‘WHY IS SUPER IMPORTANT’

LEADING THE FUTURE OF WORK

New normal? We’re not there yet. CEOs share perspectives on getting through the tail end of the Covid crisis—and prepping for recovery.

BY JENNIFER PELLET

FACING A GLOBAL EMERGENCY OF epic proportions back in March of 2019, companies rose to the challenge. Measures to safeguard employees were instituted, protective gear disseminated, tech tools adopted. Leaders looked for—and found—creative ways to engage with and motivate their newly remote workforces. Inspiring stories, from successfully pivoting toward new opportunities to keeping geographically dispersed teams collaborating and engaged, were shared. In short, amid the crisis, a can-do attitude prevailed. Through the summer, whether working on-site ensconced in personal protective equipment or at home with

“I’m not sure we kids and pets underfoot, that sentiment were built to sprint held, agreed CEOs gathered for a Chief for as long as this sprint will last.” Executive roundtable underwritten by PURE Insurance. But with winter approaching and yet another Covid —Ross Buchmueller, surge looming, the adrenalin bolstering

CEO, PURE Insurance Corporate America began to run out. As Carmine Di Sibio, chairman of EY, put it, “Right around Labor Day, a switch went on with people in terms of, ‘Working from my summer house has been fine, but I want to get back to normal.’ ” Ross Buchmueller, CEO of PURE Insurance, described it as sprinting a marathon. His company headed into the pandemic in mid-merger, closing a deal with Tokio Marine Holdings in February and spending the subsequent months operating at top speed. “It struck me fairly early on that if we stayed together and connected, we could really take advantage of what was occurring,” he said. “We did daily emails, weekly town halls and, by June, new business inquiries were up well over 30 percent. So, we felt that we had managed through exceptionally. But while the business continues to be strong and healthy, it’s really hard to sustain culture, engagement and productivity at the rate we’re going. I’m not sure we were built to sprint for as long as this sprint will last.”

With no firm end date in sight, CEOs are grappling with a meaty challenge: managing today’s twists and turns while also developing the agility and resilience that will enable their companies to thrive in the new normal—whatever and whenever that may be. As Jeff Sonnenfeld, Lester Crown professor of management at the Yale School of Management and Chief Executive columnist put it, “How will you lead in this environment and not be led? How do you prepare your workforce to be more digital, more responsive and do so in a way that establishes real buy-in from everybody?”

The Here and Now

Many CEOs cited a supportive working environment as the most crucial element of sustaining their companies and cultures through the pandemic. PwC Chairman Tim Ryan described aggressively messaging employees about the physical and mental health support available to them. At the height of the disruption, he drove the point home personally by sharing with PwC’s 55,000 employees that three of his six children had accessed the firm’s mental health

lines during the pandemic. “It’s important that people know that’s okay,” he said. “The day after that webcast, we saw a record increase in people reaching out. So, we do a lot of storytelling, providing clear direction from the top that we want people to take care of themselves.”

Efforts like these are growing more essential at a time when employees are looking to their employers not only to provide a paycheck but to become a positive force in their lives. Once forged, those deeper relationships also cut both ways, helping carry a company through when tough times call for difficult decisions, said David Rodriguez, global chief human resources officer of Marriott International. “Employees want to know that their employers are concerned with their employees’ lives and with adding value to their lives, holistically,” he said. “We had to furlough two-thirds of our employees, and [yet] the culture of the company has never been stronger. That’s because throughout this time, we continued to invest holistically in our employees, from providing emotional health resources for them to tap to developing a [resizing] program where they could elect to leave voluntarily… there’s a great deal of trust that we’re genuinely concerned with their welfare.”

Those remaining on board after a furlough or workforce resizing also need support, noted Randy Garfield, former president of Walt Disney Travel. “Those people are sitting there wondering if they’re next and, in many cases, their work responsibilities have changed,” he said. “If you’re not empathetic dealing with their mental health and any guilt they may have, you’re missing an opportunity.”

In the current climate, daily stressors go beyond Covid, encompassing everything from the divisiveness plaguing society to escalating racial tension. Prolonged periods of uncertainty and turmoil like these tend to have a deadening effect on morale, noted Johnny C. Taylor, CEO of the Society for Human Resource Management. “The combination of Covid, racial unrest, political acrimony and the economy has people tired,” he said. “A fatigue has come over the country. You could handle a downturn or a mini pandemic, but the impact of all these things hitting at once is wearing down the employee base.” “We’ve learned not to put dates out there that we don’t know whether we can hit.” —Tim Ryan, Chairman, PwC

“Management has taken a whiteboard to a lot of the expectations and models we’ve used, doing things they’ve never done before.” —Sandy Climan, President, Entertainment Media Ventures

Accept the Uncertainty

As tempting as it may be to forge ahead with an end-game strategy for Covid’s aftermath, in the current climate several CEOs felt it prudent to wait for greater clarity. PwC’s Ryan, for example, is waiting for a better sense of the pandemic’s trajectory before committing to a return to business travel and working in office buildings. “We’ve learned not to put dates out there that we don’t know whether we can hit,” he said, noting that travel and office occupancy may never return to pre-Covid levels. “It’s probable that the world won’t look the way it did a year ago, but it’s also clear that it won’t look the way it does today.”

