HR Leaders

Monthly
August 2021

In This Issue
The Critical Role of Workforce
Health in Resilience
Page 4

Build Workforce Resilience

by Looking Beyond Averages
Page 10

3 Ways Managers Can Build

Resilient Teams
Page 15

3 Techniques to Improve Self-

Service for Employee Support
Page 21

4 Ways HR Analytics Can

Look Beyond the Averages
Page 28

Building a Change-Ready
Culture: An Interview With
dentsu international’s
Caroline Vanovermeire
Page 32

Quant Corner: Adding

Autonomy In Crisis Doesn’t
Help, It Hurts
Page 36
HR Leaders
Monthly
Contents Authors
Piers Hudson Jonah Shepp
The Critical Role of Workforce Brian Kropp Molly Tipps
Health in Resilience 4 Cian O’Morain Morten Wendelbo
Eser Rizaoglu Kaliko Zabala-Moore
Build Workforce Resilience
Lauren Romansky
by Looking Beyond Averages 10
Creative
3 Ways Managers Can Build
Shivani Bhola
Resilient Teams 15
Tal Yaari
3 Techniques to Improve Self-
Editor
Service for Employee Support 21
Caroline Baker
4 Ways HR Analytics Can Look
Beyond the Averages 28

Building a Change-Ready
Culture: An Interview With
dentsu international’s Caroline
Vanovermeire 32

Quant Corner: Adding Autonomy

In Crisis Doesn’t Help, It Hurts 36

Legal Caveat

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered
trademark of Gartner, Inc. and its affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced
or distributed in any form without Gartner’s prior written permission. It consists of
the opinions of Gartner’s research organization, which should not be construed as
statements of fact. While the information contained in this publication has been
obtained from sources believed to be reliable, Gartner disclaims all warranties
as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information. Although
Gartner research may address legal and financial issues, Gartner does not provide
legal or investment advice and its research should not be construed or used as
such. Your access and use of this publication are governed by Gartner’s Usage
Policy. Gartner prides itself on its reputation for independence and objectivity. Its
research is produced independently by its research organization without input or
influence from any third party. For further information, see “Guiding Principles on
Independence and Objectivity.”

Any third-party link herein is provided for your convenience and is not an
endorsement by Gartner. We have no control over third-party content and are not
responsible for these websites, their content or their availablility. By clicking on any
third -party link herein, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this
disclaimer.

754022
 Editor’s Note
by Brian Kropp and Lauren Romansky

In 2020, HR leaders were surprised by the In this journal, you will learn how we combined
resilience the workforce demonstrated in a multitude of indicators to capture a more
the face of the COVID-19 pandemic and its complete picture of workforce health, revealing
disruptive effect on the work environment. insights that traditional measurements might
The sudden shift to remote work did not hurt miss. We examine why it is important to look
performance as much as many leaders had beyond the average employee and address the
feared, and many employees actually excelled variety of ways employees experience disruption,
in the remote setting. But as the year wore on, as well as highlight the roles of managers and
we began hearing more and more concerns talent analytics in measuring and developing
about employee burnout and new struggles with resilience. We also look at some of the innovative
mental health and work-life balance. We began to new approaches organizations are taking to
suspect that this sustained performance through these challenges.
the disruption was coming at the cost of damage Resilience is becoming a more critical
to employees’ well-being. component of HR’s strategic role as
In one of our signature studies this year, we organizations navigate the postpandemic
investigated these hidden costs and drew recovery and look ahead to the future of work.
lessons from the pandemic to guide HR With a broader understanding of workforce
leaders in repairing the damage and building health and a willingness to look beyond the
workforce resilience for an increasingly averages, HR leaders can design resilience
hybrid world of work. This issue of HR Leaders strategies that strengthen the organization and
Monthly showcases several of our key findings have a lasting, positive impact on employees’
from that study. well-being.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  3

 The Critical Role of
Workforce Health
in Resilience
by Piers Hudson

HR leaders seeking to improve their position coming out

of the pandemic, rather than just recovering back to their
starting point, need to elevate their view of resilience from
just individual well-being to a broader sense of their
workforce’s health.

The Productivity- organizations overall; for example, the resilience

of supply chains or product portfolios.
Resilience Paradox
Eighteen months after the initial impacts of the
“Resilience” became one of the bywords for pandemic, what have HR leaders learned about
2020 and 2021 as organizations sought to help their workforces’ resilience? The first surprising
their employees get through the challenges finding in our research was just how sustained
of the COVID-19 pandemic by bolstering their employees’ productivity has been. In early
individual resilience. Moreover, senior leadership 2021, our survey found that upward of 86% of
teams began to consider the resilience of their respondents believed their workforce’s or team’s

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  4

productivity had either sustained or increased their corporate culture was being undermined by
during the pandemic.1 This was further confirmed remote working; others, that company decisions
in research interviews. had eroded employees’ trust in their managers
and leaders.
Again and again, we heard the shift to remote or
other new ways of working had been “incredibly Despite these worries, few HR leaders could
smooth.” Employees, faced with unprecedented yet prove whether they actually had resilience
change in their work and home lives, had largely problems in their organizations. While 51% of
found a way to pull through. Some organizations HR leaders said they could tell which parts of
even said the pandemic provided additional their workforce were resilient, only 14% said they
urgency or helped break down organizational had a method to measure resilience across the
silos, leading to improved results. organization.2
We briefly questioned whether there was actually We found that HR leaders’ concerns grouped into
a resilience challenge to address. Despite the three categories:
pride in how adaptable and engaged employees • Healthy employees — The state of employees’
had been, HR leaders were concerned whether physical, financial and mental well-being
the sustained performance was coming at some
• Healthy relationships — The quality of
hidden cost that would be felt later. Furthermore,
employees’ relationships with their colleagues,
with limited sense of this potential cost, HR
managers and teams
leaders were unsure whether their current efforts
to support employees were working. • Healthy work environment — Whether the
work culture and climate support resilience;
Workforce Health: The Key for example, whether innovation, development
and inclusion are valued
Component of Resilience
We used this insight to develop a rounded
These findings led us to delve deeper into measure of “workforce health” (see Figure
what our clients meant when they spoke of 1). This contains 16 individual variables, split
resilience. This revealed a myriad of concerns, among these three categories, allowing a better
from employee burnout to employee fatigue understanding of the true cost of sustained
with leadership communications. Some worried workforce performance through the pandemic.

