Insights

GLOBAL MOBILITY through the PANDEMIC

The COVID-19 global crisis has shined a spotlight on just how mission-critical the mobility function is to business success. Here, Sterling Lexicon’s Stuart Jackson offers some key insights to ensuring that organisations continue to support their globally mobile employees.

With many new assignments temporarily on hold and economic pressures mounting, global mobility teams have been at the forefront of supporting their organisation’s globally mobile employees, accidental assignees and finding new ways to do the proverbial “more with less” in this incredibly challenging environment.

Getting the right people into the right roles has always been a business imperative, and it’s what global mobility professionals do best. A pandemic hasn’t changed either of those facts. What has changed is the way we’re thinking about and defining mobility.

Here are some of the ways we’ve seen mobility professionals building on and enhancing their relevance to the organisation.

Identifying where existing assignees are and managing assignments

As the virus initially spread across the globe individuals and organisations reacted in differing ways. Some assignees stayed put, some turned up where they weren’t expected and some organisations chartered flights to evacuate. Global mobility had the unenviable challenge of establishing where everyone was and what the compliance issues might be. Some assignments were terminated prematurely, whilst others were put on hold. Sterling Lexicon supported organisations with terminating leases for empty apartments and packing shipments for assignees that had already returned home.

Identifying and managing compliance for accidental assignees

Remote working has become the norm for many but not everyone is working from the country to which they are contracted. This potentially creates immigration, personal and corporate tax risks. Global mobility professionals have been busy working cross-departmentally not only to establish who is where but also to develop policies and processes to minimise risk to the individual and to the organisation. Communication with business managers and employees has been a key component of executing a robust strategy around cross-border remote working.

Planning for the Future

Whilst the pandemic has slowed the pace of international assignments, business hasn’t come to a complete standstill. Mobility professionals are continually fielding questions from the business about when they can get employees back into locations or start new assignments (sometimes virtually!). There’s a lot of scenario planning going on. Sterling Lexicon has been supporting organisations in anticipating costs for new assignments so that they can make effective return on investment decisions for strategic assignments in a period of economic slowdown.

Supporting the business in being Brexit ready

As if a global pandemic weren’t enough, mobility has to contend with the end of freedom of movement for UK and European citizens as the end of the transition period approaches. In addition to being tax experts, mobility professionals are supporting the business and managing expectations around post-Brexit visa requirements and business travel.

Emerging HR TRENDS for 2021

It is widely acknowledged that COVID-19 will leave a lasting impact on the future of work for many years, perhaps even decades to come. Here, Helen Jamieson from Jaluch Training and HR considers the emerging HR trends that we can expect from a COVID ravaged working landscape in 2021.

New HR roles will need to be created to meet cultural changes, some of which have been accelerated by coronavirus. For example Home Working Specialists, Young Employee Induction Specialists, Tech Confidence Trainers. There will also be a rise in demand for more of the HR roles we have already started seeing appear such as Mental Wellbeing Experts, Project Managers and Change Drivers. Succession planning A lot of succession plans will have been messed up this year. Starting with reducing or removing a graduate intake, you remove from your succession pipeline a whole raft of potentials for the senior jobs in a few years’ time. Companies who have handled things badly either in terms of cash or treatment of staff will have droves of employees leave them for companies that have handled things well – compounding profit problems with people problems. Plus we have lots of people wanting to change careers. Lockdown got a lot of people thinking and this is bringing another unexpected surprise when you think you have identified who is moving up your succession pipeline.

Companies might also find that the traits they have identified as right for the future are no longer the traits they need to succeed and be sustainable. Perhaps the whole succession planning will need to be reconsidered.

Redundancy or Tupe?

Whilst we were expecting a huge surge in redundancy support request we are instead finding an equal number

A re-imagining of HR roles

of TUPE support requests. We appear to have embarked

on a massive mergers, acquisitions spree and that all creates very complex HR environments when you bring together different terms and conditions, cultures, benefits.

Dealing with a data breach backlash

We haven’t yet had the data breach backlash resulting from all this remote working and friends and family walking in and out of confidential discussions and laptops with confidential files being left open for all to see. When the Information commissioner starts to get its own team back to work the issue of data breaches may start to become a really big issue.

