Recovery, Renewal, Resilience

Working from home became the new normal for various sectors during the pandemic. However, this “pandemic-style” of working from home may not translate smoothly to post-pandemic working. A recent McKinsey survey of 100 executives across various industries and locations found that 90% of organisations intend to adopt a hybrid model of working (a combination of remote and on-site working). However, many organisations have only just begun to consider how this new approach will be integrated into organisational practice, resulting in employees feeling uncertain and anxious. Consider:

• Be transparent and open from the start with employees. If still in the planning stage, communicate the uncertainty of plans for remodelling current working practices
• Be clear on the current expectations of employees considering that their personal circumstances may have changed during the pandemic, and they may not be able to make a swift return to the office (e.g. consider a phased-in approach)
• Support and encourage “small moments of engagement”, which can include coaching, mentoring and co-working
• Reimagine the leadership process in your organisation. Train managers on “remote leadership” and re-evaluate current performance metrics so these represent how employees might succeed when working from home
• Develop new codes of practice (e.g. for online meetings) so that employees don’t always feel they must be available and don’t have to go from one meeting to the next, relentlessly
• Establish new ways of monitoring and evaluating employee attendance and productivity, so that employees don’t feel they need to be constantly logged into their computers to prove they are working. Focus on the work output, and assess if employees have the tools and skills to succeed, before assessing how many hours they spent logged in
• Pilot a hybrid approach that suits your organisational context and is tailored to the needs of specific teams and roles (e.g. evaluate what roles require on-site working)
• Develop new ways of monitoring employee wellbeing

Research shows that young people experience more long-lasting labour market impacts due to economic crises than adults, including being the first to lose jobs, working fewer hours, taking more time to secure quality income, and wage scarring where earning losses recover slowly. The International Labour Organisation reported that 17% of young people employed before the pandemic had stopped working entirely, and 42% reported reduced incomes. Additionally, it is widely reported that it is becoming increasingly difficult to source workers with the right skills in sectors where job opportunities exist. Consider developing youth employment initiatives, aimed at promoting domestic employment, skills development, capacity building and enabling equal access opportunities for vulnerable youth:

• Assess your own organisation’s operations and capacity to understand where youth employment opportunities may be protected or enhanced:
  • Recognise the contribution of people who joined your organisation as young people in entry-level roles and try to ensure that restructures do not remove roles that provide a talent pipeline into your organisation.
  • Monitor for age in any furlough and redundancy plans to ensure young people in your existing workforce are not disproportionately affected
• Map labour market information of unemployed young people such as knowledge, skills and abilities, with potential sectors of employment, including consideration for the supply and demand aspects of the labour market
  • Establish a working plan with employment services centres to support registration, profiling, referral, temporary work placements and on-the-job training
• Collaborate with local government and private and public organisations to establish sectors in which temporary employment opportunities for young people could be created e.g. public works and infrastructure maintenance (Nepal)
• Align vocational education and training aimed at up-skilling young people with employment initiatives such as apprenticeships and work experience programmes
• Provide youth-targeted wage subsidy programmes to help young people enter, re-enter or remain in the labour market by reducing costs of recruitment, retention and training
• Continue to provide careers advice in schools, colleges and universities to help young people navigate their employment options during COVID. Ensure careers advisors understand the current labour market and options open to young people so that they can provide timely advice