At AT&T Business, CEO Anne Chow opted to commit to keeping remote workers at home until mid-2021, regardless of what the numbers allow. “We found that the uncertainty out there, especially around childcare, was causing immense stress in our employee base,” she explained. “So at least this way they could plan to say, ‘If I’m virtual today, I’ll be virtual tomorrow,’ That settled people down very significantly.” The company is also exploring a hybrid framework for the future, a combination of in-office workers and virtual workers tied to an office location but not working out of it on a daily basis.

Chow isn’t alone in going through the exercise of what the workplace of the future will look like. Operating in lockdown has raised a debate around the relative merits of on-site versus virtual meetings, with many CEOs agreeing that the experience may have lasting effects on travel practices and office space.

Leaders like Manny Maceda, CEO of Bain & Company, draw a distinction between internal and client meetings, suggesting that the former might be handled more efficiently remotely. Holding an annual meeting of Bain’s senior teams originally slated for Miami virtually enabled the company to include more personnel and cover more material at a lower cost and lower carbon footprint. “Typically, we’d bring two or three CEOs to a meeting like that because it’s a multi-day commitment,” he said. “But we were able to have 14 CEOs join us for 30-minute sessions. So, while it’s harder to build client relations and loyalty virtually, it has benefits if you invest properly.”

There’s no denying that tools like Zoom, Mi-

crosoft Teams and Cisco Webex, came to rescue during the lockdown, enabling colleagues hunkered down at home to carry out some semblance of connection with their peers. Snafus like frozen screens, disruptive pets and the occasional glitch aside, the pandemic proved a great technology accelerator, forcing people of all ages, backgrounds and skillsets to quickly embrace and get comfortable with videoconferencing capabilities.

The revelation that effective meetings could and did get done online led to speculation that companies will transition toward a combination of virtual and physical meetings. “We learned that we could operate very differently, but physical interaction is important as well,” said Carmine Di Sibio, global chairman and CEO of EY. “I think there will be a balance. Are you going to jump on a plane in New York for a one-hour meeting in Singapore? No, probably not, but there will be some pent-up demand in the new year, and there will be more travel.”

“In some ways, it’s easier to connect with 300,000 people in 150 countries via technology, but it’s no substitute in my view for personal contact,” agreed Mark Weinberger, former chairman and CEO of EY, who sits on the board of MetLife, J&J and Aramco. He nevertheless expressed doubts about a permanent shift, pointing out that younger employees are missing out on valuable relationship-building and mentorship opportunities. “I’m not someone who believes we are going to be virtual forever. I don’t think it’s good for business. I don’t think it’s good for culture.”

Weinberger has also found the lack of in-person meetings limiting for his role as a director at J&J, Aramco and MetLife. “As a new board member coming in, the hard part is really learning and understanding where the risks are in the organization,” he said. “You don’t get to meet management as often, you don’t get to walk the halls and have the face-to-face sidebars—all the things I think are incredibly important in addition to what’s on the agenda. A lot falls through the cracks.”

Workplace Fallout

Several leaders also voiced concern about the long-term on the next generation of leaders. Already, less experienced workers working from home are missing out on forging connections internally with colleagues and potential mentors, as well as building relationships externally with clients and industry peers. Unseen and unheard in the office, these virtual workers may ultimately lose out on promotions and other opportunities.

As Taylor put it, “There’s something that holds true about the human experience, and that is out of sight out of mind… so five or six years from now there will be a group of employees who are really good but, as remote workers, sort of invisible.”

Despite caveats like these, CEOs demonstrated a positive outlook overall, with several citing lessons learned during the crisis that helped open minds to new ways of doing things. “Management has taken a whiteboard to a lot of the expectations and models we’ve used, doing things they’ve never done before,” said Sandy Climan, president of Entertainment Media Ventures, who sees potential for a lasting, positive impact on companies’ approaches to nurturing employees and the types of benefits they provide. “People may want home care, tutoring for their children or guidance because their kids are home and they are having trouble dealing.”

Light is also visible at the end of the Covid tunnel, added Fred Hassan, chairman of Caret Group and a former Big Pharma CEO. “The science around the vaccines is very good, and efficacy is good and there are no safety issues, so it’s likely we will have a vaccine in the next couple of months,” he told CEOs, cautioning that it will likely take six months for the broad population to get vaccinated.

A resilient group, CEO participants on the whole expressed optimism about the future and their companies’ ability to persevere through the hurdles ahead and prepare for better times. Many echoed a sentiment shared by Tim Ryan. “Optimism and empathy has gone a long way with our people and with our clients as well,” he said. “The reality is history shows that we’ll get through this to the other side.” CE