Kaizen Attends Remote Workforce Management Event Hosted By AIST
Kaizen Recruitment attended the Working and Managing a Remote Workforce webinar hosted by Australian Institute of Superannuation Trustees (AIST).
Chris Goulas from Kaizen Recruitment, Sarah Guthleben from Equipsuper and Renee Curtiss from HESTA shared their insights into how they have equipped their workforces with the technical and emotional support to operate effectively from home, while also planning for a smooth return to the office.
Wellbeing and support
It is important that people leaders feel empowered to treat their team members on a case by case basis by offering them the psychological and emotional support required to perform remote working at their best.
Tools and other support mechanisms included:
- Providing staff access to Employee Assistant Program;
- Personal and professional development plans such as leadership competency framework to assist leaders in managing their teams in a virtual world;
- Consider introducing buddy systems that enable more personable discussions (non-work related) to occur between staff to foster relationships and connectivity; AND
- Information and communication on best practice covid-19 workplace health and safety plans (for both remote and office-based scenarios) in combating feelings of uncertainty and anxiety.
Cultural impact
Senior leadership teams in partnership with human resources play a critical role in setting the behavioural tone across organisations big and small in dealing with challenging times. Therefore, it is important to regularly revisit your purpose, values and core customer value proposition that contribute toward making each staff member’s day meaningful.
Key takeaways for senior leaders included:
- Engage your people as early and as often as possible;
- Agree on operating principles, roles and responsibilities;
- Role model the expectations you set;
- Simple, timely and regular communication is key; AND
- Empower your people to make decisions.
Return to work planning
A one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to work as each organisation will need to put in place a plan that best suits its people whilst still delivering upon its business objectives.
Some key considerations included:
- The creation of a psychological safety framework enabling organisations to individually assess each employee in consideration of their personal health and mental well-being and how this relates to business and family needs;
- Taking the advice of Australian and State Government resources;
- Agree, document and communicate return to work health and safety controls; AND
- Whatever the plan, employee engagement on this matter is paramount to ensure that psychological and emotional well-being are at the heart of the decision-making process.
Employee engagement
Striking the right balance between work and home life responsibilities has been a constant theme in overcoming that feeling of Groundhog Day that comes with remote working.
Some ideas included:
- Conducting pulse surveys to engage staff on what is working well and what are some of challenges of remote working;
- Creating weekly and fortnightly personal and professional development programs designed to bring and keep teams connected as well as focus on the individual and their development;
- Leveraging extra-curricular qualifications of staff (personal trainers, yoga teachers) in offering online fitness sessions to staff looking for a mental and physical break in their day;
- Inviting guest speakers external to the organisation to present on topics of interest that are generated via staff ideas (pulse survey questions); AND
- Creating informal forums like “share a cup of tea with…” as a substitute to traditional social workplace interactions that occur over a coffee, lunch and during after work catch ups.
Recruitment trends
Some superannuation organisations have applied the ‘handbrake’ on recruitment without throwing out their plans entirely and have simply prioritised business critical recruitment needs and backfilling roles over BAU needs.
Other trends included:
- From a people strategy perspective, the need to stand people down or make roles redundant has been quite limited;
- There is a stronger focus on finding the right balance between how technology, systems, process efficiency and ultimately people contribute to ‘balancing the books’; AND
- Organisations are well and truly accustomed to conducting recruitment processes via the use of online platforms – the obvious disadvantages being the difficulty in observing body language or taking physical cues from one another normally observed during a face-to-face interview.
Polling results
Polling results from the online audience indicated that:
- 50% had been asked to complete a survey about their feelings toward remote working;
- 70% are keen to continue working from home;
- Using public transport polled the highest as the biggest concern people have in returning to the office;
- Wellbeing followed by having purpose is what most staff find as important in support from their leaders during remote working; AND
- Teamwork, collaboration and social interactions polled highest regarding what people miss most about ‘traditional office life’.
In summary, these findings tell a story that although most people have settled into a rhythm of working from home there is plenty of opportunity to continue to invest in practices that nurture wellbeing, collaboration and purposeful work. It was also clear that there is no standardised playbook for what a return to a traditional office setup looks like however it was evident flexible working arrangements are here to stay and that a mix of old and new practices may be the best recipe for success.
We hope that all participants found the discussion helpful in managing a remote workforce successfully.
For all your human resources recruitment needs, please contact Kaizen Recruitment on +61 3 9095 7157.
Chris Goulas – Principal Consultant and HR Lead
Kaizen Recruitment specialises financial services recruitment across funds management, wealth management, superannuation, investment consulting and insurance. We are based in Melbourne and Sydney. For assistance or further information please telephone our office at +61 3 9095 7157 or submit an online form.
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