Figure 1. Components of Gartner’s Measure of Workforce Health

+ +
Healthy Healthy Healthy Work
Employees Relationships Environment

• Physical Well-Being • Trust in Teams • Innovation

• Financial Well-Being • Employee-Manager • Responsiveness
• Work-Life Balance Relationship Quality • Development
• Stress Level • Trust in Leadership Opportunity

• Burnout Level • Psychological Safety • Change Receptivity

• Exertion Level • Collaboration • Inclusion

Source: Gartner

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  5

Significant Scale of Damage Figure 2. Damage to Employee Health
Percentage of Respondents
to Workforce Health
As it turns out, HR leaders were right to worry
about these different aspects of workforce
health. Based on this measure, 55% of employees
have experienced damage to workforce health 45% 55%
during the pandemic (see Figure 2). Importantly, Has Not Has
this damage occurred across a range of variables Experienced Experienced
— to not just their work-life balance or financial Significantly Significantly
well-being but also their relationships and work Damaged Damaged
environment. Taking data from before and during Healtha Health
the pandemic, we measured “damage” as an
employee experiencing an acute drop in at least
three of the variables.
Furthermore, this level of damage was not limited
to particular types of employees or particular
industries. When we split the damage figure
by job level, we found at least 50% of workers
at the executive level, midlevel management
and frontline level had experienced damage.
Across all our industry categories, at least 85% experienced higher burnout
35% of employees in every industry had
41% have lower trust in their teams
experienced damage.1
31% experienced a lower level of inclusion

Many leaders outside of HR are n = 3,690

concerned about employees’ Source: 2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Employee Survey
individual health but believe that a
 ignificant damage is defined as experiencing an acute decline in at least three
S
recent high productivity suggests the elements or a moderate decline in at least nine elements of workforce health.

impacts can be easily reversed with

added time off or greater stability.

The extent of the damage certainly surprised

us, but where the damage has occured is
also of concern. Many leaders outside of HR
are concerned about employees’ individual
health but believe that recent high productivity
suggests the impacts can be easily reversed with
added time off or greater stability. Not only is this
unlikely in many of the employee health variables
but also the damage done to relationships and
the work environment will be harder to reverse.
Qualities such as trust, feelings of inclusion
and psychological safety are built up over time
and will take time to repair. These elements
will hold back organization-level performance
even when individuals have recovered their own
personal health.

6
Figure 3. Gartner Model of Workforce Resilience

Higher
Workforce resilience:
Sustaining or growing
Workforce performance through
Resilience disruption without damaging
the health of the workforce

Workforce
Performance

Lower

Worse Better
Workforce Health

Healthy + Healthy + Healthy Work

Employees Relationships Environment

Source: Gartner

These findings lead us to our definition of

workforce resilience: sustaining or growing
Two Immediate Implications
performance through disruption without for HR Leaders
damaging the health of the workforce. By
including this balance of productivity and Two themes stand out in this research that point
workforce health as well as all the aspects of to what HR leaders need to do next. First, they
workforce health, this definition highlights need to consider how they measure workforce
where damage exists and its implications for health, not just individual well-being. HR leaders
an organization (see Figure 3). It also provides have, for the most part, focused during the
a new way to see which resilience-building pandemic on measuring employees’ individual
measures are effective. Hence, we have used health. This hides the myriad ways that disruption
our measure of workforce health to test a can impact the organization’s current and future
range of hypotheses from our clients, and the performance through damaged relationships and
conventional wisdom, about who the pandemic work environments.
impacted and whether initiatives to protect Furthermore, HR leaders need to see how
resilience have worked. workforce health changes for different

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  7

employees at different times to track this before or how return-to-the-workplace policies could
and after a disruption. The good news is that damage workforce health if they reverse some of
many organizations are already tracking many the conditions that have benefited certain groups
of the items in our workforce health measure, or of employees.
similar metrics. These need to be combined to While the level of damage from the pandemic
get a rounded view of how different individuals has been severe, HR leaders have more tools
have experienced different types of damage, for addressing this damage than they may
over time, to understand where this damage realize. A broader concept of resilience may
impacts workforce resilience. seem intimidating at first, but it also provides
Secondly, HR leaders can use this broader view a new platform for HR to drive organizational
of workforce health to look for opportunities performance for the long term. of employees.
to bolster this in a much wider way than just 1
 021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Employee Survey,
2
individual well-being support. Our findings show n = 3,690 employees
that aspects such as an individual’s personal 2
 021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Member Survey,
2
connection to their work and colleagues, or how n = 70 HR leaders

work processes make it easy for them to get

their work done, all have a significant impact
on workforce health. HR leaders should also
integrate resilience considerations into the
design of any new HR or talent processes, or use
our findings to see which existing HR and talent
processes can be better leveraged to support
workforce health. Consider, for example, how
performance management can help deprioritize
low-value work to protect workforce health,

Virtual Events

Gartner regularly hosts The 4-Step Approach to Implement an Agile Talent

Management Strategy
virtual events across a
variety of Human Resources Use Data-Driven Skills Insights to Drive Digital
Talent Strategies
topics. These webinars
present an opportunity for 3 Hybrid Work Challenges Driving Employee Fatigue
you to gain insights from our
The Future of Work: Hiring for a Hybrid Workplace
research experts on making
better decisions for your Shape Your Future Workforce With Skills-Based
Talent Acquisition
function and organization.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  8

Gartner TalentNeuron™

Location Strategy for

a Hybrid Workforce
Design a talent-first location strategy
that drives long-term business resilience
and competitive advantage.

