As we returned to the office in the new year, it would have been hard to imagine that within a few months so many of us would be working from home; that discussing our mental health with colleagues would be not just accepted but expected; and that cleaners would receive long-overdue recognition of the critical role they play in ensuring a safe workplace.

For HR leaders, the “future of work” has shifted from a distant concept to an immediate priority. I’ve spent the past two months talking with clients about the lasting impact that COVID-19 will have on their organisations and helping them evaluate how key trends will play out.

The humanitarian nature of the COVID-19 crisis means that company decisions are being evaluated through an increasingly ethical lens.

Some of the changes we’re seeing are entirely new, and in some cases the pandemic has forced a long-observed pattern to swing to the extreme. Others, like the shift to remote work, are accelerations of existing trends.

Prior to the pandemic, Gartner predicted that demand for remote work would increase by 30 percent by 2030, largely due to stronger preference for remote work by Generation Z.

Post-COVID-19, many employees will want to work remotely more than they did before. Seventy-four percent of CFOs are interested in continuing remote work after the pandemic for cost reasons. As a result of these two forces, we expect 48 percent of employees globally will work remotely at least some of the time after the pandemic, a significant increase over pre-pandemic levels.

In Australia, the shift is even more pronounced. Many organisations I’ve spoken with expect 80-90 percent of their employees to work remotely at least some of the time from now on.

The employer as a social safety net
The pandemic has also expanded the role employers play in society. Many offered enhanced sick leave, financial counselling, adjusted hours and child-care support. Some organisations shifted operations to manufacture goods or provide services to help combat the pandemic, set up relief funds and offered services for free.

As the crisis subsides, most employers will continue their involvement in the lives of their employees by increasing healthcare, financial well-being and mental health support.

The unique living and working situations we find ourselves in as a result of the pandemic have thrust employee mental health and wellness into the spotlight. Essential workers such as hospital staff, food-service workers and delivery drivers may struggle with depression or PTSD. Those required to work from home may be dealing with stress of looking after children as well as working at home with a spouse and feeling isolated from colleagues. A family member relied upon for income may lose their job. In Australia, Google reported a 75 percent spike in searches for help with domestic violence.

Over the next couple of years, we are likely to see the appointment of more chief well-being officers or chief mental health officers as additional C-suite roles, or the CHRO role evolving to fit these roles.

HR leaders will need to develop succession plans for new types of critical roles and strategic workforce plans that pay much closer attention to the workflows that will drive future success.

The emergence of new top-tier employers
How organisations support their employees through this period will not only define their employer brands, but also their consumer brands well beyond the crisis.

Candidates (and customers) will ask, “How did you treat your workforce during the time of coronavirus?” Recruiters will need to explain the decisions their organisations made during the pandemic.

HR leaders can help their CEOs and boards understand the lasting impact of decisions made regarding the workforce, such as staff cuts, benefits changes, hiring freezes and pay decisions, including the balance between financial impact absorbed by senior executives versus the broader employee base. Organisations will have to make difficult decisions, but how they are handled can help mitigate bad press and increase employee engagement.

Prior to the COVID-19 crisis, organisations were already facing increased employee demands for transparency. Now it is expected, with many organisations providing weekly updates directly from senior leaders. The humanitarian nature of the COVID-19 crisis means that company decisions are being evaluated through an increasingly ethical lens.

Those that demonstrate their commitment to employees and their communities will be viewed as top-tier employers for the foreseeable future. Struggling companies and those lacking social commitment will be stigmatised long after the crisis.

Post-COVID-19, many employees will want to work remotely more than they did before. Seventy-four percent of CFOs are interested in continuing remote work after the pandemic for cost reasons.

Critical roles vs. critical skills
Before COVID-19, critical roles were viewed as roles with critical skills, or the capabilities an organisation needed to meet its strategic goals. Employers now realise that there is another category of critical roles — roles that are critical to the success of essential workflows. For example, IT administration skills may not be central to your organisation’s core business, but critical to supporting a remote workforce.

Separating critical skills from critical roles shifts the focus to coaching employees to develop skills that potentially open multiple avenues for them, rather than preparing for a specific next role.  HR leaders will need to develop succession plans for new types of critical roles and strategic workforce plans that pay much closer attention to the workflows that will drive future success.

As we move past immediate crisis response and recovery into the renewal phase, employers need to use the lessons learned and trends that emerged from the pandemic to create a new foundation for the long term. Wise leaders will take the opportunity to “reset” their business models and operations for a new reality. As the saying goes, don’t let a good crisis go to waste.

Image Source: Pixabay

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Gender diversity programs. Love them or loathe them, it’s no secret that the security industry is male-dominated and diversity programs are becoming more common across Australian organisations to tackle this problem. ISACA’s 2020 State of Cybersecurity Report indicates that there has been a strong increase of organisations implementing diversity initiatives, with 56 per cent of businesses in ANZ now having a program in place to recruit and retain female cyber professionals, an increase of 11 percentage points since last year.

The question is, do they work? As a recruiter, I witness a lot of opinions from both candidates and clients on whether gender diversity programs are effective. While some have strong beliefs that they are the way forward in improving diversity, others believe they can actually create more bias.

