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INTERNATIONAL BULLETIN OF IBC HR

COMMITTEE GAZPROM INTERNATIONAL TRAINING

September 2020 Issue 8

This is an International Bulletin for HR employees of PJSC Gazprom and for members of the International Business Congress (IBC) Working Committee «Human Resources».

The purpose of the bulletin is to inform employees and managers with the latest international HR news, HR developments and HR trends so that they can use the knowledge and insights to reflect on it by making HR policies and plans.

This Bulletin is issued regularly by Gazprom International Training B.V.

Editorial: Rob Veersma

This Bulletin is for internal use only and contains a selection of previous elsewhere published articles.

Dear reader, dear colleagues,

Please find here the 8th Bulletin.

I hope you and your loved ones are well in these extraordinary times.

Few, if any, of us could have imagined a global pandemic like this. While the measures to contain COVID-19 have been taken from a public health perspective, they have also forced many of us to work in a different way, which is a challenge for many of us. Not only for employees, but also for their families. These changes are also a huge challenge for HR, as this is unprecedented, and we don’t have all the answers.

We are living now in times of uncertainty. Already more than 4 months the COVID-19 virus is keeping the world in hostage. HR need to find answers to a lot of areas. How to deal with uncertainty, how to maintain cohesion (corporate values), how to communicate, how to prepare the return to the office, and how to deal with staff working from home? Our working life has entered a new era, the first article (farewell BC (before coronavirus) -- welcome AD (after domestication)) is addressing this enormous change.

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We need to focus on the future as business needs to continue. But how are we dealing with working from home, combined with working in the office? We carefully need to think through on how we manage working virtual in teams, and how to keep up the spirit and trust when we are separated from each other as a team, only connected by technology. We need to accept that most of us have been brought up in a face to face direct leadership paradigm and are often unprepared to lead and work virtually. We need to understand that perhaps the greatest threat to virtual work is a breakdown in trust among team members, and between the team and the enterprise it serves. Without trust, building a true virtual team is almost impossible.

The current crisis can also be seen as an accelerator of change which was already ongoing. Think about artificial intelligence, and new ways of learning. The world of Learning & Development will never be the same, we are now used to digital ways of learning. The same is by the way regarding virtual working, almost everybody knows how to use virtual technology for meetings by Zoom or Teams, or equivalent. But …. this is regarding the Bytes (technology), and not about Behaviour. Although the technology is fantastic, we as human beings want to be with others, socialising, face-to-face meetings, etc. As leaders we need to understand and accommodate these human basic needs, without jeopardising the national health guidelines.

This all requires new leadership, leadership to guide us through the crisis, but also leadership with vision of the post-corona time. There will be different ways of working, recruitment, onboarding, leadership development, talent management, performance management, etc. Human Resources as a discipline will be addressing old issues differently and addressing the new challenges. Having a HR strategy 2021 and beyond, which will be satisfying all stakeholders is absolutely needed. To be prepared to be unprepared. Leaders need to boost their mindsets and skills in order to deliver the competitive edge for the future. We need to understand the new concept and the new era, avoiding attitudes like: “I can manage, it’s not different from the past”, or “It is a different situation that’s all – I am an experienced manager, I should be able to do this – all I have to do is adapt

my existing skills and have the right communications technology”. HR leadership is vital to address the uncertainty, building trust, worship relationships, and delivering business results in these times. I trust the role of HR and together with business leaders will to set vision and direction.

Some call it the “new normal” but I like to call it the “better normal”.

There is still a lot of uncertainty, and unanswered questions. I expect the 9th Bulletin will follow soon, providing you, like in this 8th Bulletin, valuable insights and inspiration for the future.

Warmest regards, and stay healthy and safe,

Rob Veersma

Director Gazprom International Training

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WORKING LIFE HAS ENTERED A NEW ERA

FAREWELL BC (BEFORE CORONAVIRUS) -- WELCOME AD (AFTER DOMESTICATION)

(edited from The Economist, July 2020)

The pandemic has not turned the lights off.

Not only that, it has made remote work seem both normal and acceptable. In the past employees who stayed home had to overcome the suspicion that they were bunking off. Now those who insist on being at the office sound self-important.

Things are missing, of course. Video calls lack the spontaneity of a normal meeting; no off-the-cuff remarks to lighten the mood. Distance makes it difficult to generate camaraderie. Creativity is probably harder to foster. Octavius Black of Mind Gym, a training company, says new ideas come from weak links in networks—ie, people you meet occasionally. Such “casual collisions” have become rarer.

Yet although offices will not disappear, it is hard to imagine that working life will return to BC ways. For more than a century, workers have stuffed themselves onto crowded trains and buses, or endured traffic jams, to get into the office, and back, five days a week. For the past months they have not had to commute and will have enjoyed the hiatus.

Employers, for their part, have maintained expensive digs in city centres because they needed to gather staff in one place. The rent is only part of the cost; there is the cleaning, lighting, printers, catering and security on top. When you work at home, you pay for your own utilities and food.

Many businesses and employees may thus have had their “Wizard of Oz” moment: the corporate HQ is shown to be an old man behind the curtain. Faith in the centralised office may never be restored.

Another aspect of the AD era may be the disappearance of the five-day working week. Even before the pandemic many workers became used to taking phone calls or answering emails at the weekend. In the AD era the barrier between home and working life, a useful way of relieving stress, will be even harder to sustain.

It may be lost altogether. Without the Monday-to-Friday commute, the weekend seems a more nebulous concept, as does the 9-to-5 working day. In future employees may work and take breaks when they please, with the company video call the only fixture. The downside, however, is that the rhythm

of life has been disrupted and new routines are needed: as Madness, a British pop group, sang about school in “Baggy Trousers”, people are reduced to “trying different ways to make a difference to the days”.

Looking further out, the AD era

may bring other changes. Some may decide to live in small towns where housing costs are lower, since they have no need to commute. Men will have fewer excuses to skip cleaning or childcare if they are not disappearing to the office. In a sense, this is a return to normal: until the 19th century most people worked at or close to their homes. But social historians may still regard 2020 as the start of a new age.