Five Mandates for HR Leaders to Influence

Location Strategy:

Integrate location strategy into

workforce strategy from the outset

Champion the value of talent

data in location decisions

Evaluate talent accessibility

not just availability

Plan for the skills of the future

Assess DEI risks and opportunities

Learn
Learn More
More

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1206311
 Build Workforce
Resilience by
Looking Beyond
Averages
by Jonah Shepp

To build resilience, HR leaders should look beyond the averages

in their employee engagement and well-being data to identify
which employees are struggling through disruption and which
are thriving. A closer look can reveal hidden problems as well
as scalable solutions at the team level.

The disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic did going forward, HR leaders will benefit from
not affect the entire workforce equally, and understanding who struggled during this
some organizations, teams and individuals disruption, who flourished and why.
weathered it more successfully than others. HR To take advantage of this insight, HR leaders
leaders had anticipated a universally negative must not fall into the trap of focusing on the
impact, but they did not predict that some average of all their measures of employee
employees’ performance and well-being would experience, which may not capture any
actually improve during the disruption. As they individual employee’s actual experience.
work to build resilience in their organizations Disruption can have widely disparate impacts

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  10

 on various segments of the workforce; you same. If their teacher looked only at the
can’t simply address employee well-being and average difference in student performance
resilience with a one-size-fits-all approach. A during the pandemic, they would see no
strategy designed for the average employee is change at all, but they would know from
unlikely to succeed, because with such a wide experience that the impact on individual
variety of individual experiences, few employees students was enormous.
are actually “average.” Something similar happened in the workforce
over the past year in terms of the employee
While Some Employees experience. In our recent research, we built a
Thrive, Others Dive model of workforce health that considers 16
attributes of employees’ individual well-being,
Consider a high school class that shifted to work relationships and work environment.
remote learning during the pandemic. About a For many of these attributes, we found a wide
third of the students struggled to focus in virtual distribution of how employees’ experiences
lessons, and their grade point averages declined had changed in the past year. For example,
by about 10 points. Another third found remote the “average employee” experienced little
learning easier or had more supportive home to no change in their sense of psychological
environments, and their averages increased by safety at work during the pandemic. However,
the same amount. The final third of the class did these average employees in the middle of the
about as well in the remote environment as they distribution only represent about 30% of the
had in person, and their grades were about the workforce (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Feelings of Psychological Safety

34% of people experienced a 30% saw limited 36% actually saw

drop in psychological safety. or no change. significant improvements.

160
Count

80

0
-4.0 -2.0 0.0 2.0 4.0
Score Change
n = 3,690
Source: 2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  11

Figure 2. Chance of Thriving or Diving During Disruption by Prepandemic Health Level
Percentage of Chance

Highest Health
Significantly
Improveda

High Health

Limited or
No Change

Average Health

Low Health
Significantly
Damaged

Lowest Health

n = 3,690
Source: 2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Survey
a
Employees in the top 15% of improvement in workforce health

Meanwhile, 34% of employees experienced work would create a worse experience for many
a decline in psychological safety, while 36% employees, but abandoning in-person work
experienced a significant increase. If HR leaders entirely would harm those who have struggled in
designed psychological well-being strategies a remote environment.
based on the average employee’s experience of
To design an approach that supports the whole
the pandemic, they could effectively be ignoring
workforce, HR leaders must take into account
70% of employees.
the fact that employee experiences vary. To
For many employees (a plurality in this survey), do so, they must dig beneath the average to
the disruption had a positive impact on their see which parts of the workforce have been
psychological safety. Perhaps a shift to full-time affected and how.
remote work improved their work-life balance, or
the reliance on virtual communication improved
their sense of inclusion or ability to form
Disruption Shuffles the Deck
social bonds with their colleagues. HR leaders’ It is difficult to predict how various employees
resilience plans need to account for those who will be affected by a disruption. Going into
have “thrived” as well as those whose well-being the pandemic, many HR leaders assumed the
“dived.” The steps an organization takes to limit employees most at risk would be those who were
the impact of disruption on the latter may be already struggling. However, employees’ overall
unnecessary or even detrimental to the former. level of workforce health (a measure of individual
This distinction should factor into HR leaders’ well-being, healthy relationships and the work
plans for the postpandemic work environment. environment) prior to the pandemic did not
Fifty-two percent of employees who shifted predict whether that level improved, deteriorated
to fully remote work during the pandemic say or stayed the same during the pandemic. Every
their day-to-day experience has gotten better quintile of workforce health contained some
over the past year, while 12% say it has gotten who thrived, some who dived and some who
worse.1 Forcing all employees back to on-site experienced little change (see Figure 2).

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  12

In other words, disruption “shuffles the deck”
when it comes to workforce health. The
employees who have been thriving during and
The employees who have been
after the COVID-19 disruption are not the same thriving during and after the
ones who were thriving in the prepandemic COVID-19 disruption are not the
environment. Historical well-being data is not same ones who were thriving in
predictive of how well employees weather the prepandemic environment.
a disruption.
This makes it even more challenging for HR
leaders to identify pockets of resilience and
vulnerability within their workforce. You can’t rely
on averages, and you can’t predict outcomes
from historical data. To learn from this disruption
and build your workforce’s resilience for the
future, you need to take a more granular look
at the impact on employees, especially on
the team level.

