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JoshBersinCovidBigReset2020_v4.pdf
The Big Reset Playbook What’s Working Now AUGUST 2020
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The Big Reset Playbook: What’s Working Now
In February and March of 2020, the global pandemic set in.
Originating in China, the virus spread around the world.
People began to recognize that the virus was dangerous and
highly contagious. By early March, much of the world was
in some form of lockdown. Social distancing, hand-washing,
masks, and a new online life had begun.
Companies in every industry sector have been impacted.
Travel, hospitality, food service, fitness, and other “close
interaction” businesses were immediately halted, and most
other companies sent their office workers home. Healthcare
providers saw an immediate drop in demand for all high-
margin procedures and visits and started to prepare for
COVID illnesses.
Countries began seeing acute shortages of ventilators,
protective equipment, and sanitation supplies. Some
manufacturers responded by changing production lines and
producing new products to meet these new needs. Many tech
companies started to see explosive growth, as more and more
of our lives went online.
As an organization dedicated to the support and professional
development of HR, we immediately realized the need for rapid
learning and sharing of information among the HR community.
So, through the Josh Bersin Academy, we immediately started
a series of multi-hour, online meetings with HR executives to
understand their reactions, responses, and new strategies for
supporting workforces. At the time of this writing, we have
worked with representatives from more than 160 companies,
and we learn more every day.
Generally speaking, the Big Reset is a reset of our economy,
social lives, home life, and businesses. In the early days of
the pandemic, we identified five elements relevant to all
organizations: 1) New ways of working, 2) New financial
priorities and budgets, 3) A new, more empathetic role for
leadership, 4) A renewed and deeper focus on trust, wellbeing,
and support, and 5) A new role for HR. This report summarizes
our findings to date. The Big Reset Initiative is an ongoing
program, so we will publish updates to this report throughout
the remainder of the year and into next.
Four Phases of the Pandemic
We see the pandemic and its business andworkforce impact
in four distinct phases. As we’ve seen in recent months,
these phases have no clear transition points. The continued
spread of the virus calls for constant evolution and continual
adaptation, often dependent on geography and market
economics.
• React: Identify who is affected, understand travel and work patterns, identify locations at risk, and develop
data systems and response programs that enable fast
communication, multi-functional collaboration (HR,
facilities, finance, safety, IT, and legal all tied together), and
quickly (daily or hourly) respond to a very asymmetric,
violent set of unpredictable issues.
• Respond: Develop a series of programs to help employees work at home, implement new sick pay and benefits
programs, train people for team leadership in a highly
flexible, dispersed environment, and create programs to
support families, people who fall ill, employee mental and
emotional health, and many other forms of support.
• Return: Develop new protocols and systems to keep employees and customers infection-free, safe, and secure
in work environments.
• Transform: Redesign products, services, and work experiences (for employees and customers) to meet new
demands and requirements for safely operating in this
new world.
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REACT RESPOND RETURN TRANSFORM
HR, IT, Facilities come together
Response task force assigned
Set up emergency team around the world
Daily standup meetings
Regular all-hands and CEO communications
Essential vs. Non-Essential workers
Real-time data on infection and travel
Real-time feedback and surveys
Reporting of problems, infections, issues
Remote work policy
Stipend for home office equipment
Support India and remote offices
Empower HRBP to act and coordinate
Cut or realign budgets
Share business downturn and changes
CEO Chief Empathy Officer
Support leaders to help remote workers
Provide support to furloughed people
Return and remind of values and mission
Show positive future and optimism
Put big projects aside
Remote work training and tools
1:1s, communications, team connection
Programs for mental health and resiliency
Increase access to counseling
Cost offset for childcare
Wellness, safety tips, education on virus
Exercise, fun, kids programs
Online learning on every topic
Home school help and programs
Daily communications on status and policies
Coaching and counseling on stress
Furlough or job policies
Mandatory leave, vacation policy updates
Update to performance process
New workforce plan, new hiring plans
Swap workers, support dislocated people
Change bonus accruals, exec pay
Regular pulse surveys and feedback
Remote interview, onboarding
Train managers on new role and issues
Apply for government support in location
Move and change roles, train for new roles
Create new protocols for safety and health
Define who “comes back” and who doesn’t
Create distancing guidelines in office
Buy masks and other safety equipment
Stay current on local regulations and changes
Identify “fear of return” and address issue
Formalize infection reporting process
Decide new process for pay and performance
Reset expectations around productivity
Create new flexible work policy
Decide what locations to close
Put people into working teams
Create program around stress and PTSD
Invest in pay and benefits for economics
Align with ongoing government policies
Support local community programs
Train employees on productivity at home
Roll out new wellbeing program
Roll out new leadership support program
Reinvent business model
Rethink customer experience and demand
Move and change roles, train for new roles
Redefine customer engagement model
Create new business plans and goals
Redefine org structure for new world
Set in place ongoing measurements
Identify new HR tech platforms
Realign careers and jobs for new business
Invest in citizenship and diversity
Deal with Black injustice issues
Redefine brand and marketing message
Create scenario for new wave of virus
Partner with infection, safety vendors
Rethink hiring plan
Strengthen internal mobility programs
Roll out new work at home strategy
Roll out new facilities strategy
Roll out new customer interaction strategy
Give leadership a rest and new energy
Redefine company mission
Realign financial goals
Figure 1: Four Phases of the Pandemic
Big Reset Working Groups
As we started to convene meetings with these 150-plus
executives, we quickly realized that participants had different
issues and interests. Therefore, we formed four working
groups and people self-selected accordingly. Each group was
led by a senior faculty member of the Josh Bersin Academy.
1. Culture and wellbeing: This group discussed wellbeing, culture, reward systems, and all the new ways companies
were thinking of supporting employees while working
from home, in a new work experience, or in a highly
uncertain and risky environment. This group was led by
Nancy Vitale.
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2. Workforce transformation: This group focused on how jobs were changing, how responsibilities shifting, and
how companies were transforming work processes
to maximize productivity. Discussion around new
and evolving roles, skills, and workforce management
happened in this group, which was led by Nazneen Razi.
3. Leadership and learning: Participants discussed all the issues related to realigning, supporting, and developing
leaders at all levels. Members talked about the need for
new leadership models, new leadership support programs,
and the massive amount of training and coaching needed
to develop to support leaders in this uncertain time. This
group was led by Nuno Gonçalves.
4. Return to Workplace: This group discussed the new protocols, procedures, and practices for offices, stores,
warehouses, and plants that have reopened, or will be
reopening soon. This group was led by Peter Sackleh.
Throughout this report, we will give you detailed examples
and case studies of what we discovered. Other findings and
resources are available to Josh Bersin Academy members.
The Josh Bersin Academy is a highly scalable learning and
information platform for HR professionals, and we encourage
you to join to get access to the full range of information we are
capturing. Members will find video interviews, events, and
programs on topics such as resilience.
Every company in every industry -- from airlines to food
service to financial services to telecommunications to
technology -- is in the middle of a business transformation.
Customers do not want to do business the old way; they now
want low-touch interactions with companies, products, and
services. That means almost every customer-centric operation
has to change.
Behind this, employees have to change as well. Employees
in hotels or restaurants who are interacting with other
employees or the public need safe ways to commute to work.
They need to guidance on what to wear, how to use canteens
and lunch rooms, the protocols for elevators and restrooms,
and much more. Such employee-centric changes are essential
pre-requisites to the business and customer transformation
taking place.
HR teams are focused on these and many other issues – all
revolving around ways to help the company stay in business
and keep everyone safe.