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REIMAGINING THE POST-PANDEMIC WORKFORCE

(edited from McKinsey Quarterly, July 2020)

As the pandemic begins to ease, many companies are planning a new combination of remote and on-site working, a hybrid virtual model in which some employees are on premises, while others work from home. The new model promises greater access to talent, increased productivity for individuals and small teams, lower costs, more individual flexibility, and improved employee experiences.

While these potential benefits are substantial, history shows that mixing virtual and on-site working might be a lot harder than it looks—despite its success during the pandemic. Consider how Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer ended that company’s remote-

working experiment in 2013, observing that the company needed to become “one Yahoo!” again, or how HP Inc. did the same that year. Specific reasons may have varied. But in each case, the downsides of remote working at scale came to outweigh the positives.

These downsides arise from the organizational norms that underpin culture and performance—ways of working, as well as standards of behaviour and interaction—that help create a common culture, generate social cohesion, and build shared trust. To lose sight of them during a significant shift to virtual-working arrangements is to risk an erosion over the long term of the very trust, cohesion, and shared

culture that often helps remote working and virtual collaboration to be effective in the short term.

It also risks letting two organizational cultures emerge, dominated by the in-person workers and managers who continue to benefit from the positive elements of co-location and in-person collaboration, while culture and social cohesion for the virtual workforce languish. When this occurs, remote workers can soon feel isolated, disenfranchised, and unhappy, the victims of unintentional behavior in an organization that failed to build a coherent model of, and capabilities for, virtual and in-person work. The sense of belonging, common purpose, and shared identity that inspires all of us to do our best work gets lost. Organizational performance deteriorates accordingly.

Now is the time, as you reimagine the post pandemic organization, to pay careful attention to the effect of your choices on organizational norms and culture. Focus on the ties that bind your people together. Pay heed to core aspects of your own leadership and that of your broader group of leaders and managers. Your opportunity is to fashion the hybrid virtual model that best fits your company, and let it give birth to a new shared culture for all your employees that provides stability, social cohesion, identity, and belonging, whether your employees are working remotely, on premises, or in some combination of both.

AVOIDING THE PITFALLS OF REMOTE WORKING REQUIRES THINKING CAREFULLY ABOUT LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT IN A HYBRID VIRTUAL WORLD. INTERACTIONS BETWEEN LEADERS AND TEAMS PROVIDE AN ESSENTIAL LOCUS FOR CREATING THE SOCIAL COHESION AND THE UNIFIED HYBRID VIRTUAL CULTURE THAT ORGANIZATIONS NEED IN THE NEXT NORMAL.

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KEEP LISTENING TO YOUR WORKFORCE TO BUILD TRUST

(edited from McKinsey & Company, June 2020)

The COVID-19 pandemic is first and foremost a human tragedy that has played out across the globe. People are experiencing unprecedented levels of disruption in their homes and communities, as well as in their jobs. If there is a silver lining in all of this, it’s that organizations and leaders are stepping up in critical areas, according to employees we surveyed

(Exhibit 1).

Organizational responses are having a tangible impact on employees. Compared with respondents who are dissatisfied with their organizations’ responses, those who say their organizations have

responded particularly well are four times more likely to be engaged and six times more likely to report a positive state of well-being.

While those results don’t offset the tremendous uncertainty and anxiety that many continue to feel, they do point to a distinct sense of employee confidence and trust in their organizations’ leaders at this time. This runs contrary to the idea that employees, as a group, are reacting to the current crisis situation with a fight-or-flight response. In fact, an emerging scientific viewpoint is that during times

of great uncertainty, the natural human tendency is a “flight and affiliation” response toward individuals and situations that feel safe and familiar.

By being readily available and helping employees give meaning to a crisis (“sense making”), leaders can build employee resilience and social capital with their people. Moreover, they can

help connect employees to the organization and to one another and can help enhance social connection and affiliation—not just formally, but also by allowing informal and organic conversations to emerge. (Exhibit 2).

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DEMONSTRATING EMPATHY: DEAL WITH THE HUMAN TRAGEDY AS A FIRST PRIORITY

(edited from Mckinsey & Company, March 2020)

In a landscape-scale crisis, people’s minds turn first to their own survival and other basic needs. Will I be sickened or hurt? Will my family? What happens then? Who will care for us? Leaders shouldn’t assign communications or legal staff to address these questions. A crisis is when it is most important for leaders to uphold a vital aspect of their role: making a positive difference in people’s lives.

Doing this requires leaders to acknowledge the personal and professional challenges that employees and their loved ones experience during a crisis. By mid-March 2020, COVID-19 had visited tragedy on countless people by claiming thousands of lives. The pandemic had also triggered powerful second-order effects. Governments instituted travel bans and quarantine requirements, which are important for safeguarding public health but can also keep people from aiding relatives and friends or seeking comfort in community groups or places of worship. School closures in many jurisdictions put strain on working parents. Since each crisis will affect people in particular ways, leaders should pay careful attention to how people are struggling and take corresponding measures to support them.

Lastly, it is vital that leaders not only demonstrate empathy but open themselves to empathy from others and remain attentive to their own well-being. As stress, fatigue, and uncertainty build up during a crisis, leaders might find that their abilities to process information, to remain levelheaded, and to exercise good judgment diminish. They will stand a

better chance of countering functional declines if they encourage colleagues to express concern— and heed the warnings they are given. Investing time in their well-being will enable leaders to sustain their effectiveness over the weeks and months that a crisis can entail.

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC IS TESTING THE LEADERS OF COMPANIES AND ORGANIZATIONS IN EVERY SECTOR AROUND THE WORLD. ITS CONSEQUENCES COULD LAST FOR LONGER AND PRESENT GREATER DIFFICULTIES THAN ANYONE ANTICIPATES.

THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL SKILL: INTENTIONAL LEARNING AND THE CAREER ADVANTAGE

(edited from McKinsey Quarterly, August 2020)

Learning itself is a skill. Unlocking the mindsets and skills to develop it can boost personal and professional lives and deliver a competitive edge.

The call for individuals and organizations alike to invest in learning and development has never been more insistent. The World Economic Forum recently declared a reskilling emergency as the world faces more than one billion jobs transformed by technology. Even before COVID-19 emerged, the world of stable lifetime employment had faded in the rear-view mirror, replaced by the expectation that both executives and employees must continually refresh their skills. The pandemic has only heightened the urgency of doubling down on skill building, either to keep up with the speed of transformation now underway or to manage the particulars of working in new ways.

Despite this context—and the nearly constant refrain for people to adapt to it by becoming lifelong learners—many companies struggle to meet their reskilling goals, and many individuals struggle to learn new and unfamiliar topics effectively. We believe that an underlying cause is the fact that so few adults have been trained in the core skills and mindsets of effective learners. Learning itself is a skill, and developing it is a critical driver of long-term career success. People who have mastered the

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mindsets and skills of effective learning can grow faster than their peers and gain more of the benefits from all the learning opportunities that come their way.

People who master these mindsets and skills become what we call intentional learners: possessors of what we believe might be the most fundamental skill for professionals to cultivate in the coming decades. In the process they will unlock tremendous value both for themselves and for those they manage in the organizations where they work.

CONSIDER A FEW PRACTICES TO STRENGTHEN YOUR CURIOSITY MUSCLE

Face your fears. Fear is a significant barrier to curiosity; confronting those fears can be an important way to unlock learning skills. Spend a bit of time reflecting. What prevents you from asking questions in meetings? What keeps you from trying new things? What makes you reluctant to accept new assignments? Once you name what you are afraid of, you can decide how to address it.

Seek novel experiences and ideas. New environments, new experiences, and exposure to new groups of people can all spark curiosity. Your search for the new can be as dramatic as moving to a new country or as simple as watching a documentary on a topic you don’t know anything about. The key is to avoid stagnation by feeding your mind with something new.

Focus on what you love. Your curiosity doesn’t have to be confined to your career—cultivating the muscle in anything you do will serve all parts of your life. Consider collecting skills and interests outside your day job. Maybe you love podcasts, build engines, coach a sports team, or play an instrument in your spare time. Whatever you love to do, do more of it.

DURING A CRISIS IS WHEN EXTRAORDINARY DEMANDS ARE PLACED ON A BUSINESS

(edited from HR observer, June 2020)

During a crisis is when extraordinary demands are placed on a business and leadership capabilities are often tested. Navigating through a crisis, leaders need to:

• Recognise the challenges and the opportunities which a crisis presents; embedding a resilient cultural mindset throughout the organisation.

• Remain focused, be clear, calm, motivational, and be able to create and communicate decisions effectively.

• Manage workforce, capabilities and well-being, and demonstrate empathy.

Organisational Resilience is a strategic capability which allows a business to have the ability and agility to survive and thrive in an ever-changing world. Building a successful digital transformation strategy has been on the agenda for organisations for many years now. Utilising cutting edge technology can bring significant value to organisations, help gain competitive advantage, deliver better value, reduce operating costs and improve bottom line.

Inevitably, as a result of the pandemic, this accelerated digital transformation:

• Going from traditional 9-5 office to working ‘flexibly’ from home (WFH)

• Retail and Hospitality which rely on face to face interactions, developed new business models i.e. online shopping, virtual cooking classes etc.

• The rise of digital learning (websites, e-books, online lectures, webinars, podcasts etc)

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Accelerating the pace of technological change has had positive outcomes, and this will continue as businesses roll out products and solutions, to meet the evolving needs of consumers as well the workforce. Learning and Development has always been important and aligned to organisational goals. However, the learning culture, processes and behaviours haven’t always been clear.

With the new ways of working and new working arrangements, focal point has been placed on L&D; a key strategic partner to:

• Keep employees engaged, motivated, connected.

• Ensure the right skills and capabilities (move from classroom to digital learnings)

• Create an agile learning culture to unlock talent potential.

This focus has enabled business to deliver during challenging times in line with the direction of the organisation. So although, Leadership Capabilities, Digital Transformation and L&D have always been an on the agenda, It is Resilience and the ability to bounce back, the capacity to adapt in the face of adversity, while maintaining a stable mental wellbeing, which is the key ingredient to organisations succeeding during these unprecedented times.

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) TRENDS THAT EVERY HR MUST KNOW IN 2020

(edited from HR Observer, March 2020)

From flexible working hours to the use of online hiring platforms, a wave of tech solutions has changed the way HRs operate in an organization. Among all those technologies, one that has proven to lead the march of technology is Artificial Intelligence (AI).

AI technology, since its advent, has touched every conventional segment of the domain. It has automated and speed up human resources processes like never before. Because of this, it has landed among the top HR tech trends and even became a topic for various surveys and reports.

Here, we will cover different AI trends that are expected to change the overall experience of the HR world this year and beyond.

AI TRENDS THAT WILL ADD VALUE TO HR SEGMENT IN 2020

1. FIRST THING FIRST: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WON’T REPLACE HUMANS AT THE JOB.

According to the latest AI technology trends, more than 1.7 million robots will be deployed in the

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factories globally by the end of this year. They will take over a majority of the manual and risky tasks done by human workers. But, they won’t make the human workforce go unemployed.

As revealed by the Future of Jobs Report by the World Economic Forum, around 133 million jobs will emerge because of AI. The ones that will be related to understanding, analysing, and introducing human

skills like critical thinking, empathy, and problem-solving into the machines and preparing them for operating effectively with the changing environment.

