long way toward ensuring people remain focused on collective success and shared accountability.

Help leaders to appreciate the more they understand their people the more effective they are likely to be in influencing their engagement and performance.

The most obvious mistake leaders make when managing remotely is failing to engage in regular, and meaningful dialogue about what is expected, how things are going and what needs to improve.  Adopting a coaching is key to staying close to people and keeping the lines of communication wide open.  Help leaders to appreciate the more they understand their people the more effective they are likely to be in influencing their engagement and performance.

Strengthen communication skills
Of course, it can be more challenging to have some conversations via technology, but that is no reason not to engage in them.  HR are wise to dedicate time supporting leaders to strengthen their communication skills particularly when it comes to building confidence in a highly uncertain environment and having tough love conversations about performance or engagement.

HR can play an important role in helping leaders to determine how best to enable the performance of their team, and each person on it.

Reflect for a moment on how well most of the leaders you support tend to communicate.  If you work for a business that is like most others, who will have leaders at every level of your organisations structure who struggle to communicate well when stakes are high, or emotions are charged.  Help these leaders to recognise what stands in their way of having honest conversations with respect and sensitivity, and to move past them.

There is no denying that the goal posts are constantly shifting and like anyone else, leaders need to be agile in the ways in which they approach their job.  HR can play an important role in helping leaders to determine how best to enable the performance of their team, and each person on it.  Leaders can benefit greatly from HR advice that helps them to see how success is possible even though they can’t ask people to get back to their desk.

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The appeal is clear: if businesses can use data to identify and address misconduct far earlier, let alone prevent it from occurring, they may limit regulatory, financial and reputational fallout. While the opportunities this presents for organisations are attractive, the legal, ethical and operational considerations are complex, particularly so when using predictive analytics in the context of employee misconduct.

Predictive analytics is a process by which new and historical data are drawn upon to detect patterns and trends with a view to forecasting events and behaviours. While commonly used to observe and anticipate consumer and community behaviours, it is increasingly being experimented with by organisations in relation to their employees. In the employment context, relevant data may range from statistical data drawn from employee engagement and turnover, compensation and incentives, diversity and inclusion, training participation rates and compliance breach records to qualitative data such as transcripts of investigation interviews, meetings, whistleblower reports as well as emails, instant messages, calls and social media. Increasingly data is also being drawn from employee computer and smartphone usage logs, CCTV and wearable devices. As technology becomes more sophisticated, data points will increase.

At a minimum, the process of determining and testing data parameters will be incredibly important – particularly so for organisations with diverse workforces or operating in different markets.

Through statistical modelling and AI, it may be possible to discern patterns within the data which are typically associated with conduct risk. For instance, using AI to review text or voice records may pick up keywords in customer interactions which, when reviewed with trade data and computer and phone logs, may indicate potential misconduct. Through machine-learning organisations may uncover relationships between data sets and conduct which were previously overlooked or misunderstood.

The ways in which predictive analytics may be used as part of workforce management are limitless. Where trends associated with conduct are identified, organisations can take early steps to identify and respond to misconduct at an early stage. They may also intervene and mitigate against such misconduct occurring through increasing compliance controls or training.

Limitless uses, but predictive analytics raises questions
More difficult questions arise if organisations rely on data when taking actions in respect of employees identified as high risk but against whom no finding of misconduct has been made. For instance, how should data that suggests an individual is a higher compliance risk be taken into account in the context of an internal investigation into misconduct?

In jurisdictions such as Australia and the United Kingdom, employees may challenge the lawfulness of disciplinary decisions on the basis that the processes lacked procedural fairness or the decision was not based upon a valid reason. Decisions underpinned solely by predictive analytics will not hold up in such circumstances. Where the data suggests possible misconduct, as opposed to evidencing that misconduct has occurred, it should prompt further investigation. In the absence of evidence of actual misconduct, an individual would be unable to respond to the allegations levelled against them and thus be afforded procedural fairness.

Similarly, issues may arise if organisations base promotion decisions upon predictive analytics. Any data may need to be viewed in a broader context which may not be captured. For example, if one data point drawn upon is high absenteeism, it is possible that these may be more prevalent for an individual with a disability or with carer’s responsibilities, and decisions based on this may run the risk of unlawful discrimination. Analytics may also have a disparate effect on individuals from a particular cultural or ethnic background. For example, certain phrases or terms have a different meaning in a cultural context, however, analytics may not be sufficiently complex to pick up on cultural or regional nuances. In defending any allegations of unlawful discrimination, it may be difficult or undesirable (given the proprietary and confidential information involved) to break down how an algorithm has identified an individual or a group as being a higher compliance risk. This may mean it is difficult for companies to disprove that the decision did not take into account any protected attribute and was instead based on entirely non-discriminatory reasons. The challenges associated with bias in AI are widely known and are currently the subject of significant academic and legal debate across the globe. There is also discussion around regulation of AI in certain circumstances and a commitment by AI developers and users to adopt ethical guidelines. Both the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the European Commission have raised concerns about the manner in which predictive analytics is used in the work context and employers are cautioned to proceed carefully.

Finally, organisations must consider how transparent they are in relation to monitoring of employees. Most forms of monitoring will involve processing personal data which, across Europe, is subject to significant restrictions under the General Data Protection Regulation and, separately, local employment law requirements. In some European jurisdictions, employee monitoring (let alone employee profiling) is prohibited and can result in criminal sanctions. In other jurisdictions, monitoring is permitted only if the employer has assessed that it’s truly necessary and proportionate to achieve legitimate interests, and usually only if employees have been fully informed as to what monitoring is taking place and why. Some EU nations also require employers to consult with employee representative bodies before subjecting workers to surveillance measures.

Increasingly, we are seeing instances of employees challenging the decision to terminate their employment due to their refusal to agree to monitoring with cases in the US and Australia (see inset). The European Court of Human Rights has also been called upon to opine in the context of a dismissal based on employee monitoring.

A need to test and learn
At a minimum, the process of determining and testing data parameters will be incredibly important – particularly so for organisations with diverse workforces or operating in different markets. Similarly, those reviewing and making decisions based on predictive analytics will need to thoroughly understand the predictive analytics process and be alive to the potential risks and broader context that may need to be taken into account. Periodic reviews will also need to occur to assess if there has been any unforeseen, disparate or adverse impact which could potentially cause discriminatory outcomes and consider if further testing or refinement is required.

The ways in which predictive analytics may be used as part of workforce management are limitless. Where trends associated with conduct are identified, organisations can take early steps to identify and respond to misconduct at an early stage.

Even where laws are complied with, organisations will need to consider potential triggers for employee activism. In a recent survey of approximately 400 cross-sector C-suites globally for the Herbert Smith Freehills’ Future of Work report, 50% of respondents identified issues connected to the surveillance and monitoring of the workforce as a potential trigger for workforce activism. The survey results show that employers expect activism in the near future to be centred on technology-driven workplace issues such as the introduction of AI and automation, and the surveillance and monitoring of workers.

Given the significant disruption and reputational damage that workforce activism can cause, the approach that organisations take when conducting employee monitoring needs to be carefully balanced with the potential for backlash which may undo the benefits of embracing new technologies.

“Byte of big data” was co-written by Tim Leaver, Michael Gonski & Tess Lumsdaine of Herbert Smith Freehills.

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