Twenty Key Priorities
Following are the top priorities for HR and their teams
identified in the Big Reset working groups.
1. Continuous and real-time communication with employees: A new focus on empathy, support, and connectiveness is
critical to success. Every single HR leader in our groups
discussed the enormous need to create a new support
structure for employees at all levels. This includes
frequent (daily or weekly) communications, all-hands
meetings, and lots of listening, surveys, and feedback.
While much of this was happening before the pandemic,
now companies are now making these and other activities
top priorities. AB InBev started with weekly pulse surveys
at the start of the pandemic and continues to pulse its
employees on a regular basis, with survey questions
customized for different geographies. AB InBev and other
companies now update their communications, learning,
and even procedures every week based on this feedback.
These updates include new micro-learnings, videos, and
policy updates (Atlassian, Kern Health Systems). This new
emphasis on employee communications and response to
feedback, typically being led by HR, has put many CEOs
into the role of “chief empathy officer.”
2. Wellbeing in all forms: The second overarching priority is a complete top-to-bottom focus on all aspects of
employee wellbeing. Studies by Towers Watson and
many others show that workers are under enormous
stress. The $46 billion wellbeing market is transforming
itself to address the current stresses employees are
facing, along with other mental and physical health
issues. Not only are companies conducting yoga classes
and positive thinking programs, they’re doing cooking
classes, delivering education and training for children, and
adopting many different types of coaching on physical,
mental, and financial fitness. Chubb Insurance created a
“taking care” series and brought in authors and experts
from many domains; PepsiCo created a global wellbeing
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communications program in days; Santander focused
its entire response around health and family support.
Yum! Brands created an end-to-end program spanning
employee safety and workplace protocols, contactless
customer service, and emotional wellbeing. Amicus now
uses an online system that prompts employees to take
safety clearning and distance measures and sends alerts
when office density rises, alerting people to stay at home.
3. Supporting and developing leaders: Among the many employee groups going through massive change, one
group most affected is management. Work group
participants discussed how their leadership programs
needed to change to address different working conditions.
Today, leaders need to learn how to supervise and support
people working at home. Every leader needs to become
comfortable supporting employees and their families.
Trust, patience, and forgiveness are new leadership
qualities (see the model later in this report). Autodesk,
Ford, Verizon, and ServiceNow are among the companies
refocusing leadership development on communication,
support, empathy, and trust.
4. Multi-functional HR. HR teams must now broaden their areas of expertise and work directly with other functional
areas of the business such as safety, facilities, IT, legal,
and finance. Many HR teams are finding that their scope
of responsibility has expanded, and in some cases, people
are moved into completely new roles. HR professionals
have to learn about workplace safety, public health,
and facilities design. They have to deal with issues like
employee commutes, restroom and cafeteria policies, and
a myriad of legal issues created by the pandemic. Yum!
created safety officers with integrated responsibility in
each location. Digital Bank of Singapore created crisis
response leaders in each geography who were responsible
for the integration of safety, workplace, HR, and legal
issues. Sabre reinvented its HR operating model overnight,
bringing together a multi-function HR team to design a
new voluntary retirement program and series of other
offerings and to create a cross-functional, 24-hour-a-day
service center.
5. Adapted talent practices. Throughout the pandemic, most organizations have continued to hire, onboard, train,
manage, and promote their people. But every one of these
talent practices has changed. Recruiting and onboarding
is now being done digitally, often with great success.
Companies such as L’Oréal, Microsoft, Epic, and Atlassian
are using video interviewing, managing internships
remotely, and conducting online onboarding. AB InBev and
JP Morgan adapted their performance processes to reflect
continually changing goals. In fact AB InBev found that
its Leadership 360 program, which was being considered
for cancellation , had the highest response ever (97%
response), demonstrating how important people believe
leadership is at this point in time. Edwards Lifesciences
conducted design thinking sessions to brainstorm new
solutions for remote work, team collaboration, and Zoom
fatigue. Bank of America, Sanofi, Santander, Novartis,
and many others continue to upgrade their learning and
career management programs as people are being moved
into new roles. RBC, for example, transitioned 40% of its
branch employees to remote work and retrained them to
become financial advisors as well as bankers. Sainsbury’s
used its “Christmas Priority” process to shut down all
non-essential talent practices and let people focus on
food delivery, retail operations, and digital services.
Sabre did a total organizational reorg, asking 60% of
employees to change roles or managers or both. All these
program changes were supplemented with extensive
communication. In all cases, adoption in was higher than
expected.
6. Digital transformation at speed. Executives have discussed how rapidly their employees adopted digital tools for
remote work, recruiting, onboarding, collaboration,
and communications, as well as for surveys and check-
ins. Tools for daily attestation, virus response, remote
onboarding, team collaboration, and real-time information
were implemented in days or weeks. The adoption of
large-scale HR systems was often put on hold or slowed
down while resources focused on rapid digital solutions.
At Continuum Global Solutions, a contact center that experienced a surge in demand, the company accelerated training and onboarding through rapid deployment of online digital tools. Employees were able to get through materials much quicker due to reduced distractions often encountered in office environments, while engagement and retention
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levels improved as well. A PepsiCo executive talked about the importance of “being scrappy” and solving probems
quickly.
7. Agile problem solving without agile methodologies. More than a third of executives describe their companies as
“agile” in the way they operate, but most of them refer to
the formal agile development and design methodology.
The pandemic has put agile thinking and problem solving
into daily work, without the formal processes. Leaders
have seen that employees can work together in teams
and, with focus, solve problems in days or weeks. The
traditional lengthy processes to agree on solutions,
gain stakeholder buyin, create solutions, and gradually
drive adoption are being dramatically condensed. We
hope this newfound agility continues. PepsiCo, for
example, developed a virtual onboarding program in
four weeks that probably would have taken six months
before the pandemic. Nextdoor developed a new COVID
communication portal using an existing onboarding
system over a weekend. AB InBev is supplementing its
annual engagement survey with regular pulse surveys; the
company received approximately 7,500 weekly responses
at the pandemic’s height. The company also revamped
its performance management process to create monthly
checkins, a project that had been lagging for years.
8. Direct focus on family. Most of us have been taught to leave behind our family problems at the start of each
workday. Issues such as sick children, children out of
school, aging parents, or health problems were largely
ignored by employers. That has all changed. Leaders are
developing many programs to directly support workers
and their families. Chubb and Autodesk used internal
Slack channels to create family and friend caretaking
tools, tutoring aid, and cooking classes. Nokia identified
all employees who were likely home alone so they could
receive special attention; the company also identified
families with aging parents who needed special support.
ServiceNow offers schooling and cooking classes to
children. Novartis made its Coursera library available
to all employees and their families. Honest Burgers
opened restaurant locations specifically designed to be
close to employees so they would not have to take public
transportation to work. Chubb Insurance held family
hours online and movie nights. Kerns Health System had a
driven-in movie night in the parking lot.
9. Maintaining productivity while adapting. Employees now have so many distractions (family issues, health worries,
safety concerns) and the digital always-on workplace is
so distracting that many HR leaders have been looking at
ways to make work easier while maintaining productivity.
This is now especially important with so many workforces
dispersed. Companies like Danone, Bank of America, DBS
Singapore and others quickly developed training and
support programs to teach people how to run meetings,
how to manage remotely, and how to stay focused in a
world of never-ending interruptions. And many companies
(L’Oréal, Atlassian) set aside “no-meeting times” so people
could focus, rest, and re-energize themselves instead of
becoming drained by video conferencing all day. The CEO
of Sabre saw that employees were so productive when
working from home that the company now has a new
“work anywhere” strategy.
