We’ve all heard and read the word ‘unprecedented’ being used to describe the last eighteen months and the pandemic has certainly changed the lives of an awful lot of people. Despite that, many are now willing and able to look to the future and that positivity really shone through in our recent forums about the changing nature of the workplace.
Sullivan Brown Resourcing Partners’ online events were chaired and attended by HR professionals keen to share and learn from their experiences. Increased understanding of equality, diversity and inclusion among colleagues was something everyone was keen to push forward:
“We’ve been doing a lot of re-induction work with the team. We’re focused on equality, diversion and inclusion… and have done a lot of sessions around policy… but for me it’s how we bring that to life?”
“We’ve set up our first [staff network] based on gender diversity. My fear was that it would turn into a talking shop and nothing would be achieved. We’ve split it into four key objectives initially – one of those is to do with female PPE – the trousers don’t fit the female body. We’re getting down to basics.”
“Our BAME [colleagues were] very, very clear that they didn’t see themselves in anything we put out. It’s a simple thing to fix.”
“We’re putting a female on every interview panel now. It’s too early to say if it’s having an impact but… we want more females on the workforce.”
“There’s still a little bit of stigma [around whether people can be part of that staff network group] if they don’t ‘fall into’ that category. We’re saying come and talk to us – be inquisitive.”
Most had surveyed their staff at least once since March 2020 – the data gathered has been seen as a real bonus, replacing information that was out-of-date. But the pandemic has, of course, raised some questions which cannot yet be answered:
“We’ve got [a handful] of cases of long Covid… The symptoms can be minor or really wide-ranging, so we’re trying to be pro-active, get managers to understand it better, help people who’ve got it and make adjustments to keep them in work wherever possible… I think it’s going to be classed as a disability.”
“I think maybe there’s a level of scepticism about it… ‘Is it really that bad?’ I don’t know if that’s impacting the managers’ conversations so we’re trying to support them more than we would with the standard long-term case.”
“We’ve got one case and have moved from treating it as Covid-related absence to long-term sickness absence. The advice from GPs and Occupational Health is ‘we don’t really know – it’s too early to say.’ We’re just trying to give the colleague support but recognise that the advice is on the fence.”
A big thank you to all of you who shared your challenges and successes so openly and thanks again to our hosts (Alix Bolton from Northumbrian Water, Leanne Furnell at Northumberland County Council and Andy Preacher from Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance Europe). We think it’s been a hugely worthwhile exercise and it’s certainly one that Sullivan Brown Resourcing Partners is keen to repeat.