2. AI-BASED SOFTWARE, ENCOMPASSING HUMAN INTELLIGENCE, WILL ENHANCE THE CANDIDATE EXPERIENCE.

The potential of Artificial Intelligence will also bring a major difference in the segment of talent acquisition. It can be employed to build virtual recruitment tools that screen candidates among thousands of applications at the preliminary stage and save valuable time of recruiters, along with delivering an impressive experience to the candidates. What’s more, these tools can also help recruiters with making informed decisions through their analysing and evaluation practice. Something that will streamline and accelerate the complete process.

3. COGNITIVE DECISION-MAKING OPPORTUNITIES WILL RULE THE HR DOMAIN.

The AI subdomain, cognitive analytics, will also help with making effective routine decisions and offer valuable knowledge to stakeholders in numerous areas. This includes:

Leave Request Management: AI-based software and bots will keep a real-time track of leave requests within the organization and inform people about the probability of their application approval before time. And this way, prevent them from doing bookings and investing in related things.

Mood Analysis: The technology will also be used to keep an eye on the conversations over emails, calls,

and other platforms to analyze the mood of the people. And thereafter, help the employee determine if it’s the time to take a break or not, which can eventually improve workforce productivity.

Real-time Training: In the traditional process, employees are given training just once and that

too in a group. So, the probability of them missing out on any point is obvious. A result of this is that those employees struggle and make mistakes while doing work.

Artificial Intelligence, in this scenario, identifies those people, their requirements, and provide them with the right self-learning resources, alongside informing their managers about the possible training opportunities.

4. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL HELP WITH TAKING UNBIASED DECISIONS.

Many times, hiring managers/HRs become inclined towards their favorite candidate and take biased decisions consciously/subconsciously. Because of this, they fail to meet the requirements of making unbiased decisions and delivering a healthy environment to all. Artificial Intelligence, in this case, can help them with taking unbiased decisions.

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5. THE TECHNOLOGY WILL INCREASE JOB SATISFACTION.

According to a survey, only 29% of people feel satisfied with their jobs. But, with the introduction of AI into the HR system, the ratio will increase. The technology will enforce methods that will bring more personalized activities into the account while eliminating the risk of ignorance and unbiased behaviour, and more. A consequence of which will be higher employee morale and a better on-the-job satisfaction level.

6. COMMUNICATION LEVEL WILL IMPROVE AT AN UNIMAGINABLE PACE.

In 2020, a steep rise will be noticed in the adoption and usage of chatbots. HR experts will turn towards these bots to solve 30%-40% of employee queries in “human” tone; full of sentiments.

7. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WILL AID REROUTING CANDIDATES.

Another new thing that AI is bringing into the world of HR is rerouting candidates. Under this concept, if someone is not an ideal candidate for a particular job, they will be directed to another company or domain. This, on one side, will help companies reach the right talent tool easily. While, on the other side, will open new opportunities for candidates looking for a job, ultimately resulting in higher employment level. As per the market reports, only 7% of companies are working with this concept. But, many

more are expected to grow via this method in the coming two years.

8. AI WILL MAKE THE EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING PROCESS EFFECTIVE.

As per a study three-quarters of employees are likely to stay in a company for over 3 years, if they get a great onboarding experience. AI-based chatbots, in this scenario, will guide newcomers with all the basic questions and make their first day comfortable, effective, and memorable in the new environment.

9. BETTER EMPLOYEE PERKS WILL COME INTO EMERGENCE.

With the changing environment, a drift is being observed in the type of perks that entice employees. While organizations are already making

efforts into realizing new forms of perks, Artificial Intelligence will help with understanding and delivering personalized offers in real-time.

So, as we have covered in this article, Artificial Intelligence is bringing many more surprises in the HR world in the year 2020 and beyond; making it clear that the future lies in the introduction of intelligent machines in the traditional organizational processes.

This edited article originally appeared at https://www.hrtechnologist.com/articles/ai-in-hr/ai-trends-that-every-hr-must-know-in-2020/

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BUILDING THE VITAL SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE OF WORK IN OPERATIONS

(edited from McKinsey & Company, August 2020)

Operationally intensive companies have entered a new wave of automation and digitization. That will have a big impact on the skills they need to remain competitive.

Technological progress is enabling machines to complete many of the tasks that once required human beings. That new automation revolution will have a major effect on employment in the coming years. Nearly every job will change, many quite profoundly, and the overwhelming majority of today’s employees will need to develop new skills. Preparing for the future of work is one of the defining business problems of our time—yet it is one that most organizations are not ready to address.

The transition to the automation revolution has been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Companies are emerging from the crisis into a world of workplace physical distancing and major changes in customer behaviours and preferences. Recovery is forcing organizations to reimagine their operations for the next normal. Manufacturing companies are reconfiguring their supply chains and their production lines. Service organizations are adapting to emphasize digital-first customer journeys and contactless operations. Those changes will have significant effects on the requirements for workforce skills and capabilities, from a dramatic increase in home-based and remote working to a need for shop-

floor personnel to master new tools and newly urgent health and safety requirements.

The future of work will require two types of changes across the workforce: upskilling, in which staff gain new skills to help in their current roles, and reskilling, in which staff need the capabilities to take on different or entirely new roles. McKinsey research suggests that the reskilling challenge will be particularly acute in operationally intensive sectors, such as manufacturing, transportation, and retail, and operations-aligned occupations, such as maintenance, claim processing, and warehouse order picking. Those sectors and occupations will experience a magnitude of change greater than the global average because they often employ large numbers of people and because the predictable and repetitive nature of many operational tasks makes them particularly suitable for automation or digitization.

HOW TO HIRE TALENT REMOTELY DURING TIMES OF CORONAVIRUS

(edited from HR Observer, April 2020)

Recruiters across the globe are still seeking to acquire or place talent despite the impact of COVID-19 and ongoing work-from-home arrangements. Job placement has become a much trickier business – but their ways for talent acquisition specialists to beat the remote-working blues. How to hire in this new remote/virtual environment, while it presents a whole set of challenges it’s still possible to achieve?

Here are some handy tips on how to successfully hire talent remotely.