From what I’ve seen, gender quotas can cause resentment among managers who can feel as though such programs interfere with their decision-making process, and team members can be made to feel as though hiring decisions are being made based on gender, as opposed to talent and accomplishments.

Whatever your thoughts on gender quotas, it’s still important for every security team to have diversity targets – particularly when it comes to women in leadership roles.

However, perhaps we should be looking at the bigger picture here. Women still only make up 24 per cent of the security industry in Australia (11 per cent globally) according to (ISC)², and much fewer are sitting in leadership positions. Without action, things will not change. We will not have enough female role models in the security industry, boards will remain non-diverse, and decisions will be made by the same demographic. And as we transition to the ‘new normal’, I think we all agree that there are some changes that need to be made rather than just following the old status quo.

So, how can the cybersecurity industry get diversity right? The key to change is to implement gender diversity policies that work, and this starts with recruitment. The aim should be to hire equal numbers of men and women, and yes, recruitment targets need to be set. Having quotas doesn’t mean hiring men or women without merit, it means that hiring managers, HR, and recruiters just need to look harder to find them.

One Australian organisation which is leading the way in building diverse security teams is Origin Energy. Around 40 per cent of its core security team is female, which is almost twice the national average and nearly four times the global average for the security industry. What’s more, the turnover rate in its security team is only 5 per cent, compared to an industry average of 20 per cent. Origin’s Chief Information Security Officer, Christoph Strizik, puts this success down to broadening talent pools, offering more flexibility to staff, and implementing good internal mentoring and leadership programs.

Don’t just rely on applications
A common complaint I hear is ‘no women applied for the role.’ Hiring managers should look outside the usual channels of Seek and LinkedIn applications. Women are generally more risk-averse than men and are 16 per cent less likely to apply for roles online, according to LinkedIn research. This means, if hiring managers are solely relying on applications when recruiting security roles, they are unlikely to have a diverse shortlist to choose from. Hiring managers and talent specialists should widen their horizons and seek out the best diverse talent in other ways, such as growing personal networks, scouring meetup groups, asking industry contacts for referrals and attending industry association and professional development workshops.

Hiring managers should also be looking at candidates outside of the IT industry with non-technical skillsets and non-conventional backgrounds. Strizik said: “Diversity is very important to us whether that means gender diversity or diversity of thought. To us, diversity leads to creativity. So, we tapped into a broader talent pool. We brought on people from different fields, such as engineering or consulting, and provided them with the right training in technical aspects.

“We also promoted people internally with strong leadership skills but limited security skills to run our security teams. This is perhaps unusual; however, it has actually worked out really well for us.”

Vanessa Gale, Head of IAM for Origin, was brought in with a background in Environmental Engineering. Her team recently won the Saviynt Innovation Award for their work in Identity Access Management, showing a clear example of how this method of recruitment has worked for them.

The aim should be to hire equal numbers of men and women, and yes, recruitment targets need to be set. Having quotas doesn’t mean hiring men or women without merit, it means that hiring managers, HR, and recruiters just need to look harder to find them.

Flexibility means more than just working from home
Now, more than ever, Australians are going to be working remotely, but flexible working is more than staying at home with a sick child. Australian businesses need to consider parental and carer’s leave, but also realise some employees may prefer to be at home rather than commute.

This means offering the right level of flexibility to suit a diverse workforce and their personal commitments. It’s not a one policy fits all, but an agreement that is tailored per employee. It’s a value add to the job seeker when recruiting and can also be successful in retaining the best staff.

Strizik added: “Flexibility has been a game-changer. Origin has an “all roles flex” policy where our starting premise is every role can be performed flexibly, and this goes above and beyond just working from home on a Friday. We have employees who work on the Gold Coast who just travel into the office once or twice a week. We have employees who finish at 3:00pm so they can pick up their kids every day. On top of this, we also increased our parental leave in 2019 to an industry-leading 20 weeks for primary carers, regardless of gender. We also removed the 12-month qualifying period for taking parental leave, so planning a family or expecting a new arrival would not be a barrier to starting a great new career at Origin.”

“When you offer your employees this level of flexibility, you are paid back for it 10x over. When you make their lives simpler, they enjoy their job more, feel appreciation for management, and work harder.”

Hopefully, the old mentality and distrust about workers skiving off when working from home will truly be dead now after senior executives have seen how productive staff can be working remotely.

Gender quotas can cause resentment among managers who can feel as though such programs interfere with their decision-making process, and team members can be made to feel as though hiring decisions are being made based on gender, as opposed to talent and accomplishments.

Provide detailed, structured mentoring programs
Mentoring programs have been touted far and wide as a solution to assist with the gender gap. However, outside of the external mentorship programs and networks set up for women in security, including ISACA’s SheLeadsTech and the Australian Women in Security Network Cadets that connects, supports and inspires female-identifying tertiary students and early career professionals, organisations need to have an internal leadership and mentorship program.

The structure should be set by the HR department with specific KPIs for mentors to ensure the mentee is getting the support they need. Managers should also be having one-on-one discussions with all staff to discuss training, development, and understand where their team members want to go in their careers, so they can do everything possible to get them there.

