NEWS & OPINIONS

After 10 weeks of lockdown, new research conducted by Question & Retain, the insights agency, has revealed how employees are coping with working from home (WFH) and their fears about a return to the workplace.Conducted over a five-week period (4th April – 12th May) 2500 employees in the marcomms sector completed an online questionnaire (Pulse Check) covering key WFH areas including: effective communication/leadership, work/home life balance and connectivity. An addendum to the study (conducted 9th – 14th May) is a candid snapshot of how employees are feeling about a return to work.Employee EngagementBusiness leaders have long grappled with the juggling act of running a business and communicating effectively with their people – and yet the new WFH challenges are suggesting a positive shift. 57% of employees polled feel ‘well-connected’ to the leadership team and believe there is ‘sufficient and clear communication’. Of the remainder, 41% are positive but a little more equivocal stating that communication is sufficient and clear ‘for the most part’ – with only 2% indicating a lack of communication.“As business leaders the new working scenario has forced us to assess and re-think all aspects of running a business” says Ian Henderson, CEO, AML Group – one of the agencies that participated in the study. “The main focus, quite rightly, has shifted to the people in the business, in particular their mental health and wellbeing, and effective communication is an enormous part of that.”"66% of WFH employees aged 25 or under are suffering signs of mental ill-health"Employees have revealed that one of the most pressing issues relating to WFH is a disconnect from colleagues. Of those surveyed, less than half (48%) stated that they feel sufficiently connected.“Camaraderie and physical togetherness are a big part of most people’s working day – especially in an agency environment” says Fenella Grey, chair at Porter Novelli, London. “We are by nature a sociable species and working remotely and in isolation is a big challenge for many – especially younger workers.  However, business has proved over night that it can adapt and move towards more progressive and flexible ways of working to accommodate wider needs.”Work/life BalanceWork/life balance has raised issues for a number of employees with no clear division and work/life lines blurring into evenings and weekends. Employees with families are also struggling to find a satisfactory balance with a number of respondents struggling to ‘switch off’ at the end of the day. Less than one-fifth of employees surveyed seem to have cracked the balance code with just 16% stating that their work/life balance is ‘excellent’."97% of employees have stated that they have reservations about returning to work in the office"Mental HealthThe study has revealed that 66% of WFH employees aged 25 or under are suffering one or more signs of mental ill-health with 1:5 suffering extremely high and low moods or social withdrawal.Respondents talked about being ‘overwhelmed with workload’ with work hours ‘consistently longer’ and expectations that can be ‘mentally draining’.Older employees (45+) seem to be coping better with less than half (40%) showing any signs of mental ill-health due to WFH.Returning to the office97% of employees have stated that they have reservations about returning to work in the office with 82% nervous about the logistics of getting there.The prospect of packed tubes was cited as a main concern with a number of respondents indicating that they would consider cycling into work.On the positive side, WFH has also given employees a taste of a more flexible way of working – with a shout out to business leaders to ‘consider the possibility of WFH a few days each week.’Talking about the impetus behind the research Annabel Dunstan, Founder and CEO, Q&R says: “As soon as lockdown was confirmed I twigged that there could well be a massive knock on effect in terms of mental health and wellbeing for those having to work from home. We devised a relevant and topical Pulse Check and invited agency leaders to get involved so that we could quickly assess the impact in the early weeks. It is clear the younger workers are the most adversely affected. It takes good communication from leadership including regular 1:1 check-ins and opportunities to feedback, to support employees in the new world we find ourselves in”.*Q&R conducted the anonymised research among 2,500 employees working from home for UK based marcomms agencies. A ten question Pulse Check survey was designed to seek feedback on mental health and wellbeing with the emphasis on encouraging respondents to be as candid as possible.Respondents were able to then share their reasons for selecting a particular answer, giving Q&R a quantitative and qualitative data set. Data was analysed for sentiment and key themes identified. The research was conducted between March 23rd and May 15th 2020, following the announcement of lockdown due to COVID-19.Annabel Dunstan is Founder & CEO of Question & Retainwww.questionandretain.co.uk

