Clarion and Q5 hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic of “How to plan and create a healthy workforce in an uncertain world”.
Clients from a wide variety of sectors, including retail, finance, healthcare, IT, and fashion engaged in a discussion over dinner. The evening proved to be a great success as colleagues shared opinions, concerns, and practical examples from their respective worlds.
Clarion’s Head of Employment, Sarah Tahamtami, discussed examples of what might be causing uncertainty, the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the cost of living crisis. Suzanne Treen, Legal Director in Clarion’s Employment Law team shared the impact that attendees continued to see in their organisations as a result of this uncertain environment. The conversation touched on topics around hybrid working, the challenges of retaining an organisation’s culture concerns around different policies for different groups of employees, and promoting the importance of wellbeing across the workforce. There was an interesting discussion around the balance of power between employee and employer shifting as macro-economic conditions potentially decline, and how organisations should promote a healthy workforce.
Q5’s Head of Culture Development, Pavlina Kouvela, shared examples of how our organisations have responded to the uncertainty. The value of creating the right conditions to enable conversations at work was agreed important, however, there was mixed success to more formal ‘learning’ programmes. Often the greatest success had been achieved by encouraging people to talk with each other, creating shared connections and sharing stories. Organisations are demanding more from their leaders and there was recognition that training on empathy, challenging conversations and feedback, should continue to be a priority for L&D teams. Empower leaders to lead their people. In addition, rules questioning or even preventing sending emails to colleagues on holiday, can reinforce the right messages about an organisation’s culture and give permission to employees to reinforce boundaries.
During all the challenges in an uncertain environment, there are also opportunities. More conversations around well-being are taking place as well as, equity, diversity and inclusion. A flexible attitude is required.
If you’re facing similar challenges and would like to talk to our experts about how to create and sustain a healthy workforce during uncertain times do get in touch, our experts would love to have a chat.
Pavlina Kouvela Pavlina.kouvela@q5partners.com
Stewart Brown stewart.brown@q5partners.com
