People and places – what are they worth? 

This article has drawn significantly from one written by Stephanie Corking, People Director and co-owner at business consultancy firm, Laws of Attraction. Her article appeared on thebusinessdesk.com on 10th March 2021.  

The pandemic has been tough for many employees: new working environments, disrupting routines, changing roles and responsibilities, long term friends that have been made redundant and for many, being furloughed and not working for long periods. All of these may have created worry and uncertainty with many colleagues. Now, your people are your biggest opportunity and will be crucial to reviving the fortunes of the region’s individual businesses, towns, cities, and the economy as a whole. Therefore, an investment in your people (now more than ever), could be the smartest ‘post covid’ move you can make. 

There is much talk currently, amongst both large and small business owners, of the post-covid recovery plan. Strategies, agendas, objectives, and detailed plans to get consumers back to our brands and spending again have been the talk of many a zoom call up and down the country. And for many businesses, the PM’s announcement of the UK roadmap on the 22nd of February has resulted in a flurry of activity for ‘return to work’ plans and how to welcome their customers with open arms when the doors are eventually allowed to reopen. 

Whilst many have spent the last 6-9 months continually revaluating their operations, the focus is now on strategic priorities, learning from the lessons of responding to uncertainties and capturing the changes (and opportunities) of the last 12 months to move forward. 

The same level of thinking should have taken place within the VCFSE sector as well. There is a danger that we may have been wrapped up in too much “here and now” and have left inadequate space for the “tomorrow and beyond”.  

The effects of COVID-19 on the sector are profound and unprecedented. While retailers must work through operational and tactical considerations to re-open retail stores VCFSE bodies have wider issues to consider as well. These do create an opportunity to re-examine who you are as an organisation, considering: 

•  Customer — How has your customer evolved during and after the crisis? What are their expectations, needs, behaviours, and priorities in this new environment? In purely commercial terms a customer is the one that pays the bill. We have service users who may not be customers in the strict sense. To change a service to reflect the needs of the service user without consulting the customer is a very dangerous strategy indeed.  

•  Brand — What is the purpose of your operation, and how can you best serve customers? Do you need to evolve your value proposition to stay relevant? If so, how? Who are the stakeholders with whom you have to consult?  

• Product — What are the key, best-selling products and services? Is it the right time to consider new categories, new services, and new business models? This style of thinking is sometimes seen as “not sector appropriate”. In a world where financial resources will be finite and variable customer focussed thinking will be of paramount importance.  

• Store — What is the impact on the store channel, its role, and the corresponding operations? How do you keep your customers and associates safe, while playing a new role in customers’ lives? 

• Digital — How do you keep what you have developed and worked without ignoring those who cannot access digital for whatever reason.  

(Deloitte) 

However, what is missing from that list above is  People… 

It has been no surprise that HR functions have been at the core of managing change in the past 12 months. And now, as leadership teams begin to mobilise the operational plans, how do we ensure that employee engagement stays high on the agenda to ensure customer engagement stays ‘high’ on the high street? 

Recent surveys have told us, that overall, most companies did a good job of addressing their employees’ physical and emotional needs during the working from home and lockdown periods, ensuring they met the basic needs of safety, stability and security. However, as we approach the next phase, those needs are evolving and the need for a sophisticated return-to-work strategy that focuses on employee wellbeing, managing stress as well as motivation, listening and encouraging innovation from your teams and overall employee engagement are all things that should be high on the people agenda. 

So how should HR functions be adapting and realigning their people strategy and how does this link to the North’s post covid recovery strategy? Stephanie observes,  

“Developing a human-centric people strategy that has relationships at its heart and the ability to evolve consistently to support the corporate strategy, enables improved employee wellbeing and business performance. 

In the majority of client conversations, we have had recently, I’m often surprised to hear that HR teams feel they haven’t done enough to develop their post covid strategy, in line with the business strategy, and then communicate, engage and inspire their colleagues across the business so that they fully understand that the people are the intrinsic part of getting customers back through the doors”. 

 
66% of HR functions develop people strategic plans that are not linked to the organisation’s corporate strategy. 

Our regions voluntary sector operations have an opportunity to improve the employee experience during the return-to-work phase. The good news is, we have the tools to achieve that. Advancements in employee listening platforms, pulse surveys, two-way communication channels mean that leaders can now address employee experience in a data-driven and targeted way. By using the data to drill down on which groups of employees need more and varied types of support, they can also tailor their communication styles and actions that create feelings of wellbeing and build relationships across the workforce. 

In a recent survey, 87% of highly engaged employees said they are less likely to leave the company they are work for compared to their counterparts. There is a danger of complacency creeping in here. Someone leaves and there are plenty of people seeking work at present. We need to ascertain why some one is leaving and try to improve the areas that they highlight. Exit interviews are important and valuable if they are acted upon. There is more cost to recruitment than the price of the advert. Think about lost productivity; time to read applications; to interview or even creating the new job description in the first place. An employee walking out of the door because they see somewhere better to work (and it isn’t always about money) is probably money and value walking out of the door as well.  

However, the fundamental key to success is that leaders and managers are responsible and accountable for the employee needs to help them thrive during the return. 

Employees will be looking to the leadership teams and line managers for both strategic direction and emotional support (after all the most important relationship you have at work is with your boss), whilst customers will be looking to businesses’ front-line employees to deliver a safe, engaging and enjoyable return to the quality operations that they are used to. 

In summary, having a ‘leader led’ approach to employee engagement (it’s not just an HR thing) will be your quickest win to mobilising your workforce and ensuring your returning customers continue to come back as the Northern and wider economy reopens and your employees feel safe, inspired and engaged. 

March 2021 – with huge thanks to Stephanie Corking.