10. Remote and flexible work goes mainstream. Prior to the pandemic about half of the companies we surveyed did
not permit work at home. Today it's 99% or more. Almost
every company now has work-at-home policies, tools,
platforms, and systems. The tech industry has exploded
with growth. Autodesk set up a whole series of Slack
channels to help people talk about home issues, childcare,
and work productivity from home. ServiceNow and Chubb
have their CEOs on all- hands calls supporting people
at home and giving them a stronger than ever sense of
belonging. However, it’s important to remember that
many companies have large numbers of employees who
cannot work from home. For these employee populations,
we’re seeing more flexibility in work hours in order to
help people juggle child care, commuting issues, and other
responsibilities; some are even giving employees extra
money to help defray child care costs when schools and
daycares are closed.
11. Purpose matters. In times of uncertainty and ambiguity, people are desperate for a sense of purpose. Leaders who
understand the importance of a unitying sense of purpose
are finding competitive advantage. Sainsbury’s purpose
is to “feed the nation.” ServiceNow’s purpose is to create
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workflow tools to help its customers manage business
through the pandemic. Santander Bank and Royal
Bank of Canada talk about the purpose of helping their
customers and communities better manage and improve
their financial lives. And of course healthcare providers
like the University of Nebraska Healthcare System, the
largest healthcare provider in Nebraska, are focused on
understanding and eliminating the virus. Employees at all
levels have told us that they feel inspired and energized by
their organizations’ purpose – it helps them see through
the uncertainty and focus on doing a good job.
12. The rise of trust. In my very first article about the pandemic, I predicted a need to reinforce trust. Research
by Edelman and others shows that citizens around the
world do not trust government (only 14% of Americans
believe the federal government will do the right thing)
and many don’t trust the media. But most people do trust
their employers. Therefore, it is critically important that
company leaders live up to this sense of trust. When
companies don’t create safe workplaces, there are
immediate repurcussions (and we often read about them
in the news). So CEOs and operations leaders are now in
a world where trust (which I define as competency, ethics,
and listening) is sacrosanct. Many companies have chosen
not to lay off workers (ServiceNow, Banco Santander, DBS
Singapore, Verizon, Danone, Target, and Wal-Mart are
among these); some have given employees pay raises. Such
moves are not only business continuity strategies; they
also create trust and loyalty in a time of extreme stress.
13. Distributed authority and empowerment. Any response to the pandemic must involve both centralized information
and policymaking coupled with local authority, skills,
and information. Pizza Hut, for example, created local
“health-at work-officers” who take responsibility for back-
to-work policies and implementation. PVH executive said
that local business partners in Italy shut down stores well
before headquarters took enterprise-wide action. DBS
Singapore has country-located crisis teams that bring
multi-functional leaders together. Companies are now
pushing forward on the goal of creating more distributed
organizations with empowered employees – operating
under a network of shared awareness, policies, and rules.
14. Improved pay and benefits. As odd as it sounds, many employers we talk with are raising pay, increasing benefits,
improving sick pay, expanding leave policies, and generally
helping employees with many aspects of their financial
lives. Target, Wal-Mart, Verizon, and Chubb are among
those companies that either raised wages or made “no
layoff policies” almost immediately.
15. Learning all the time. One of the most interesting findings from all our conversations is the massive consumption of
learning. Sanofi, for example, launched a new corporate
university at the start of the pandemic and found that
company employees consumed almost a million hours of
training in just two months. In addition to learning about
the virus and health, people are using spare time to learn
about digital tools, professional topics, and new languages.
Companies like Novartis have opened up their course
libraries to families and children, enabling families to learn
online as well. ServiceNow has teachers and chefs from
the company facilities teaching classes (reading, cooking,
exercise) to employees online. L’Oréal launched an online
learning campaign called “Learning Never Stops” to
accelerate upskilling at scale. At the same time, it put into
place initiatives to foster collacoration and community
connections. A L’Oréal executive made an important
point: today people need more contact, not more content.
Therefore, it’s important to complement online learning
with some kind of interaction and collaboration.
16. Rules and policies with consequences. One of the other findings that comes from our working groups is the need
for clear policies to address pandemic-related issues.
Do I have to wear a mask? Am I allowed to stay home
until I feel safe? What if I don’t feel comfortable taking
public transportation? Will the company pay for my
home office supplies? Can I take a leave if my kids are
out of school? Policies around the these issues – and
many others – must be clear and well communicated;
otherwise people are uncertain and confused. As Keith
Hutchison from NationalGrid put it, people feel more
comfortable when they know what’s optional and what is
not. HonestBurgers, Humana, Legendary Entertainment,
and Autodesk all created in-depth playbooks for every
detail of the new work environment. Humana’s playbook
is 175 pages long and updated every week. This also
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means ensuring policies (pay, benefits, work allowances)
are equitable and fair to all employees.
17. Operating under uncertainty. Again and again, people ask “when will life go back to normal?” Most of us are now
realizing that we’ll never see the “old” normal and that
uncertainty will be with us for many months to come.
Therefore, enlightened compay leaders are realizing they
must organize and manage for continuous uncertainty.
They accept that the virus, local conditions, laws, and
political instability will likely cause further change,
sometimes in impossible to predict ways. This means HR
leaders must communicate readiness to help, regardless
of conditions, and they must convey a sense of optimism
and competence even when conditions as continue to
change.
18. Positive psychology. Currently, there is much discussion about the need for mental, psychological, and physical
resilience. Resilience demands optimism, a sense of joy,
and a realistic but well communicated vision of the future.
Companies are using coaches, psychologists, and many
new tools to help employees take a positive view of the
future – because without it, employees cannot come to
work with focus. For instance, Legendary Entertainment,
one of the most successful movie and comic publishers
in the industry, hired life coaches to help creative and
executive staff learn to meditate, practice yoga, and
embark on vigorous exercise regimens at home.
19. New workplace protocols. A whole series of new workplace protocols are being developed. These encompass areas
such as workplace operations, workplace technology,
safety and wellbeing, service delivery and execution,
logistics, and culture. Every company is reinventing these
areas and deciding when, how, and under what conditions
people return to physical workspaces. There are new
protocols for testing, identifying vulnerable employees,
PPE supplies and policies, OSHA and cleaning protocols,
insurance and benefits realignment, and a myriad of
new policies for work at home, remote work technology,
and collaboration. In almost every company, the HR
department is coordinating with peers in facilities, safety,
operations, legal, and finance functions to develop new
policies and protocols. L’Oréal created an e-learning
program, “#safetogether,” to secure the return of
employees to the workplace; the company has made the
program available to other companies and the public. I
think one of the most interesting comments came from a
L’Oréal leader who said that as a result of the welcome
back to work kit, protective measures, cleaning protocols,
and safety changes, employees feel they are safer at work
than anywhere else.
20. Unity: Coming together. Finally, let me summarize one of the most common topics we learned about in this sprint.
Every single leader told us that the pandemic created
a sense of unity – unity among the employees, among
customers, and across all corporate functions. In many
ways, the pandemic forced us to tear down our functional
silos and work more closely together than ever before.
People are inspired and energized by the sense of
purpose, togetherness, and urgency in this time of change.
Lessons From The Front Lines
Over the past two to three months, we have had conversations
with these 150-plus HR leaders as part of our Big Reset
working groups. In this section, we would like to share some
of the most interesting. In the next phase of the Big Reset
initiative, we will continue to host the working groups. We’ll
also be adding a fifth workstream to discuss diversity, inclusion,
fairness, and racial justice.