Furthermore, in a male-dominated industry, such as IT security, it can be difficult for females to get their voices heard, and women often don’t back themselves to apply for leadership positions. Businesses need to have a program to encourage and support more women to be leaders, so we can have diverse decision-makers and inspire the next generation of females in security. AWSN Cadets provides a fantastic external mentoring program to inspire female students and early-career professionals. However, we need more programs like this run internally.

Whatever your thoughts on gender quotas, it’s still important for every security team to have diversity targets – particularly when it comes to women in leadership roles. Strizik said: “No company has nailed this. There are still not enough women in leadership roles in security. Our FY 20 goal is to have 32 per cent of senior roles filled by females across the organisation. We are currently on 31 per cent.”

It’s fantastic that we are seeing more and more Australian organisations embracing gender diversity programs in cybersecurity. A diverse workforce not only means that this industry has more likelihood of successfully connecting with diverse end-users, but having people from different walks of life as part of your organisation means we are able to tackle diverse problems and cybercriminals.

With ISACA’s report also finding that nearly half (48 per cent) of security professionals in ANZ believe that there has been real progress made in women taking cybersecurity roles, these programs are clearly making some progress in closing the gender gap in this industry.

Image Source: Pexels

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Damian Hughes has made a career building up both high-flying sporting stars and high-performance business professionals.  He combines his practical and academic background within sport, organisational development and change psychology, to help organisations and teams to create a high performing culture. He has been praised by Sir Richard Branson, Muhammad Ali, Tiger Woods, Jonny Wilkinson and Sir Alex Ferguson for his approach to eliciting sustained excellence from elite performers.

Here, Damian shares 5 lessons for those of us looking to lead and succeed through this time of great transition and opportunity (and one piece of advice for Michael Jordan).

Lesson 1: If you are usually a high performer but experience a blindsiding setback, there are clues to help you find your way back up again.
“I start with a simple exercise I dub: ‘Success Leaves Clues’. I ask, when you are good, why are you good? This seeks to find the evidence of previous successes and then break them down into traits and behaviours. These are the foundation stones of where you build again.”

Lesson 2: Whether you’re running back on to a sporting field or heading back to the office, anxiety and confusion about new behavioural expectations need to be alleviated with clear communication.
“In times of change, ambiguity is often the enemy and so whatever you can do to remove this ambiguity, mainly when focusing on the controllable behaviours, is a good place to start.”

Lesson 3: If you suspect your workplace culture is toxic, ask your team this question.
“There are lots of indicators of toxicity and some are more subtle than others. These range from apathy, aggression, cynicism, high absence and attrition rates. One quick question to determine the health of a culture is to ask staff: would you be happy for your children to work here? If the answer is negative, you need to explore why.”

Lesson 4: There is no single quality that leads to success but there is much to learn from our sporting icons.
“Is there an identifiable ‘IT factor’ that superstar sporting champions have in common with wildly successful business leaders? This is the million-dollar question, which I have been seeking to understand during my new podcast series – The High Performance Podcast – where we interview elite performers from sport, business and the arts. I don’t think there is one single factor but a series of them which help sustained high performance.

The neatest summary I have ever heard came from Smokin’ Joe Frazier, the former heavyweight champion of the world, who once said his success was down to inspiration, perspiration and dedication.”

Lesson 5: The one piece of advice I would have given Michael Jordan …
“I watched and thoroughly enjoyed the Netflix documentary, The Last Dance. I am aware that it is a documentary, which has a clear narrative and has been edited for a specific purpose: to entertain. Jordan was a great example of what I describe as a ‘cultural architect.’ These are the leaders who uphold the standards and behaviours. I would suggest that, based on the clips, there are a number of ways to do this rather than being combative or aggressive. Flexibility in communication is key.”

Damian will be appearing at the upcoming HR and L&D Virtual Innovation and Tech Fest where he will identify five aspects of the winning culture of world leading football team, Barcelona that allow them to find success through cohesion and cooperation. You can register for this free online event today.

Image Source: Pixabay

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After several months of working from home, it’s starting to become much more clear what our “new normal” might look like – and it is indeed very new for the vast majority of organisations previously accustomed to having all of their employees working from a central office-based location. After all, many employees are now likely to never again work from the office full time while others will be returning to a much-changed office environment.

A shift in routine of this magnitude creates a whole host of new considerations for workers and the businesses they work for – and therefore for human resources professionals. From bolstering culture and engagement amongst increasingly hybrid teams, to ensuring compliance with new workplace health and safety rules and supporting those who may be experiencing mental health challenges or anxiety. In Civica’s most recent employee survey, more than a quarter (26 per cent) of employees said they have concerns about working from an office post-lockdown.

Rather than getting caught up in the latest shiny new HR program, we must focus our attention on going to the heart of what our stakeholders need and solving their challenges in innovative ways.

Hybrid approach
Communication will be a huge priority. In a “future normal”, one of the greatest tests we’ll face as HR professionals relates to preserving culture and keeping staff connected to our vision, strategy and values. More of our leaders’ time will be spent on employee engagement and doing it effectively will require more deliberate planning.

