Evelyn Reynolds

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    How the Pandemic Has Affected the Future of Work

    The fourth industrial revolution has shifted our world into a new digital era and the pandemic has accelerated this from a movement to an immediate necessity. Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work and Oxford Economics’ Work Ahead most recent report, The Work Ahead: Digital First (to Last), examines the most significant trends and tactics for businesses around the world to be aware of and act on if they are to ensure a successful future of work.
    What is clear, now more than ever, is that companies that lagged behind on their digital transformation and those that have not evolved to keep up in this digital era are sure to be hit the hardest, with some at risk of becoming obsolete. In fact, half (49%) of global businesses expect COVID-19 to destroy traditional, non-digital business, as well as those that do not move online aggressively enough. The findings of the report confirm that digital competency is key for the future of work.
    Other findings include:
    The effect of the pandemic on employer/employee relationships
    Business leaders cited employee safety (59%) and worker recognition (58%) as their current key priorities. Employee compensation and safety are understandably a top priority, given how the pandemic has changed the business landscape and forced many companies to make difficult decisions when it comes to staff. But this might change over time as new economic and labor dynamics shape workforce strategies, with new compensation models coming into play.
    However, the pandemic has also shown a need for greater social protections, with almost half of business leaders (45%) expecting better access to pay and benefits for freelancers. More than two-fifths (43%) also expect a drop in pay for highly paid executives. There is no doubt, however, that one of the biggest influences of the pandemic is business leaders’ acceptance of home-working, as two-fifths (41%) foresee HR policies having to be adapted to account for more flexible approaches to remote working in the future.
    The skills needed for advancing in careers are shifting
    The pandemic has left society in a period of existential doubt. Technology has not only caused an adjustment in how we work but galvanized how we think about it. It has raised questions around how we are valued and remain valuable in a world where machines are increasingly automating mundane work.
    The concept of “upskilling” is one that has increased in popularity – centered around human talent acquiring skills and proficiency that even the smartest machines cannot be equipped with. When revisiting our report from 2016, business leaders then were less receptive to the importance of innovation, the ability to create new and better ways of working. However, this concept has grown in recognition among business leaders and is now regarded as the most important skill for succeeding at work.
    On the other hand, “strategic thinking” is a skill that has significantly dropped in importance when compared to 2016, falling from second-ranked to the fifth most important skill for business leaders. This likely reflects the current appetite for disruptive ways of thinking.
    A new appreciation of technologies impact on work and society
    We are clearly entering a new stage in our relationship with technology. A decade into this new digital era and business leaders voice a greater appreciation for the promise and peril inherent in modern technology. There is a better understanding of the power of technology, with more agreeing that digital technologies will positively impact their employment, whether by protecting them from being replaced by robots and AI (44%) or helping them stay employed (46%).
    Unexpectedly, the report showed a decline in business leaders’ belief that digital technologies increase personal efficiency and productivity – in the range of 30 to 40%. This shows insight into the reality of our “always switched on” frame of mind brought on by technology. The additional layers of technology we are now subject to in our virtual working worlds have created an environment where employees are working longer hours, working more intensely, and juggling more demands, but these layers seem to be having the knock-on effect of making many of us less efficient and productive.
    Digital is not the silver bullet we once thought it was
    The core components at the center of this digitized world are the 3 A’s – AI, automation, and analytics. The report revealed that the further business leaders move into their technology implementations, the more they appear to be recognizing that none is a “silver bullet” that can be easily deployed to produce magical results.
    Developing this more mature appreciation for what digital technologies can actually do is an important step of the digital journey for every organization. While companies initially dragged their feet and debated how seriously they should take these 3 A’s, there is now no doubt that combined, they are critical for every organization to stay in business in the great post-COVID reset.
    We are now deep in the era of “digital in practice”
    It is all well and good to think about the future of work, but this report shows how important it is for businesses to act, and now. When COVID-19 took over our lives, business leaders had to scrutinize everything from how and where employees worked, to how they engaged with customers, to which products and services were viable as customer needs and behaviors switched, quite literally, overnight. It is clear now that those businesses with data mastery at their core were the best at pivoting, adapting, and reinventing themselves on the fly.
    And for the companies that are lagging? Digital transformation is no longer a journey, but a key component in staying relevant and fit for purpose. For the businesses that do not consider themselves to be “modern”, you soon will be – otherwise, you could face extinction in this digital era.
    By Euan Davis, European Lead for Cognizant’s Center for the Future of Work.