Banco Santander Purpose, Mission, and Health
Banco Santander is a global bank with 200,000 employees in
32 countries. To continue serving its 140 milion customers
over the past months, the company has moved approximately
115,000 employees to working from home and kept 70% of its
branches and about half of its contact centers open. The bank
is conducting an average of 3 million webchats and 800,000
video calls per day.
The company’s core focus during the pandemic has been
to keep as many branches open as possible with excellent
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digital banking solutions in order to serve its clients while
emphasizing health and safety for all. Banco Santander’s
purpose, to help people and businesses prosper, has been a
driving force during the pandemic. The bank’s cultural values,
known as “The Santander Way,” have unified employees.
The company used its global wellbeing program, “Be Healthy,”
as a core component of its strategy, covering physical health
and mental, financial, and social wellbeing. The company has
placed a big emphasis has been on health and mental fitness at
for those working from home.
To foster mental wellbeing and digital disconnection,
management in several countries decided to stop all emails,
messages, or meetings during the lunch hour to give people
a chance to rest. The company has also been delivering
education on financial wellbeing and has given people
enormous flexibility in their work hours, even encouraging
people to check in with others (colleagues or customers) if
they feel they can’t work on a given day due to time or family
pressures.
Finally, in the area of physical safety, the company has a
two-way social contract with its employees. The company
provides PPE and guidelines, and in return expects people
to act safely and abide by the safety rules. They are having
tremendous success because of the deep level of trust in the
company.
One of the big surprises at Banco Santander is the amount
of open friendships that have been created as people are at
home. The company has movie nights, shared music playlists,
and open Zoom days where people can wander in and out to
talk with each other. The company has used all these findings
to reinvigorate leadership and teach them all about wellbeing,
trust, and support in their role. I encourage you to read Banco
Santander’s Culture Manifesto for more.
Royal Bank of Canada Restructuring and Transformation
RBC, one of the largest banks in Canada, shut down almost
40% of its branches in the early days of the pandemic. In just
three weeks, the company moved almost 75,000 employees,
including those working two trading floors, to working from
home. As these employees were sent home, the bank sent
them equipment to handle customer inquiries over the phone,
essentially scaling up its 800# and online service.
As customers started to shift to online banking, the company
saw a change in consumer behavior. In addition to their routine
banking needs, people were asking for advice. How do I apply
for unemployment? What are my insurance options? How do I
extend payment on my credit card? How do I take out a loan?
This shift in demand forced the bank to rethink its branch
support strategy. The CHRO and her team worked with the
private client group to understand the types of financial
advice and support people would need and started a program
to upskill and retrain branch staff to handle these advisory
questions. At the time we talked, RBC leaders had realized that
their fundamental business was changing and they started a
product team to look at new advisory products the bank could
offer to affected customers around the country.
PepsiCo Moving Faster Than Ever Expected
PepsiCo is a large global conglomerate with more than
280,000 employees in more than 200 countries. The company
has multiple business units and sells hundreds of consumer
products around the world. The company’s response to the
pandemic has been focused on four areas:
• Communications: The company started a broad series
of education and communication, including sessions by
medical experts to continuously inform employees about
the pandemic and the company’s response.
• Wellbeing: PepsiCo promoted its global wellbeing
program and added supplemental policies to help with
physical and mental wellbeing.
• New ways of work: The company focused on technology,
practices, training, and internet infrastructure around the
world.
• Listening: PepsiCo uses week-by-week pulsing and
open feedback, with a highly organized central listening
team, to make sure all input is continually analyzed and
responses are quick.
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The entire four-pillar strategy and execution was pulled
together in less than a week. Additionally, the company quickly
rolled out a virtual onboarding program for professional
employees in North America. Typically when new programs and
projects are initiated, it takes months or years to gain alignment
and develop a plan for design, implementation, training, and
change. In the pandemic, however, everything changed.
Why and how was this accomplished so quickly? Essentially
four factors drove the rapid response:
• The first was business urgency. In this case there was no
debate about what the priorities would be. Employees were
locked down so the need for a virtual solution was clear.
• Second, there was no debate on the goal or outcomes.
In typical workforce projects, there can be big debates
about the problems to solve and area for focus. Coming to
agreement can take months. In this case, the problem was
simple: Enable new employees to onboard virtually while
offices were closed. The team agreed on the focus of the
program in hours, and everyone stopped what they were
doing to pitch in.
• Third, the design was “scrappy.” Rather than designing
a perfect solution that would scale and adapt to all of
PepsiCo’s needs, the team focused on speed first followed
with iterative improvement based on feedback. This is
a well-known approach for Agile software and startup
teams, but rare in large global companies.
• Fourth, PepsiCo built continuous feedback loops into the
program. The company is already in the third revision of
the program.
The company leaders now understand that agility is a key to its
future and are looking at ways to become similarly agile in all
HR initiatives.
Sainsbury’s Retail Supermarket Feeding The Nation
Sainsbury’s is one of the largest multi-channel supermarket
and food service companies in the UK, with approximately
190,000 employees.
Sainsbury’s corporate values drove the company’s response to
the crisis, proving the power of purpose. What became clear in
the UK was that supporting the customers through the crisis
was a matter of public service. The British Retail Consortium
declared a “Feed the Nation”mission, which then became the
centralizing and unifying purpose for Sainsbury's employees
and community of suppliers. The mission created an enormous
sense of pride, enthusiasm, and engagement among its people.
Every employee – whether a truck driver, cashier, or store
manager – had a shared purpose.
This highly focused mission also drove more agile decision-
making and ruthless reprioritization
A second pandemic-related change was the rapid adoption of
the company’s digital offerings because customers wanted less
direct interaction and more contact-free options, Sainsbury’s
saw enormous adoption of its Scan and Go technology. The
demand for home deliver also grew exponentially, forcing
Sainsbury’s to hire thousands of new staff in its delivery
business.
The company also ramped up its food delivery and care
programs for the elderly. To deal with the heavy increase
in demand for all these services, the company moved to
“Christmas-like” workforce practices for recruiting, scheduling,
and communications.
Sanofi Explosive Growth of Learning
Sanofi is a global pharmaceutical company with more than
100,000 employees in 100 countries and 73 manufacturing
sites around the world. The company is well known for its
vaccine business, so Sanofi employees are very busy and
energized.
In the areas of learning and leadership, Sanofi was in a uniquely
special time. As the pandemic took hold, Sanofi was just
about to launch its long-planned corporate university. After
pondering whether to delay the project, company leaders
decided unanimously to go ahead and launch the corporate
university.
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Celia Berenguer, the chief learning officer, led the virtual
launch. Approximately 14,000 employees joined the university
in the very first webinar (the highest ever-attended event), and
now Sanofi has more than 20,000 employees directly engaged
in the university on a daily basis. As we’ve seen with many
other organizations, the appetite for learning is voracious.
When the university launched at the end of March, Celia
realized that the topics most needed were the basics of
working at home, leading remote teams, managing and
improving wellbeing, and understanding the pandemic. So the
development team used the university launch to create a new
set of topical programs designed for direct response.
The CEO saw the potential of this program, so decided to
put out a challenge to see if employees could consume one
million hours of learning by June 1 – which would mean every
employee would have to engage in an average of 10 hours of
learning.
Employees immediately took advantage of the opportunity.
They not only took courses on remote work and wellbeing, but
many looked to up their skills with learning about data science,
analytics, digital tools, and basic biology and chemistry. By
June 1, almost 900,000 hours of content were consumed.