Post-furlough re-induction

Germany is extending Furlough for another year. Will we see further furlough? The challenge is how do you bring back into the workplace staff who have been furloughed for just 6 months, let alone the 18 months? Confidence will be down, skills will be diminishing, relationships with colleagues lost or reducing, skills no longer a good fit with the roles that need doing. I haven’t yet seen a company with a plan for all of this but the numbers are too great to just try to slide them back into the organisation like we do with maternity leaves, without a plan.

It’s time for a CHANGE

During 2020, the HR sector has faced unprecedented challenges with very long hours, endless ‘Teams’ and ‘Zoom’ calls, rolling-in, then rolling-out the Government’s furlough scheme, salary reductions and regrettably many redundancies with many more to follow. Here, Tracey Chrystal, HR Director, Chrystal HR and Chrystal Coaching with over 20 years senior HR management experience describes her own experience of the pandemic and the point where she decided on her own career pivot.

So, the furlough veil has finally been lifted and what we are left with are unrecognisable organisational structures and to top it all off, no one is sure what will happen with the economy in the next few weeks, let alone the next few months.

From conversations I have had with HR colleagues recently, many have discovered they have simply reached a state of burnout whilst furlough envy has crept in, with no sight of time off, gardening, decorating, keeping fit, Netflix or wine – anytime soon!

In the early phase of the pandemic, the effort by HR colleagues trying to manage resources with ever-changing restrictions, was time consuming with the onset of regular business reviews and the drive to protect jobs becoming more precarious during the summer months.

Just when we thought the dust had settled and the merry-go-round had stopped, where you could safely reach for your toothbrush before your mobile phone began to ring and your laptop inbox began to ping – wait a minute – not so fast!

If there is one certainty about this pandemic, it is here to stay for the long term and with no obvious sign of giving up its grip on the economy, our health and wellbeing or our civil liberties for that matter, with greater restrictions being announced as I write this article, we all must think carefully about what is important.

And then it hits you – what on earth are we doing? Life is too short …and the strange thing is, it’s not just HR professionals who have been affected. We’re all affected! Employees across the sectors have made moves for career changes, reduced hours and raised early retirement questions – we have seen the biggest change in mindset in the world of work in a generation, with millions of workers anxious, if not, a little bit intrigued with the prospect of working remotely and no longer wasting time travelling to offices.

I was one of the lucky one’s, I saw the light, reduced my hours and have reignited my own business, even in the face of adversity, before it is too late.

Being in the moment can be both productive and insightful however like many professionals, HR life may not be the same again after 2020.

They say that variety is the spice of life and following my career pivot experience, I am now able to support employers in a new world and happily delivering a personalised bespoke service, covering the full employee life cycle – which is pretty much everything that you could imagine when you are employing others in your business.

Engaging with leaders through executive coaching and supporting them to achieve the results that are important to them and the long-term success of their organisation is exceedingly rewarding and when you’re passionate about helping people create positive change, and able to help them find new ways to do more of it, for me there is no greater sense of achievement.

Today, reward for me is gained not only carrying out my paid work for small and medium sized businesses but also in supporting two large charity organisations in Glasgow with a free professional service – believing this is a great way of giving something back.

For more information please visit: www.chrystalhr.com or find us on Hr MARKET: https://market.hrnetworkjobs.com/

REDEFINING your leadership see this crisis as ushering in an ‘era of creative destruction’ that allows for new learning and even reinvention? Many of the leaders I have spoken to lately have learned a great lesson from leading through this current crisis. One such leader I spoke to recently said: “This will be the case study of the future and while we are in it, we need to make the most of it.” style in a CRISIS

Who could have imagined the realtime leadership test and on-the-job development that leaders have had over recent months as a result of COVID-19? Here, Suzanne Lamont, managing partner of Hanya Talent and Organisational Health looks at leadership during the ‘COVID Crisis’ and how leaders can redefine their leadership style when leading during a crisis.

Take a pathogen that creates global biological warfare leading to a humanitarian and economic crisis, overlay this onto digital transformation, leading to re-structuring, demands for new ways of working, increased cyber-risks and we seem to have ‘The Hunger Games’ leadership style.

I have been fascinated with identifying executive potential and developing it for many years, since making it the focus of my Masters dissertation research.

It’s no wonder that OD and HR professionals choose to work with great leaders. Leaders are a fascinating group of people but even the most hardy and battle-worn leaders across the sectors still need to assess and develop their leadership style in an ever-changing environment.