As agencies start to plan how they will re-open their office doors, David Regan of global law firm Squire Patton Boggs explains what needs to be considered.Following Boris Johnson’s announcement on 10 May, employers are now considering how they will get their staff back in the workplace – and finding that there are at least as many vexed issues in bringing employees back as there were in closing the office in the first place!It is not just a question of employees pitching up on the day  – there are lots of practical issues which businesses are likely to encounter in the return process.  The purpose of this article is to set out some of the common issues businesses will face and some ways of approaching them –there are of course no 'right answers' in this situation; rather businesses will need to carry out a nuanced review of all the facts before coming to a decision which suits the business and, in some cases, each individual employee. Health & SafetyThe recent Government guidance has reminded businesses of their underlying health and safety obligations.  Whilst in the public perception these obligations were previously satisfied by little more than sticking up HSE posters, putting "Caution Hot!" signs by the coffee machine and putting striped tape across any steps or protruding power leads, these obligations are of course significantly more extensive in reality and require proactivity on the part of an employer, not least in the form of a risk assessment.Given we are in the grip of a global pandemic caused by a single virus AND the Government guidance on returning to work requires employers to carry out a risk assessment, one might have thought that the HSE would have provided a sample risk assessment tailored for COVID-19, but while it states this to be the case, on closer inspection this is simply a standard risk assessment and is not COVID specific (although the HSE for Northern Ireland has prepared one that is). "What is an acceptable risk for one business will be unacceptable or impracticable for another."So what might businesses need to consider as part of any such risk assessment? Who might be harmed? (staff, visitors, cleaners, contractors, drivers, etc).Potential ways of minimising or controlling the hazards (handwashing, cleaning, social distancing, PPE, temperature testing, wearing of gloves).What can be done to assist employees dealing with these hazards? (ensure there are handwashing facilities with adequate supplies of soap, water, paper towels, ensure that cleaning takes place with appropriate thoroughness and appropriate regularity, redesign offices to reinforce social distancing where appropriate, monitor employees symptoms).What can be done to encourage employees to comply with their obligations?  (regular reminders to wash hands and of public health advice, check to ensure cleaning protocols, enforce social distancing through appropriate measures in the office).Practical issues around restarting the office (has the air conditioning been switched on recently?  Has the water been run to reduce Legionnaire's risks? Do the lifts or other machines need servicing?, etc).Clearly, each risk assessment needs to focus on the specific circumstances of the business.  What is an acceptable risk or a reasonably practicable preventative measure for one business will be unacceptable or impracticable for another.  However businesses need to start thinking about these issues now if they are to prepare properly.Mental HealthAnother risk factor which needs to be considered (indeed one which may well warrant its own risk assessment) is employees' mental health – there are any number of issues which may be affecting this currently, but employers would be wise to consider the effects of:coronavirus (which creates uncertainty which can affect employees mental health);lockdown (which can increase a sense of isolation for employees, exacerbating or leading to mental health issues);poor management (it being harder to manage effectively remotely);medical issues (whether personal or family);financial issues (whether due to furlough or pay cuts, or worries about potential future redundancy);productivity/ performance concerns (employees may feel under extra scrutiny as they are working remotely and managers cannot see how hard they are working). Returning to office-based is of course not a panacea for these issues.  In fact it will likely lead to further concerns – for example, many employees may feel uncomfortable travelling to work on public transport.  There has also been a rise in obsessive compulsive behaviours during lockdown – this too may impact employee mental health on their return.Who should come back?Once businesses have decided to come back to work and what they can do to protect their employees, the next question is who do you bring back to work and how quickly?Do you want to:bring back all of the employees at once (which is unlikely to be suitable for all businesses, particularly where social distancing cannot be maintained)?bring employees back in shifts to reduce occupancy (helping manage COVID-19 risk, but potentially impacting productivity) ?  open the office with a skeleton staff so it can be used wherever absolutely necessary, but to continue to allow/require employees to work from home? (leading to risks of a confused workforce – guidance needs to be clear to avoid mixed messages)Again, there is no definitively right or wrong answer to this; it is something which will depend upon the needs of each business.  However, it may help employers to consider the following:which roles they need in the office first;whether this is client sector specific;has the technology that has enabled working from home been effective;should any office-based employees who have been furloughed be brought back first,  before other employees are brought into the office;how will communications be maintained where some employees are in the office and some are not?  A special set of questions arises for those employers who have furloughed staff – do you bring them back from furlough and, if so, how many and when?  Equally, if you have rehired any employees simply so they can benefit from furlough, at what point do you intend to (re-)terminate? Again, there are no easy answers, although in the case of furlough some of this may come in the next few weeks as we learn more about the tapering of the furlough scheme.What if you don't need all the employees?Many employers will regrettably need to consider whether their commercial outlook justifies retaining all of their staff.  