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    The Hierarchy of Needs for Home-Working in 2021

    It’s been a good few years – 78 years to be exact – since Abraham Maslow published his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” and introduced us to the ‘Hierarchy of Needs’.
    Chances are you’re already familiar with it, but it features five stages and is typically stylized like a pyramid. Moving from the bottom to the top, the stages theorized a human being’s motivation; psychological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, and self-actualization. The theory was that the lower needs have to be satisfied before you can move up to attend to the needs of the next stage, and so on until you reach the final stage.
    But as we stated before, it’s been a while. So much about life, especially working life, has changed in the last 12 months. Is it time to introduce a new hierarchy of needs that is more suited to not only the 21st century, but our current working situation, and the state of modern recruitment?
    Before we dive in, let’s quickly recap the five stages of human needs (according to Maslow):
    Physiological: This first stage is about our most basic needs like food, water, and sleep
    Safety: Are we safe? Are we healthy? This covers everything from shelter to financial stability
    Love / belonging: Once we’re safe and fed, how do we feel like we belong in our own lives? This could be through relationships, friendships, and romantic intimacy
    Esteem: Then we start to work on ourselves. This self-growth and building on our esteem happens through status, respect, and recognition
    Self-actualization: This final stage relates to self-fulfillment which – according to Maslow – says is unique to every person
    Introducing: The new hierarchy of needs for working from home in 2021
    2020 saw a complete overhaul of how we do our jobs, and how businesses interact with their employees. Last year saw us replace face-to-face meetings with Zoom and desks with dining room tables. The working world has changed, and our needs have alongside it, with how we go about our jobs, the way we communicate, flexibility, and ways to improve productivity. One thing that hasn’t changed though is our desire to succeed in our careers.

    Now in 2021, mid-pandemic, many businesses are now in full work-from-home mode while continuing to go about their day, conducting meetings, recruiting new staff, and pitching for new customers. With all that in mind, business security solutions provider, Expert Security UK, thinks it’s time for a new hierarchy of needs:
    Working equipment: To do a job properly in the digital age, your equipment needs to be top-notch. That means no internet outages, no computer crashes, or faulty equipment. These are the basics.
    Security: We all need, and all deserve, to feel safe regardless of where we do business. This means that our premises – wherever that may be – needs to be protected efficiently with things like electric gates, driveway security bollards, and CCTV, etc.
    Safety and hygiene: If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we should never be complacent when it comes to hygiene, especially in an enclosed workspace. As we (hopefully) move forwards out of this pandemic, businesses will need to have updated health and safety policies that reflect hygiene and social distancing best practices. If home is your work – whether it’s temporary or permanent – keep your hygiene standards high.
    Team culture: Don’t forget about your people. Office banter and inside jokes are easy to keep alive when you’re all in one place, but with most people working from home, it’s more important now to keep that office culture alive and well. Use the internet and digital means to your advantage.
    Career success: Just because we’re working from home doesn’t mean our ambitions have been put on hold. We all have a need to feel valued, and that includes in our careers. Make sure your employees’ progressions are still on track, so they have something to work for.
    By Sam Levene at Expert Security UK.

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    How Manual Workers Can Create the Perfect CV

