work from home Archives - �鶹ԭ�� Australia & New Zealand News Center

3 Global Trends Affecting Your Employees

Naomi Benjamin — Mon, 11 Apr 2022 05:18:48 +0000

Gone are the days of a workplace that doesn’t reflect reality. We expect work to evolve in line with society and social norms and we expect to be treated the same at work and outside of work. In addition, the convergence of three global trends confirms that, more than ever, work is becoming more integrated into our lives. Awareness of these trends will help businesses better understand their employees in an effort to refine workplace strategies.

Flexibility
From an employment perspective we have already seen the lack of flexibility play out as the great resignation. Employers need to be more flexible supporting staff to step outside their normal job role and engage in dynamic teams supported by the concept of personalisation through the ‘whole self-model’, where companies make it possible for employees to share more than just skills and competencies – but also individual work styles, aspirations, motivations and learning preferences.

Another example is customised benefit packages like �鶹ԭ��’s global “” program. According to Debbie Rigger, Head of Human Resources at �鶹ԭ�� ANZ, �鶹ԭ�� has always provided workplace flexibility.

“What we needed to do was package this up into a program that our people could relate to and one where everyone can run at their personal best,” said Rigger.” Our Pledge to Flex program has provided a trust-based environment empowering our people to choose how, when and where they work based on individual choices.”

Purpose
Brands are recognising the importance and role they can play in uplifting people during times of uncertainty. In this context employees are also re-evaluating their lives and work, and many now expect their jobs to be a significant source of purpose in their lives.

A recent report indicates that people who live their purpose at work are more productive than people who don’t; they are also healthier, more resilient, and more likely to stay at the company and when employees feel that their purpose is aligned with the organisation’s purpose.

The benefits expand to include stronger employee engagement, heightened loyalty, and a greater willingness to recommend the company to others. contribution. Processes that allow employees to document and track their contribution linked to compensation processes should be a habit at your company.

McKinsey identified a ‘purpose hierarchy gap’ with executives nearly eight times more likely to say their purpose is fulfilled by work and nearly three times more likely to say they rely on work for purpose than others.

In exploring this gap further, McKinsey found that frontline managers and employees are ten times less likely than management-level colleagues to say that they’d had opportunities to reflect on their purpose, and nine times less likely to say that they’d had a manager foster opportunities for them to work on purposeful projects.

Highlighting the importance of providing all staff the time to reflect on their own sense of purpose, and how it connects to the company’s purpose, concluding that when this is provided employees are nearly three times more likely to feel their purpose is fulfilled at work.

Sustainability
Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) regulation is no longer a question of ‘if’ but ‘when’ and ‘to what extent’. Australian regulators including are looking at Enterprise Sustainability Goals credentials and released affecting banks, insurers and superannuation trustees and is undertaking a Climate Vulnerability Assessment (CVA) of Australian banks, with results to be released this year.

has noted and commenced a review of ESG-focused financial products and will consider action ranging from engagement to enforcement. ASIC is also continuing to monitor net zero statements in both fundraising documents and in the market generally and will take regulatory action where warranted.

Employers must be ready to be held accountable and be prepared to produce key performance metrics related to the organisations’ purpose statement including ethical efforts through and ESG goals, and the

found that high-growth brands put a premium on accountability, with 93% indicating that they have established key performance metrics related to their purpose statement (versus 72% of negative-growth organisations) such metrics include those pertaining to product portfolio measurements (50%); diversity, equity, and inclusion (47%); and the employee review process (44%).

As we are encouraged to bring our ‘ to work, understanding of these key global trends and their applicability to the workplace provides employers insights to assist in refining their people strategies. Is your company ready?

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Helping People Respond to Disruption and Thrive through Change

Gina McNamara — Tue, 09 Jun 2020 03:23:15 +0000

The world is undergoing unparalleled change; we’ve seen businesses forced into shutdown, limited capacity, or digital transformation – and all within a brief period. Discussions around adaptation often get reduced to the technological elements, the incredible platforms and resources we have readily available to facilitate working from home and staying connected.

But through all these adjustments and challenges, it is people that are leading change, ensuring people’s safety, and developing new ways of working during times of uncertainty.

People’s work-life balances and mental wellbeing have always been critical aspects of human development, but now we are realising its real value in maintaining business continuity and ensuring people adapt to change. How does a person maintain a healthy work-life balance when work and personal lives share the same environment?

COVID-19 has highlighted a fundamentally human need to during this challenging period. We’ve seen �鶹ԭ�� customers work closely with staff by being available, responsive, transparent, and communicative. Managers are understanding the less technical needs of employees that still greatly influence their experiences and performance.

At �鶹ԭ��, the of our people is always one of my top priorities and something our leadership works on daily, but during this time of uncertainty, we are dedicated to it now more than ever. Our people are at the frontline of implementing change and ensuring our business can operate safely and seamlessly regardless of circumstance.

Working from home can be challenging, particularly for those with young children, however our finance team have benefited from �鶹ԭ�� ANZ’s investment into the to ensure everyone was well set up to work remotely. We wanted to make everyone feel as comfortable and well supported as possible throughout this journey, especially as our team helps the business navigate through this turbulent economy and its varying impact on our customers and partners.

Work-life balance is a struggle at the best of times, but now it’s so important employees find time to pause and recharge.

We want to ensure our team is doing well and provide an open forum for everyone to express concerns, show vulnerability, and collaborate in a way the empowers people. Creating a spirit of openness can be challenging when working remotely, but its easily facilitated through regular communication and by demonstrating a shared sense of empathy – after all, these extraordinary circumstances have touched all our lives.

