TEAM BUILDING over-egg what Be Challenged can achieve for a business . “ We can ’ t solve the world ’ s problems . We are a tool for business and people . We are part of an integrated culture plan , and if the managers don ’ t reinforce the message it ’ s not going to happen for the business . And you can see the businesses that are doing it well are really thriving . And ‘ doing it well ’ doesn ’ t mean spending lots of money . It ’ s about taking the time to understand the culture of your business & your people , and then pairing that with your business goals .”
Coming out of COVID For the best part of 2020 many businesses have relied on JobKeeper payments to keep their employees , mostly on reduced hours and most businesses have been forced to run with a remote workforce . Kingsley outlines the main challenges for businesses as they return their teams to the workplace , possibly employing smaller workforces and having more of their people working from home .
“ First of all , how are businesses going to maintain culture now more of the workforce is working remotely ? And how do managers ensure their teams are really engaged with the organisation and understand how it goes about its business ? Usually , when a new person comes to work , they learn how things operate & people behave first-hand . But that ’ s not the case anymore because people aren ’ t in the office with everyone so often .
Secondly , life brings up challenges and this year has certainly affected everyone . Now is an important time where executives need to have sat down and reviewed their connection plan with employees ( all organisations should have one ) and made the adjustments required to continue with it . That process should not have changed , but the way they do things will be different .
Kingsley provides some examples . “ An executive assistant may know that their executives catch up say , three times a year . Those meeting and retreats still need to happen because those outcomes still need to be achieved . It doesn ’ t matter how the meeting takes place , hybrid [ a mixture of virtual and in person ] or face-to-face — it still needs to happen . More than ever before .
If building culture and networking is going to be an objective for the year , then face-to-face is the best way to do that . But if your executive ’ s objective is to give everyone an update , there ’ s no need for mingling . So , send the message and do it in a different way , do it virtual , save the cash and then when you do need to meet up face-to-face you can ensure that whatever you ’ re doing is of high value . Make good use of that face-to-face time , because you ’ re not going to do it as much as you used to .”
The job of bringing your colleagues back to the workplace and rebuilding morale is by no means a quick fix and Oliver offers some grounded advice . “ First and foremost , keep it simple . Both executives and employees may be feeling overwhelmed now and perhaps are trying to solve all the world ’ s problems when they can ’ t , because no one can . So , have a focus , keep it simple and if your initial objective is to get everyone engaged with the business again , and connected with each other , then do that first .
Secondly , bringing everyone back and getting back on track is going to take time . Developing culture in a large organisation can take up to 7 years . So , make sure you ’ ve got realistic expectations on driving that culture back . And you must be consistent .”
“ If your organisation doesn ’ t have a plan for building culture , it needs one now ,” says Kingsley . “ People were engaged because they were in the office every day , but now they ’ re not even with each other , let alone in the office . They could be battling with their partner and their three kids for space on the dining room table just to get work done , and that ’ s challenging . We need to recognise that this is the workplace we are currently living in and there will be very few businesses that go back to exactly how they were .
Connecting people and creating a good culture increases productivity . And once you recognise that , you work out how to engage . That doesn ’ t mean doing more it just means being smarter about it . For example , if the purpose of an event is to bring everyone together and network , why would you have people sitting theatre style for 4 hours , watching a presentation ? If you want to build back relationships , then get people into situations where they can do that . Before COVID-19 , businesses were already looking at their connection pieces and saying , ‘ we need to make these more engaging ’. COVID-19 has just accelerated that trend .”
Oliver gets to the heart of the matter . “ Because we ’ ve been in crisis for 5 months engagement has dropped off . It ’ s happened because many businesses have been struggling just to survive . But we ’ re in the next phase now and the organisations we are speaking with are saying , ‘ This is how things are going to be done now . Now is the time to look at our people .’” S
Issue 2 2020 | Chief of Staff 31