National Bank of Canada’s

Resilience-Diagnosis Support
During the pandemic, National Bank of Canada’s
(NBC’s) employee engagement survey found
high levels of engagement, low levels of stress
and high morale. These findings were somewhat
surprising, as they conflicted with anecdotal
evidence that some employees were really
struggling. This is a common story at many
organizations: Survey data tells a positive or
neutral story about employee engagement and alone were reporting the lowest morale in the
well-being that conflicts with what HR leaders organization. Employees with children appeared
and managers are seeing on the ground. resilient overall, but parents of preschoolers were
The bank’s talent analytics team suspected the experiencing high stress. Had NBC only looked
topline data might mask a more complicated at the first cut of the data, these employees’
reality, so it dug deeper. Building on the challenges would have remained invisible to HR.
questions in the engagement survey, NBC The next step was to find solutions to help the
deployed context-specific pulse surveys to ask employees who were struggling. NBC chose not
more specific questions and track employees’ to focus on individual resilience, which is often
responses over time. By observing where determined by factors the organization (and
engagement and morale were increasing sometimes even the employee) can’t control.
or decreasing, NBC identified pockets of For example, there is no way to change the fact
thriving and diving within the organization. It that some employees have preschool-aged
then developed hypotheses about why some children, and expecting these employees to
employees were challenged and others were change their individual behavior to become more
more resilient. resilient is neither scalable nor particularly fair.
In testing those hypotheses, the talent analytics Instead, NBC considered resilience on the
team at NBC found that within groups that team level. Instead of asking, “What are the
seemed to be doing well overall, more specific characteristics of a resilient employee?” the
subgroups were struggling. For example, young analytics team asked, “What differentiates
people on average seemed to enjoy working our resilient teams from those that are
remotely, but employees under 35 who live taking damage?”

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  13

Figure 3. National Bank of Canada’s Team-Level Solutions Identification

CEO

Bank Region 3 Bank Region 3 Bank Region 3

Compare teams with high versus Focus groups create scalable solutions
low morale to identify differentiators. to support identified differentiators.

Source: Adapted From National Bank of Canada

NBC started by comparing teams with high and

low levels of morale to identify differentiators
From Individuals to Teams
common to highly resilient teams. These One reason why NBC’s initiative is so
differentiators were fairly standard measures compelling is because it challenges the
of good management, such as open and conventional wisdom about how to measure
transparent communication or empowerment and promote resilience in an organization.
to make decisions, but identifying them allowed In a traditional approach, measurements are
NBC to focus on specific practices that had the often too broad and solutions too narrow. If
greatest impact on resilience at the organization. you look only at topline averages, you lose
Once NBC identified these differentiators, it important nuances in the data at the team and
gathered focus groups of employees from business unit level. If you focus interventions
across the organization to work out steps only on individual employees, you end up
the organization could take to make these chasing outcomes you can’t control and
differentiators a reality in context (see Figure 3). missing out on more viable solutions. A
This way, NBC took advantage of what was better approach to resilience looks past the
already working in the organization and averages to identify pockets of resilience and
involved employees directly in duplicating vulnerability within the workforce and what
and scaling these solutions. The results so characteristics are associated with resilience at
far are encouraging, as most employees the team level, where interventions can often
said the resilience-diagnosis support have the greatest impact.
initiative improved agility, productivity and
empowerment at the bank. 1
2021 Gartner Hybrid Work Employee Survey, n = 2,809 employees

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  14

3 Ways Managers
Can Build
Resilient Teams
by Cian O’Morain

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  15

Managers play a critical role in building and supporting resilient
teams through disruption. This article outlines three actions
the best managers take during disruption to build resilient
teams and showcases examples of how the best HR leaders are
supporting them to do so.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted the the work environment). And though performance
greatest overhaul of work practices in a has remained high, 55% of employees have
generation. HR leaders, tasked with supporting suffered significant damage to workforce health
their employees through this transition, have in that same time.1
realized the central role of workforce resilience in
navigating the disruption. They have celebrated
their workforces’ agility in maintaining strong
Connector Managers Play
performance: 86% of employees and 90% of HR a Critical Role in Protecting
leaders report that productivity has stayed the
same or increased since the onset of COVID-19.1,2
Workforce Health
However, they have also shared concerns that it Our research has identified four types of
may not be sustainable, and these concerns are managers, with one clear winner: Connector
well-founded. managers. They outperform Always On, Teacher
Our research defines workforce resilience as the and Cheerleader managers when it comes
ability to sustain or grow performance through to driving the key outcomes of employee
disruption without damaging workforce health performance management, skills preparedness,
(i.e., the health of individuals, relationships and inclusion and intent to stay (see Figure 1). Despite

