COVID-19 is going to determine discussion for some time. Prevention had long since become routine in summer of 2020. An altered, but nevertheless regular kind of work was established. Sometimes it was even difficult to enforce “one day a week in the office”. A “New Normal” seemed within reach – with mobile working the focus. But autumn 2021 brings the COVID-19 crisis, long expected yet underestimated, and its management back to the fore.
Post COVID: On the route to a ``New Normal``
The changed conditions and new tools enforce a real “New Normal”: work and thus managing of employees are really changing. It’s about more than a return to “earlier” or “before COVID19”! Rather, on the part of the workforce, it is about:
Self-motivation towards for purpose of the work
self organization of their own work, regardless of where you work from
different ways of doing things – as long as they lead towards the goal or result
Independent but sensible organization of working hours, including office vs. home office use.
This requires from leadership in the New Normal:
on one hand, trust in the skills and motivation of employees
and so enabling them, also through coaching, instead of control them
on the other hand, act as role model for mobile working – balance between accessibility and the right to privacy
Finally, the active promotion of a transparent, cooperative and health-promoting corporate culture
apart from that, provide and even jointly further develop the necessary (IT) infrastructure
Yet, these demands are trivial – and on top of that, they are decades old! However, there is extensive experience from the last months that could become even more acute in the fourth wave of COVID-19. In the following I present some conclusions to provide guidance for leaders in the New Normal.
1. COVID-19 as Crisis: Done what had to be done! Or arranged ...
That leadership takes place in a VUCA environment was and is not new. Yet, under COVID-19 conditions, this could suddenly be experienced more drastically than for a long time! Suddenly there was the need for rapid change, the sense of urgency was a given. A lot was unexpectedly difficult, circumstances required changes in attitudes and were difficult, personally. Some changes were rejected outright. And typical of such upheavals, there were hardly any rules and procedural instructions. So, fresh experience had to be made again. Yet, throwing old habits overboard, develop creativity and pioneering spirit – haven’t we been longing for that? Let me demonstrate some challenges and solutions I have made in my consulting work with managers. The list keeps growing …
Fourth Wave and New Normal: enterprises demonstrating excellence perform here as well!
Varied measures are recommended, again. First ensure commissioning and on-site service contracts, apply for “special permits”. Assure in production (and in the canteen) the gaps between people reliably and alternate shifts organization. At the same time, prevent close contact at customer counters through the installation of panes and offer FFP2 masks. Only individually occupied tables, marked paths for visitors, limited access to canteens. I observed: where clearly structured, clean, fast-flowing production with ergonomic workplaces were given, all this was so easy under COVID-19 conditions! All of this remains necessary for the time being and managers must ensure it’s promoted, controlled and tracked! Jog trot always threatens …
Conclusions for personnel management: Situational leadership was necessary between enforcing rules and solving problems creatively. And because some measures still represent limitations and are even being questioned, communication is particularly important. State a reason, explain …
COVID-19 prevention and coping must not obscure the outlook on the New Normal!
The “Fourth Wave” of COVID-19, long expected but underestimated, brings crisis management back to the fore – but should not obscure the view onto the “time afterwards”! The fighting chance is: maintaining the mastered processes, continuing the digitalization – for employee and customer benefit!
Fourth Wave and New Normal: Useful clarifications for virtual cooperation
- Which work procedures and meetings will we want to do in the home office?
- How long shall we plan regular meetings, max.?
- How do we ensure functioning processes, interfaces and division of labor, virtually?
- Which tools are suitable for virtual communication and cooperation – what is specified by the employer, what is furthermore desirable?
- Which binding regulations on accessibility do we want to meet? How can we set a limit to setting dates for others in Outlook?
- When do we set up a regular virtual meeting – and stick to it?
- What special agreements shall we make for informal meetings, such as after-work “parties”, or for health promoting activities, such as gymnastics, yoga …
- Only after the fourthsprasam wave: Which (economised!) face-to-face meetings should be reintroduced?
2. COVID-19 as chance: More than Communication and Cooperation with new tools!
The home office in particular brought with it high demands. It was about more than the exchange of emails, which had long since left the “8-hour day, 5-day-a-week” rule. In particular, communication software, e.g. MS Teams, WebEx or Zoom, and cooperation software, the simple Conceptboard, MS Planner and many others, forced and enabled completely new forms of interaction. Often these (yet, often not so new) tools were met with a certain skepticism.
Inevitable innovations
But home office and New Normal brought a certain pressure to try things out, until learning progress and initial successes were achieved, and finally new skills were developed. For managers and employees alike! In many places, some existing programs had long been neglected and left idle until their benefit was now recognized “under COVID-19 conditions”. They gained acceptance and thus were used. In the end you had to go through it: “With a little help from my friends.” – In this respect, virtual collaboration is nothing really new: what is new is the tool landscape that is simply still not fully integrated! The joy of the new possibilities and the fun of the creative application are interrupted time and again by frustration about functions that are suddenly no longer available.
Accessibility as a trap
But be careful: once permanent accessibility is technically ensured, under home office conditions it may well be considered permanent availability. Customers, managers, employees know that e.g. middle managers are simply “there”. Consequently, their calender is completely booked. In some organizations, seven to eight one-hour meetings a day have long become custom…
Consequences for Personnel management:
This also calls for discipline on the part of managers – the home office is actually a synonym for individual work. And that has to be done at some point. It is possible that setting appointments in Outlook without consultation is not the method of choice …
In the New Normal, executives will have to trust, more than ever before, and have to say goodbye to any micromanagement because it just doesn’t work.