    The COVID-19 pandemic has led to some tough times for a lot of professionals in the UK, especially those who are on the lookout for a new job. If you are in this position, it has therefore never been more important to make sure your application is as strong as it can possibly be, in order to give you the advantage against some stiff competition.
    For manual workers, such as drivers, laborers, and maintenance workers, this can feel like an especially big challenge, since these types of workers are often less likely to have a written CV prepared and ready to go.
    As such, if you’re a professional in one of these fields, it’s worth taking some time to think about how to craft the perfect CV. This will make a real difference in helping you get noticed, and give you the best chance of securing an interview.
    Getting the right structure for your CV
    If you have not written a formal CV before, it can be hard to know where to start. Getting the structure right should be one of your top priorities, helping you present all of the key information that employers want to know in the most persuasive way possible.
    When writing your CV, follow this simple five-step structure:
    Introduction – this should be a five or six-sentence statement about yourself and your experience, summarising your most relevant credentials, as well as your contact details
    Core skills & knowledge – write a bullet point list of your most relevant professional skills and qualifications, focusing on what’s most relevant to the job you are applying for. This may include a Construction Skills Certification Scheme (CSCS) certificate, or something similar
    Employment history – list out your employment history, starting with the most recent role and working backward, for up to 10 years where possible. Detail each role with bullet points about who your employers were, your main duties, and any key achievements worth highlighting
    Education history – this should include all of the schools, colleges, and universities you have attended and the years you were there, alongside any other relevant additional educational qualifications
    Hobbies & interests – finally, you should highlight some of your personal interests and pastimes that highlight relevant skills, or positive aspects of your character. Any team-based activities and hobbies that demonstrate dedication and effort could help you stand out from the crowd
    Perfecting the formatting
    With the core content of your CV in place, it’s time to make sure that the presentation is also up to the right standard. Don’t worry if you are inexperienced with graphic design – as a rule, CVs generally benefit from being simple and easy to read, so flashy visual presentation shouldn’t be necessary.
    Here are a few tips for making your CV look professional:
    Use a basic, clear font such as Arial or Calibri, with a size of around 10 or 11. This will be large enough to be readable, but compact enough to give you room to fit in all the important information
    Stick to black-and-white, rather than using colors. Overly colorful CVs are harder for employers to photocopy and may end up looking unprofessional
    Keep the length of the document to two sides of A4. Shorter CVs may look incomplete or underdeveloped, while busy employers are unlikely to read anything too long
    Divide up the text into readable sections. You want any future employers to be able to get information quickly from your CV, so make sure you divide up the content into snappy paragraphs, using clear subheadings and bullet-point lists to make it easy to read
    Avoiding common mistakes
    Finally, before sending off a CV, it’s vital to double-check the content to ensure you have not made any basic mistakes, as these could result in your application being dismissed straight away.
    These include:
    Spelling mistakes and poor grammar – these kinds of errors simply look sloppy, and employers will often reject the whole CV as a result. If necessary, have a friend check the document over to find any mistakes before you send it
    False or exaggerated statements – although a CV should be designed to impress, you should never lie about your qualifications. Any untrue information will be found out during the recruitment process, and that will reflect very badly on you
    Sending out a generic CV – the core content of a CV will be similar for each job you apply for, but each one should be specifically tailored to the role. This will help you focus on the information that’s most likely to impress each employer
    Failing to explain gaps in your employment history – if you have been out of the workforce for several months or years, you must be able to provide an explanation, otherwise, the employer is likely to see the gap as suspicious
    By following these guidelines, you should be able to create a document that really showcases your qualities and skills, even if you don’t have any past experience in writing a CV. This will help you apply quickly for more roles, bringing you one step closer to securing the job that’s best suited for you.
    Debi Bell is the Head of HR Services of Lanes Group. She is a highly qualified professional who has overseen the development of the company’s HR department since 2013, working with senior managers on key personnel management, efficiency and legal compliance issues.

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    What Should Your Holiday Work Celebration Look Like This Year?

    Hard as it is to believe, 2020 is finally drawing to a close. The year has brought more challenges than expected, and most are far from over. But as the holidays approach, many are looking forward to a much-needed break, spending time with friends and family, and recovering from the most mentally fatiguing year in…
    What Should Your Holiday Work Celebration Look Like This Year? Undercover Recruiter – More

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    Adapt or Fail: Why Employers Need to Redesign their Workplace Culture

