Tammy Lehnberg | Head | Human Resources | Avatar Agency | mail me |
The world we left behind when we entered lockdown will be very different to the world we walk into after the devastating effects of COVID-19. The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented test of our resilience and demands during these uncertain times that we find ourselves in.
Many are having to work from home, and while this may seem to have its perks, it also poses challenges and has a significant impact on company culture.
Remote working is a true example of business transformation working on multiple levels. Not only does it serve the needs of each employee, but it also provides businesses with new resilient and adaptive ways to engage with their ecosystem and deliver economic value.
It also serves the greater community by addressing public health needs. But what is unquestionable is that it has to be business as usual, albeit business unusual.
Going digital
The crisis has seen our relationship with technology change. COVID-19 could permanently change the way we work in the future.
The pandemic has forced us to embrace the centrality of technological advancements. The way we connect, communicate, and conduct business has been forever altered.
Marketing agencies are certainly in a more privileged position compared to many. Thanks to technology, we have the luxury of just picking up our laptops and working from home.
Technology as a tool
We have supported and armed our staff with the necessary resources to be able to productively work from home.
We actually implemented remote working a week before the official lockdown came into effect. Using technology, we keep connected and communicate as we continue to inspire.
Using platforms like Microsoft Teams or Zoom we still have our scheduled and daily touch-base meetings. We are currently planning our monthly Inspiration Session where everyone can ‘attend’ from the comfort of their home with their favourite beverage in hand.
Reshaping businesses
Agencies, like many other businesses, had to become resilient, adapt their ways of working and engage differently to continue delivering on client expectations.
Now it has become even more important than ever to create meaningful campaigns with impactful messaging, whilst attempting to safeguard their revenues.
I believe that companies that may just survive the economic devastation of COVID-19 will be the ones who display entrepreneurial and innovative thinking, ones that encourage and employ self-starters with like-minded goals, and those that have flatter management structures, as high levels of hierarchy do not foster agile fluid thinking.
We get to continue having our meetings such as daily ‘stand-ups’, Exco and any other scheduled meetings thanks to platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom to ensure that teams continue to collaborate and touch base on important client deliverables.
Challenging company culture
But okay so we have ticked all the right boxes, laptop – tick, connectivity – tick, collaboration platforms – tick.
Well done you have a working solution for staff and can deliver on campaigns. Tap on the back. But what about how remote working relates to company culture? What impact will it have on the culture when we all finally emerge from our rabbit holes?
Company culture is not just all about shared beliefs and values, high performance and structures but should also be about behaviours, empathy and how companies support their staff’s mental wellbeing and ultimately the type of leadership style you want to be celebrated for.
So, we ask ourselves, what steps are companies taking to save the culture and whose will thrive?
Cultivating company culture
A lot of what successful marketing agencies do is to foster chemistry with their consumers and target market. Leaders must adapt their management styles to ensure they remain connected with staff, managing productivity, outputs and deadlines rather than actual working hours all whilst staying ‘connected’ and in-tune with their teams physical and mental wellbeing.
Boundaries must be set with open and frequent communication while having expectations set upfront with clear deliverables is key. Trust becomes an important factor whilst learning to listen better is critical in ensuring that every individual is heard, and their needs met.
“From a generational perspective, remote working demands a new level of individual leaders to be authentic, to openly address uncertainties and to be open with their vulnerabilities. To ensure trustworthy and purpose-driven business can be sustained on an ongoing basis requires nothing less.”
– World Economic Forum
However, working from home has other challenges as well.
Challenges of working remotely
We are in un-chartered waters where the normal work from home environments does not exist. We are working from home because of a global pandemic that has sent us into crisis mode.
Life as we once knew it will not resume, we are entering a new normal, where a temporary situation has caused permanent changes.
Many people have the added pressure of having to now assist kids with home-schooling, keeping some sense of normality and a daily routine doing day-to-day chores all while still trying to put the minimum eight-hour working day in.
Creating an empathetic work environment
While for several this time will allow them to relish the idea of stillness and relative calm, for many these ’21 days of lockdown’ is no vacation and in reality is a very different kind of hell.
The Gender Based Violence (GBV) received 87,000 calls in the first 7 days of the lockdown. Experts are predicting suicide numbers to spike due to the fear of the pandemic, economic uncertainty, job losses and the list goes on.
How are you as a company or leader checking in on your staff’s mental wellbeing? And make no mistake violence does not just happen in ‘certain types of homes’.
For the higher LSM’s there is probably a home study or spare bedroom that can be converted into a functional workspace but what about the lower LSM’s that share a flat or commune with several housemates, how do they remain creative, productive and able to collaborate effectively remotely?
As companies, we are still asking our people to work like they normally do, deliver as usual and in most instances even expecting more than the normal output. How do we create an empathetic environment for our people in a remote working space all while still expecting high output requirements?
It shouldn’t be hard while having daily team touch base meetings is important, how about making time for individual check-ins … a simple how are you doing? And no I am not talking about work, being mindful of your staff’s wellness and mental health will go a long way in creating awareness that it is okay to not be okay without further fear of stigmatisation or victimisation.
Business leaders need to stay connected, continue to inspire and give hope – that is true leadership, by displaying empathy, humility and care.