BE CONSISTENT IN THE RECRUITMENT PROCESS.

It’s essential to maintain high standards and a robust recruitment process.

• Make clear arrangements on who is to be involved in the hiring process • Guarantee sure those involved in interview process have a firm grasp

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of the skills required for the role as well as an understanding of core business values

• Ensure interviewers have a consistent assessment and questioning technique that can assess the applicant

• Ensure everyone involved in the recruitment process has the technology to support virtual interviewing

REDUCE RISK

• Extend probation periods. Some companies implement a longer probation period to minimise the risk on recruiting virtually and reduce the impact of what could be a longer time frame to get new employees up to speed

• Remote on-boarding. Savvy organisations are posting out laptops and offering online inductions using Zoom or Microsoft Teams to run the programmes. Clients are also arranging virtual welcome drinks/lunches as part of a fruitful on-boarding experience

• Effective communication. This is critical for both existing staff and new potential hires. A remote environment can be an isolating experience, and it can be easy to drift away from undertaking objectives. It is therefore essential to have both formal and informal communication check-ins on a frequent basis

• Compliance/employment checks. It might be tempting to take a short cut in this area, but don’t. It’s essential when recruiting to still make sure the relevant employment checks are in

place. It’s definitely not something you can get away with not doing.

• Delayed start dates. This is a possible solution that can work effectively and ensure that you are in a position to hit the ground running once things return to relative normality. But it’s critical to build in touch points with the candidates in the interim period to make sure they remain engaged.

Parts of this article first appeared on the HR Grapevine website.

HOW HR CAN FINE-TUNE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR THE NEW WORLD OF WORK

(Edited from HRD Connect, June 2020)

Not only can leaders help organizations to navigate crisis, but perhaps they can also reshape the workplace along the way. Whether this comes down to technology, trust or diversity, 2020 could be the year for leaders to truly innovate and harness potential.

The global pandemic has turned our world upside down and accelerated disruption from the blurring of industry lines and economic and geo-political uncertainty, to disruptive technologies and the shrinking of company and product lifespans. It has forced us to rethink how and why we work, job satisfaction, and ethical leadership.

Here are five ways HR can help leaders transform for a brave new world of work.

FROM MONEY TO MEANING

Economist Milton Friedman stated that the purpose of an organization was solely to make profit for its shareholders. This no longer holds relevance

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in a world of disease, debt and disruption. With a new, more responsible mandate emerging, the challenge for leaders is to rethink what makes organizations successful. Though 87% of executives agree that purpose should extend beyond profit, only 35% deliver on a multi-stakeholder model today.

FROM SCALING EFFICIENCY TO SCALING INTELLIGENCE

Are you ready to win the future or be disrupted by it? The 20th century was about scaling efficiency and doing things right rather than doing the right things. The winners of tomorrow will scale intelligence, with the race to reskill and upskill being a top leadership priority.

Every organization says it wants to invest in new ways of working and embark on a major transformation in 2020, and almost all report significant skill gaps. The C-suite regards scaling intelligence through reskilling and upskilling as a top talent investment capable of driving business advantage. And yet according to Mercer, just 34% of HR leaders are investing in this as part of their future of work strategy.

FROM CONTROL TO TRUST

In the not too distant past, trust was considered a ‘soft’ corporate issue. Its connection to a company’s value was always there, but unclear. But not anymore. I define trust as a confident relationship in the unknown. It’s at the heart of every action,

relationship and transaction. Trust has entered center stage for HR over the over the last few months.

FROM ‘DOING DIGITAL’ TO ‘BEING DIGITAL’

Tesla is moving into insurance. Google is moving into credit cards. Amazon is moving into everything. Business as usual is over. Now, leaders must master the new competition landscape. This means your organization is competing on learning, ecosystems, physical and digital, imagination, and resilience.

To win today and tomorrow, leaders must move from ‘doing digital’ to ‘being digital’. This means frictionless, personalized, and predictive experiences for customers on the outside, and the use of predictive analytics on inside.

FROM #ME TO #WE

Why is it that only 5% of nations are led by women and less than 3% of CEOs on the FTSE 100 Index are women? It’s impossible to harness the power of diversity if women are ignored as potential future leaders in organizations. To thrive, every organization must prioritize three things:

• Differences • Divergent thinking • Diversity

What’s more, the pandemic has highlighted that the current leadership model is broken, and has provided an opportunity to reset in three ways:

• Less micro- and more macro-managers • More ethical leaders • Winning through empathy.

Organizations competing on resilience, empathy and imagination will capture the most value when difference, divergent thinking and diversity is not just a set of beliefs but is recognized and celebrated. It’s clear to me that people want values and value at work, and that this starts by moving from a ‘me’ to a ‘we’ mindset.

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INTERVIEW MARC SCHONAGEN

Interview by Rob Veersma, who met Marc in Shell when he was Vice President HR, Shell Energy Europe (SEE) / Global HR Manager, Shell Trading & Shipping

Marc Schonagen is now an Executive Search and Leadership Expert. He has more than 25 years of international leadership experience in Human Resources roles for leading blue-chip organisations such as Sony, Shell and Heineken. Managing sizable and internationally dispersed teams, he has successfully led Global and European cultural and organisational transformation projects and helped leadership step change their results during periods of significant change. (M&A, disruptive competitors, turn-arounds, and reorganisations). Marc recently received his INSEAD’s Masters degree in Consulting & Coaching for Change

WHAT IS THE IMPACT ON LEADERSHIP IN THE TIMES OF COVID-19?

During my Corporate career as CHRO I have managed sizable and internationally dispersed teams through times of crisis and turmoil, such as the Global Financial Crisis in 2008. At that time, we moved overnight from a growth agenda to a cost saving agenda and looking at new ways of working to be more efficient. This pandemic is the GFC on steroids: not only we are facing a period of deep financial uncertainty, but we are also facing a crisis that is hurting individuals at a deeper level. Our sense of safety is very much challenged – at home and in the office.

