Join the conversation on the operational and psychological return to the workforce

Many businesses will have started the transition or will be planning now on how they might bring people back to the workplace later this year.

This is not just an operations exercise to get back to ‘normal’, but also a strategic look at what the business can now do and how, as well as being a huge human resources and engagement exercise. In this week’s webinar we will build on the conversations from the past few weeks to talk about the operational and psychological return to the workplace.

In our webinar two weeks ago Be the Business CEO Tony Danker polled listeners to see how they compared with four segments of the rest of SMEs in the UK – hibernators (UK 28%), survivors (UK 32%), pivoters (UK 21%) and thrivers (UK 6%) .

It was clear that from those listening, many of them employee owned businesses, that a greater proportion (over 50%) were in survivor mode, while noting that many of the businesses would have experienced more than one of the above states.

Meanwhile in last week’s webinar on creating an effective workforce for the future we heard from John Lewis Partnership – which straddled all four of the segments above with 6,000 working from home for the first time, John Lewis stores closed, Waitrose stores and online sales ‘thriving’ and factories pivoting to make NHS gowns instead of their usual products – on their key takeaways of things to keep doing including kindness to each other and effective engagement digitally that enabled quick decision making.

This was supported by insights from the Institute for the Future of Work on how some of this type of learning could help us to fast track automation and technology that is done with people at the heart of it, making sure that it works for all.

So, alongside navigating the relevant government workplace guides – of which there are 8 – there needs to be a plan for not just the operational return to ‘normal’ taking into account the positives we could take from the changes we had to make as businesses during lockdown, but also one that considers how individuals have been and will be affected, so a return to the workplace can been “done well” for all.

This is why in our next webinar we will have Shaun Imrie, Group Head of Operations & Compliance, from EOA member Manchester based distributors of mechanical services and fire protection products, Shawston International, discuss his business’ approach to the operational lock-down and its approach to operational recovery.

While Helen Moreton, Master Coach with 20 years’ experience within the EO Sector, will explore the key considerations of how during this anxious and unsettling time, the principles of employee ownership can be leveraged to support the transition and embrace a new way of operating and being.

Join us on Thursday 28 May at 11am