Damn You Covid-19, But Also Thank You!

The Restart. Sounds like a Hollywood action blockbuster movie, but it is in fact a typically catchy McKinsey phrase to describe how business leaders should get ready for life post lockdown.

Covid-19 has changed our lives and our workplaces faster and more radically than most of us could ever have imagined.

At Circles.Life we weren’t the first to switch to a full-time work from home (WFH) model, but we have more than caught up, and in some regards have gone above and beyond.

Unlike established corporates, who already had a certain amount of experience with Working From Home, startups like Circles.Life faced a different set of challenges. We thrive on pooling our energy and enthusiasm to push us on, to innovate, create and bounce (crazy) ideas off each other. As such the WFH switch had to be carefully thought through, using something I call the Triple A (Accept/Adapt/Action) Pivot Principal (McKinsey folks would be proud).

When an unexpected “Black Swan” event- like the Covid crisis- hits, the first move is to accept the new reality. This means understanding the situation and its consequences for your employees and customers, as well as making sure you know

what government legislation is and that you’re complying with it. Once that is clear you start formulating a strategic plan which adapts to the current circumstances, but is still aligned with your core purpose. Once all that is done, you commit and take action.

Digital Workforce Strategy

For a People & Culture leader, and for the entire leadership team, our overriding focus was on keeping our employees safe. Very closely behind our employee focus was our continued obsession to make sure customers were adversely impacted as little as possible. In third place all our business planning, commercial assumptions (Marketing, Growth or Expansion plans) or how we operate (Operations, Customer Services or Supply Chains) had to be turned upside down and rebooted. For each of these we applied the Accept/Adapt/Action principle.

All this created the Circles.Life Digital Workforce Strategy, which continued to support our three mission statements (digital innovation, customer obsession and building a high-performance culture), aligned with the new workplace reality.

Execution of the new Strategy was cantered around distinct themes: Health & Well-Being, Collaboration & Productivity, and People Engagement.

Here are some of the changes we made, in case our experience can help other companies with the own digital workplace strategy.

1. Health & Well-Being While WFH

As a starting point, we made sure that we had all the necessary health and safety protocols in place as an essential service provider in Singapore. This included moving our physical onboarding to a virtual process, restriction of employees to designated office locations for safe distancing, and having all the right office logistics from site entry to contact tracing.

We offered $80 for all employees to make their home setup was ergometric. We set aside an hour a day (aside from lunch) during working hours which was blocked out for no work, and we added one day of self-care leave per month for all, in addition to annual leave allowance.

2. Collaboration & Productivity in the Digital Workplace

We put a lot of effort into putting together a detailed Manager’s Guide to leading remote teams: including suggested daily routines, stand-ups, open hours, and weekly routines with teams.

In addition, we created a WFH playbook that helps all employees to understand what to expect when shifting from working in the office to a digital workplace. The playbook includes important tools needed to enable WFH (Vid conferencing, whiteboard tools); how to conduct effective meetings (daily stand-ups, setting agendas, closing off with action steps); recommended day structures to improve productivity; and additional guides for leading remote teams.

3. People Engagement during WFH

This is where we have been the most active and hands on. We proactively and regularly communicate with all our employees. Our founders update daily, giving their priorities and wider context. Our People Experience Team shares daily and weekly WFH tips.

Engagement can come in the form of daily challenges (best breakfast challenge or

best #helloneighbour submission), Polly Poll on fun facts about Circles.Life, Wednesday Lunch & Learn sessions or health & wellness Thursdays (live Yoga or strength training sessions). We have a monthly session called Circles Spirit (open hours with leadership for candid sharing), and our co-founders are quick to recognise great work through appreciation emails and shout-outs.

Adapt (Change) or Die

That is the mantra for all Uniqlo employees. According to founder Tadashi Yanai, change is vital: “Even IBM made products like meat cutters and punch cards in the past,”. Changing and adapting is the key to surviving, to staying relevant and in the game.

I couldn’t agree more with this mantra, and all of us operating in the disruptive economy recognize the importance of being able to adapt fast. However, even if you have to pivot to respond to external events it’s important not to lose focus on your core purpose.

My own observation is that, whether at work or outside my professional environment, most people naturally do not like change, but people change when they believe it is in their best interests to do so. None of us like the effects of Covid-19, but in order to keep everyone safe we all have to accept, adapt and take action to deal with the current circumstances.

Trying to give a prediction of what the future workplace will look like is a tough one. One thing we can say is that the genie is out of the bottle and it won’t go back in. So the quicker people can accept that change has happened, adapt in a way that still aligns with their purpose, and take ownership of action, the better their chances will be.

Even given all of the uncertainty, Circles.Life will take a very proactive approach to understanding and defining what the most appropriate workplace will look in the future. Some of the options include fully embracing WFH or perhaps more likely moving to a new hybrid combination where employees primary desk will be their home and our physical workplace will an area of collaboration, planning and engagement.

So.....damn you Covid-19 for the global storm you are creating. But, as one of life’s optimists, I believe we must take what we can from this disruption to make changes for the better.

Please take a look at my website www.startup-culture.org My forthcoming book on Startup-Culture covers these topics and explains in more detail why Startup Culture is your competitive advantage for sustainable growth.