I do not think leadership needs to change particularly because of COVID-19, as it always needed to evolve in the first place. In my view the key of leadership today is influence, not straight authority, leaders do not force people to follow and invite people on a journey. That was true before COVID-19, but the need for leadership to take that transformation journey is today more important

than ever, and with most of us working outside of the office, this is even more pressing.

So, a very urgent and common question is how do you keep people engaged when they are far away

from their peers, far away from their managers? How do you keep them connected to the company’s mission?

WHAT KIND OF LEADERSHIP DO YOU THINK WE NEED GOING FORWARD?

In the past, leaders often only communicated about the company, like it existed in a vacuum. It is not possible anymore. COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, environmental challenges – no one can ignore the deep societal transformations that are happening at the moment. Consumers are now pushing for brands to take a

stand on social issues. Those consumers? They are also employees of companies. And they are looking for their employers and their leaders, to address these topics as well.

In today’s world a compelling story should therefore not only focus on the company, but also on its impact on society, on customers, on the team and on “me” as an individual.

Leaders must speak to the collective imagination, articulate the shared values, help everyone to buy into their vision. Too many leaders do not realize they are always on stage, the slightest move they make is carefully observed, analysed, and discussed. I call this the “leadership cloud”. It is always around you and people can see it, whether you are aware of it or not.

WHAT ABOUT THE DAY-TO-DAY OF MANAGING A TEAM?

'Imagine if you go to a bar, and in the same bar you talk with your boss, your colleagues, meet your parents or date someone, isn’t it weird? That’s what we’re doing now'

This quote (which I slightly adapted) from Gianpiero Petriglieri (Associate Professor of Organisational

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Behaviour at INSEAD) explains very well how many of us feel today working from home.

The aspects of our lives that used to be separate – work, friends, family – are all now happening in the same space. People like variety, like to meet people in different places and in different roles. When these aspects are reduced, we become more vulnerable to negative feelings.

In my view going forward we will keep a significant number of our workforce working from home, Novartis for example, wants to offer all staff the choice of how they wish to work to get the best results, post COVID-19.

This has a significant impact on the way people need to be managed. In my experience the key challenge is to ensure you also keep connecting on personal level and make online meetings both social and about work. It is understandable that you focus your meetings on targets, key outcomes, results, but it is very important to keep variety, to have some social interaction as you would do in the office.

So maybe start you group meetings with a check-in, ask people to reflect and share personal experiences to keep everyone connected on a personal level. And as a leader, plan one-on-one’s meetings on how people are feeling and doing. What are they missing in their interactions with you and their team members? Do they still understand the strategy, is

there still alignment between their assumptions and those of the organization? And make room for spontaneous phone calls or video calls, where you on purpose do not discuss business; again, like you

probably would do in the office. Encourage your team to do the same, allow for celebrations and social recognition. In a time like this where people are a bit disconnected, this is more important then ever. And if you have the change to meet with the team physically, make it count, talk strategy and goals, check on alignment and let people share personal stories, let them see that you are all in the same boat together.

WE LIVE IN A CONSTANT CHANGING WORLD, WHEN YOU RECRUIT FOR SENIOR LEADERS, WHAT COMPETENCIES AND BEHAVIOURS FOR CHANGE ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?

I believe that the most effective leaders have a value driven basis. Authenticity marks the difference between effective and dysfunctional leadership: they feel good in their skin, do not feel the need to impress or please others.

I would like to see that leaders have demonstrated the following competences for change:

• Creating the case, being able to define and articulate an appealing case

• Creating structural change, not only starting a change process, but creating value added lasting change within organisations, so being able to implement and sustain change

• Engaging others, enabling the change true other and facilitating and developing capabilities in others to create sustainable change

Leadership behaviours for change:

• Shaping behaviour, identifying effective behaviours which reinforce your wanted culture and being able to install those behaviours, through being the example, training, effective communication

• Framing change, let people understand the context of the change, make it understandable for people, give the change a purpose

• Creating capacity, many change efforts are not successful because we do not make resource and mental capacity available to focus on the change initiatives. A good leader creates that space, ensures there is enough capacity within the organisation for the organisational change to stick.

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EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND SHAREHOLDER VALUE ARE AT HIGH RISK

(edited from HR Connect, May 2020)

Companies often claim that “people are our greatest asset”. But this may just be marketing spin – its true objective is to maximise profit. Traditional management thinking is that the value created by a company is represented by a pie, which is fixed in size. So, any slice of the pie given to workers means a smaller slice for shareholders. A CEO’s goal, therefore, is to squeeze as much as possible out of employees. Indeed, Henry Ford became hugely successful in the 1920s by using the assembly line to force workers to keep up with the pace of production.

This pie-splitting mentality stills remains prevalent today. Scandals are everywhere. Amazon’s value crossed the $1 trillion mark in February, but this value may have been created at the expense of workers. Its warehouse working conditions involve long and intense hours, high injury frequency and little skill development.

Such human resource practices are highly damaging. Not only to employees but, less obviously, to businesses themselves. They contribute to income inequality and social unrest, and so citizens – and the politicians that represent them – are fighting back with proposals to heavily regulate business. So, leaders urgently need another way to manage their workforces.

But the good news is there is another way. The pie-growing mentality stresses that the pie is not fixed. By investing in its workers, a company doesn’t reduce investors’ slice of the pie. Instead, it grows the pie, ultimately benefiting investors, because these workers become more motivated and productive, and are more likely to stay with the firm. The idea that the pie can be grown – that both employees and shareholders can simultaneously gain – might seem a too-good-to-be-true pipedream, so we need rigorous evidence to back it up.

What does this mean during the current pandemic? Companies are under substantial

pressure to cut costs. Since employees are often viewed as a cost centre, they’re ripe for the chopping block. It’s not at all the case that employee well-being is a luxury that should only be prioritised when you’re flush with cash.

