How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'?

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How are organisations adapting to the 'new normal'? - Part 1

Andrew Carter

Jun 23, 2020

What is life like in your business at the moment?

The Senior HR Network conducted a series of interviews with our extensive network of leaders from a multitude of industries both public and private sector, all above SME level, based nationally and internationally to understand their recent Covid-19 experience. Together we explored what life was like immediately after the announcement of ‘lockdown’, their experience thus far and their current thinking around managing ongoing change, transition and the future state.

We asked: What is life like in your business at the moment?

It was clear from the responses that the answers are split between (1) those organisations that remained operating as they were considered essential services, (2) those non-essential service who could continue working either normally or had to scale down and (3) those who effectively put themselves into a mothballed state. The latter was split between those who were required to close by the Coronavirus legislation or because demand for their services had dramatically reduced.

For those in groups (1) and (2) who were able to continue to operate, the immediate concern was following the guidance on social distancing (SD) and working from home (WFH). WFH quickly became the new normal for many office-based staff, even in public organisations. To accommodate this, organisations were forced to implement policies that did not exist before and spend on IT equipment to enable the employee to access resources. For some organisations, this just accelerated a WFH ideology or flexible working policy. Managing and policing these new policies became the immediate concern. It was noticeable that most organisations tried to keep a HQ function operational to ensure compliance and monitoring the delivery of processes remotely.

For those organisations in group (2) who had to scale down and those in group (3) who effectively locked their doors, the immediate concern was how to achieve the reduction in staff. Over the initial period of the ‘lockdown’ and restrictions, the Government recognising the financial impact this would have on organisations and people in general and introduced numerous Coronavirus financial assistance schemes. The major scheme affecting the people arena was the introduction of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (commonly called furlough). Organisations now had a new category of staff: Furloughed. This distinct group of employees have required the introduction of new HR policies looking at issues such as initial notice, pay, communication, wellbeing and return to work.

Additionally, the initial introduction of furlough was not a smooth process as the published guidance differed slightly from the original concept, which caused problems in itself. However, most of the organisations questioned recognised the importance of retaining staff and used the scheme over the option of redundancies. Notably, by 14 June 2020 after the ceasing of new registrations, around 9.1 million employees in the UK had been furloughed by about 1.1 million employers.

What is the "so what?" from this:

1.   The flash to bang for the lockdown was relatively quick, and organisations had to quickly develop plans and policies at short notice. Despite notice from the effect of Coronavirus lockdowns in other countries, many organisations were still unprepared and effectively caught short.

2.   Crisis planning will become a significant focus post Covid-19. Where traditional business continuity plans may have involved some form of remote working, they mainly relied upon relocation to other premises. The focus now will be for these plans to look at all ways of working, learning from the success or not of the introduction of WFH and SD.

3.   The Government introduced numerous financial assistance schemes over the initial period of lockdown and only time will tell if the furlough scheme will achieve any effect in reducing large scale redundancies overall. However, the scheme was welcome, and employees quickly embraced it as a method to retain staff and reduce costs of doing so, often citing it as a method of retaining cash flow.

4. For organisations that had international sites, the added issue of country-based regulations and different timings of their introduction brought additional challenges. Operationally this placed challenges on how organisations reacted.

All organisations felt that life after the initial lockdown announcement was hectic, however, what we should remember is that this was the first such event in modern history and thus, despite warnings, caught most organisations cold. Post Covid-19 most organisations have said that lessons learnt documents will be produced and crisis plans rewritten. The primary question is around whether these plans should include the possibility that the Government will introduce financial assistance schemes like furlough again or and if not, what are the implications for business continuity in the future?

About the authors
The Senior HR Network was set up to provide senior HR practitioners across the UK and across disciplines to share knowledge, learnings and experiences and expand future thinking in people and organisations.

Andrew Carter, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07904439172
Email: andrewc@rewardrisk.co.uk

Jo Brooks, Aligned HR Services
Telephone: 07788278295
Email: joanna@alignedhrservices.org.uk

Johanna Hooper, Limitless Peak Performance
Telephone: 07713196730
Email: johanna@limitlesspeakperformance.co.uk

Kirsty Brooks, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Kirsty@peopleperform.co.uk

Richard Frost, People Perform Consulting Limited
Telephone: 0333 577 1319
Email: Richard@peopleperform.co.uk

Tina Jennings, Cosán Cróga Limited
Telephone: 07765 060298
Email: tina@cosancroga.com

Jane Baalam, Reward Risk Management Limited
Telephone: 07415 974004
Email: janebaalam@rewardrisk.co.uk

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