Technology in the Service of People Experiences at work in the ‘New Reality’

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Perspectives from Phil Mitchell, Partner, KPMG UK, and Chris Pope, VP Innovation, ServiceNow on the role of technology in the new reality

Phil Mitchell Chris Pope

For many, returning to the workplace is now a consideration. Some workers may be eager to return and reconnect with teams and friends. Other workers may feel anxious about elements of returning; such as commuting and safety in physical work locations. Whatever the outcome, technology will play a huge part in the new reality.

Q&A topics

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The COVID-19 pandemic has seen work practices change significantly in 2020. What must organisations be doing now to adapt and ensure that their people thrive?

Phil Mitchell: The new reality has really challenged the historic paradigm of presenteeism. Companies that never would have considered home working have had to switch to a remote workforce. They have seen their productivity increase, not necessarily everywhere, but they have realised genuine net gains. It has prompted business leaders to look at their workforce structure and deepen their employee engagement as the current situation evolves into a long-term reality.

Employees must be comfortable with working in a new way and they need to be supported while they balance other commitments too, such as home schooling or caring. At KPMG, we’ve had to re-think how we engage with our employees as well. We have flexed our policies quite significantly to allow them to manage the new set-up.

Chris Pope: The thriving aspect has a lot to do with being flexible about policies and processes. At ServiceNow, we’ve actually removed the concept of remote working. Our approach is about allowing our employees to work wherever they happen to be that’s most appropriate at the time.

But thriving is also about considering the wider culture of the organisation — how we bring people together and engage with them. To create a sense of belonging, we organise internal programmes and activities that you would normally do with your family at the weekends, such as activity clubs, and we’re actively encouraging employees to make time for these and participate. We also encourage ‘no meeting Fridays’ to allow people to take a breath and focus on tasks that need quality time.

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There are challenges still remaining with home working. What are you hearing from your employees and/or customers?

Phil Mitchell: There is a distinction to be drawn between home working and home workers. We are not home workers, we are working from home, with many of us doing so due to the new circumstances and in ways that are not always ideal. For example, some graduates in shared households need to share their workspace at the kitchen table.

We are also beginning to witness ‘COVID-19 burnout’ among middle and senior management levels. They seem to be the ones carrying the brunt of giving additional support to their teams while conducting extra reporting and due diligence as their organisations go through a complex business resilience process. There’s a growing need to focus on the wellbeing of the middle to senior management layer.

Chris Pope: On the whole, the approach to the new reality is being driven not just by the new physical workplace but by how the employees feel about the wider context of working remotely. Employees are finding that they need to strike a number of balancing acts, especially with children and home schooling.

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Communication has been put to the test. Is it all about video conferencing now?

Chris Pope: The traditional benefits of working in the same building that include going to someone’s desk for a short, informal catch-up are now gone. How we communicate and articulate ourselves on conference calls or via email has become very important now that the face-to-face body language aspect is lost. A lack of soft skills training can become very evident in such circumstances.

I got my first office video phone in 2005, yet here we are, 15 years later, and it’s the first time we’re really using video conference calling to any great extent. Many employees are experiencing an overload of video calls, with ‘Zoom fatigue’ setting in, so we need to get the balance right between keeping up interaction and contact and allowing employees the space to get on with tasks.

Phil Mitchell: We’ve also forgotten how to make phone calls. The communication currency nowadays is Teams meetings, but by putting the emphasis on scheduled video calls we risk losing the art of simply picking up the phone for impromptu conversations.

Chris Pope: Indeed. One of my colleagues has called me three times during the past few months, only to be surprised that I actually picked up my phone. During our three-minute conversation we managed to cover all questions, have a chat about children and further develop our relationship. Phone calls have become a modern-day equivalent of writing a postcard. They show that the caller is taking their time and making an effort.

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Will workforces ever return to work as they did before COVID-19?

Phil Mitchell: Not really. People have settled into a new way of working and we will see much more hybrid working moving forward. We will not have home workers or office workers, but just people who work from different environments. I think that’s a good thing coming out of this crisis.

Chris Pope: There are two phases to consider when we think about ‘return to work’. Currently, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a risk and internal research that we’ve carried out at ServiceNow shows almost half of our employees don’t feel ready to go back to work. We’ve got lovely offices but their main concern is the commute. Going into central London is not particularly pleasant at the best of times but now it is even less appealing.

But even in the long term, it’s unlikely they will want to go back to how things were. As Phil says, employees have settled into a new way of working.

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What do organisations need to consider and put in place in order to ensure a successful return to the physical workplace?

Phil Mitchell: The process should start with a risk assessment of a number of parameters. These include physical risk, i.e. office buildings and how they can be made safe, then there is people risk and the importance of safeguarding people, plus regulatory compliance, technology risk, etc. Policies and processes need to be developed off the back of the comprehensive risk assessment exercise.