Of course, the harsh commercial reality is that most companies can’t afford to keep all their workers. While some politicians and the media may call on businesses to “do the right thing and argue that the “right thing” is to fire no-one, this simply isn’t realistic. Job cuts or furloughs may be necessary, and not taking these tough decisions may lead to a company going bankrupt – in which case, all jobs will be lost. But what the research suggests is that it may well be good business sense to cut dividends, cancel share buybacks, and even scrap capital investments to reduce the losses imposed on workers.

And companies can think of innovative ways to minimise the pain felt by employees. In early 2009, as the financial crisis hit, manufacturer Barry-Wehmiller lost 40% of its orders in a few days. To avoid bankruptcy, it needed to save $10 million. But rather than doing so by firing workers, everyone –from secretary to CEO – was required to take four weeks of unpaid vacation. Not only did this safeguard workers’ jobs, but it also tried to ensure that their free time was used productively by putting on classes at its corporate university. Moreover, this furlough was tradable, so employees who were more financially secure took double the load to prevent a colleague from having to take any. Barry-Wehmiller ended up saving $20 million, double its original target, and morale soared. In the current

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crisis, Qantas Airlines can’t pay its furloughed workers, because its business has been decimated. But it’s developed an innovative partnership with Woolworths, a grocery store, to redeploy some of these employees.

And the “Best Companies” survey shows that treating employees fairly is not simply about throwing money at them, but anticipating and meeting their needs as humans – so all companies, regardless of their cash position, have a responsibility to treat them humanely. Standard Chartered is providing mental wellbeing and support for those working from home in self-isolation. Disney is maintaining the health benefits of the employees that it had to furlough since its theme parks and cruises are shut.

The evidence shows that people are most companies’ greatest asset. It’s up to business leaders to act accordingly.

Alex Edmans is Professor of Finance at London Business School and author of “Grow the Pie: How Great Companies Deliver Both Purpose and Profit”.

HR STRATEGY 2020: BE PREPARED TO BE UNPREPARED

(edited from HR Connect, July 2020)

As the world prepares to return to work, one thing must be acknowledged by HR and business leaders: nothing is set in stone. In devising a new HR strategy, organizations must expect the unexpected and ensure that they remain agile.

As we pass the halfway mark in 2020, HR needs to accept that as a global community, we are officially now experiencing the enigmatic ‘new normal’. This new era for will require an effective HR strategy in the short term, whilst still keeping a keen an eye on company values and vision.

HR must be prepared to be unprepared for what the next 6 months will bring to our organizations. In our current economic and social climate, uncertainty will continue to be the norm. So, how can HR help their organizations demonstrate more agility and adaptability for the road ahead? Embrace and incorporate the following steps:

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STEP ONE: EMBRACING AGILITY IN YOUR ACTIONS

HR professionals must influence their organizations to act more quickly and clearly in the coming months. As we see a rise in COVID-19 cases, more and more companies are seeing cases among their own workforces. HR must assist the organization in adapting to these changing conditions. Now is the time for HR to facilitate a quick review of how their organization has handled the last 4 months by asking the following questions:

1. What are the overall lessons learned? 2. How do you integrate your ERT (Emergency

Response Team) actions into the regular organizational rhythm? For example, should your organization establish a full-time role to manage pandemic responses?

3. Who are the managers that have handled the remote working aspect well and kept their teams engaged? What lessons can you share from their experiences with the rest of the organization?

4. What changes do you need to make in your response regarding policies, procedures, and communications? For example, should you have a standard sick leave policy that encourages employees to stay at home if they are symptomatic or have been exposed to a person with a positive COVID-19 test?

STEP TWO: EMBRACING AUTHENTICITY IN YOUR COMMUNICATIONS

We have seen organizations over the last several months rush to communicate in response to the medical, social and economic conditions we have experienced since the beginning of March. There have been several examples of these communications not being authentic as they relate to the reality of their organization’s current environment.

As a result, we have seen these communications damage the credibility of the management team. HR can help the management team improve the authenticity of their communications by asking these three questions regularly:

• Do these communications address the issues at hand?

• Are they directed at the target audience? (employees, customers or community)

• Are the communicated plans supported by the organization’s leadership?

• If the answer to all three of these questions are yes, then you are on the right path to authentic communication. If not, then you need to revisit each communication and revise accordingly.

STEP THREE: EMBRACING FLEXIBILITY IN THE ORGANIZATION

Key areas where HR strategy can help organizations embrace flexibility are:

1. SETTLE THE REMOTE WORKING VS. RETURNING TO WORK DEBATE

• Fully identify all the jobs that can continue remotely for the rest of the year

• Decide if you are going to give employees the option to return to the office or stay remote

• As a contingency, develop a hybrid or staggered schedule for employees to return to the office (such as every other week by department) to facilitate social distancing guidelines

2. GOALS & OBJECTIVE

• Ensure the organization has changed its G&O’s to adapt to the new normal

• Structure the G&O’s to be more short-term; set either monthly or quarterly for the rest of 2020

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3. PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT

• Seize the opportunity to change your current yearly method of performance management to embrace a more immediate, short-term review feedback cycle

• Develop a contingency performance management schedule for Q4 2020 going into Q1 2021 to anticipate continued disruption factors

4. ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

• Decide what permanent changes need to be made in your organization structure to add flexibility for changing climate

• Evaluate other organizational design opportunities to streamline management, increase efficiency or facilitate remote work

STEP FOUR: INSTILLING RESILIENCE IN YOUR EMPLOYEES

The COVID-19 sprint in March has become a marathon in July. HR leaders have a challenge in building a foundation of resilience among their employees for the rest of 2020. Here are some ways to build that foundation:

1. Develop a Mental Health strategy 2. Encourage employees to take a break: Summer

is typically when many employees take their vacations, so encourage a welcome break from the rigors of the new normal to avoid burnout.

3. Employee engagement: encourage managers to continue engaging with their employees by

balancing performance expectations, conducting mental health check-ins and asking for feedback.