    The Coronavirus pandemic has dramatically changed the way people live and work — forcing British businesses to pivot to new, digital, and remote ways of working. But, while many of these continue to manage, how many will truly thrive in the months – and perhaps years – to come?
    Today, as many companies pass the eight-month mark of remote working, and with no clear end in sight, working from home is no longer the exception, it’s the rule. But despite the advantages remote working has to offer, our latest research revealed that ‘hidden fractures’ are emerging among workforces, which risk causing irreparable damage to cultures and productivity.
    To ensure their businesses remain resilient – and prevent them from being permanently held back – it’s clear that employers need to take a proactive approach to manage and, in some cases repair, their workplace culture. The time to take action and rethink the employee experience is now; and here are four things employers should focus on:
    Design for remote
    First and foremost, business leaders need to design for remote. Indeed, when it comes to creating a positive company culture – that’s vital for a stable workforce – the same old tactics that were used pre-pandemic won’t work. Employers need to redesign the employee experience to ensure that people feel supported and connected with other team members as well as part of the same experience, wherever they are.
    For instance, just because your workforce isn’t together in the office, it doesn’t mean you can’t create meaningful experiences at key moments in employee life-cycles – at a distance. That could involve providing a new hire with a starter pack and a virtual buddy during onboarding, sending a bottle of fizz to newly promoted staff, or bringing the team together virtually to give a heartfelt farewell to a colleague who’s leaving. If effectively supported, these key moments can positively shape sentiment towards employers, roles, and colleagues.
    Continuously build familiarity
    When people are working in the office, familiarity — that is, feeling part of a team and being able to talk to colleagues and be heard — helps breed successful teamwork and a trust-based culture. But with everyone working from home, it’s easy for relationships to become momentary and transactional — a short video call here or an instant-message there, followed by weeks of nothing. And yet, familiarity is a critical outcome of employee experience, so businesses need to find new ways to weave it into every touchpoint.
    In our research we found that things like recognition for work well-done (33%) and being able to access support and guidance when needed (31%) aren’t just ‘nice to haves’ — they are the most important elements for creating a next-level workplace culture. When these are absent, the workplace culture is viewed as negative – and trust levels nosedive.
    But it doesn’t have to be this way – employers can continue to build and nurture relationships and instill a sense of familiarity by other means. Digital culture platforms, for example, could offer the solution many are looking for. These allow employers to create a space – outside of work channels – dedicated to building culture and familiarity, that all employees can participate in, as and when they please. If they’re to re-create familiarity in their remote workforce, businesses need to think differently and innovatively about how they can keep workplace connections alive and drive meaningful conversations and interaction.
    Strengthen employee networks
    As much as relationship-building is important, it’s also vital to nurture and support the development of peer networks that employees are reliant on for support, guidance, and reassurance. In fact, the cracks in networks are already starting to show, with 51% of employees saying they feel it’s harder to reach out for help from teammates when working from home. This should be a key concern for employers because when employees feel unable to lean on their peers for support and guidance, they can become increasingly anxious and more reliant on their Line Managers as a result. This, in turn, can create pressure points within the organization, causing productivity to plummet.
    Pre-pandemic, peer networks that extended outside of work teams were commonplace – something that has been altered by home-working. At a time when many people feel less visible and connected, it’s clear that businesses need to re-examine their remote working models and create the right channels to ensure employees feel seen, heard, supported, and trusted – and to help them to connect and thrive.
    One way to do this is by celebrating and acknowledging employee wins and achievements in a way that is long-lasting and is seen and heard by everyone across the business. Whether it’s highlighting their achievements over a company-wide video call or updating the team on a digital newsfeed that can be read by the whole organization, employees will feel recognized and appreciated. It’s by adopting these types of creative culture initiatives that employers can help remote workers to feel more ingrained in their business and encourage a more positive and connected workplace culture, no matter where employees are working.
    Measure and track culture
    Finally, in order for employers to effectively keep their finger on the pulse of workplace culture, it’s critical that they measure employee experience and culture. But traditional employee surveys aren’t necessarily the best option, as they’re often slow to implement and can cause survey fatigue when overused. Instead, managers and business leaders should look for ways to harness real-time and consistent culture analytics. By implementing pulse surveys more intelligently (and less frequently) they can benchmark measurements and use findings to help build and maintain an effective and happy remote workforce.
    For many organizations, returning full-time to an office is unlikely to happen any time soon and we believe that in the longer-term many companies will embrace hybrid working practices, as employees look to get the best of both worlds during their working week. But whether businesses are planning for it or not, it’s important to realize that remote working is here to stay, and not just in the short term. In order to protect their workplace culture and their company, employers need to redesign their thinking and adapt their employee experience to this new reality. Those that fail to evolve risk being held back and those that embrace the change will stay one step ahead, now and in the future.
    By Marcus Thornley, CEO of Totem.

