balance

What next?

Posted on by Blog

It was noticeable last week that the conversations across organisations and networks started to shift from how we “endure/survive” the current situation to how we “recover” (with no intention to be insensitive through language). Shaped in the context of the debate about  the possible lifting of restrictions,

Understandably, we focus on the short term. What will social distancing mean for our organisations? Will there be different expectations on work spaces? How will people feel about travelling on public transport? What will we do about childcare and schools? Can we afford the current workforce?

And whilst we will need to answer all of these questions, whilst we will need to understand the practical implications. At the same time, there are perhaps more serious, longer term considerations that will come to test us.

The economic impact of the virus will be long term, not just for the organisations that have had to close their doors, lay off their workers or close down. But in the money that Government has invested to respond to the current situation. A generation could be set back by the financial burden, as we saw in the financial crisis.

And whilst we can’t definitively know, opinions on life, society and the economy will also be shaped by the experience we are having. There will be the demand for change, a level of recrimination, but hopefully too things that we have observed and experienced that will act as a future force for good.

As I’ve said multiple times, organisations are in effect a microcosm of society, we exist in a bubble at our peril. The debate will ultimately involve us having to explore our social purpose, consider issues of equity and fairness, challenge us on the treatment of all our stakeholder groups and in some cases require fundamental change and adaptation.

In many ways, the challenge for leaders is far from coming to an end, and not just because restrictions will go on for some time,  it is just starting. The virus and our ability to respond and manage it is one thing, the likely change it drives in society will raise a whole other series of fundamental, ethical and structural challenges.

HR can make the world a better place

Posted on by Blog

Imagine if you could make the world a better place.

Imagine if you could go to work and contribute to a more harmonious, more secure, safer and happier world. Would that appeal?

How about if you could do that by working in HR?

We spend so much of our lives in work, our experience of the world is so often dictated by our experiences in the workplace. If we’re happy, if we’re sad, if we feel safe and secure, or manipulated, used or ill at ease.

Our ability to be able to provide for ourselves, the safety net that provides us with support when we are at our lowest points, ill, caring for dependents, dealing with the changes that life brings upon us. These things make all the difference.

A positive work experience becomes a positive social experience and a positive life experience. And this positive effect spreads further than the inside of our enterprises, it spreads in to society as a whole.

But what’s more, when we think of the role that works play in society then we can play an even bigger part in the world.

Fairness in society is driven significantly by fairness at work. A sense of purpose, a sense of belonging, a sense of participation and self-determination. All of these things drive the psychological wellbeing of employees and of society as a whole.

Fragmented societies, societies that are based on injustice, control, fear and division for the purposes of power are fertile ground for extreme reactions, for insurrection and disorder. They are repeatedly the start of a chain reaction that challenges the balance of the world.

Is it too much to suggest that HR can make the world a better place? I don’t think so. Work forms such an intrinsic part of the fabric of society, it holds such an important place in the everyday lives of us all. Why would it not have a greater effect on the equilibrium of the world as a whole?

Work shapes our lives and if we can make work better we can make lives better. But it also
shapes society and, yes, if we can make work better we can, and should, make the world a happier, stable more secure place.