4. Establish flexible boundaries: work life and personal life have never been more blended than they are now. Look for ways HR can help managers and employees establish flexible boundaries to ensure work is not a 24/7 commitment.

During this disruptive time, it’s important for HR to adapt to the new normal and be prepared to be unprepared. Keep in mind that even if you have not embraced these strategies at the pandemic’s onset, it’s not too late to steer yourself back onto the right path. HR can help everyone successfully navigate the rest of 2020.

3 WAYS COVID-19 IS TRANSFORMING LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

(Edited from HR Connect, June 2020)

L&D is among the areas most heavily impacted by COVID-19, and as a result, organisations must adapt to the changing times. But the question is, to what extent will we see these adaptations become permanent alterations to the complexion of corporate learning and development?

The world of business as we know it has changed dramatically since the global pandemic began, and many believe that workplace learning has been one of the hardest hit areas.

For instance, in a report published in March earlier this year, management consulting firm Mckinsey found that roughly 50% of learning and development (L&D) plans due to commence between March and June 2020 have been postponed or cancelled in North America. The report also notes that in parts of Asia and Europe, the figure is closer to 100%.

This in itself presents a fairly dire scenario for modern business. Whilst much of this postponement comes down to both physical and financial capacity, L&D is simply not a disposable aspect of company culture.

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“Companies can’t just push the pause button on critical workplace learning,” says the report.

Naturally, organisations will now have to adapt their approach to L&D in order to protect its status as a core aspect of culture. Here are some of the changes we think might occur as a result.

VIRTUAL LEARNING MAY BECOME THE NORM

When it comes to the changing business world, one of the most common by-products will undoubtedly be a greater reliance on technology and virtual platforms. This is commonly held to be the case in areas such as talent acquisition and internal communication, and L&D is unlikely to deviate from this trend.

In fact, there is scope to suggest that L&D may be at the forefront this, with evidence suggesting that countless organisations were planning to invest in learning technologies prior to the onset of the virus.

With remote working having become part of the new normal, and many organisations not planning to return to an office space until 2021, this investment in eLearning can only be set to rise across the board.

MORE UPSKILLING AND RESKILLING

Another process being accelerated by the onset of the pandemic is the need to upskill and reskill workforces.

Firstly, and most importantly, the greater reliance on technologies means that employees must be trained to operate them correctly and work alongside them efficiently.

For instance, one report found that as much as 14% of the global workforce would have to switch occupations or acquire new skills by 2030 because of automation and artificial intelligence.

Similarly, another report showed that 87% of executives said they were either currently experiencing skill gaps in the workforce or expected them within a few years.

It stands to reason that, given the already considerable magnitude of these trends, COVID-19 will serve to accentuate the issue and thus organisations will need to become much more vigilant in equipping workforces with the relevant skill-sets.

What’s more, with the size of teams shrinking as a result of financial difficulty for organisations, a culture of project-based, collaborative working has become much more common.

With this being the case, a new culture of continual training and learning has become the norm for many organisations, and it is possible that many employees will maintain a hunger for this post-pandemic.

SOCIAL LEARNING

One of the key L&D trends that has emerged as a result of coronavirus is a greater emphasis on social learning methods. In a nutshell, social learning abandons the traditional framework of learning models, and is founded on new behaviours being acquired by observing or imitating others.

In the context of remote working, this ties in heavily with engagement. Organisations are becoming more conscious of dwindling engagement levels among workforces, and thus, traditional methods of learning are beginning to be viewed as ineffective in the circumstances.

As a result, social learning is becoming a much greater part of the agenda and is thought to be an effective approach.

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AN OPERATING MODEL FOR THE NEXT NORMAL: LESSONS FROM AGILE ORGANIZATIONS IN THE CRISIS

(Edited from McKinsey & Company, June 2020)

Companies with agile practices embedded in their operating models have managed the impact of the COVID-19 crisis better than their peers. Here’s what helped them cope.

For many companies, the first, most visible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic quickly created a challenge to their operating and business models. Everything came into question, from how and where employees worked to how they engaged with customers to which products were most competitive and which could be quickly adapted. To cope, many turned to practices commonly associated with agile teams in the hope of adapting more quickly to changing business priorities.

Agile organizations are designed to be fast, resilient, and adaptable. In theory, organizations using agile practices should be perfectly suited to respond to shocks such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the experiences of agile—or partially agile—companies during the crisis provides insights around which elements of their operating models proved most useful in practice. Through our research, one characteristic stood out for companies that outperformed their peers: companies that ranked higher on managing the impact of the COVID-19 crisis were also those with agile practices more deeply embedded in their enterprise operating models. That is, they were mature agile

organizations that had implemented the most extensive changes to enterprise-wide processes before the pandemic.

That suggests implications for less agile companies as economies reopen. Should they set aside the agile practices they adopted during the pandemic and return to their traditional operating models? Or should they double down on agile practices to embrace the more fundamental team- and enterprise-level processes that helped successful agile companies navigate the downturn?

FINALLY, PREDICTIONS ARE HARD TO MAKE, BUT THE TREND IS CLEAR

(edited from KMPG International, 2019)

KEY FINDINGS OF “FUTURE OF HR 2020” REPORT

SHAPING THE WORKFORCE IS HR’S DEFINING CHALLENGE

• Preparing the workforce for Artificial Intelligence (AI) and related technologies will be the biggest challenge for the HR function.

PASSING THE “CULTURE TEST”

• HR is in the process of changing their organization’s culture to align with their organization’s purpose.

EMPLOYEES IN THE DRIVING SEAT: THE IMPORTANCE OF EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE BY DESIGN

• HR are prioritizing employee experience (EX) as a focus area, and even that employee experience is a strategic priority for the entire organization.

BREAKING THE CYCLE: HOW HR IS CRACKING THE DATA CODE THROUGH WORKFORCE INSIGHT

• HR organizations are already investing in HR analytics and Robotic Process Automation, or RPA.

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