One of the biggest lessons Sanofi learned in the crisis is the
need to do less with less. While the pandemic did shift the
company’s learning focus to more urgent topics, the goal of one
million hours of learning gave the HR team a singular purpose
and helped turn the university launch into a huge success. Now
Sanofi has a platform for global change, culture enablement,
and growth – all introduced during one of the most important
times in the company’s history.
Yum! Brands Going Back To Work In A Safe and Sustainable Way
Yum! Brands is a conglomerate that includes KFC, Taco Bell,
Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger Grill. Yum! has more than 50,000
restaurants in 145 countries with 350,000 employees. The
parent company has had to support a massive network of
franchisees, employees, and owners during the pandemic.
The company’s number one goal was to ensure total safety
for every employee in every location, so the team had to
immediately figure out how to redesign its physical restaurants
and offices around the world. As Alex Martinez, the director of
global talent for Pizza Hut International, described, this meant
immediately creating cross-functional squads in each location
that spanned responsibility for facilities, real estate, quality
assurance, HR, and communications.
To scale this up, Yum! assigned a “healthy at work officer” in
each global location. This person was responsible for staffing
and managing the location’s cross-functional team and also for
case management and reporting of any infected employees.
To design the new work and customer experience, team
thinking started from the first moment an employee arrives
at a location. From the minute an employee parks her
car or arrives on public transportation, Yum! put in place
temperature check locations along with signage and clear
rules for common areas. Lunch areas were redesigned for meal
takeaways. The company also designed contactless digital
processes for all customer interactions.
One of the big findings of the Big Reset working groups is
the need for “shared awareness” – distributed authority with
centralized communications and coordination. Yum! created
this model with a command center for each global market.
These command centers look at virus cases, travel schedules,
legal changes, and local return-to-work practices and needs.
These command centers coordinate and communicate with the
local healthy at work officers to make sure they are all aware of
local and regional policies and laws.
In terms of cleaning, Yum has rigorious cleaning schedules for
all restaurants and restrooms. All employees are being trained
on sanitation procedures so they understand precisely how to
clean all surfaces and areas completely.
At this time, Yum! is not mandating that headquarters staff
return to work. Employees can come back voluntarily and the
company is expecting only 10 to 15% of staff to return. Yum! is
using these early returnees to give the company feedback on
what will make the work environment ever-more safe, secure,
and sanitary.
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The company has also provided to returning employees
welcome kits with PPE and reassigned seating. Conference
rooms are being reconfigured and cleaning supplies put into
each.
Yum!CEO David Gibbs has been involved in all aspects of the
crisis response. Heis online every week to talk about what
the company is doing and collaborating with franchisees,
employees, and partners around the world.
Autodesk Using Technology to Respond and Collaborate
Autodesk is a global software company with 11,000 employees
operating in 38 countries and 105 cities. As a software-as
a-service company, moving into home work was a natural
extension of the company’s operating model. Since many of
its employees are in China, Autodesk leaders saw signs of
a potential pandemic early. They immediately realized that
global coordination would be necessary to address what would
likely be a wide range of situations in different geographies.
Autodesk’s HR leaders leaned into the population of managers.
The HR team revamped its training and focused on leading
under stress, how to share authentically, how to take care of
yourself and others, how to create inclusive work practices,
and how to create a culture of belonging.
Second, leaders focused on employee resilience, physical
and emotional wellbeing, and social connections. Autodesk
is one of the world’s leading users of Slack, and the company
has created a culture of sharing around a myriad of personal,
professional, and family issues and topics. Thousands of groups
have been formed, giving people many ways to share, learn,
and communicate with peers.
One of the big issues Autodesk have faced is the management
of remote teams. Autodesk heavily relies on Zoom, Mural,
Slack, and the Autodesk technology to enable remote work
effectively.
Danone Working With Unions To Maintain Safety and Health
Danone, one of the healthy largest food manufacturers in the
world, delivers organic, plant-based and GM-free food. With
more than 8,500 workers in 13 factories, the company has
succeeded in protecting employees with social distancing,
masks, and expanded remote working. How do they do this?
The answer in part is because of its mission to care for people.
The company’s roots go back to the 1920s when it popularized
yogurt; it has since then developed bottled water, baby food,
and dairy brands all known for health and quality. In 1968,
Danone’s CEO decided to go further with a major focus
on conscious capitalism. Since then, Danone has become
the largest B-corp in the world. (A B-corp is a corporation
dedicated to social and public good.)
The company has seen a massive increase in the demand for
healthy food during the pandemic and has implemented shift
teams that meet at different times, social distancing in its plants,
redesigned canteens and changing rooms. The company even
shut down production lines that were too close together. No
outsiders are allowed into plants, and in some locations, the
company set up temporary bungalows for truckers to shower
and have a coffee without entering the factory.
Initially people had a hard time dealing with spaced-out seating
arrangements and empty conference rooms, so the virus did
erupt in some sites. But the company quarantined infected
and exposed workers, and now has most of its headquarters
team has come back into offices. People come into the office on
shifts to allow for more open space and some continue to work
from home.
Based on Danone’s safety record, unions have been
cooperative overall and the company has maintained most of
its workforce. Danone has a head of global safety and security
who networks with other food manufacturers to create
common standards. There are then safety and security officers
in various locations to implement these practices locally. The
company works directly with the unions as much as possible
and this has worked out positively. Danone also cut its dividend
so the company could focus on health and safety and expects
to thrive in the pandemic response.
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Sabre Travel Crisis Cross-Functional Response
Sabre, a travel technology company, employs 9,000 people
in 60 countries. Its business centers around managing a
sophisticated online reservation system used by approximately
a billion people worldwide. As the demand for travel has
dropped precipitously in past months, so has the company’s
revenue. Consequently, Sabre has been implementing
furloughs to reduce cost and workforce size.
To do this, the company had to quickly identify mission-
critical jobs. It launched a voluntary retirement program and
then furloughed about a third of its workforce. Following the
furlough, Sabre leaders then reorganized the company so that
60% of the remaining employees now have new roles, new
leaders, or both. The reorganization was based on a move from
a business-unit organization to functional organization, created
efficiency and scale, but changed almost everyone’s job.
Going through these changes, HR leaders quickly recognized
that many of its legacy processes were too siloed and too
slow to adapt. While Sabre has a modern HCM system
(Successfactors and ADP), the business processes were not
designed to flex as quickly as needed. For example, when Sabre
needed to develop its voluntary severance plan, the HR team
had to rapidly create a cross-functional team to work with legal
and finance; the plan was developed and implemented in days.
To meet the wide variety of employee needs, the company
established a new cross-functional, shared-services function
for HR. With the aid of chatbots, cross-functional teams can
now answer questions from anywhere in the world within 24
hours. Decision making and policy revisions were expedited
through the use of Microsoft Teams for collaboration
among global HR managers. Related communications and
training were developed rapidly, so local leaders could share
information with employees as quickly and consistently as
possible. For instance, a voluntary severance process, which
was rolled out in early July, was developed in just a few weeks.
Now Sabre is in the process of revising its organizational
model. To address related changes, Sabre is using LinkedIn
Learning programs to help managers learn how to lead
remotely; it is also and is now using Bridges Transition Model,
which teaches people about endings, transitions, and new
beginnings.. Similar to Sanofi, Sabre found that managers and
employees have a voracious appetite to learn.