Effective internal communication becomes incredibly important, ensuring that people are engaged and that they are comfortable with the new policies and processes.

People’s levels of anxiety related to their return to the office differ. Some people are desperate to return because of the personal connection and interactions. Others feel anxious about going back to the old ways of working. The challenge is to create a policy that embraces all these various needs as we transition to the new reality.

Another key thing to consider is customer expectations. We need to develop complementary ways of working with our customers.

Chris Pope: The key thing to establish is whether an employee is ready to return. We need to look at their home routines, any commitments regarding parents or children, and also their personal wellbeing and health. Also, is the workplace ready in terms of PPE, workplace services, desk arrangements, inventory, supplies…?

Our financial services customers are telling us that their branches in small remote villages — some of them previously earmarked for closure — are being used as remote offices for employees living in the area. The commute is safer and employees are happier. These branches have been given a new lease of life, which is good for the local community.

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What challenges and opportunities have you noticed when it comes to finding and recruiting talent?

Chris Pope: Previously, a company organised work around its location, which usually meant hiring people living within an hour’s commute from the office building.

In the past, we struggled to find the right talent because of such proximity requirements. We’ve removed such limitations and, for example, hired people based in South Africa that are delivering some amazing work. This will be the new norm moving forward.

Phil Mitchell: The ability to access talent globally is a big one. People will also have more flexibility with regard to how and where they live. Creating digital workplaces with the help of solutions like ServiceNow will be ever more important, both from an experience and security point of view.

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Social ‘bubbles’ are emerging as a framework for socialising in the ‘new reality’. Can they serve a purpose also in the corporate environment?

Phil Mitchell: We’re seeing an emergence of social contracting or ‘bubbles’ across work teams. Groups of people are being empowered to agree, at a very local level, on how they want to work together. They might set a time for socialising or have a special code of conduct, or they might agree on a day when they all go to the office together and spend the rest of the week working more flexibly.

At KPMG, this could mean having a social contract with our clients that sets out how we want to work together on, say, a large transformation project.

We have seen an increase in employee satisfaction when teams are empowered to take initiatives and produce their own social contracts.

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Q AWhat does employee happiness look like in the new reality?

Chris Pope: Employees want to be productive, empowered to make a contribution and have their efforts rewarded. We need to be careful that the classic, ‘overbearing’ management style doesn’t feature prominently in the new hybrid way of working — providing support and being accessible is key, but micro-managing indicates a lack of confidence.

Every member of my team is located in a different city around the world. They need to be engaged but at the same time also given enough space. The whole arrangement is underpinned by trust and our performance culture. It is outcome-based, with every team member having the freedom to manage their own time.

In the new reality, the employee has much more choice. While for many it used to be awkward to ask if we can work from home on a Friday, the focus is now on the outcome, not the time and place of work.

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What will future, prospective employees and customers look for in a workforce strategy?

Phil Mitchell: Culture, but more specifically a culture that satisfies employees’ emotional needs for progression, while also giving them the flexibility to work in a way that suits their particular lifestyle.

There is also a growing focus on environmental and sustainability issues as well as social mobility. It is a trend we’ve been noticing for the past five years and the recent crisis has only reinforced it.

Chris Pope: Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (DIB) needs to be a big part of any workforce strategy, including philanthropy. Employees will be interested in a company’s involvement in community initiatives, be it STEM programmes, Women in Technology, digital literacy, and similar.

At ServiceNow, the Martin Luther King Day is now a global company holiday that employees can take off if they wish. In the UK, some of our teams have decided to take this opportunity to partner with Crisis and spend a day helping job seekers with their job hunt.

We are not only a technology company, but an organisation trying to help and support where we can. It is certainly one of the criteria potential employees will assess you on.

CULTURE

progression

community

diversity

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We have been using these technologies to manage the Return to Work for 16,000 staff in the UK and 29,000 in the US firms. 20+ clients globally are also on-boarded to receive these services. Discover more:

Watch Adrian Bradley discuss how technology is facilitating a return to the

workplace in our New Reality video

Our blog on how we are helping our clients to prepare for a new reality

Our PDF detailing how to restart the UK

Take our COVID-19 Response Assessment to help you assess the completeness of your immediate response to COVID-19

Watch our video detailing our Return to work app and Return solution that will help you manage a positive and safe

return to your workplace

Contact us

Adrian BradleyKPMG DirectorTechnologyAdrian.Bradley@KPMG.co.uk

Sharon SpearKPMG DirectorTechnologyE: Sharon.Spear@KPMG.co.uk

Phil MitchellKPMG PartnerPeople and ChangeE: Phil.Mitchell2@KPMG.co.uk

Kate HoltKPMG PartnerTechnologyE: Kate.Holt@KPMG.co.uk

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