Figure 1. Maximum Impact of Employee Outcomes for Manager Types

Positive Impact Negative Impact No Impact

Teacher Always On Cheerleader Connector

Employee
Performance ▼ ▲ ▲
Skills
Preparedness ▼ ▲ ▲
Inclusion ▲ ▲ ▲
Intent to Stay ▲ ▲
n = 4,787 employees
Source: 2020 Gartner Manager of the Future Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  16

this clear advantage, they make up only 26%
of all managers.3 Connector managers elevate
Help Team Members Realign
their teams’ performance and motivation by Their Personal Purpose
focusing on three key connections: the employee
connection, the team connection and the Over the past year, many HR leaders have
organization connection. told us about the importance of keeping their
employees inspired and invested heavily
Our new research on workforce resilience
in clearly communicating an overarching
reveals that local employee and team
organizational purpose. Inspiration is critical to
connections are critically important during
sustaining workforce health. However, during
disruption, highlighting the need for Connector
disruption, the ingredients that feed that purpose
managers to focus on facilitating these two
are personal. In the past year, efforts to show
connections. Resilience becomes a team sport
that the organization shares a passion for causes
during disruption: Collaborative relationships
employees care about have fallen flat (with no
within direct teams increase the likelihood of
significant impact on workforce health). By
sustaining workforce health by up to 10%, while
contrast, employees who report their work is
collaborative relationships with further-out
personally relevant to them were 26% more likely
networks have no significant impact.1
to sustain workforce health.1
The data highlights three imperatives for
When a disruption knocks an employee’s
managers to build resilience during disruption:
personal “why of work” out of joint — by
1. Help team members realign their changing what an employee is working on or
personal purpose. what work the organization says is now a priority
2. Make prioritizing the team’s work a — it is their managers who are best placed
top priority. to help them realign it. Connector managers
3. Make cohesion an ongoing team pursuit. feed the connection with their employees by

Case in Point:
Resource Composability
Leaders and HR within the IT function at The Co-operators, a Canadian financial services
firm, recognized the importance of continually aligning work with changing demands.
To ensure managers are well-equipped to realign their team’s goals and priorities along
with changing needs, the leadership team publishes a practicewide “backlog” of the
top priorities on a monthly basis. Clear prioritization criteria mean all managers (and
employees) have a clear view into practice- and function-level priorities, especially as
they change.
HR and leadership further enable their managers by tying these priorities to formal
performance management targets referred to as objectives and key results (OKRs).
Their team-first approach means managers and leaders are evaluated 50% on hitting
achievable targets for collective OKRs (i.e., shared by a full team or multiple teams) and
50% on individual contribution. These incentives encourage managers to foster greater
collaboration and take a team-first approach that fuels the team connection.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  17

overinvesting in getting to know them and Figure 2. Impact of Adapting Priorities
diagnosing potential misalignment. to New Circumstances
HR plays a key role in enabling managers to do Percentage Change in Likelihood of Sustaining
this effectively. For example, HR and leadership Workforce Health
at the software organization Salesforce have
long recognized the importance of helping their
employees connect their personal purpose
with changing business needs. Salesforce
uses its vision, values, methods, obstacles and
measures (V2MOM) tool, which gives employees
a framework to translate changing organizational Outcome
13%
goals into their own unique contexts. Visibility
Importantly, it guides employees on how and
when to update their V2MOMs (for example, as
they kick off new projects).
HR at Salesforce has also embedded the tool
into its performance management process so Alignment of
managers can regularly discuss purpose with Performance
employees and ensure continual realignment. Management 18%
Furthermore, HR supports managers in Goals With Actual
discussing V2MOMs at a team level to help turn Work Priorities
personal purpose into greater team cohesion.

Make Prioritizing the

Team’s Work a Top Priority Manager
Effectively
If there’s one thing the pandemic has Reprioritizes 27%
highlighted, it’s the importance of managing Resources and
with empathy. Eighty-nine percent of HR Goals
leaders say it is more important to lead with
empathy in a hybrid environment.4 But there is
more to managing with empathy than simply
acknowledging your team’s pain. And when 0% 15% 30%
it comes to supporting a team’s health and
resilience, the most actionable empathy is n = 3,690
work empathy. Source: 2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Survey

Managers best feed employee and team

connections by showing empathy to changing
circumstances. Ways of practicing work
empathy include making sure key outcomes
are visible (even if they’re changing), aligning
team members’ formal goals with actual work
priorities and continually prioritizing a team’s
resources toward updated needs. These three
actions combined can increase the likelihood
of sustaining workforce health by up to 58%
(see Figure 2).
 Case in Point:
Team Resilience Workshops
Hilti, a global manufacturing organization headquartered in Liechtenstein, has
developed ongoing team resilience workshops to help its teams realign and nurture
immediate working relationships on an ongoing basis. Teams come together in
dedicated workshops to collectively diagnose performance barriers at four levels: the
individual, the team, the organization and outside the organization. Focusing on what
teams have in their control, they commit to making changes at the team level (whether
those changes relate to personal or team-level challenges). By doing this activity as
a team, they can spot which barriers are shared across the team, which are personal
and which are outside their control. This makes it easier for them to develop team-level
solutions to the most important stressors.
Importantly, teams must then regularly meet to check in on progress. This ongoing
practice assumes new disruptions will arise, requiring new solutions. What’s more,
Hilti ensures each team, from the executive leadership to the shop floor, conducts the
exercise. This means each manager conducts the activity twice: once as a team member
and once as a manager of a team. This multilevel approach enables its managers to
learn as part of their own team so they can better lead the teams they’re managing.