Initially Sabre’s CEO, who was very accustomed to traditional
office environments, was very skeptical about employees
working from home. Now that he has seen how employees can
successfully work from home, he is considering a “work from
anywhere” strategy. Sabre leaders have quickly learned that
transparency, agility, scrappiness, and constant learning are
strategies that can foster innovation and adaptability in the
evolving business climate.
Development Bank of Singapore
DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, is headquarterd
in Singapore and has 30,000 employees in 18 geographic
marketsThe bank’s highly sophisticated digital infrastructure
gave it a leg up on responding to the pandemic. In fact, leaders
believe the bank’s digital transformation has been accelerated
by the pandemic and has resulted in moving even more
document management and work practices to digital tools.
To address the different and evolving situations in each of its
markets, the company has created crisis management teams
chaired by the CEO in each country; each team has crisis
coordinators to deal with issues at local levels. Once a week,
the global CEO meets with all the crisis management teams to
coordinate response.
These crisis teams look at all aspects of the organization:
customer issues, employee issues, procurement of PPE and
other equipment, and HR practices involving communications,
education, enforcement of hygiene, and employee
engagement. The crisis teams meet three times per week and
have built a cadence of response and coordination.
One of the issues the teams have had to deal with is the
definition of “sick.” In Asia, it is common for people to power
through an illness and come to work with a cough or fever. The
company had to put together very specific guidelines to teach
people not to come to work sick. Similarly, with about 80% of
the employees working from home, teams had to teach people
how to conduct meetings from home, connect effectively
with peers, and deal with often cramped working spaces with
multiple family members.
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The Role of Leadership: A New Leadership Model
In our conversations with more than 150 HR executives, one message was clear: leadership has to adapt. In this chart we highlight
some of the top leadership capabilities that have become critical to success. The companies highlighted in this report’s case
studies — along with Verizon, IBM, ServiceNow, and L’Oréal -- are now conducting weekly video sessions, coaching programs, and
online training to develop these capabilities among supervisers and managers at all levels.
CAPABILITY THE STORY
Accepting new realities “Getting over the yearning for what we used to have.” “Able to identify the next best solution.” “Not getting stuck; analysis paralysis.”
Thinking broadly and proactively “Defining adaptability in a different way.” “Thinking ahead; anticipating what the future or next normal might look like.”
Collaboration and facilitating a move to a distributed way of working
“New strategies when not co-located.” “Use of digital tools.” “Recognition you can still code, problem solve, innovate and create in different ways.”
Humanistic empathy/humanism We have become much more employee-centric.” “We started to ask questions around mental health, well-being, family.” “We conducted frequent pulse surveys and discovered there was a need to address isolation…..it forced us to connect frequently with employees.”
Engage at a personal level “Beyond the basics of providing laptops, equipment, security, we had to understand and appreciate the challenges and complications as a result of the crisis.” “We hosted webinars on how to enrich your work-from-home experience.”
Flexibility mindset “Shift from job skill to mindset; how to process thinking.” “Shift from thinking, “I can’t see what people are doing remotely” to “what other ways can I know work is getting work done?” “Managing to behaviors and outcomes instead of hours worked.”
Lead through ambiguity and change “It tested our ability to make decisions in the face of no information” “Taught us to lead through change and uncertainty.” “To deal with the notion that we’re in the state of constant transformation.” “We’re hosting two-hour engagement sessions with individual contributors on what it’s like to go through change.”
Fellowship “With so much unknown, self-control, fearlessness and curiosity are important traits. We need to add fellowship, sense of community to create positive impact.”
A sense of purpose “For us, it created a renewed sense of purpose. It brought our industry together on a shared higher sense of purpose.”
Inclusiveness “Ability to bring everyone together.” “Covid-19 has been a massive in terms of equalizing experiences and interactions; people are more mindful about people.”
Ruthless prioritization “We are crushed by the volume of work. Our business was already under existential pressure. There is a dire need for prioritization in order to do what absolutely has to be done today while freeing up capacity to consider the unknown.”
Agility and accelerated processes “Team dynamics. What typically takes 12 months to do, now done in a few weeks.” “Performance management process revamped in a week; it would have taken years in past.” “Now receiving and giving feedback every 6 weeks vs 6 months.” “Move annual planning to planning on a dime.”
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CAPABILITY THE STORY
Ability to look to future “Moved quickly from competency to capability, looking forward into the future.” “Performance evaluations now do not look back. We focus on what you can do next, how adaptable are you to evolve, how open to growth?”
Experimentation with rigor “We’re busting myths with forced experimentation. Jobs presumed that couldn’t be done from home are now being done. We are invalidating our previous assumptions through experimentation.” “Experimentation gives us the ability to move faster; however, we need to be more thoughtful and apply rigor.”
Below are some of the activities HR leaders are using to
develop these leadership capabilities:
• Regular leader-to-leader online discussions to discuss
how to incorporate these capabilities into daily work and
interactions.
• Peer and group coaching and mentoring to share new
ideas and create unity.
• Highlighting these new topics in a new leadership
manifesto or framework.
• Pointing out to leaders videos and online learning
programs about related topics.
• Telling stories and case studies and doing video interviews
of leaders living by these principles.
• Asking the CEO to discuss these capabilities and giving
examples of how they can be applied.
• Using contests, awards, and even badges for people who
exemplify these important leadership capabilities in the
pandemic.
The Back-To-Work Issues
One of our working groups focused exclusively on back-
to-workplace and workplace design issues. While most
companies are well along on this journey, following are the
imperatives group members identified:
1. Learning to work remotely
It’s clear that remote work is now a standard practice at most
companies. As discussed in The Remote Work Bootcamp, key
issues include tools (tech and platforms), rules (pay practices,
policies), norms (how people show up and what meetings are
scheduled or not scheduled), and culture (trust, psychological
safety, and transparency). Policies touching on these issues
are a work in process, even for companies that have allowed
remote work for years.
The big question most companies now face is when and how
to return employees to physical workplaces. Many companies
(L’Oréal, Yum! Brands, Autodesk, Sanofi, Brunswick) already
have high-safety workplaces in place and are inviting
employees to return to work in waves. Most companies are
doubling or tripling the space between people in offices and
plants, creating the need for different shifts or scheduled days.
In almost every case the current strategy is to make “back-
to-office” voluntary. With the exception of essential workers
(such as airline employees, manufacturing workers, warehouse
Figure 2: Role of New Leadership
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staffers, delivery workers), many companies are currently
giving employees the option to work at home or in the office,
without penalty for either choice. Other companies are finding
that certain meetings can be conducted safely in the office, but
much daily work can be done at home.
Finally, almost every company is now aware of the Zoom
fatigue phenomenon. While you can conduct strategy sessions
and many in-depth design meetings online, you have to break
up the session into one- to two-hour chunks.
2. Focus on safety
Safety is now the top issue on the minds of employees. How
do we bring employees into the building or plant or store, and
then give them an entirely safe experience through all the
interactions at work – including customer interactions, supply
chain and vendor meetings, team meetings, restrooms, lunches
and breaks, and commuting?
In addition to grappling with all of the above issues, there are
also attestation policies, sick time allowances, reporting of
incidents, virus testing (optional or mandatory), and the use of
shared tools and objects.
3. Creating a low-touch or touchless customer experience
Companies are redesigning or reinventing customer
experiences at light speed. Almost all delivery and logistics
workers wear masks and now have ready access to cleanin and
sanitizing supplies. Restaurant and food service workers have
plastic face shields, contactless ordering kiosks, and electronic
payment systems. Manufacturers are developing new
protocols for product lines, meetings, and supplier interactions.
