Canadian HR Reporter

28 www.hrreporter.com F E A T U R E S sometimes, what is right for one person isn't right for another, says Gobrin. By not trying to have one overarching goal that will please everyone and instead doing smaller, focused things that helped individuals as opposed to groups, Wave learned a lot, she says. "Sometimes, you have to have a very narrow focus in order to give people what they actually need... Parents need something very different than people who live completely alone and are totally isolated; introverts need something very different than extroverts." Another big shift was to protect the health and safety of people who weren't really considered at risk before, says Evans. While that might be a priority if you're running a manufacturing company or a hazardous materials company, worrying about people's phys- ical and mental health in other sectors came to the forefront in the pandemic. "[It raises the question] 'Has the insti- tution really done enough to protect the mental health of people that work for them and what does that even mean?' That's a whole world that we need to explore, a whole different level of transparency in our culture and in our companies," she says. "So, I think that this idea of building resilience and well-being is so foun- dational to organizations being able to survive when they've seen how important institutional knowledge is to their ability to survive a crisis." New ways to work in 'new normal' Another big lesson for BMO? Experimenting in the moment and learning as they go, despite being in the risk management business, says Evans. "[That] was a really big part of how we tackled this and one of the things that we saw really swing around on is to what extent are we going to centrally make decisions, try and communicate like crazy about what we just decided, and how are we going to trust people at the moment to really make the right call? And I think that has created a different context for talent and institu- tional knowledge," she says. "You are forced to be more agile with different corporate functions and, hopefully, that's a good thing because you've got to figure out [how to] empower mid-managers to actually speak and make decisions and don't freak out if they don't say exactly what the CEO would have said because they have their space, too." One big change amid the pandemic has been around the ability to make decisions using data, says Gobrin. "We have to align now much more with intuition, which is a much more emotional expense of what we think is going to happen, how we think people are going to respond… both at a customer level and at an employee level." There are behaviours now that are hard to understand, where patterns are different and data doesn't align, she says. "We see people leaving jobs just on a whim and just deciding, 'The world is so up and down. The reality has shown me I don't want to do this for the rest of my life. Now is my chance to take a rest.' And you think, 'What? Now, in a global pandemic, you're quitting a good job?' And [then there are] other people who are holding on for their life to the things that they know and are familiar. You don't know which one anyone's going to choose." The priorities for people are totally different. For some, it's about secu- rity; for others, it's about rising up and "What was and remains tough is the amount of mental weight and emotional things that people are experiencing and how much that's actually changed and influenced the way that we work, communicate, think." Ashira Gobrin, Wave HQ S P E C I A L F E A T U R E 77% 73% 69% 68% • 77% Percentage of CEOs who will build on their use of digital collaboration and communication tools • 73% Percentage of CEOs who say remote work has widened their potential talent pool • 69% Percentage of CEOs who say they will be downsizing their office space • 68% Percentage of CEOs who say employee communications have improved during the crisis CEOs RETHINKING WORK AND COMMUNICATIONS 79% Percentage of CEOs who feel a stronger emotional connection to their purpose since the crisis began 79% Percentage of CEOs who have had to re-evaluate their purpose as a result of COVID-19 to better address the needs of stakeholders 77% Percentage of CEOs whose pur- pose has helped them understand what they need to do to meet the needs of stake- holders: employ- ees, communities, customers, part- ners and investors 77% Percentage of CEOs whose purpose provides a clear framework for making quick and effective COVID-19-related decisions Source: KPMG 2020 CEO Outlook: COVID-19 Special Edition Source: KPMG 2020 CEO Outlook: COVID-19 Special Edition CEOs RE-EVALUATE PURPOSE THROUGH PANDEMIC

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