I’m
sure that you, like me, have found yourself reading countless articles about
the pandemic, lockdown and their effects on the workplace. Nowadays, I’m sure
it’s common that we feel completely fatigued at the thought of ‘that topic’
again, given the hardship it has caused and the damage it has left in its wake.
But
we might also appreciate that the world of work changed because of it…or did
it?
Have
we been too quick to believe that we’ve implemented lasting change?
During
the pandemic, organisational agendas shifted to different ways of working. A
focus on areas like diversity,
equity and inclusion took centre stage because the
pandemic highlighted clear differences in society. Equality and equity were
challenged more than ever before - and more so given events surrounding the death of
George Floyd.
What
strikes me though is how quick we have been to forget, move on and revert to
type. There are so many lessons we took from the pandemic as a global community
- we talked about them, wrote articles about them and changed our working lives
because of them.
But
now, I often hear from clients that while they learnt so much during this time,
they now find themselves losing the learning in favour of what used to be. It’s
becoming a swift return to the status quo.
Not
a bad thing, you may think. After all, if it worked, why change it? Well, to my
mind, that way of thinking holds back progress. Change happens - but why bother
if all you do is go back to where you came from?
Fad
or future: 2 ways the pandemic should change the workplace
The two points below, the
DE&I agenda and working from home, seemed to be working themselves into our
psyche during lockdown. But now, do we have to recognise them as lockdown fads?
I’d argue that neither of these
should be fads. They are critically important across industries around the
world, but it feels like we really haven’t learnt from the lessons of the
pandemic, and many organisations are reverting to type.
DE&I
is starting to feel tokenistic, and businesses are calling people back into the
office full time (a point to note, I do agree that we need face time, but with
compromise). We must find the middle ground, and find it quickly before we undo
all of the good that came from such an awful situation.
1. Ramping
up the DE&I agenda
While
there are pockets of excellence which should be applauded - such as the hotel
chain Marriott
International and quality of life services
firm Sodexo
- diversity and inclusion agendas in many organisations are proving hard to
shape and shift.
There’s
a concerning trend of
many DE&I roles being defunded,
especially in the US, and much of what was invested in during the pandemic
seems to be losing momentum and fading to the background.
That
said, I have to be critical and ask whether it was a priority in the first
place, or whether it was simply a fad? Many organisations want to talk about
DE&I - something known as ‘diversity
washing’ - but very few act or
invest.
Yet,
the world has changed and with the pandemic behind us in the main, we are left
with the same challenges we had before. We still see gender pay inequity, low
levels of diverse talent representation in organisations especially at senior
level, and limited opportunities for social mobility.
Many
of these challenges are driven behaviourally and structurally, and we need to
address both aspects. This has existed all along, it was only that the pandemic
that brought it more to the foreground.
2. The
flexibility of working from home
Lockdown
also meant working from home for many people. Companies mandated this in the
context we found ourselves in, and many people made significant choices and
changes to their lifestyles. This was the future of work, or so we
thought.
We
now hear of many organisations calling people back to the office a minimum
of three days a week, and some asking for a full return to the office. Is
this unreasonable? Of course not, but there has to be a compromise, too.
It’s
of course critical that we connect in person at times as this really is the
most important way to build a collaborative culture,
and it’s also proven to benefit
innovation and teamwork. It also seems to me that GenZ
could really benefit from being around more experienced colleagues. On the
other hand, calling people back into the office when that wasn’t the
expectation is causing a lot of ill feeling. Perhaps leadership teams can better
articulate the reasons for the return to the office rather than simply
mandating it, for example.
Overall,
the pandemic highlighted what a lot of us already knew and experienced - that
having the flexibility of working from home and gaining a better work/life
balance really
does work - and provided a stage to do
something more about it.
My
challenge to you though is whether that flexibility is truly ingrained in your
organisation, or whether the momentum is lost and we are back in 2019.
Unfortunately,
there’s no silver bullet. It’s all about what works best for your business, in
your context and understanding what will best benefit your sector.
If
you’d like support in developing the DE&I strategy for your organisation or
working with your leadership team to create an effective workplace culture, get in
touch with me directly and let’s have a chat.