Leaders will need to place more importance on this and take ownership of regularly managing and communicating with their team, with support from HR. They will need to talk from the heart and be clear on their purpose and goals as an organisation when they speak to employees. Investing in leadership development including practical “how-to skills” will be an important focus area, to ensure leaders feel confident and prepared to lead their teams. For example, at Civica, we recently launched our Leadership in Action Training, which focuses on maximising performance in teams, coaching, giving feedback and inclusive leadership – skills that will become even more important for leaders operating in a virtual world.

For HR teams, effectively on-boarding new colleagues, keeping them engaged and ensuring they build and maintain strong relationships with their colleagues from the outset will also take on new significance.

Bringing balance
Helping people balance home and work life must also become even more of a focus. In Civica’s April and May employee surveys, managing stress stood out as an area of concern, with challenges in this area increasing from April to May from 9 per cent of respondents to 16 per cent. Switching off from work was deemed one of the greatest challenges for our people, decreasing slightly as an area of concern, from 18 per cent of respondents to 15 per cent in May.

Leaders will need to place more importance on this and take ownership of regularly managing and communicating with their team, with support from HR. They will need to talk from the heart and be clear on their purpose and goals as an organisation when they speak to employees.

Such results demonstrate that while for many an increase in remote working brings newfound flexibility, there is also a need to ensure that a sustainable model of remote working is developed and that people have the skills to make it work. Those of our staff who already had the occasional experience of working from home continue to be the most positive about the current situation in our surveys, while those who have rarely worked from home before are finding the adjustment most difficult. To support our employees, we have rolled out additional support across a number of programmes including mental health awareness webinars, mindfulness sessions and Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) focused on effective integration of work and life. We’re also reinforcing via our leaders the importance of regular check-ins, not just with direct reports but with a wider audience to ensure people are connected and to keep the ideas and feedback flowing.

Civica’s surveys also highlighted how much people are really missing those informal catch-ups that help them bond with their team members and relax. Preserving social connections requires that we find new ways to enable these. Since lockdown started, we’ve implemented online drinks, virtual book clubs, nationalised the office social committees so everyone in the business can connect, share ideas and collaborate, as well as encouraged staff to reach out to five new colleagues each week to improve social connections.

Not one-size-fits-all
A one-size-fits-all approach to HR is not going to work in the new normal. Understanding individuals’ needs and preferences when it comes to their desire to return to the office versus work from home – and what that office experience should look like – will be critical to success. Flexibility around work hours would be one of the places to focus. Interest in this increased from our first to our second survey, rising from 13 per cent to 15 per cent.

The ongoing involvement of people to shape the approach we take to helping them manage will be important. Managing this will require a very refined approach to communications, based on an understanding of employees’ preferences and feedback on our people practices, via continued regular staff surveys.

Many employees are now likely to never again work from the office full time while others will be returning to a much-changed office environment.

A strategic ally
While all of this may seem daunting, I see a future in which HR will become more strategic, leading change and guiding and supporting those across the business. Rather than getting caught up in the latest shiny new HR program, we must focus our attention on going to the heart of what our stakeholders need and solving their challenges in innovative ways.

In this expanded role and fast-evolving reality, HR will need to innovate and make decisions rapidly – something that this period of change and disruption has already demonstrated we’re better at than we may have previously thought.

The new normal presents huge challenges – and huge opportunities. Now’s the time for HR to play a defining role in creating a better future for organisations and our people.

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Let’s face it. The employee onboarding process is anything but simple, and has become even more complex as Australians work remotely due to COVID-19. There are forms to fill out, contracts to sign, security cards to allocate – all items that need to be scanned over. All this paper-pushing can become incredibly cumbersome and inefficient and creates a pretty bad experience for your nervous new employee. Streamlining your onboarding process can pay off in spades, as we will discuss below.

Streamlining your onboarding process to make it as smooth and stress-free as possible is guaranteed to leave a better taste in your new employees’ mouths.

First impressions really count
Aside from initial interviews – where candidates are more focused on leaving a good impression than forming an impression – the onboarding process is likely the first time that a new employee gets a sense of what it will be like to work for you. It’s during these early days of filling out forms, reading through policy manuals and setting up work devices that your new employee will either think, “Wow, this place makes everything so easy!” or “Yikes, what have I got myself into?”

Obviously, you’ll want to fall into the former camp. In fact, these first impressions can positively impact the bottom line, helping you avoid costly attrition as well as getting your new employee up to speed faster. Research from Glassdoor shows that a positive onboarding experience improves new-hire retention rates by 82 per cent and boosts productivity. What’s more, as cited by Digitate, employees who have had a negative onboarding experience are twice as likely to look for new opportunities in the near future. Ouch.

Onboarding meets automation
So, what can you do about it? As a first step, you’ll want to eliminate as much of the painful, paper-based form-filling as you can. Streamlining your onboarding process to make it as smooth and stress-free as possible is guaranteed to leave a better taste in your new employees’ mouths. Throw in some gifts like a t-shirt with your company logo, or an inspirational book in their welcome kit, and you’re onto a winner.