Make Cohesion an Conclusion

Ongoing Team Pursuit Workforce resilience will be an enduring success
metric for HR as it navigates a future of inevitable
Resilience is a team sport. Highly cohesive teams ongoing disruption. Managers will be the vessel
are 37% more likely to sustain workforce health through which teams’ resilience can be nurtured
through disruption. The problem is that teams and sustained long term. HR leaders have a key
are not stable, especially during disruption. role to play in ensuring they hire, develop and
More than half (51%) of teams were significantly promote Connector managers, and in providing
disrupted (i.e., a change in team manager or them with the support they need to protect and
significant change to team composition) during foster employee and team connections through
the COVID-19 disruption.1 The best Connector disruption.
managers ensure the pursuit of cohesion is a 1
2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Employee Survey
full team activity, empowering teams to openly 2
2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Member Survey
discuss challenges and opportunities to work 3
2020 Gartner Manager of the Future Survey
4
2021 Gartner Hybrid Work HR Leader Survey
better together. They also recognize that a team
never stands still (especially during disruption)
and conduct regular “training” for that cohesion
as a team sport.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  19

Reinvent your EVP
for a Postpandemic
Workforce
The traditional employee value proposition
isn’t delivering, and the most progressive
organizations are shifting toward a human-
centered value proposition aimed to inspire
in employees emotions that see them stay
longer and work harder, driving the success
of the business. Progress here delivers
benefits:

28% increase in employees who are likely to

recommend the org by delivering deeper
connections

40% increase in high performers by delivering

radical flexibility

6% increase in intent to stay by delivering

personal growth

7% increase in employees’ physical, financial,

and mental wellness by delivering holistic
well-being

9% increase in employees who are highly likely

to accept the job again by delivering
shared purpose

Leverage this action plan to improve the lives

of your employees while simultaneously
improving critical business outcomes.

Download Guide
Download Guide

© 2021 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates.

All rights reserved. CM_GBS_1228280
 3 Techniques
to Improve
Self-Service for
Employee Support
by Eser Rizaoglu

To improve service delivery HR leaders have led their functions toward

digital self-service to provide more efficient
and functional resiliency, HR and effective HR-employee support. Digital
leaders have moved toward self-service interactions are requests that allow
employees and managers to resolve their query
more efficient digital self- without interacting with an HR staff member.
service channels to provide Based on our 2019 Customer Service and
Support Leaders Poll, an assisted-service
high-quality employee and contact, regardless of whether it occurs over
manager support. By taking the phone or in a digital channel, costs $8.01 per
contact on average. This is far more expensive
advantage of rich channel than a digital self-service contact, estimated at
data, HR leaders boost $0.10 per contact (see Figure 1).

adoption and improve channel While customers may report a preference for
assisted-service interactions, they prefer issue
quality and effectiveness. resolution the most. Whether they use their

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  21

Figure 1. Contact Channel Matrix
Illustrative

Prioritize Digital Self-Service

Channels to Deliver a Low-Cost
and Low-Effort Experience.

Assisted-Service Self-Service
on average $8.01/contact on average $0.10/contact

• Email • Website/Online Portal

• Web Chat • Chatbots/Virtual Assistants
• Social Media • Messaging
Digital
• Native Mobile App
• Mobile Web App
• Community Forum

• Phone • Interactive Voice Response

• Mail/Letters (IVR)

Nondigital

Source: Gartner

preferred channel has no meaningful impact manager-related support using many different
on customer satisfaction, effort or loyalty. channels. As HR leaders turn to digital self-
Therefore, HR leaders should use three key service tools such as online HR portals,
insights from our customer service practice to chatbots and virtual assistants, the number
boost adoption and improve the quality and of channels employees can use to contact HR
effectiveness — as measured by the first-contact rapidly increases.
resolution (FCR) rate — of their digital self-service Our customer service research shows customers
tools for HR-employee support. are open to using multiple channels in pursuit
of issue resolution, but variety comes at a
Limit the Number of Channels greater resource strain. First, the number of
channels a company offers is directly related
Traditionally, employees and managers have to the average number of contacts customers
been able to contact HR for employee- and make during a single resolution journey (see

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  22

Figure 2). In other words, more choice begets After examining over 8,000 customer journeys,
more use. Additionally, more choice is difficult we found most customers (61%) use both live
for companies to support, as resources become and self-service channels in their attempt to
stretched to support a multitude of channels. resolve a single issue. Only 9% of customers
This trend is reflected by FCR rates, which had successfully only used self-service in
steadily decline with each additional channel a their customer resolution journey. The more
company offers. customers switch between channels, the

Figure 2. Comparison of Channels Offered, Customer Contacts and FCR

FCR
Customer Contacts

52% 4
50.6%

41.6%
39.8% 39.8% 3.1

Number of Customer Contacts

2.7

During Resolution Journey

2.6 34.2%
First Contact Resolution

2.3
2.0
26% 2

0% 0
3 4 5 6 7
Number of Channels Offered by Company

n = 125 companies
Source: 2014-2019 Gartner Effortless Experience Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  23

greater the cost implication for the organization organization. HR leaders can use three forms
(see Figure 3). of data insights to improve their HR-employee
Given the varying costs associated with each support service offering:
channel, HR leaders should focus on using data 1. Solicited data collected from employees
from digital self-service channels to improve directly, such as —
processes and information related to HR support
• Rating the usefulness of search results
for employees and managers through digital
self-service. This in turn can increase FCR and • Rating the usefulness of individual
improve adoption of digital self-service channels. pieces of content
• Providing textual feedback on content in a
Use Data to Improve public comment
Resources and Processes • Providing textual feedback or requests
directly to HR
Traditionally, HR analytics have been sourced
from transactional applications, but transactional • Providing private and anonymous feedback
applications only store the user’s final decision. directly to HR
Digital self-service channels can be rich in site • Taking a brief survey about the portal
traffic data, which can indicate which programs experience while entering or exiting the portal
and HR support may be most important to
your employees. 2. Unsolicited data collected through
monitoring HR portals and
Site traffic data will allow you to uncover valuable
chatbots, such as —
insights into employee behavior and offer an
easier, more personalized service experience • Insight into the relative importance employees
while delivering efficiency savings to the place on various programs

