) m ro f g in k r o W ( home truths · power into your people’s hands. In practice... Measure sentiment both quantitatively and qualitatively to gauge your workforce’s readiness

Radley Yeldar June 2020

Harnessing people power to build back better

(Working from) home truths

© Radley Yeldar

“Yes, lockdown poses its own mental health challenges. But can we please stop

pretending our former world of long working hours, stressful commutes, hectic crowds,

shopping centres, infinite choice, mass consumerism, air pollution and 24/7

everything was a mental health utopia?”Matt Haig, author and journalist

via Twitter @MattHaig1

2(Working From) Home Truths

If your team’s pre-pandemic day-to-day included commuting to an open-plan office and sitting side by side, chances are you’ve been working remotely for the last several months. It probably hasn’t been easy, but should we think again before we bring our people back to their desks?

When the lockdown kicked-in, something remarkable happened. Years – maybe decades – of conversation, speculation, forecasting and promises about flexible working, digitisation and the future of work came to fruition. What was proving to be a long, drawn-out transformation happened almost overnight.

Employees have risen to the challenge to prove they can be adaptable, resilient and adept at using technology. However, as we embrace our newfound agility, we’re now in a position where we’re envisioning our future state while we’re creating it. When the chance comes to return to some semblance of ‘normality’, there’s also an opportunity to stick with what’s worked and stop what we now know wasn’t doing us any favours. In short: to ‘build back better’.

‘Build Back Better’ was originally a methodology used in disaster recovery, it’s purpose: to help cities and communities that experienced natural disasters to rebuild constructively. It focuses on co-creation with the people that experience it. The end result is a more inclusive, representative and progressive community.

From here we look at:

– How (and why) businesses can embrace the methodology as they emerge from lockdown

– The importance of involving employees in the process

– Five home truths emerging from the lockdown and what they mean for your business in the long-term

Soon it will be time to ‘return’. But can we build back better?

(Working From) Home Truths 3

© Radley Yeldar

(Working From) Home Truths

Building back better: why embrace it?

There’s little appetite for going back.

There’s a chance to boost engagement.

It makes commercial sense.

– Only 9% of Brits want a total return to normal (YouGov)

– 85% want some of the personal and social changes that have happened as a result of the pandemic to continue (Kin & Co)

– 55% aren’t comfortable with the idea of going back to work (ENGAGE and YouGov).

– 47% of people expect that working from home will continue (Sky News)

Your people have been through the ringer over the last few months and shown huge resourcefulness and resilience. Now we’re facing a major recession.

Allowing them to take an active role in shaping the future of your organisation will drive engagement, foster innovation and support recruitment and retention.

One year after the 2008 recession, organisations with highly engaged employees achieved 43% more revenue, 18% higher productivity and 4x times greater financial performance (McLeod Report, 2009)

Companies that ‘overinvest’ in L&D spending per employee outperform competitors threefold in long-term profitability (Deloitte)

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© Radley Yeldar


Home truthsLockdown – and everything that comes with vast swathes of employees working remotely – has revealed five critical ‘home truths’. They’re set to help leaders as they embark on longer-term transformation with their people.

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You cannot unsee what you saw on Zoom.

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(Working From) Home Truth #1

You’ve been in their living room, met their dog, and seen their 3 year-old dance. You know their real hair colour. This can’t be ignored.

It’s hard to ignore your employees ’whole’ selves after you’ve been privy to their private lives on Zoom. It is impossible for us to go back to a separation of ‘work me’ and ‘home me’ without neglecting the humanity of your employees – or at the very least, feeling unnaturally distant.

When it comes to inclusion, generally organisations will roll out broad brush strategies to fix particular issues (e.g. the gender pay gap) before moving on to the next. But in tackling something so big, the impact on the individual is quite small.

Therein lies the argument for quick wins when it comes to inclusion and diversity. By making the work life of individuals easier one small win at a time, not only to you keep those employees happy, but you build buzz and momentum for your inclusion agenda.