Next, it’s key to invest in digital HR programs to help streamline the document-heavy process and eliminate some of the bottlenecks that might frustrate new employees. Did you know that three out of five (59 per cent) employees think automation may benefit a company when it comes to HR? By automating workflows, enabling eSignatures, and keeping everything in one central place, you can eliminate stacks of paperwork and instead get forms filled out in a few simple clicks. Those digital forms can then land with IT, security and whoever else needs to know about the new hire, so they can set the wheels in motion for a laptop, phone, security pass, and whatever else the employee needs. It all happens swiftly and seamlessly.

Using ID Verification to take things one step further
As our world has become increasingly remote and heavily regulated, you may find yourself needing to verify your new employee’s identity before they receive a bunch of onboarding forms. To simplify this process, digital identification tools like DocuSign Identify are key. Through these tools, you can simply ask an employee to show their Australian driver’s license and the smart system knows exactly what to look for to ensure the document is not fraudulent.

From an employee’s perspective, the benefit of using tools such as these is the ease with which they can upload a picture of their driver’s license to have it verified. No messy photocopying, scanning, and emailing – in most cases, they can simply do it all from their phone. It really is that easy and gives your company a professional edge.

As cited by Digitate, employees who have had a negative onboarding experience are twice as likely to look for new opportunities in the near future. Ouch.

Managing the process electronically is a win all-round
Implementing contract management technology can be done in incremental, easily manageable steps. For example, you might want to start with candidate offer letters – digitising this one step at the outset (because, after all, it’s all about that first impression, right?) could help you get offers out faster and win the top talent.

Then, you might want to think about integrations at the back end, so your HR staff can complete the entire onboarding process within a single platform to save time and reduce errors.

With the help of a digitised solution, it won’t be long before you are managing all candidate applications and onboarding documents electronically, which is guaranteed to be a win all around.

The post Remote onboarding woes? How to simplify the process using digital tools appeared first on Inside HR.

As part of the Federal Government’s announced 3-stage plan with respect to easing restrictions associated with its response to COVID-19, the Federal Government has, at least for now, recommended that those workers who are able to work from home continue to do so.

With many employees continuing to work from home for at least the short to medium term in light of the continuing risks of COVID-19 and the potential for a ‘second wave’ of increased infections, employers need to remain vigilant in respect to their continuing obligations to workers notwithstanding that they are working from home, and must consider the new and unique workplace challenges that arise as a consequence of employees spending many months away from the physical office.

Below are just some of the considerations employers need to be alert to in the context of WHS and performance management and termination in this brave new world.

WHS Obligations
It is trite to say that WHS obligations continue to apply even when an employee works from home or remotely.

The primary duty under WHS legislation is to ensure, as far as practicable, the health and safety of all workers and extends to the elimination of risk to health and safety, and, if not reasonably practicable to eliminate same, the minimisation of risk to health safety.

This duty extends to employers ensuring that the home workspace is fit for purpose, and potential risks to health and safety in the home workspace are identified and managed to the extent reasonably possible. In that regard, employers should consider the following non-exhaustive matters:

1. Do employees have the necessary equipment to undertake their duties safely (including but not limited to a stable workspace, non-faulty computer equipment, ergonomic furniture and the like)?
2. Are there any hazards in the home workspace e.g. broken wires, flimsy furniture, not enough light?
3. Is there a mechanism for employees to report health and safety issues that arise in the remote workspace like they could at work?
4. Do employees have adequate cleaning supplies to prevent the risk of catching COVID-19 while working from home?

An employer’s WHS duty also extends to monitoring and managing employee mental health. This is particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, when employees have far more limited contact with others, both in a professional and personal context. Employers should take a proactive approach, including by regularly checking in with employees, erring on the side of overcommunicating, providing access to information on and support for mental health issues, supporting work-life balance, ensuring regular breaks, setting clear expectations in terms of output/milestones and hours of work, and ensuring employees have adequate support and a point of contact if they experience difficulties with their work performance.

Failure by employers to be properly alert to the unique WHS risks that arise in the context of remote working may result in significant legal exposure and business downtime.

Performance Management and Termination of Employment
Where an employee is not performing to the standard required, employers are entitled to implement a performance management process, notwithstanding that employees have been working remotely and may continue to work remotely for some time.

It is, however, important to have regard to any barriers to performance that have arisen as a result of the need to work remotely, and any other mitigating factors caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, has performance output slowed:

1. because of an employee’s reliance on their home internet and computer devices, which may not be as fast or up to date as the office equivalents;
2. due to difficulty contacting relevant persons;
3. because an employee has had to manage concurrent caring responsibilities; and/or
4. because of mental health issues that have been exacerbated by the pandemic?

Failure to have regard to such matters may result in issues for employers down the track, when they seek to rely on such performance issues to justify dismissal.

Where it is or may be necessary to terminate employees who are working remotely, employers should proceed with caution and ensure that procedural fairness continues to be adhered to, to the extent reasonably practicable, to avoid the FWC finding that any dismissal was harsh, unjust or unreasonable due to procedural failures. This includes providing adequate warnings and notice and giving reasonable opportunities to improve performance and respond, as would be the case if an employee was not working remotely. In relation to meetings with concerned employees as part of the performance management and termination process, while this may be a procedural challenge in the context of the pandemic, employers should, to the extent possible, attempt to replicate a  face-to-face environment, such as through videoconferencing facilities, if it is not possible to hold meetings in person.