We recommend you read the Lear Back to Work Playbook (for
front-line workers) and the Legendary Back to Work Playbook
(for knowledge workers) for further guidance.
As Alex Martinez from Pizza Hut described, one best
practice is to create local safety managers who review all the
practices for customer and employee interactions. This is a
design thinking exercise that requires collaboration from HR,
marketing, sales, and operations. The scope must also must
include:
• Clear customer communications
• Customer reporting and safety feedback
• Training of employees
• Deciding what is mandatory (mask wearing, for example)
• Use of all shared devices and items
4. Managing employee anxiety
The fourth imperative is to remember the anxiety employees
are naturally feeling. L’Oréal’s goal was to make the workplace
the safest place in employees’ lives. This is a powerful idea,
one you should consider. Making a strong, concerted effort
to promote employee safety and health (mental and physical)
will reduce employee anxiety, facilitate returning to physical
workplaces in manageable ways, and avoid legal issues.
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Workplace Experience Checklist
Companies are grappling with a huge range of issues when it comes to redefining, redesigning, and even reinventing workplace
experiences for employees and customers. This checklist, while not 100-percent comprehensive, can be used to ensure your
organization is making all the important considerations.
Safety
Implement physical disinfecting protocols and identifying key areas of risk. Specifically review how OSHA and CDC
standards apply.
Determine what level of PPE (masks, gloves, face shields, barriers) will be required in work spaces.
Implement training for all staff on safety protocols and personal responsibility.
Determine how (and if) you will monitor employees coming into the workplace.
Assess the effectiveness of cooling, heating, and air filtering systems; identify needed upgrades.
Create local government relationships and other partnerships for hot spot monitoring and real-time virus updates
Assess building space and services needed for new operating models; coordinate with building owners/real estate
agents to determine how best to support new models.
Create personas for at-risk employee groups and adapt work practices accordingly.
Consider the long-term impact of your organization’s responses to your overall brand.
Space Configuration
Evaluate all aspects of space – including offices, entrances, hallways, elevators.
Set out workstation requirements, such as PPE, cleaning supplies, lighting adjustments, plexi-glass barriers.
Thoroughly document all aspects of customer interaction; provide staff training on safety protocols, capacity
limitations, and role changes due to changes in service and delivery models.
Review manufacturing and processing requirements to ensure proper equipment to minimize contact, shifts to minimize
occupancy, proper vendor and supplier training, and general oversight.
Consider whether offsite facilities, such as trailers or temporary offices, might be of use to minimize employee risk.
Space Utilization
Establish protocols, shifts, and capacity checks to avoid crowding.
Consider a “hoteling” work model and implementing digital tools to allow employees to reserve desk space in advance
of coming to work.
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Reshape spaces to create distancing and consider closing communal areas.
Place directional arrows where needed to direct walking traffic; place distance markers where needed, such as in
elevators or at coffee bars.
Evaulate use of conference rooms, seating changes required, and ongoing cleaning protocols.
Operations/Service Provisions
Determine how to monitor the number of people in each location.
Identify the policies needed to minimize contact and unintended congregation.
Consider expanding services to include delivery or developing partnerships with local service providers.
Explore childcare coordination and assistance if daycare and schools are impacted.
Establish how PPE supplies will be ordered (locally or centrally) and identify reliable suppliers.
Team Leadership
Determine where, how, and when teams will meet.
Establish protocols for team offsites or face-to-face sessions
Identify how will teams be held accountable for the safety of members.
Attestation, Reporting, Testing
Determine what tools or forms will be used for attestation.
Determine how data will be stored, protected, and used, along with the workflows for incident and regular reporting.
Document the policy for communicating to employees exposure and infections.
Determine what testing will be required, such as pre-arrival screenings or the availability of on-site testing.
Vendors and Supply Chain
Determine policies regarding vendor visits. These include the spaces third-party employees are allowed in and the
safety protocols required of them. Implement appropriate communications and training of these policies.
Scheduling
Determine which employees need (and want to) return to physical work spaces; set appropriate timelines.
Assess whether working hours should be modified to ensure safe spacing.
Consider what changes may be needed to ensure teams are working together.
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Legal and Insurance
Evaluate OSHA risk of infection if employees feel mandated to return.
Establish policies for employees choosing not to return to physical work spaces.
Train managers to conduct employee conversations about returning to physical work spaces.
Create appropriate disclosures for employee signatures.
Document a plan for dealing with at-risk employee groups.
Evaluate current insurance policies and consider any changes required.
Technology
Establish what type of office and technology should be standard for at-home workers.
Determine ordering (centralized or by employee) and reimbursement processes.
Create IT support services to help employees with new technology and purchasing decisions, if applicable.
Consider partnering with suppliers (i.e., Staples, Office Dept) for supplies and equipment.
Standardize approved collaboration and communication tools (such as MicrosoftTeams, Workplace by Facebook, Slack,
Yammer, Mural). Ensure employees have the training needed to effectively use the tools.
Explore use of apps such as Garageband and Presenter to liven presentations and interactions
Security
Establish central access points.
Determine what if any testing or attestation is conducted on arrival.
Provide in-depth training to security officers and guards.
Coordinate with local law enforcement on handling trespassing issues or disputes arising from policy violations.
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Employee Commute, Travel, and Logistics
Home to Work (office, retail or other standard location)
Study mass transit availability and current schedules to determine potential impact on commuting employees.
Study restrictions on car pooling, ride sharing, or other car services
Consider creating an online space where employees can discuss commuting issues and potentially share rides.
Determine what type of business travel can be allowed.
Establish guidelines for supervisors and managers to use for approving business travel
Consider creating some kind of personal responsibility waiver beyond normal travel-related liability.
Stay updated on airline policies and guide employees accordingly.
When employees are working in third-party facilities (i.e., such as in long-term consulting projects), consider validation
from the third party on its safety protocols.
Within the Workplace
Consider one-way hallways or aisles to allow for social distancing.
Consider corner mirrors to avoid accidental contact.
Consider restroom capacity limits with occupancy counters.
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Workplace Culture
There are many aspects to workplace culture to consider.
Following are examples of what some companies are doing
now to reinforce company values as they navigate work and
business changes:
• AB InBev, Atlassian: These companies have moved to
a more continuous performance management process.
New financial and operating metrics were created,
along with employee rewards and recognitions for
supporting COVID-related changes, innovation, and team
collaboration. Leaner and more agile processes have put
more focus on employee centricity.
• Autodesk: At Autodesk, the conversation about work and
life is more blended. Managers are given tips for checking
in with teams and recommendations on “life” questions
they can ask new employees. There is recognition that
by using Zoom, employees are inviting others into their
personal spaces.
• Legendary Entertainment, Microsoft: These companies
are re-evaluating all work-related processes – from
recruiting interns, to doing performance evaulations, to
resetting expectations for those juggling child care and
work responsibilities.
• Ford, Microsoft, L’Oréal, Legendary: These companies
are among those grappling with the onboarding of new
employees, especially those who are fresh out of college
with little to no prior corporate experience. The revamped
onboarding processes are being designed to address some
of the following questions: “How can ensure that new
employees have the self-discipline to work from home?
What guardrails and checkins should we provide?” How
do we make sure young employees don’t feel isolated and
lonely at home? Can we create online communities and
varied collaborative experiences to make work engaging
and to give new employees a sense of belonging?
• Verizon, Cisco, ServiceNow, DBS Singapore: These
companies have relaxed expectations for employees
and embedding empathy in employee interactions. For
instance, managers are being trained to identify when
employees may need some time off to re-energize
themselves, to accept and understand that children may
interrupt a Zoom call, and to work with employees on
commuting issues.
