With 2020 came the “new way of working”, and it completely transformed the role of People Ops. With more distributed workforces, “employee satisfaction” is greater than ever—and it’s now up to these unsung heroes to create an experience that’ll attract and retain the best talent.
But of course, this is so much easier said than done. That’s why we teamed up with Personio to host: “The Changing Role of People Ops”—a webinar discussion that tackled the topic head-on.
On Wednesday 1st December, we were joined by three fantastic speakers: Sam Richards, Country Manager UK & I at Personio; Marie Krebs, People Partner at Learnerbly and Linda Leonard, Director of Learning & Development at Globalization Partners.
They each told a unique story of how they’ve adjusted to new responsibilities in their role, as well as expert advice on how you can embrace these changes to your and your teams’ advantage. The panel gave fascinating insights into:
- The shift from “business-led” to “employee-led” workplaces, and whether this will remain for the long term,
- How to support the learning and development of your people when they’re all distributed,
- How ops managers can adapt to the complexities of remote onboarding,
and much, much more.
Didn’t catch the webinar live? Don’t worry. The whole discussion is available on-demand, so you can watch at your leisure. All you need to do is click the link below and register—and our expert panel will be ready for you.
As always, there was a Q&A session at the end of the webinar. However, the discussion was so in-depth that we ran out of time to answer all of them. But fear not, our amazing speakers have answered your most pressing questions below. So, without further ado, let’s jump into it.
What are the main elements to consider when measuring employee engagement?
Marie: Start with being clear on why you’re trying to measure employee engagement—what are you trying to achieve? It’s always worth ensuring your people know that too; that’ll drive engagement on engagement surveys themselves (how meta!).
Then, end by sharing with your people what you did and what they said—like in a ‘you said > we listened > we do’ format. You can then follow up by providing access to data insights and analytics (we use Notion for this and Leapsome for surveys) to build trust and make people feel like their voices are heard and valued.
At Learnerbly, we started with a longer baseline survey to build a holistic understanding. And then based on the answers, we’ve decided to follow up with lighter pulse surveys—as mentioned by Sam in the webinar discussion.
What happens if you’re giving ‘WFH’ budgets to remote workers—but not to office employees?
Are you at risk of subsidising remote employees compensation packages at the expense of office workers?
Sam: Good question. From the People leaders I’ve spoken to, organisations are approaching this differently depending on their set-up. For example, one organisation I know has offered 3 different packages to their workforce—once they decided to make remote working option for everyone.
Employees had the freedom to choose which working style they would prefer—fully office-based, hybrid or fully remote. With each of those packages, they tailored the benefits to ensure that the team was appropriately set up for success.
Not only did this give employees the freedom to choose how they work best, but it also gave the Ops team the foundations to consider how to approach the workplace setup. For example, it raised questions on whether they’d need a smaller HQ or whether access to local coworking spaces would be better.
At Personio, we introduced Personio Flex earlier this year, which is an office led but remote-friendly policy. The foundation of this program is ‘flexibility’, and we will continue to be flexible as new situations arise. As of right now, remote employees have the same benefits as office-based Personio—and additionally, they get a home office set-up allowance.
This is complemented by a programme called Personio Empower. This is where we put trust in our team and empower them to utilise a budget to make choices that ensure whether they are remote, hybrid or office-based, the team can be successful in their work and drive business impact.
What are the main changes you’ve introduced in your remote workplace policy?
Linda: Before the pandemic, Globalization Partners’ employees worked from the office—our company headquarters are located in Boston, MA. We also have smaller offices and hubs throughout countries like Mexico, Ireland, Singapore and many more.
However, following the Covid-19 pandemic, we quickly had to adapt to the new way of working and shift to a fully global remote workforce. Like most companies, we did this overnight. Since the pandemic, we have worked fully remote—we introduced an official remote work policy earlier this year, which allows our employees to work from home indefinitely.
At the beginning of 2021, we started with around 250 employees; since then, Globalization Partners has been experiencing hyper-growth—and we are now at 900 employees and counting (we will be at over 1000 employees in 2022). With such a diverse global remote workforce, an official remote working policy is critical for the success of our teams.
One of the key updates to our remote work policy is the definition of “working-from-anywhere” versus “working-from-home”. For example, our employees can choose to work from anywhere in the world for up to 1 month out of the year. The remaining 11 months employees must work within their registered address—this is due to tax, in-country insurance laws and regulations, as well as the safety and well-being of our employees.
Unleash your employees’ ability to work from anywhere, anytime
As discussed in the webinar, distributed workforces are here to stay. “Employee satisfaction” is greater than ever—and as we move into 2022, employees will not only be seeking but expecting more flexibility over how and where they work.
2020’s “new way of working” has given us a taste of freedom that’s hard to wash down—and the Hubble Pass is a great way to continue offering this to current and prospective talent.
The Hubble Pass is a flexible membership that allows you and your team to access a global network of on-demand workspace across 600+ locations—no strings attached.