Ultimately, employers should continue to adhere to their statutory and common law obligations in relation to implementing performance management and termination processes, to the extent reasonably practicable in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. To the extent it is not reasonably practicable to do so, employers should attempt to replicate existing processes as much as possible, while maintaining an overarching focus on ensuring procedural fairness.

For more information:
On Wednesday 6 May 2020, Harmers Workplace Lawyers presented a webinar entitled: “Remote Working During COVID-19 – Are you Legally Compliant?”. If you would like to learn more about the WHS obligations for employers, managing staff mental health issues, performance management and termination in a COVID-19 remote working environment, please click here to view

The post WHS, performance management and termination considerations for long-term remote working appeared first on Inside HR.

In light of the announcement by the Australian Federal Government of its three-step plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions, many businesses are now considering their options to reopen part or all of their operations.

A key consideration in this process will be the return of employees to work. In particular:

• ensuring the work health and safety of employees, including both in the workplace and when travelling to and from work; and
• the unwinding of some or all of the temporary measures implemented by businesses in the past few months in response to COVID-19. For many businesses, this has included standing down employees without pay, temporarily varying employees’ contractual arrangements, and/or the issuing of a range of directions to employees under the JobKeeper legislation.

Where does recovery planning begin?
The starting point for employers will be to assess the feasibility of returning their staff to work from a health and safety perspective.

For many businesses, particularly those in customer-facing environments such as the hospitality and retail sector that have been heavily impacted by COVID-19, this will understandably be but one factor that is weighed up against the significant losses that continue to be incurred while their operations remain in stasis. Overlaying this is the need to adhere to government guidelines that remain in place, such as the maintenance of social distancing (at least 1.5 metres between people and a maximum of 1 person to every 4 square metres).

This can be a difficult balancing exercise to undertake but a work health and safety assessment is critical so as to reduce the risk of further COVID-19 outbreaks and the impact this will have on both the business and its employees. The Federal Government and many of its counterpart State and Territory safety regulators have already released guidance materials and checklists to assist with the management of a return to work.

Some questions that businesses will need to consider include:

• Is there a need to have the entire workforce return to the workplace? Can the return to the workplace be staged or carried out on a rotating basis?
• What are the regular modes of transport used by employees to travel into work and will they remain a safe and reliable means for employees to rely on? For example, how will employee start times be impacted should measures be introduced to limit passenger capacity on public transport?
• What measures and restrictions are landlords proposing to implement? Will there be temperature checks upon entry and will limitations be imposed on the number of people travelling in a lift? If so, how might this impact on productivity and punctuality of staff, and how can this be mitigated?
• Is it possible to maintain safe social distancing with the current office plan? If not, what should be done to allow this to be achieved? In particular, are there any areas in the office which will need to be carefully monitored such as kitchens, meeting rooms and bathrooms?
• What other protocols should be implemented to maintain good hygiene? For example, what protocols should be followed for arranging and conducting external meetings on site? Will deep cleans of the office space be arranged every night? Where will hand-sanitiser stations be located?
• What support mechanisms will be offered to help employees navigate any mental health challenges as they return to the workplace?
• Are there policies and procedures that need to be updated to address changes in the way that work is performed?
• Is there a need to consult with employees about the changes that are occurring? If so, about what, and how will it take place?

If a return to work is carefully implemented and continuously monitored, businesses will place themselves in a better position to respond to future issues that may arise.

Unwinding temporary arrangements
The next step for many businesses will be to review the composition of their current active and inactive workforce and determine who can return to gainful employment. As part of this, decisions will need to be made about whether some or all of these workers can carry out their duties and responsibilities from home, or whether some workers will need to return to the workplace.

For the majority of businesses, the current state of play will generally fall into one (or both) of the following categories:

• Employees who have had their hours and pay temporarily reduced; or
• Employees who have been stood down from their role (pursuant to either section 524 of the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) or a JobKeeper enabling stand down).

For employees falling into the first category, the variation to their hours and pay may have been effected by a written variation to their contractual terms. If so, these variations will need to be unwound and in most cases, this can be achieved through written correspondence with the employee or a direction to the employee. The correspondence should provide affected employees with sufficient notice of when the variations will cease and when they are expected to return to their ordinary hours of work (which may be on a gradual basis).

Where the employment relationship is also governed by an underlying industrial instrument such as a modern award or an enterprise agreement, businesses should be mindful that there may exist an obligation to consult with affected employees before any contractual variation can be unwound.

In circumstances where an employee has been stood down, careful consideration must be given to how the stand-down can now be retracted so as to not undermine the validity of the original stand-down direction. In other words, what has changed to allow the business to operate now? Why can employees now be usefully employed, despite previously being told there was no useful employment for them? This can be a minefield to navigate and the answers can vary depending on whether a full or partial return to duties is proposed, and the terms of the particular stand down provision upon which the business relied. Consultation obligations may also apply should there be an applicable industrial instrument.

“Returning employees to work in a COVID-19 world” was co-written by Shivchand Jhinku, Lisa Soo & James Banh of Herbert Smith Freehills.