If not, and there is no longer an option to place staff on paid furlough, then it might be necessary to consider redundancies.  Of course, where 20 or more employees are potentially at risk of redundancy, this requires collective consultation, meaning that you need to factor in the necessary time to carry out a consultation process.  This is particularly problematic where some of those employees who are at risk of redundancy are presently on furlough and the employer is trying to minimise the financial exposure to those redundancies.If all else fails, be transparent and openAs can be seen, the process of seeking to return to what will, for now, be a new normality, will not be easy.  There are certainly more questions than answers at this stage. However, provided businesses treat their staff with openness, honesty and transparency, then whilst there will undoubtedly be teething issues, the hope is that operations will resume – if not as smoothly as before, as least as smoothly as possible.David Regan is a Director at Squire Patton Boggs dealing exclusively in labour and employment law

The pandemic has brought with it a massive spike in anxiety and stress such that the UN has warned of a global mental health crisis. Marc Caulfield talks honestly and openly about Adland's responsiblity to its people.Everything has changed but nothing has changedAs we try to make out the Government’s slightly wishy-washy measures to release the pressure on lockdown, now is the time for genuinely putting your people first. Yes, that means before clients! People drive great work. So many agencies talk about people first, but if we are all honest, we know from some that is bullshit. Much like Mental Health awareness week, this pandemic shouldn’t be the one time that your people’s wellbeing becomes front of mind.Now is the time for genuinely putting your people first. Yes, that means before clients!Quite simply everything has changed but nothing has changed in terms of an employer’s moral, ethical and legal duty of care for their employee’s wellbeing.The terror of changeAdland, for a communications business where there is a plethora of laptops, smart phones, and tablets, has never been great at embracing remote working. This has obviously changed since 23rd March. Excuse me whilst I punch myself in the face for saying this, but this is now the ‘new norm’. When this inevitably starts the shift from WFH back to WFW I believe we will see unprecedented people issues coming to the fore. Some people will love WFH and others will hate it. Some can do it, and some cannot.The key driver here is CHANGE. The very word sends people into a spin. Human beings find change so difficult because of some basic human subconscious reactions. Simply put we all find change stressful in varying degrees. Most of us have some understanding of the ‘fight or flight’ system that the body subconsciously activates in times of stress. I will not go into the psychological or physiological effects that Adrenaline and Cortisol have on our minds or bodies but suffice to say they play a significant role in our fear of change.An example here is the way people often repeat things that haven’t worked before. Do the same things again in relationships that have failed before. I think we can all relate to ourselves, our families and our friends making similar mistakes over again. We have all done it. We promise we will learn each time, however more often than not (certainly in my case) we repeat the same mistakes again and again. Why on earth would you do that?! Simply because what you know sometimes feels ‘safer’ than what you do not. Change throws all of this up in the air. Will the change really be better? This is what is in play in the workplace now.There will be untold personal problems that have come out of the lockdown that people will not necessarily want to discussEmployers really do need to push wellbeing, particularly mental wellbeing. Most employers will be focusing on the state of their business commercially, understandably, but people MUST come a very close second. For all the positive stories we read about families coming together there will be many families that this level of isolation will feel like imprisonment. There will be untold personal problems that have come out of the lockdown that people will not necessarily want to discuss at or with work.Employers will need to find the balance between getting their businesses back on track commercially and ensuring their people have the mental capacity and health to cope with the pressures of trying to get back some semblance of normality. This may involve some serious mental health training for managers / directors; we are not talking a box ticking exercise; we are talking about real cultural shift.The view through a legal lensTo put a legal, and therefore financial, reputational, talent retention & recruitment lens on this, the last recession saw a 50% increase in employment tribunals claims. COVID-19 has certainly had such a brutal effect on the UK economy we can draw comparisons. Speaking to a variety of law firms over the past few weeks this is a commonly shared view. There is a heady combination of opportunity, tribunal fees being abolished from July 2017, and some suspect use of the furlough scheme along with knee jerk / panicked cost cutting.The last recession saw a 50% increase in employment tribunal claimsAlready employment lawyers have seen a resurgence of claims under Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996; this is where