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    What Your WFH Team Really Needs: Unstructured Interaction

    New research suggests the problems with work from home (WFH) don’t emerge because employees are no longer co-located. Its weaknesses arise when leaders fail to create an unstructured connection.
    In August 2020, we surveyed 2,300 executives and employees who were abruptly thrust from the workplace due to COVID-19. The results question the long-held pessimism that virtual technologies can promote the frequent informal interaction needed to generate social capital—a measure of the healthy functioning of social systems. We see hopeful evidence that virtual tech can be used not just for working, but for creating a connection.
    We’ve known communication technologies are adequate for structured interaction. Need to get a geographically dispersed team to develop a budget? A 1980s-style conference call worked fine. Want your team to critique a marketing plan? A 2015-era video conference is terrific. But what we never found a way to do with these technologies was to promote unstructured interaction that reliably produces deep human bonds.
    Unstructured interaction is free-form contact that promotes exploration, social learning, and social connection. Research shows it’s a critical ingredient of high-performance organizations. Much of the trust you might develop during a stressful product launch comes from unplanned moments where you show colleagues a prized video of your daughter scoring a goal, or when you share a special headache recipe with a coworker who is repeatedly rubbing her head.
    Because few have historically used virtual communications to consistently promote this kind of interaction, we’ve assumed it couldn’t be done. That’s how we came to assume that the only way to create a deep connection is to pass pizza over a cubicle wall.
    The Office is a Way, Not the Way
    We found tremendous social capital can be generated if leaders match new social technologies with virtual technologies. The limiting factor has never been distance, it has been an absence of innovation in social rituals that create similar effects on proximity.
    What worked about the office was that it was a highly structured way of promoting unstructured interaction. It gave the illusion of agency to our spontaneous connection. But in reality, those “chance” happenings were always engineered. We were required to arrive at 8 am, have lunch at noon, and work where we were assigned. And it worked. Like marbles in a bowl, our contact with each other was not elective.
    Leaders in organizations that have thrived in recent months understand that WFH demands more than substituting conference calls for conference rooms. They are experimenting aggressively to create new norms and rituals for unstructured interaction. For example, here’s how one leader promotes unstructured virtual contact:
    “Every morning at 9:30, my team meets [online] for a ‘Check-in’ to make sure everyone is okay. Initially, it was very work-focused. Now it has become a time to share personal stories, give tours of our homes, see each other’s families, have our morning coffee together… If anyone is upset, we show compassion. If anyone needs help, we provide assistance. If anyone has a success, we celebrate. [We] have really come together as people who care about each other…”
    Similar to office-based rituals, everyone must arrive at the same virtual location at the same time. From there, the agenda is loose and social. But the result is deepening feelings of connection and trust.
    When we asked respondents what tactics leaders used to offset WFH challenges, we found that leaders in healthy organizations went beyond the obvious interventions like altering work hours or offering flex-time policies, and were far more likely to use:
    Fun, off-the-wall virtual events (virtual dance parties, online eating contests, etc.).
    More frequent team meetings.
    Scheduled non-work-related team meetings for team members to connect.
    Notice what these have in common—they enable not just structured, but unstructured interaction. And their social capital effects were strikingly different, showing a two to four times greater impact on social capital than offering a more generous flex time policy.
    This study provides early evidence that leaders need not choose between developing a high-performance culture and allowing home-based work. It may be possible to have both, provided leaders to take responsibility to embed new rituals that provide an ample mix of structured and unstructured interaction.
    Joseph Grenny is a four-time New York Times bestselling author, keynote speaker, and leading social scientist for business performance. He is the co-founder of VitalSmarts, an innovator in corporate training and leadership development.