Image source: iStock

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“Focusing on metrics is important, but we need to humanise those numbers”

As human beings, we crave recognition of our achievements both in and outside of the workplace. Belonging occurs when there is clarity of our relevance and contribution be it at work, within our family unit or even throughout the broader community.

Within the workplace, acknowledgment of our individual successes makes us feel like we belong, have an opportunity to gain as an individual (usually in the form of a bonus or promotion) and have contributed to the success of the organisation to which we work in.

These measures are highly numbers focussed, predominantly built by others (those who we report to or higher up the organisational pecking order), related to percentages of “hit or miss” and are subject to almost weekly, monthly and quarterly scrutiny; in the form of looking back into the past and building the story of success or failure. A quarterly business review is one such mechanism to scrutinise the measures.

I’m not for one minute suggesting that these measures are not important in keeping an eye on the health of a business. What you can’t measure you can’t manage right? Isn’t that what we’ve all had drilled into us in the old system? What if there was another more human way to look at what success is? How much better could it be if we combined some traditional measures with what we’ve discovered in the last three months?

Now, think of how you measure success outside the workplace.

It’s a good time to be thinking about this as work is now happening in times of the COVID-19 challenge outside what we have come to know as the traditional workplace. As “work” moved out of offices, I’m wondering if you noticed as I did that we became more aware of key human qualities such as helpfulness, thankfulness, care and having fun. Not your traditional measures of success, however, I would argue that they have been major factors in businesses surviving through the last three months of business unusual.

All of a sudden mangers seem to be checking in more, showing some vulnerability in asking for help and being open enough to say “I don’t have the answer”, uttering the words “thank you” and allowing for a bit of good old fashioned fun in order to lift spirits in a time where they are being tested.

As “work” moved out of offices, I’m wondering if you noticed as I did that we became more aware of key human qualities such as helpfulness, thankfulness, care and having fun.

Here’s why these four qualities are important now and should in the future form of your business to be recognised as ways to bring a more human element to measuring success.

They impact our sense of belonging; although they take the form of a less formalised and rigorous approach that didn’t need a weekly, monthly or quarterly review. It’s more from the “heart” and the “gut” and less from the “head” and the feeling of achievement is just as strong (without the bonus or promotion).

What I am suggesting is that there is an opportunity to complement the work measures of success (head) with some more simple “Human Success Measures” (heart and gut) which will benefit both you and your chances of success in your organisation.

It’s time to dial up the awareness and dial down the “can’t measure it can’t manage it” story that is more about humans as outputs and less about humans as a valued part of a team, department, and organisation.

I’m 100% sure here that by simply dialing up the awareness of the very things that have helped us all to navigate through these challenging times, we have an opportunity to leverage these to create financially healthier businesses into the future.

My suggestions on Human Success Measures to include for you and your team:

• How many times did you help someone solve a problem?
• How many times did you ask for help from someone to solve a problem?
• How many times did you “check-in” with someone and asked if they were OK?
• How many times did you have fun?
• How many times did you give thanks to someone who helped you?
• How many times did you receive thanks from someone you helped?

Most of these you are already doing in an informal way in your outside work “self”, and all of you have been in some ways forced into this through a major shock to the old system that focussed more on outputs and less on the humans. They will have a strong correlation however, to the type of culture you choose to create in your team and wider workplace as you move into a new way of working.

As human beings, we crave recognition of our achievements both in and outside of the workplace. Belonging occurs when there is clarity of our relevance and contribution be it at work, within our family unit or even throughout the broader community.

I call it Humannovation and it’s all about #beingbeforedoing and less about a weekly KPI sheet. Awareness becomes an important factor.

What other Human Success Measures can you think of?

Be Human.

Image source: iStock

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A senior leader recently likened the impact of masculine norms on her daughter’s ambition to acid rain. She’d started her career as confident and ambitious, articulate about what she wanted to achieve. However, over time, she began to give up on her dreams of success. Like acid rain, her interest in her ‘big career’ was eroding.

Confidence remains a common feature in the discussion about women, ambition and leadership. Our usual solution is to encourage or exhort women to ‘be confident’.

Self-assessment is a flawed way to identify leadership potential. What’s the alternative? There are good tools available for organisations to systematically reduce the impact of masculine norms on leader identification.

Confidence is something that we expect from men, not women
Confidence fits with the stereotype of masculine, dominant behaviour, which is also consistent with our beliefs about leadership.

However, ‘confidence’ creates a bind for women. It contradicts the female stereotype of women as supporters not leaders; submissive, kind and caring. If women conform to the stereotype they’re not suitable leadership material. Yet when they act with confidence, they are penalised for being ‘more manly than the men’.

The senior leader’s story highlights that women may be confident to begin with; they don’t lack a ‘confidence gene’. At work they moderate their confidence to fit in; and that means they miss out.

Norms about masculine behaviour and its fit with leadership are barriers to women. They cause women to moderate their own expectations and guide decision makers’ choices about leadership potential and ability.

What happens if we take gender out of the equation for a moment, and ask a different question; what is the value of confidence to leadership? Expressing confidence in your own leadership capability is an almost guaranteed entrée to the high potential track. But Is confidence as important as we think it is?

Confidence fits with the stereotype of masculine, dominant behaviour, which is also consistent with our beliefs about leadership.