employees perceive an imminent and serious danger at work and reports this to the employer. Any detrimental treatment here can result in a claim. Likewise, Section 100 of the same act deals with dismissal in such circumstances. This should be seen as a warning sign for Adland, no longer an area of business that avoids the normal rules of HR! This used to be a badge of honour, time has moved on.They say every cloud has a silver lining; if this pandemic galvanises Adland into action around their most important asset, their people and their wellbeing, then maybe it’s not all been bad.So, what should we all be doing / thinking?People have been through unprecedented change; be mindful of this fact (as above).Accept that all of your people are different; one size certainly won’t fit all.As a leader you may well have taken lockdown in your stride, don’t assume everyone has.Inevitably there will be change coming in working practises, how will this affect bricks and mortar costs and in turn senior management financial stress?How will you monitor WFH effectively?Empathy is key; you have no idea how being in lockdown has affected people – relationship damage, loneliness, abuse etc.The most important thing is to talk to your people, how are they feeling, what do they want to do after lockdown is lifted? There is an opportunity to come out of this gaining huge respect from your people, if handled well.If as a leader you feel you want to change your working practises then communicate this; this is the ideal way to get people to open up. Every Mental Health workshop we have run where a leader has opened up about their mental health has been a giant step to cultural change and openness.If you would like to discuss how Demolish the Wall can help, please get in touch: -Marc.caulfield@demolishthewall.com07766 235500  

With teams unable to work face to face, maintaining a strong company culture is a new challenge for most agencies. We have been speaking with Mizzy Lees from Mr. President about how the agency has adapted to ensure that they stay connected under lockdown.​Mr. President is an agency known for its company culture. We are a close-knit team and we care deeply about our employees’ experiences at work. This is one of the reasons that my role of People Director exists. My job is to balance the needs of the team with those of the business (amongst other things). We were one of the first agencies to close our offices and start working from home because of Covid19. It no longer felt safe for the team to travel across London, and since we knew our IT infrastructure was capable, on the 12th March we emptied the fridge, turned out the lights and locked the doors. Part of my role is to monitor the collective energy within the team with the aim of keeping it positive and focused, with a shared ambition. I worked out pretty quickly that we needed to rethink the way we worked to achieve this, so here are some of the things we have been doing to keep the team connected in lockdown. Keep up the usual routinePre-lockdown, we started the week together with the company wide Monday morning meeting and eased ourselves into the weekend with Fun Friday from 4.30pm. We were keen that lockdown didn’t stop us from coming together as a group, so we keep both of these events going via Google Hangouts. It’s a great way to check in with each other, to find out what everyone is up to and what we need to achieve that week.The power of videoUsing a video conference platform with a grid view is 100% worthwhile. There is something quite powerful and motivating about seeing the faces of the full team coming together. You get a much better sense of team spirit. Throw in a team quiz on a Friday and you also have structured social time too, without any of the chit chat social awks.My pyramid of commsI have a brilliant team of line managers. I work very closely with each of them to ensure that those in their team feel supported, heard, are pushed and have a clear path for progress. We anticipated the increased need to monitor workload and well-being during lockdown, so they each have more frequent individual and team check-ins, not just about work, but also to ask, ‘how are you?’. This includes those on furlough leave who are still checked up on weekly. In turn I regularly check in with each line manager to see how everyone is doing. If any flags are raised, I can follow them up. It’s a good system, but only works if we keep all the conversations going.Know your point peopleThere are roles in the agency that connect with everyone. Whilst they might not be having the ‘how are you?’ conversations or monitoring workload, they are able to gauge general mood. I have a regular check-in with these people too to gauge how the agency is feeling. Again, if any flags are raised or anyone has any concerns about the team, I can follow them up.Pick up the phoneI love WhatsApp and Google Chat. They make life so much easier. But sometimes you really do need to pick up the phone and have a proper chat to check-in. You can tell a lot more about a person from the tone of their voice. They will also reveal more about how they really feel when they have the space to talk. I seem to spend a lot of my time on the phone at the moment. In recent weeks I’ve learnt that keeping the team connected in lockdown requires a real commitment of time and energy. It’s a necessity not just for businesses to operate, but also for each individual’s health and well-being. And whilst lockdown will be temporary, working remotely and flexibly is here to stay. So, the changes I am making now don’t feel like temporary solutions, but how we are adapting for the future working world.Mizzy Lees is People Director at Mr. President