The impact that COVID-19 has had on the economy and businesses the world over, requires leaders to adjust to meet the new needs of their people, teams and organisation and having an adaptable leadership style may well determine the survival, for those most willing to update their leadership approach. We are an economy where our SME’s significantly

Furthermore, employees and teams are looking to their leaders for compassion and understanding and to lead in a way never seen before, during a time of great uncertainty and concern about the future.

Now, some would say their leaders are infuriating and perplexing. Some would even say their leaders are terrifying. However, leaders can create great feelings of unity and togetherness amongst their ranks, especially when it’s clear they are working hard to alter their However, no matter what employees feel about their leaders, they should feel their leaders are inspiring – if our leaders don’t inspire us, why would we follow them?

So, what inspiring leadership have we seen?

Can a new generation of leaders just ‘stand up and stand out’? Can they sense the time is right for a new type of leadership – more humane, humble, open? Can they

Another said: “It could just be that COVID was the best thing to happen to this business. It has freed me up from decisions I thought I’d never be free from.”

The real question for many leaders is – can you lead in a way that is effective in a new paradigm?

We have found leaders of all levels of experience – when encouraged, and we have encouraged them – are talking about a redefinition of leadership. Some are seeing that the role of the leader has shifted – to connect, to guide, to care, to share.

Encouragingly, they ‘get’ that engagement has now flipped and now realise that ‘they work for us – we don’t work for them’.

We are not out of this crisis yet. Leaders continue to face huge challenges and massive opportunities. There will be winners and losers in the economy – but there will be some wonderful stories of growth and pivoting.

own style. outnumber our plc’s – but our plc’s are the source of far greater private sector employment. The public sector is under hug cost pressures and has never been more important.

So, the question for all leaders is, will you assess, develop and redefine your leadership style to meet this new world, which incidentally hasn’t finished changing? Every leader and every leadership team matters. Survival – evolution of the species – suggests they need to.

RULES, TIERS and TEARS

If our environments are not already surrounded by regulatory bodies and legislation, we are all now experiencing waves of new external social rules to abide by. There’s no step change, we’re just expected to hear it, implement it and get on with it. Here, Ruth Gladwell, HR Business partner at Navigator Employment Law emphasises the importance for employers to maintain positive communication with employees.

We get it, it’s an emergency and we need to be agile but for some of us the rules seem never ending and we find ourselves continually receiving, translating, understanding and implementing new rules, including a new evolving nomenclature of the rules, we have now moved into Tiers. The rules are not just for the workplace, they are for our households too and can be overwhelming.

Just how do you support your employees in their comprehension of the latest set of Government rules surrounding the pandemic that controls every facet of our lives? Keeping my ear to the ground and hearing how organisations are dealing with this led to me think that those that actively address the external rules with their staff do receive a worthwhile return on this investment.

Ways to do this are varied. Some are holding Remote Management Development meetings specifically for people managers or in the setting for a wider management team where

the business has external compliance as a regular agenda item. Others are regularly issuing a weekly communication to the wider staff group, publishing a FAQ bulletin and referencing it during weekly 1-2-1’s with their team members.

Where there is a wider resource, perhaps in Marketing or Design, then there has been the opportunity taken to ensure communications take on a positive engagement and proactive approach; they consider what individuals can do.

They then highlight opportunities of how to add diversity into Remote Working locations. For example, letting the team know about which café offers the slickest table reservation application, the best cake choice or which ‘Work from Bar’ has the fastest and most reliable Wi-Fi. Although do ensure a quality check of suggestions goes past your internal compliance holder.

Let’s remember that a safe environment is not just about cleanliness and sanitisation, it includes listening to the team’s group and individual challenges, supporting their employees in dealing with what is going to be a continued round of not working in the office and explaining to tearful children, and work colleagues on how they can’t invite everyone to put their hands in the Halloween sweetie tub at the same time!

You may feel that because pandemic rules are broadcasted and blasted across the media that you want to avoid ‘over communication’ and ‘noise’ on the subject but actually, it is the employers who are seen to be actively listening to their staff and understanding their staffs challenges during the rule changes who are positively highlighted in the external communications those employees have with others.

The good news stories are out there, and these do ultimately impact everyone’s overall wellbeing, productivity and, let us not forget, reputation.