• Microsoft, NextDoor: Mentorship programs are being
redesigned at these companies in order to better support
distributed workforces.
• Honest Burgers, Yum! Brands: For these companies,
in-person gatherings are still important. Determining
how to make such meetings safe and practical (in terms of
travel) may require rethinking office spaces and locations.
T H E B I G R E S E T P L A Y B O O K : W H A T ’ S W O R K I N G N O W2 2
Where We Go Next
The Big Reset Initiative is a “living lab.” We plan to continue
the working groups throughout the pandemic. While many
of the ideas, principles, practices, and protocols here are new
in this moment, many will be well established in the coming
months. What will come next?
In our next sprint, we will continue discussions around these
topics: employee wellbeing and health, leadership and culture,
HR transformation, and back to work and workplace practices.
We will also be adding new groups around citizenship,
diversity, and inclusion – issues are at the cultural forefront
and now part of the pandemic response. We will also be
adding a workgroup comprised of executives from Asia and
Australia.
In addition to this ongoing research, we are also conducting
a global survey on the maturity of companies along all these
dimensions. The survey results will give HR leaders the ability
to benchmark their organizations against many of these
practices.
Finally, let me invite you to join the Josh Bersin Academy, the
world’s home for HR. There, you can learn more about the Big
Reset work, interact with more than 12,000 of your peers, and
find timely resources and cohort-based learning programs,
such as the Remote Work Bootcamp and the Resilience
Workshop. And later this year, we will be introducing the
Global Capability Assessment, which will give you the
opportunity to benchmark your personal capabilities, along
with those of your team.
I want to personally thank everyone who has participated in
the Big Reset Initiative over the last several months. If you
would like to join the ongoing research program, please email
[email protected] . We look forward to hearing
from you.
T H E B I G R E S E T P L A Y B O O K : W H A T ’ S W O R K I N G N O W2 3
The Back to Work Playbook
Employee Experience Revisited
Forced to Transform
Inside Marriott's Crisis Messaging
Dissecting Basecamp's Covid-19 Communications
Business's Big Reset
Layoffs Are Bad for You
Creating Psychological Safety Remotely
What We're Getting Right—and Wrong
What's Your Performance Management
Philosophy Right Now?
Managing Performance During Times of Crisis
The Remote Work Playbook
What Should HR Focus on in Times of Uncertainty?
Airbnb Announces Layoffs With Grace
Balancing Benefits
Post-Covid Performance Management
Covid-19 Teaches Us a Lot about Leadership
The Remote Work Playbook
Dissecting Basecamp's Covid-19 Communications
Asynchronous—Not Out of Sync
Remote Coaching and Feedback
15 Tips for Productive Conference Calls
Remote Tips: Team Playlists
The Distraction Problem
Remote Tips: Lunch and Learn
A Crash Course in Remote Working
Navigating Remote Communication
Organizing for Uncertainty
How to Run the Internet from Your Living Room
The Three Phases of Response to Covid 19
Parent Hacks: Bingo Boards
Parent Hacks: Masterclasses
Related Resources in the Josh Bersin Academy
T H E B I G R E S E T P L A Y B O O K : W H A T ’ S W O R K I N G N O W2 4
About Josh Bersin
Josh Bersin is an internationally recognized analyst, educator, and thought leader focusing on the global talent market and the challenges impacting business workforces around the world. He studies the world of work, HR and leadership practices, and the broad talent technology market.
He founded Bersin & Associates in 2001 to provide research and advisory services focused on corporate learning. Over the next ten years, he expanded the company’s coverage to encompass HR, talent management, talent acquisition, and leadership. He sold the company to Deloitte in 2012, when it became known as Bersin™ by Deloitte. Bersin left Deloitte in June 2018.
In 2019, Bersin founded the Josh Bersin Academy, the world's first global development academy for HR and talent professionals and a transformation agent for HR organizations. The Academy offers content-rich online programs, a carefully curated library of tools and resources, and a global community that helps HR and talent professionals stay current on the trends and practices needed to drive organizational success in the modern world of work.
Bersin is frequently featured in talent and business publications such as Forbes, Harvard Business Review, HR Executive, FastCompany, The Wall Street Journal, and CLO Magazine. He is a regular keynote speaker at industry events around the world and a popular blogger with more than 800,000 followers on LinkedIn.
His education includes a BS in engineering from Cornell University, an MS in engineering from Stanford University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
About Mark Spratt
Mark Spratt, vice president of client success, leads the Josh Bersin Academy’s Big Reset initiative, created to help HR leaders address the unprecedented challenges of the coronavirus pandemic. He brings 20 years of management consulting experience to his client. In senior advisory roles at Deloitte and PwC, he worked with clients on a variety of engagements ranging from preparing workforces for the future to enterprise HR transformations to integrated learning and talent solutions.
Mark has dual master degrees in public administration and social research from the University of Southern California; he also served as an adjunct lecturer for three years at USC.
T H E B I G R E S E T P L A Y B O O K : W H A T ’ S W O R K I N G N O W2 5
Brian Larson
Brian holds a B.A. in international relations
and a B.A. in business administration from
Boston University. He is currently pursuing
a masters degree in international business
at Tuft University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy
and is a cross-registrant at Harvard Business School. Before
enrolling in graduate school, Brian worked in business
development roles at HubSpot and Pegasystems.
Anne Stevens
Anne has worked for nearly a decade in
roles supporting global workforce mobility.
She holds an M.A. in migration studies
from the University of Kent and currently
sits on the steering committee of the Forum for Expatriate
Management. She recently took a cross-functional assignment
in procurement at Mondelez International where she bridges
cost-saving opportunities and human capital strategy. She
is now completing her M.B.A. at Northwestern University’s
Kellogg School of Management.
Contributors
Nuno Gonçalves
Nuno is a senior HR leader who is at the forefront of envisioning and driving HR-related business
transformations. His most recent executive role was chief learning officer and head of talent acquisition
and development for UCB, the global biopharmaceutical company. In addition to being a senior
faculty member of the Josh Bersin Academy, Nuno is also a member of the board of advisors for Edge
Investments and provides strategic HR guidance to startups in the company’s portfolio and advises on
potential HR technology investments.
Nazneen Razi
President and Principal, NRHR Talent Consulting
Nazneen specializes in HR and talent strategies to drive business improvement. She has 25 years of
experience in working with leading HR organizations. Prior to her current role at NRHR, she was senior
vice president and chief human resources officer for Health Care Service Corporation and executive
vice president and chief global human resources officer for JLL.
Pete Sackleh
Workforce Optimization Advisor, SolutionSpark
Pete led the strategic, experiential and physical development and operations of two world-class
corporate universities - Deloitte’s $300m investment in Deloitte University in Westlake, Texas and
KPMG’s $450m investment in the KPMG Lakehouse in Lake Nona, Florida. He now leads SolutionSpark
LLC, a workforce optimization consulting firm, which applies Pete’s expertise in areas such as innovative
talent experience models, employee engagement, investment and retention.
Nancy Vitale
Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Partners for Wellbeing
Nancy Vitale was most recently the chief human resources officer for Genentech where she was
responsible for leading the team that was dedicated to creating a great place for the organization’s
14,000 employees to do their best work. Upon leaving Genentech, she co-founded Partners for
Wellbeing, an advisory and consulting firm dedicated to helping organizations create better places to
work. Nancy also currently serves as a board member for the Make-A-Wish America Foundation.