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    Why Visual Representations of Diversity Aid an Inclusive Work Environment

    The workplace is where we spend most of our lives. Shouldn’t it, therefore, be a place where we can bring our whole selves to work without the fear of facing discrimination based on our ethnicity, culture, gender, age, or sexual orientation? Shouldn’t the workplace include, celebrate, and represent people from all walks of life? Unfortunately,…
    Why Visual Representations of Diversity Aid an Inclusive Work Environment Undercover Recruiter – More

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    How to Deal with Changing COVID-19 Regulations

    Research shows nearly half the population has reported feeling worried and stressed since the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic earlier this year.
    With new health and safety measures at work to familiarise yourself with, constantly changing government regulations, and the future of the physical workplace remaining unclear, it’s hardly a surprise the mental health of both employers and their staff has deteriorated.
    The effects of seasonal changes can be profound too. the length of daylight, the intensity of the sunlight, and how and where we spend our time can all impact our mental health.
    It’s common for people to feel more tired, unmotivated, and depleted in the colder months. Anxiety may also increase as these changes can create an unsettled response in the human body.
    I discuss the best employee mental health support businesses can provide to help individuals struggling with uncertainty.
    How uncertainty affects mental health
    ‘Is my job safe?’ ‘Will my pay be reduced?’ ’Will I be back in the office soon?” ‘Will we be in lockdown again?’
    The ongoing pandemic has contributed to many questions being raised, which we are yet to still find answers to – especially where the workplace is concerned. Because of this many are finding uncertainty more uncomfortable, especially as some employees now face uncertainty regarding multiple aspects of their lives, which may have previously felt within their control.
    Of course, nothing in life is entirely certain but for some, the current situation has triggered uncomfortable emotions and scientific research suggests it’s important businesses have strategies in place to support employees with uncertainty’s psychological and physical impact on the body.
    Research suggests there is a link between high intolerance of uncertainty and anxiety, depression, and obsessive-compulsive difficulties. Uncertainty can also have a physical impact on the body due to the ongoing impact of stress hormones.
    The physical effect includes impaired memory, diabetes, digestive functioning and impact on our cardiovascular system
    How can businesses provide the right emotional support for staff?
    Employee benefits propositions should be designed and updated with emotional support in mind, giving staff access to the tools they need to cope during stressful or uncertain periods.
    The emotional impact of COVID-19 on each employee will be different and the support on offer from employers should reflect this. However, worryingly, a recent survey revealed that only 15 percent of employers had asked staff to identify their needs during this difficult time.
    Understanding the workforce is therefore essential and enables employers to tailor the most useful benefits proposition. This means getting to know employees through surveys, online forums, and one-to-one chats, recognizing their needs and priorities.
    Offerings should include a combination of services that give employees access to specialists with whom they can discuss their difficulties and learn positive coping mechanisms.
    Highlight existing workplace offerings like employee assistance programs (EAPs) which offer direct, confidential contact with counselors and mental health experts.
    You could also consider inviting an expert to give a company talk on general coping mechanisms for anxiety. This may help those who are worried about speaking to managers or employers about their fears.
    If face-to-face offerings aren’t currently possible, telephone or online CBT sessions are useful in helping employees tackle unhelpful thinking patterns or in learning practical coping techniques. Consider investing in online workshops or webinars, which can assist everyone in recognizing signs of stress and equip them with the confidence and skills to support others.
    For example, emotional literacy training is an effective tool for boosting employee resilience by ensuring staff has a common language to discuss mental health.
    At Nuffield Health, over 12,000 employees (of 16,000) have successfully completed emotional literacy training. Following this training, 94 percent said they’d feel confident supporting a colleague showing signs of emotional distress.
    In conjunction, we also offer Mental Health Awareness training workshops. This develops Mental Health Champions in the workplace, who, in combination with line managers, are empowered to raise understanding around mental wellbeing and to help others access the right support at the right time.
    It’s also important to ensure connectivity for members of staff who are still self-isolating or if businesses remain working from home. Those continuing with prolonged remote working may face psychological hazards linked to increased loneliness and isolation.
    Supporting employees with remote therapy of their choosing, either by video, phone, or email, provides an additional expert support network while away from their colleagues.
    By Brendan Street, Professional Head of Emotional Wellbeing, Nuffield Health.

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