To keep communication open, honesty, and consistent, I’ve been running 15-minute check-ins throughout the week for the finance team to share updates, manage workloads, and have a bit of a laugh together. We’ve learnt more about some of our teammates in these few months than we have in the past decade, so it’s a simple but powerful tool to ensure we stay connected and encouraged.

Themed dress up check-ins have also been a hit as we recently did the 80’s and 90’s with music to match. Camaraderie remains critical during times of disconnect and oddly enough, our team has felt more comfortable sharing from home.

�鶹ԭ�� ANZ has also developed a range of initiatives throughout the business to keep people informed, connected, and engaged. I share a cross-company weekly COVID-19 and business update to help staff understand the changes occurring and how it will impact their roles and responsibilities. The �鶹ԭ�� innovation team have also developed the Bridge-IT app to provide accurate real-time information on COVID-19 that staff can easily access anywhere, anytime.

We’ve provided work-from-home grants to all employees so they can improve their home-office environment while working comfortably and productively. �鶹ԭ�� ANZ are also running weekly fitness classes and entertainment to help staff maintain their health and mental wellbeing. One such example is our weekly ‘tools down’ entertainment session called, which I host with our managing director, Damien Bueno.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RSsjGZM0Ic

Our recent employee pulse surveys across the business point to positive staff morale across our workforce in ANZ, so I’m remain optimistic about our company’s future. Now that restrictions are easing and legislation is undergoing further change, now is the time for businesses to look further down the road – determining what practices can be changed or made more flexible to help staff stay productive and connected, both to the business and one another.

To learn how your business can help ensure continuity while keep your staff well supported and connected, get in touch with your �鶹ԭ�� representative and discover the right practices and technologies to get your organisation ready to thrive in a new normal.

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The Working From Home Experience: A New World of Work

Rushenka Perera — Thu, 09 Apr 2020 00:45:14 +0000

With many businesses in lockdown and employees working from home, now is a critical time to understand your employees’ needs and experiences to help them through this global pandemic.

In our , I spoke with Steve Bennetts, Head of Growth and Strategy – Employee Experience APJ at Qualtrics, to discuss how COVID-19 is changing the ways we work and communicate with one another.

Steve has 20 years’ experience in organisational psychology, working with organisations across the region to help plan out their employee strategies, build their listening programs, and offer strategic support to help business leaders understand their employees’ experience.

“Employee experience is helping organisations understand that the experiences that their employees are having day to day can impact positively or negatively on the way the employee thinks,” Steve explained. “As a result of that, those behaviour and attitudes of the employee can then impact on productivity. We look at those experiences and experience data that are impacting on people’s lives.”

According to Steve, other critical elements of employee experience include understanding employee engagement or the potential variances between job descriptions and actual experience of those in the role, which is vital for creating seamless hiring and onboarding processes for new employees.

Steve noted that organisations have been digitalising their listening programs, creating a regular cadence for surveying employees and understanding experience gaps – today, it’s about understanding that experience from home.

“We need to talk to our employees and find out some fundamental things that we can help with them,” Steve said. “Ask is your communication strategy suitable; are you communicating with them enough; do employees need you to communicate more or less; what’s the leadership like, are they interacting with employees enough; have employees got the right equipment at home to enable them to do their jobs; what’s happening with the team dynamics and are you ensuring it’s working?

“And what’s happening with your end customers,” Steve continued. “How are you feeding this information back to your customers? All of this is critical now, so you should be gathering that data and pivot your listening program towards those data points.”

Steve says businesses should be collecting any data that can help improve employee experience. “There may be some really great experiences and we want to capture that data and then let other people know how to replicate that,” he expressed. “We also want to intervene quickly in those experiences that are impacting on people’s health, wellbeing, and overall productivity.”

According to Steve, during crises employees want to see their company is looking after and caring for them, which is why asking about employee engagement now would seem tone deaf. “You should not be running your engagement survey right now; you should be pivoting your tool, you should be listening, and collecting data around the cons, around leadership, around people’s health and safety, around team dynamics, and around the customer. We should 100-percent be listening, surveying our people, but we can’t be using the same methodology.”

Steve noted the importance of being able to move and adapt quickly, as he saw within his own organisation. “Qualtrics moved about three weeks ago to working remotely, but like most other organisations we also didn’t think about what it means for our workforce and what some of those gaps would be.”

is a working-remote solution free and readily available for businesses that need assistance in understanding employee experience during this global pandemic. “Remote Work Pulse allows us to go out on scale and listen across our organisation,” Steve explained, “gather some data about how employees feel about the organisation, and how confident they feel about the organisation looking after their health and wellbeing.”

Steve suggested employees and leaders should regularly communicate, run online sessions through digital resources like Slack, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams. “For leaders, it used to be really easy to go up to the desk of your team member check what’s going on in a very quick and informal discussion, he added.

“Now, the informal discussions are now formal, and you have to find time in someone’s calendar to have a five-minute chat or briefly ask about something. There is a bit of dynamic shift and change to be conscious of, so it helps to be vocal about it within the team.

“For those in leadership, this is your time to show employees how much you care, how much you want to help enable them, how much you want to focus on what you can do to get through this patch with clear communication.”

From an employee perspective, Steve highlighted the importance of taking regular breaks and maintaining communication. “For us, as employees, be kind to yourself, look after your team members, reach out, say hello, and interact with others,” he suggested.

“In relation to your health, you can’t sit in one spot for eight or nine hours all day long like I’ve caught myself doing; go for a walk, if you can, around the block or around your house if you need to. Remember, this is a short-term problem that we’re all working through – it’s not going to go on for the rest of our lives; there will be an endpoint, so keep that in mind.”

Check out and listen to the for more information on how to stay safe, engaged, and flexible during this time of uncertainty.

This article originally published on .

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