Coronavirus Q&A series: Interview with Dr. Toni Best, Chief Human Performance Officer, Aduro

 

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted various aspects of our lives - especially work. With remote working becoming the norm, employees and employers alike, especially the first-timers, are experiencing the ups and downs related to the situation.

On one hand, employees are worried about job security and the challenges of working as a team, on the other, employers are facing issues such as engagement and productivity drop, among others. It now falls upon the leadership to keep the team up and running.
 

How are the leaders handling the situation? HR.com interviewed senior-level executives from various organizations and asked them to share their lessons and insights.

The crisis has put acute pressure on our business. From the perspective of our own people, it has put us on high alert to attend to the individual and collective day-to-day reality we’re all dealing with. I don’t think “trauma” is too strong a word, and so we’ve had to be very attentive to supporting our people. And because Aduro itself is in the business of well-being and Human Performance — specifically supporting our clients and their employees in all aspects of their lives, be it personal, financial, emotional, etc. – we’ve had to react very quickly to help our clients navigate uncharted waters. Another important factor, from a business operations point of view, is that we also assist our clients with return-to-work planning and execution, and so that adds another layer of complexity to the context in which we’re working.

We luckily have been set up for people to work safely and effectively from home or on the road for the past decade, so the initial transition to a fully remote workforce was smooth. One of our main challenges is supporting parents on our team who are working from home and the multiple roles they find themselves playing (employee, parent, teacher, etc.) We’ve been intentional about ensuring that the support we offer our people is equitable and aligned with family priorities, personal needs, and their work obligations. Our leadership team knows these people need extra support and are providing it. Another employee group that we’ve paid special attention to are those with high needs for social connectedness, especially those that live alone and are suffering. Managers and teammates are doing additional well-being check-ins with people and providing support, access to services, and a friendly face and ear to be there for them. 

I wouldn’t say we have specific “policies,” as much as we are lucky to already have had in place some organizational infrastructure, so to speak. We were able to identify the need for and rapidly assemble a COVID-19 response team that gathers and shares information on a daily basis, both from inside Aduro and, just as importantly, among our clients and partners. It has helped our leadership team navigate the crisis internally among our own people, while giving us important perspective and insights to share with our clients and others in the business community at large.

As mentioned above, because we already had a work-from-home culture largely in place, disengagement wasn’t/isn’t an issue. Also, because of the work we do and the nature of our people, I think we are getting even more engagement. There’s no arguing that their work has meaning and is important. Honestly, we’ve had to be aware of overwork and burnout scenarios more than disengagement or productivity issues. That being said, those employees who were challenged in their roles pre-crisis, continue to struggle mid-crisis.

All of our people have ready access to mindset and resilience content and programs, as well as personal Human Performance coaches as a standard benefit. Even prior to this crisis, we have been ramping up our focus on mental health. It has always been our position that true well-being is a dynamic, holistic state — it’s not one isolated factor. And emotional well-being, which every human on earth is struggling with right now, is so much a foundational element, or indicator, of human flourishing.  As a company focused on Human Performance, we know we can’t expect our people to thrive in their jobs if they’re struggling with emotional and mental health. So, yes, we’re paying very close attention to this and bringing that conversation to our clients as well.

Never before has it been more important for our leaders to share their humanity, their vulnerability, their own uncertainty. You have to validate peoples’ shared reality and be real. And then, yes, be transparent and clear with the decision-making and communication – over communicate. Finally, assuming you’re checking in with your people, pay particular attention to the strong, silent types, your high performers. They’re often in need of help, but less likely to ask for it.

It feels a bit like we’ve been in a crucible and it has forced us to get creative and adapt very quickly. We’ve always had a culture focused on emotional well-being, but the crisis has shined a bright light on how important some of our practices are. We were “almost” taking for granted things like personal check-ins at the start of meetings, mindfulness exercises, and the casual question: “How are you doing?” We’re very clear that asking that question and creating space to sit with the answer is extremely important right now – and going forward.