3. Home Office and New Normal: Make sure to continue informal problem solving..
The continuous virtuality of collaboration, suddenly required, could also slow down processes. In the case of minor disturbances, make eye contact, standing up and go there, look for and find material that was missing – none of that was possible “under COVID”. And many sales and commercial tasks urgently require contact “with the outside world”, yet this was already done to a considerable extent with the help of IT. But personal visit was not possible. It was all the more urgent to maintain lively contact virtually, still.
Conclusions for personnel management: Managers and employees quickly trained new forms of informal contacts, even to solve everyday problems. In this way, they ensured mutual trust and, in particular, efficiency: short phone calls, text messages, spontaneous virtual meetings … However, emails and, even more so, scheduled virtual conferences are far less suitable for agile communication!
And: work is a tried and tested means against gloom! Much can be done virtually and without major losses, others expired temporarily or at some point completely.
4. On the other hand, various topics had to be scaled down with respect to COVID-19..
A temporarily slowed down or idle production, due to COVID-19 precautions and shrinking markets, required less or no material replenishment … That also changed routine processes: Situational agile action was suddenly required. Until new routines were established, with new processes using new tools. Which does not mean that the good old times were not suddenly glorified, nostalgically …
Implications for personnel management in anticipation of Fourth Wave and “New Normal”.
Here was and is still a bit of grief work to do. We have experienced that process workshops or CIP initiatives, through which the advantages and disadvantages of the previously valid procedures are evaluated and innovations are developed participatoriy, can provide these.
5. Regular meetings stabilize cooperation and atmosphere - but there is a risk of neglect!
Daily stand ups, “morning round tables”, 9 o’clock meetings in the management team etc. serve to exchange information, plan, monitor progress and start initiatives. And of course the necessary small talk.
These rounds could also be continued in home offices, quite as “close to the original” as possible. At least initially, they could take longer because the tools had to be rectified first. But also because you were drilling somewhat deeper – a good thing! However, less exciting mandatory dates have long since been added to the important and exciting meetings.
Implications for personnel management, especially in the New Normal:
Disciplined planning helps. Pay attention to correctly seletcted participants and especially to brevity and conciseness, a clear and strict agenda! The manager is again a role model for holding the meetings. Your own punctual appearance for video conferences, constant presence, full concentration (mobile phone off!) cause exactly the same behavior among employees.
6. Informal contacts, even small talk are part of work.
Such encounters, which occur “just so” on the shopfloor, in the office or laboratory almost unnoticed, keep “the machine running”. Even the rumor mill belongs here! in virtual realm practically just pre-planned meetings happen, For some, this is the true meaning of “social isolation”.
Consequences for personnel management: Many employees quickly created similar informal opportunities in virtuality: Virtual coffee, posting their own lunch. Small joyful tasks for everyone were quickly invented: taking photos of youself at your desk, doing yoga and gymnastics together, online games (which you must not install on the company computer…). Smile and wave when small children crawl or stumble into the picture – everyone can do it and we’re happy!
In the meantime, however, some things have become a bit stale. The following applies to the current situation and the New Normal: pertinent initiatives are also management tasks! Leadership should signal interest and initiate it among employees. Note: if one can organize, motivate and discipline oneself as an employee in the office, she or he can also do this in the home office. You can trust! This is done by maintaining the relationship. And humor helps as long as it doesn’t slide into silliness or an end in itself.
7. Fourt Wave and New Normal: Planning holidays may lead to conflict.
A special problem in staff management suddenly appeared in the meantime: in the middle of the strictest COVID prevention, long-approved vacations are due. Such vacations might not be fun at the moment – actually not a big change compared to the home office and the local and travel restrictions. Conversely, there is a risk that “everyone” will want to go on their postponed vacation exactly when the COVID crisis wiil be overcome, business is even catching up and booming. Meaning that labor is urgently needed. Still, in terms of labor law, it is undisputed that a vacation once granted by the employer cannot be unilaterally reversed by the employee.
Conclusions for personnel management:
this dilemma can become acute at any time. Caution: clear decisions currently made can quickly turn out to be wrong or premature. The pandemic is a dynamic, non-linear and therefore difficult to predict process. We are finally experiencing the acute “second wave”, and even the third! In this respect, I recommend negotiating preliminary agreements with the employees that guarantee the necessary flexibility for both sides.
... which may become acute all of a sudden.
Conclusions for personnel management: this dilemma can become acute (again) at any time. Attention: During Fourth Wave and New Normal, clear decisions currently made, can quickly turn out to be wrong or premature. The pandemic is a dynamic, non-linear and therefore difficult to predict process. We are finally experiencing the acute “Fourth Wave”! In this respect, I recommend negotiating preliminary agreements with the employees that guarantee the necessary flexibility for both sides.
All of these experiences made during last year and currently, may be used as recommendations for further action. But also to initiate reflection on one’s own attitudes. Whimsical remarks are allowed! In addition, this text should be understood as work in progress, in which the so minded reader is invited to participate! I look forward to emails and MS Teams / Zoom invitations – and in the above sense, to phone calls!