Confidence is a flawed indicator of leadership
Confidence is how good you think you are at something. Competence, on the other hand, is how good you are at something.

Confidence trumps competence in our self-assessments. A study of over 20,000 people compared their self-rated intelligence with actual scores and found less than 10 per cent overlap. The same results have been found in studies of academic performance, social skills and job performance.

Men exaggerate their ability at double the rate of women, and on this basis are more likely to be chosen for leadership roles. In one study, women were 30% less likely to be chosen despite having the same competence rating.

If you mistake confidence for competence you get incompetence
Alarmingly, those most lacking in competence make the least accurate evaluations of their talents. Most competent people tend to underestimate their expertise; the more you know, the more aware you become of how much there is to know.

Leaders who appear confident, regardless of their competence, can be very convincing. We are more likely to believe they have leadership potential. We prefer to listen to them than to someone who expresses doubts or identifies gaps, even if they are voicing those concerns because they are confident. We mistake doubt for a lack of confidence, and therefore a lack of leadership.

Self-assessment is a flawed way to identify leadership potential. What’s the alternative? There are good tools available for organisations to systematically reduce the impact of masculine norms on leader identification. Yet they are not used as much as they should be. Seventy-five per cent of HR leaders from top global companies say that the subjective opinion of the person’s boss is the most common way to identify leadership potential. Given the potential for affinity bias, that is, to choose people most like ourselves, this is as flawed as self-assessment.

It is a wiser decision to rely on unconfident, competent individuals
Let’s add gender back in. Many research studies have shown no gender differences in actual confidence levels. In a study of hundreds of European engineers, the only difference found was that women feel more confident than we judge them to be.

Unconfident competent people prepare more for leadership roles, are more cautious and look for risks and obstacles, which improves their performance. And they are more likely to be women.

Confidence is how good you think you are at something. Competence, on the other hand, is how good you are at something.

Despite that, for women to be seen as influential leadership material, they need to be seen as confident and competent (masculine norms) as well as caring (a female norm). Men need to be seen only as confident. While they remain, these masculine norms for leadership set a much higher barrier to entry for women. Rather than expect women to become more confident, we should downplay the primacy given to confidence, and instead prioritise competence.

Image source: iStock

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A challenging business environment can have a strong impact on workers’ wellbeing; weakening performance and negatively impacting the business as a whole. This in turn puts a spotlight on business continuity planning and places pressure on leaders to seek strategies to guide their organisation through uncharted waters.

How well HR leaders respond to the current crisis will come down to two factors – their own capabilities as leaders, and the quality of the digital tools available to them.

This is especially true for HR leaders. In normal times, HR plays a key role in helping an organisation react quickly and make intelligent decisions that help it adapt to change. But during the current situation, they might also now be coordinating communication, facilitating remote working, helping workers stay productive, and assisting with mental wellbeing needs.

So how can technology help? Now more than ever HR leaders are stepping up and helping their people find their way forward. But they must also be thinking actively about strategies and investments that will ensure business continuity.

In these unprecendented times, HR plays a vital role both in supporting business continuity and ensuring the workforce comes along on the journey.

The remote work challenge
The current crisis has placed a specific challenge on HR professionals in terms of managing a workforce that may have suddenly become remote. Meeting the workforce where they are and making them feel supported is a great start to delivering on employee expectations.

HR leaders must also ensure lines of communication remain open. There has rarely been a more critical need to keep staff updated on how their organisation is performing and what is expected of them, and for the sake of all workers, it is vital that HR ensures this takes place.

HR leaders might also consider leveraging HCM technology to adapt and create operational efficiencies through use of tools such as digital assistants. These can enable HR helpdesks to track and manage cases at scale with high consistency, and address the need for services to be easily accessible to a remote workforce.

Electronic communication tools, from updates on the company intranet to group or one-on-one video calls should now be an essential part of a HR leader’s toolset. Having a unified HCM platform that brings together all communication into a single place can be vital both in facilitating clear communication with staff, and giving HR leaders a unified means for engagement.

Technology that lets people be people
How well HR leaders respond to the current crisis will come down to two factors – their own capabilities as business leaders, and the quality of the digital tools available to them. Certainly, their ability to be effective will be greatly enhanced should many of their routine tasks be automated, allowing them to focus on the human aspects of their roles.

Now more than ever HR leaders are stepping up and helping their people find their way forward. But they must also be thinking actively about strategies and investments that will ensure business continuity.

The pressure that all workers face during a crisis is enormous, and as we’ve discussed, HR leaders are often at the focal point of those pressures, so it is vital that they also find avenues to share their experiences with their peers.

At Oracle, we have assembled a community of more than 37,000 HCM professionals who are all keen to share ideas and experiences, and we’ve created dedicated forums featuring webcasts with our HCM transformation experts.

In these unprecendented times, HR plays a vital role both in supporting business continuity and ensuring the workforce comes along on the journey. Having the systems and the processes in one place to manage employee engagement, understand sentiment and find operational efficiencies is a key requirement for supporting change leaders, and for fostering a culture of continuous innovation.

To find out more about how HR must evolve quickly to meet new challenges in uncertain times, download the research report sponsored by Oracle ‘The Future of HR Function in 2020’.

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