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workforce diversity culture, employee well-being and the hybrid working model. We can see many multinational companies including Juniper offer male employees extended paternity leave beyond the statutory. They have shifted their focus from paying medical bills to being more preventive. For example, offering employees and their family members health screening benefits, paying bills on some preventive check-ups. The benefits are packed and customised with flexibility to meet employee’s individual needs at different ages and life stages. Also, more and more benefits programmes are now being digitalised and cloud-based, making them globally applicable.
Flexibility and/or hybrid work has become a non-negotiable for many employees and also a major selling point for companies today. Can you share a bit about what works to set up a flexible model for existing and new employees, and how to communicate it? For us, a good hybrid collaboration model strikes the best balance between the needs of our people and their preferences, and those of the company and their teams. We understand hybrid work will yield an engaged, motivated and innovative workforce that will generate desired stun| April 2022
The traditional management system – a hierarchy that solves for uniformity and control – has proven to be no longer effective
countries move forward with post-pandemic recovery plans, it is vital that organisations continue to reaffirm safeguarding the health and safety of employees.
In meeting employee expectations, there are plenty of longer-ranging implications for how work is done and how business ning business results. priorities are decided. What This will influence how is HR's role in this reconfiguwe operate our daily activration of conversations? ities. One of the ways we In today’s business landare putting this into action scape, HR has an elevated is through the introduction role to play in business stratof collaboration days when egy. HR ensures that talent offices are allowed to fully reopen safely. Employees are priorities are defined as part of the business stratencouraged to work closely with their managers to iden- egy by identifying areas of change, ways to attract and tify which days would make most sense for them and their retain talent, as well as drive engagement and bolster team as collaboration days. employee growth. These collaboration days The at-scale shift to can be seen as opportunities remote work, accelerafor employees to reconnect, strengthen bonds, and simply tion of digitalisation and reallocation of business enjoy time with their teams. resources are major chalWe shall also relook at lenges faced by many organhow offices are designed by isations today. The tradiintroducing more collaboration spaces, flexible working tional management system – a hierarchy that solves for zones and ergonomic office uniformity and control – has desks and chairs. During proven to be no longer effecthe pandemic, we called our tive. HR teams must work home our “office”, and now we could be calling our office alongside business leaders in reimagining the organiour “home” post-pandemic. sation of the future – where All in all, organisations must be genuine and consist- labour becomes talent and companies become more ent when communicating their commitment to flexibil- people-oriented, collaboraity during the transition back tive and focused on making the employee journey more to in-person collaboration. fulfilling and meaningful. Furthermore, while many