Amy Cappellanti-Wolf, Former SVP & CHRO for Symantec and Shiran Yaroslavsky, the CEO of Cassiopeia provide real-world insight on remote work challenges and the opportunities the new virtual workplace creates for companies.
The shift to remote work has created major challenges for team members and their managers. Traditionally, 66% of remote employees experience difficulties with loneliness, work-life balance, collaboration, and staying motivated. Today, more than ever, managers need the right support to overcome these virtual workplace challenges.These new challenges create opportunities for Human Resource professionals and for companies that have remote solutions to talk about how to bridge these challenges in ways that can support these destructive workplace events.
Yaroslavsky: How do you think the current crisis affects the role of the HR or People leaders inside companies? Will the HR roles and responsibilities be affected in the long term? If so, what will those changes be?
Cappellanti-Wolf: Even after things go back to normal, I don’t think we will just go back to work as we were once used to. People need flexibility in their lives, especially if the next generation of workers would like to do work on their own time.
I think HR was always providing impact and value, but what’s interesting right now is that we are taking the forefront of the leadership role and my peers right now are taking part in the Coronavirus task force.There is a lot of value that the business is seeing right now in HR. There is a great article in the Economist about what role HR plays in this horrifying pandemic, and how we can take the credibility we already built and capitalize on that in the sense of how we get our leaders to think about people as the most important assets of companies.
Our job is to take what we have learned and to think about how we can
leverage technology, connectivity, and enable our managers to drive
this employment relationship further.
Yaroslavsky: Remote work is more than getting a license to Zoom or Slack. Companies are required to build a set of rules, practices, and cultural norms that let people work remotely. How can People Leaders help in setting these new norms and practices?
Cappellanti-Wolf: I worked with some CEOs that were very flexible because they realized that the best talent will not always be in pivotal locations. While other leaders think that everyone needs to be in the office. The belief is if they are not in the office, they are probably watching Netflix or playing with their kids. I’ve never subscribed to that perspective.
Now more than ever with this remote work, you need to take a step back and think about your operating cadence, “When do I conduct meetings?” “Who should be in these meetings to make a decision?” because when in the office you sometimes make decisions in doorways or hallways and now you need to be thoughtful about how we make decisions flows faster and better without always calling everyone together.
Yaroslavsky: I can share that a few of our customers reached out to us and asked for our help to support their remote manager with our solution. Remote work and reduced social connectedness create new challenges for managers. Most managers are not proficient in managing people remotely, which in many cases, requires a different set of competencies and embracing new tools.
Cappellanti-Wolf: There is a statistic that 63% of managers are afraid to talk to their people. Imagine that, and now think how complex it is to do it from a remote perspective.
So today the new leader is more about empathy. It’s still about driving for results but in a more collaborative way. To be more outcome-driven about what you are asking people to do. Checking in with them in a way that is supportive and accretive and not in a way that is suspicious and inspecting. It will require a different type of manager. Much more listening and a lot more guiding rather than directing. And that’s not just new for remote work. That’s just where the new generation of managers is going because workers today want to develop and grow and want a manager that supports them instead of inspecting them.
Recently I read a briefing that the most successful CEOs are the ones that are not running away from the crisis but stepping into the challenge. They are empathetic, agile, humble, courageous and they are bold in making decisions.
There is a statistic that 63% of managers are afraid to talk to their
people. Imagine that, and now think how complex it is to
do it from a remote perspective.
As a c-suite executive, you need to build these skills, and now it’s becoming a requirement, an expectation, something that we all need to possess.
I think it’s a really interesting time, and I think it will be interesting to reflect upon it when it’s over. And it will be over, hopefully soon, and we will be able to see who stood out and how we apply these learning to the next crisis.
Yaroslavsky: Research shows that remote work affects employees’ sense of belonging and well-being. What kind of actions can executives and D&I leaders take in order to address these challenges? And how can we use technology and People Analytics to address these challenges?
Cappellanti-Wolf: First in foremost, belonging doesn’t have to be in person in the physical work environment. It’s about how you include people in the discussion. Now, even more than ever, work and personal lines are super blurry. People are trying to raise a family and do their job at the same time so leaders need to understand how to structure the work in a way where there is freedom and flexibility, but also understand what it means in the complexities of the current work environment.
I believe “pulsing” is going to happen more frequently and you will see companies moving from quarterly check-ins to daily and try to rapidly address gaps in engagement. You can leverage data platforms to understand how people are feeling. Also, the IT department will need to leverage collaboration and communication platforms such as Zoom or Webex so that people feel connected.
It will require leaders to ensure that the outcomes are the right outcomes
and to be certain that every voice is being heard so that all people
can contribute. To me, it’s just a further extension of where we
were going to anyway and now it’s accelerated because we
need to work more virtually.
Yaroslavsky: I definitely agree. Also, I can add that in my view, managers will need to use additional data sources to get a more accurate picture on their teams, culture and inclusion, especially communication analysis that has become extremely insightful as all communications transition online these days.
Yaroslavsky (Cassiopeia): What kind of opportunities do you think the COVID-19 outbreak creates for companies and leaders?
Cappellanti-Wolf: One of the positive outcomes is the acceleration of innovation in terms of how to work differently during this time, whether in the remote work or your supply or value chain. Also, managers can build new skills set and capabilities around how to manage remotely in times of crisis and in times of steady state.
It (crisis) builds resilience, humility, and hopefully takes us back to build the set of skills we need to have in the first place and which we were slow to adapt to not only survive but thrive.
Yaroslavsky: Thank you Amy for this wonderful interview and for sharing your experience with us. This is exactly the conversation we need to have these days to find new ways and solutions to support our employees and leaders. I do hope that as Amy mentioned, more companies and leaders would be able to create new opportunities and that the current challenges will help companies grow and at the end of the day become even stronger.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Amy Cappellanti-Wolf is the Former SVP & CHRO for Symantec. In addition to serving on the executive team and managing Symantec’s global HR function, she led Symantec’s workforce strategy and planning, real estate, and facilities function.
Shiran Yaroslavsky, the CEO of Cassiopeia, a startup that empowers remote leaders with the insights they now need the most. By analyzing communications patterns (not content) within teams, they provide practical recommendations to increase team collaboration, belonging and mental health.