It’s likely to be cheaper and more achievable in the current climate: this is an opportunity to observe how different people work and thrive in different ways.

7(Working From) Home Truth #1

Take-away: It’s time for managers to ask employees questions that strike to the heart of their working experience.

In practice...Try empowering your managers to ask questions of their teams that may have felt unnecessary or unnatural before, such as:

– How do you work best?

– What do you need to work most efficiently and productively?

– What can we do differently, or provide, to make your working life easier?

– What’s getting in the way of you achieving your goals?


© Radley Yeldar

Productivity levels reflect availability of choice

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Working from the office or working from home – what’s more productive? The answer isn’t straightforward.

Pre-COVID studies showed remote working to be more productive than office working. This hypothesis looked to be strengthening early in the lockdown, but research from LinkedIn’s Glint revealed burnout doubled from March (2.7%) to April (5.4%) this year.

In a recent study, 67% of employees working at home said they’d be far more productive if they were isolating with work colleagues rather than family or friends. Another found most employees won’t be as productive back in the office having got used to working at home.

So what’s the secret formula for productivity? Choice.

True flexible working is powered by choice – choice we don’t have today. Previously, flexible working would mean we could choose to work from home, the office or even a coffee shop (and our children were most likely at school while we worked) in any scenario.


Take-away: Don’t fear employee autonomy.

In practice...With Whitehall considering making working from home a legal right, it’s time to quit thinking about location in a binary way, and empowering employees to be more productive through increased autonomy.

– Set parameters around employee expectations. Should they be available core hours, block their diary when they’re busy, be available in person a particular number of days per month?

– To combat presenteeism, consider implementing a ‘results-only working environment’, where your people are judged on the quality of their outputs, rather than the time spent working on them

– Empower people managers to role model autonomy freely. While at first it will require a significant amount of trust results should speak for themselves.


© Radley Yeldar

Ping pong and free beer do not a culture make

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Before the pandemic, office design focused on bringing people together for collaboration. Having the right type of office in the right location with the right cultural ‘feel’ made people feel proud and appreciated.

Soon though, returning to the office will be defined by keeping people apart. Later, workforces will likely adopt more diverse, flexible working styles (companies are already reacting – an FT study found that 49% of UK-based companies are planning on reducing lease space). Office-based perks - like free beer Fridays, pool tables or onsite gyms – have always been symbols of what’s culturally unique about a company, but soon they’ll lack ‘teeth’.

Working remotely proves challenging too, when it comes to building a culture that boosts recruitment and retention and nurtures the outcomes you’re striving for (from innovation to customer service). The power of physical spaces to unleash personal interactions that spark feelings of belonging and happiness is lost, too.

The way we use, regard and flaunt our shared office spaces needs to be reconsidered to play a new role in the employee experience.

A ‘hip’ office and a pool table won’t cut it anymore. But if your regular perks don’t apply, what becomes of your EVP?


Take-away: Work out how to untether your culture from your physical spaces.

In practice...Give detailed thought to the role that physical spaces can play in a broader, more holistic company culture.

– Consider the role of your office as a place to connect, like a cultural members’ club, as distinct from home spaces and virtual meetings.

– Connect your physical spaces with key business or project needs (e.g. from creativity to attention to detail to improving customer service, and create them accordingly).

– Unpack your values, considering how they play out through employee experiences, both physically and digitally, in your ways of working.


© Radley Yeldar

Your employees know better than Boris.

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According to a study by YouGov and ENGAGE, the biggest concern for 51% of employees is how social distancing measures could be effectively implemented. 30% worry about the logistics of safely moving around the workspace.

Sophrology expert Dominique Antiglio suggests we’re collectively experiencing a form of stress associated with the fear of being unable or unwilling to re-adapt to previously established routines and environments. Having to adapt to new environments where the old rules don’t apply can exacerbate isolation and loneliness too.

