Rebuilding the management model in a changed workplace

With a sudden pivot to remote work for non-essential workers last year came challenges and opportunities – for leaders and team members – who had to learn to manage and be managed remotely.

Now, with the world opening back up again and many workplaces moving to a hybrid model, how do managers feel about the change?

A swift pivot

In March 2020, when lockdowns were mandated and all non-essential workers were told to work from home, many businesses had to make massive changes to accommodate this. While some businesses had remote options already in place, or the capability to quickly get them going, others were faced with a huge task.

Sarah Connellan, chief operations officer, EY Ireland, says that having the technology already in place eased the transition of moving over 3,000 employees to remote working “almost overnight”.

“We were able to stay connected to each other and our clients and there was minimal disruption to our operations, which allowed us to ensure that our people were properly supported during a time of such great upheaval.”

Managing the change

Mark Cockerill, vice-president legal, EMEA, and head of global privacy, Service Now, agrees that even though the company was operationally able to move to a remote model, it was still a challenge.

“People were thrown into often stressful, unfamiliar situations, where the lines between work and personal life were fundamentally blurred. As an employer, we did what we reasonably could, including placing a major emphasis on the wellbeing of our employees and our families, setting up initiatives, and introducing policies to promote a better work/ life balance.”

Keeping spirits up

Greenhouse Software had only opened their EMEA headquarters in Dublin in January, so found pivoting to fully remote in March a “challenge” but strove to keep employees’ spirits high during trying times.

While the company already had the people processes and technology in place to support the move to remote, “so the day-to-day people management was more or less the same”, the company still found the move to all-remote teams a “massive adjustment” and had to “reimagine how we looked at employee engagement,” says Colm O’Cuinneain, general manager, EMEA.

“During severe lockdown periods, we focused on providing our employees with meaningful work, but also entertainment and a social outlet to lift all of our spirits.

“We had to emphasise the need to stay connected and get people talking, so we introduced daily stand-ups, scheduled weekly lunches together, and hosted virtual beer Fridays. The team adapted and innovated our social cadences again and again throughout lockdown.”

Team engagement

Joining a new company can be challenging at the best of times, but joining during a pandemic brought new levels of difficulty.

Ruairi Conroy, site lead at Diligent Corporation, where 200 people were onboarded throughout the pandemic, quickly realised that the onboarding process had to be reimagined to reflect a remote experience.

“In March 2021, we rolled out a transformed onboarding experience to include podcasts, simulations, video, and other interactive activities.”

Employee onboarding experiences must now “go far beyond the traditional bag of swag and a team lunch. Onboarding is about how a new employee becomes part of the community,” agrees O’Cuinneain.

Future of work

Moving forward, it appears most companies will adopt at least a hybrid model, where employees spend some time in the office and the remainder working remotely.

Connellan believes there are many benefits to the hybrid model, not least that “the shift to a more long-term hybrid model will allow us as a firm to continue to attract top talent to our organisation, without the boundaries that geographies and location can often enforce”.

"There is no one-size-fits-all solution to hybrid working," says Cockerill. 
While a poorly planned shift to hybrid "runs the risk of further ingraining silos", he believes hybrid working may lead to "greater employee satisfaction by attracting people living further away from the office and providing more flexibility".

Conroy believes the pros outweigh the cons of hybrid working, with the benefits including “increased productivity, prioritisation of employees’ well- being and access to a wider talent pool.

“In a competitive market, companies will need to invest in the hybrid workplace to attract and retain talent.”