Figure 3. Breakdown of Customer Resolution Journeys and Journey Costs

30%
100%

$8.01
9%
$0.10 61%

50% $8.11 Used 1 Live Channel

$16.12 Used 2 Live Channel

$24.13 Used 3 Live Channel
$32.14 Used 4 Live Channel
0%
Only Used Live/ Only Used Used Both Self-
Agent-Assisted Self-Service Service and Live/
Agent-Assisted
n = 8,398 customers
Source: 2019 Gartner Customer Service Behavior and Expectations Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  24

• When and from where employees are manager- HR. One common approach within HR
seeking information portals and digital self-service sites is to have
• Points of abandonment (e.g., a high large information repositories such as frequently
abandonment rate can indicate content was asked questions or quick reference guides. The
difficult to find or confusing) notion is that if employees need something, they
can easily search for it on the portal.
3. Transactional data collected through HR While well-intentioned, these portals quickly
workflow ticketing systems, such as — become sprawling, interwoven networks of
• Ticket type (e.g., payroll, benefits, information that overwhelm employees and can
time off query) cause uncertainty and frustration, ultimately
• Ticket volumes leading employees to contact HR using
assisted channels.
• Ticket resolution times
To better understand containment in self-
• Ticket types by demographics (e.g., job family, service channels, we investigated how a
location, seniority) customer’s psychological state predicted
defection to assisted channels. We discovered
By collecting these data points, HR leaders can
learn which employee and manager support that attempting to influence positive emotions
services are most important to the workforce, does not predict whether a customer abandons
when the majority of HR-employee support self-service and switches to an assisted channel.
is required, and where to clarify and improve However, the presence of negative emotions —
resources and plug any process gaps. for example, anxiety, frustration or doubt — has a
huge effect.
Reduce Self-Service Hence, HR leaders can reduce abandonment
of digital self-service channels by reducing
Abandonment employees’ negative emotions toward these
Most organizations design their digital self- channels (see Figure 4).
service resources to cover many aspects The factors that best predict containment in self-
of support queries related to employee-, service are clarity, credibility and confirmation,

Figure 4. Impact of Positive and Negative Emotions on Containment in Self-Service

30%
Customers are
more likely to
15%
remain and resolve
in self-service
0.4% Negative Emotions channels when
0% companies reduce
Positive Emotions
customers' negative
emotions, not boost
-15% positive emotions.

-30% -24.8%

n = 2,276 customers
Source: 2019 Gartner Customer Service Behavior and Expectations Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  25

which make customers more confident in their this uncertainty increases the likelihood of self-
ability to resolve an issue on their own and service abandonment.
reduce the feeling of uncertainty (see Figure 5). HR leaders should ask the following questions
Feeling uncertain in using self-service is natural about clarity, credibility and confirmation
as there is no live support to guide users, but to improve employee confidence in digital

Figure 5. Factors Ranked by Strength of Relationship With Containment Triggers

Customer Confidence

29.6%
30% 29.3%
Relative Impact on Containment Triggers

19.3%

50%

8.1%

5.8%
4.1%
3.8%

0%
Clarity Credibility Confirmation Control Variety Human Personalization
Touch
n = 2,276
Source: 2019 Gartner Customer Service Behavior and Expectations Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  26

Table 1. Key Questions for the Three Components That Build Confidence
in Self-Service

Clarity Credibility Confirmation

Create information that is Develop content that is Provide messaging to signal
simple and directional. relatable and believable. that actions are being taken or
are complete.
Does the content make Is the language active and Does content provide
employees feel like they are on action-oriented? assurance that future action will
a self-service journey? be completed on employees’
behalf by a set timeline?
Is there a visible demonstration Does the content let employees Does content indicate
of steps or processes (e.g., know they are on the right resolution is complete?
screenshots of steps)? path?
Are employees informed of the Is there indication the Does the content convey no
resolution process or timeline? information was helpful to additional action is necessary?
others in the past (e.g., top
questions section)?
Is the text easily digestible? Is the text relatable to
employees and free of internal
HR jargon?
Source: Gartner

self-service for their HR-employee support

(see Table 1).

Conclusion
As HR leaders lead their functions toward
more efficient digital self-service in providing
HR-employee support, they should implement
these three key insights to improve digital self-
service adoption and increase FCR rates.
HR leaders can impact channel adoption and use
by only focusing their efforts on:
• Using a small number of channels
• Using data insights from these channels
and transactions to improve resources
and processes
• Focusing on clarity, credibility and confirmation
to increase employee confidence in the self-
service journey and reduce abandonment of
these channels

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  27

 4 Ways HR Analytics
Can Look Beyond
the Averages
by Molly Tipps

In times of disruption, traditional measures of employee

engagement, well-being and performance often don’t paint
a complete picture of an organization’s resilience. HR analytics
leaders can do four things to go beyond the averages and get
more value out of their talent data.

The COVID-19 pandemic and year of disruptions HR analytics leaders have a role to play
that followed have revealed the need to in shaping leaders’ understanding of the
better leverage talent data and insights for employee landscape to enable incisive calls
cost-effective and high-impact management to action that support employees during times
decisions and interventions. But an additional, of uncertainty and in the future of work.
largely unanticipated consideration in the Progressive HR analytics leaders are looking
use of that talent data is the degree to which beyond the averages in four critical ways.
traditional measures of the workforce’s health,
engagement and productivity are insufficient Look for the Thrivers
to make those sound, data-driven decisions.
Because employees felt the disruptions of 2020 Because disruption creates change, processes
in highly differentiated ways, leaders who make and environments that were optimized toward
decisions based on enterprise wide averages one group of employees will, by definition,
are deploying blunt instruments against an be upended. But often lost in the concern for
extremely nuanced set of needs and priorities. negatively impacted employees is the realization