Long story short: decisions about when and where we work are critical to mental health and physical wellbeing. If employees are forced to return too soon, you risk losing their trust.

Organisations that lead on culture are responding. Twitter have said employees can work remotely indefinitely, and Google and Facebook have extended work-from-home policies into 2021, relieving pressure on employees and alleviating the need to retrofit offices with screens, wayfinding, and PPE.

Force your people back to work too soon, and you risk losing their trust long-term.


Take-away: When it comes to returning to the office, put power into your people’s hands.

In practice...Measure sentiment both quantitatively and qualitatively to gauge your workforce’s readiness to return.

– Consider CultureAmp’s suggestion to only return to work when 90% of your workforce agree it is safe (use their free survey template)

– Open up channels of communication to monitor and manage change before, during and after the return

– Share your return-to-office plans to alleviate anxiety in employees. Use photos and video to share desk set ups, guidance on entry and exit procedures, floor plans and wayfinding and cleaning procedures, so your people know what to expect on their return


© Radley Yeldar

https://academy.cultureamp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360013680299-Welcome-to-the-Prepare-for-returning-to-the-workplace-survey-template

The people returning to work will be different to the ones who left.

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Your employees have been shut inside their homes. They’ve lost family members. They’ve home-schooled their children, missed holidays and survived toilet paper shortages. All this changes people.

Many have had time to pause and reflect. They’ve nurtured ambitions to slow down their lives, and re-established old values (or created new ones). A survey by Karmarama found 58% of people want to spend more time with family and work from home in the future. 44.7% are hoping to put less emphasis on work than they did before the pandemic, and 48% of people are keen to address their work-life balance once the crisis passes.

In short, your people now see ‘normal’ work as a barrier to doing the things they’ve discovered they really value.

Your people – and the things that drive them – have changed.


Take-away: It may be time for a reset. Involve your people in realigning your organisation’s values with their own.

In practice...Revisit your purpose, vision and values for this new era – and bring your people with you on the journey.

– Embrace transparency about your business’ short and long-term plans, and ensure you’re clearly communicating the ‘why’ of things, alongside the ‘what’ and ‘how.’

– Find ways to consult on the specifics of the changes your people want to see – through surveys, online focus groups and by empowering managers to utilise one-to-ones.

– Evaluate your values. Do they still ring true and help you achieve your vision in a post-COVID world?


© Radley Yeldar


Looking aheadWe can’t solve problems using the same consciousness we relied on before.

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Dealing with COVID-19, lockdown and the sudden shift to working from home en masse has been hard. But it has thrown up some opportunities for progress...

While everything about how we’re working right now feels different, in reality we’re doing what we’ve always done – only online. For now, we’re in an interim holding pattern, unsustainable in the long-term (reports of Zoom ‘fatigue’ and increased burnout make that obvious).

But this period has thrown up learnings that hint at the prospect for wider, more revolutionary changes in the long run. Leading organisations will start with an ambition to reinvent how they work but will have the wisdom to make their people part of the journey and keep iterating as they go.

– Define your future state, and involve your people in plotting the route to get there.

– Make sure you’re creating authentic, engaging employee experiences in the moments that matter most along the way.

Changing how you work is one thing. Changing what you believe is another.

(Working From) Home Truths 22


Thank you...

We hope the last few pages have offered food for thought as you consider your next ‘normal’ – and what you and your employees want it to look like.

But we know this is only scratching the surface.

If you’d like to discuss how to take your employees on an empowering, invigorating journey that redefines how your business works in practice, we’d love to have a more detailed chat.

Sharn Kleiss, Senior Employee Experience Consultant

Contact us [email protected] Visit us at ry.com ...and remember, always check you’ve switched off the camera.

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) m ro f g in k r o W ( home truths · power into your people’s hands. In practice... Measure sentiment both quantitatively and qualitatively to gauge your workforce’s readiness

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