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  28

that the change may have resulted in an
improvement for others. The upheaval of change
and disruption does not create uniform losses,
To better understand employee
and the most progressive organizations seek to well-being, one of the most powerful
identify, understand and support those who are approaches we have seen from
thriving in addition to those who are struggling HR analytics leaders is conducting
and the most progressive organizations seek to longitudinal surveys: connecting
identify, understand and support those who are predisruption data to postdisruption
thriving in addition to those who are struggling.
data and measuring the change to
better understand the negative and
Measure Change, positive impacts.
Not Just a Point in Time
Our research has found that not only does
disruption impact everyone differently but data to postdisruption data and measuring the
assumptions about who is coping well and who change to better understand the negative and
is struggling are often incorrect. Employees positive impacts. Because it’s hard to know
with the highest levels of workforce health (as and design a survey before a disruption, these
measured by 16 indicators of individuals’ health, organizations use existing, predisruption data
relationships and work environment) before as the springboard for designing postdisruption
the pandemic aren’t necessarily the ones who surveys and metrics that can be retroactively
thrived or successfully coped with the disruption.1 aligned at the individual or team level. This
So point-in-time data will tell you where people allows an ad hoc measure of change and
are now, but it will not tell you whether they have obtains a much more insightful picture of the
declined or improved against the metric as a disruption’s impacts.
result of disruption. Tracking individual employees over time, which
To better understand employee well-being, can be difficult, is not necessary to obtain this
one of the most powerful approaches we have insight. Team-level longitudinal data can also
seen from HR analytics leaders is conducting provide a clear picture of changes in workforce
longitudinal surveys: connecting predisruption health over time, even as teams change.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  29

 Get Curious About a data-driven decision may convey to employees.
The data may imply one decision is right, but the
Team Resilience signal value may be, in practice, all wrong.
Focusing on teams has other benefits as well. For example, imagine that utilization data shows
Traditional approaches to workforce resilience your organization is offering several voluntary
have emphasized building individual resilience benefits employees just aren’t using. The data
or grit, but progressive leaders are seeing that suggests the organization could save some
individual solutions that depend on a person money by cutting these benefits, and only a few
having a different “attitude” are expensive, employees would miss them. However, cutting
riddled with exogenous factors and ultimately benefits amid disruption would send a negative
not effective. message to employees about the organization’s
financial health or its commitment to their
Team-level resilience, by contrast, offers a much well-being. The potential impact of that signal
stronger path forward. HR analytics can help on workforce health, employee engagement
chart this course by identifying statistically and retention, which the data didn’t capture,
significant team-level differentiators of resilience. could potentially outweigh the savings. The
These insights can help direct scalable organization might still make the change, but
investments and interventions that rely less on considering the signal value can help leaders
every employee being independently resilient time and communicate it more effectively to
and focus more on the team sharing the burden mitigate the potential downsides.
of organizational stressors. Additionally, a “team
resilience” approach can spur solutions that The context of the insight is as critical as
enable team cohesion and unearth innovative the finding itself, and in times of disruption,
ways of working in the new paradigm. employees are particularly sensitive to those
signals. HR analytics leaders should be sensitive
Be Sensitive to Signal to them as well.

Value
1
2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Employee Survey, n = 3,690 employees

Time and again in our research, we find the

impact of policies and decisions on workforce
health has as much to do with their signal
value to employees as with their direct impact
on employees’ day-to-day work. For example,
workforce health is increased when an
organization offers thoughtful and clearly defined
benefits, even among employees who haven’t
used those benefits. The signal value of an
employee having the option to use a benefit
is sometimes as powerful as availing oneself of it.
We see a similar effect in change
communications: Even if employees disagree
with a change the organization has made, if
their voices have been heard in the decision-
making process, they are more accepting of it.
The signal that leadership made the decision
with employees’ input and took their needs into
account is meaningful, regardless of whether
any given employee is happy with the outcome.
What this means for talent analytics is that as you
collect and analyze data and relay your insights to
leaders, it is important to recognize the signal that

30
Interview
Building a Change-
Ready Culture: An
Interview With dentsu
international’s Caroline
Vanovermeire
by Kaliko Zabala-Moore

From our interview with Caroline Vanovermeire

Caroline Vanovermeire, Global director
global director of talent of talent, dentsu
at dentsu international, international
HR leaders can learn how Caroline Vanovermeire is the global
director of talent at dentsu international,
dentsu transformed its a pioneering, high-growth marketing
services and solutions company.
culture and leadership Caroline was previously the global head
model to help the of organizational development for all
support functions at Barclays and a
organization withstand principal at Heidrick & Struggles’ global
leadership advisory practice. Caroline
the changing environment is a trained psychologist and coach,
and navigate times of accredited in various psychometric
tools; she also has a master’s in human
uncertainty and disruption. resources management.

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  31

 dentsu’s
Caroline Vanovermeire is the global director
of talent at dentsu international, a pioneering,
8 ways:
high-growth marketing services and solutions
company. Caroline was previously the global head
of organizational development for all support
We dream loud.
functions at Barclays and a principal at Heidrick
& Struggles’ global leadership advisory practice. We inspire change.
Caroline is a trained psychologist and coach,
accredited in various psychometric tools; she also
has a master’s in human resources management. We team without limits.
Can you tell us what prompted your cultural
transformation?
We all lead.
There were a couple key external factors that
prompted us to transform our culture. For
one, our competitive landscape had changed We make it real.
with new entries from more technology-based
companies looking to disrupt traditional media.
We took that change as an opportunity to We climb high.
look at ourselves to make sure we sustained
performance and continued to deliver
societal value through interactions with all We choose excitement.
our stakeholders. That meant examining our
relationship with our people, clients, suppliers
and shareholders, and society as a whole.
We are a force for good.
We were also seeing changes in consumer
behavior, which meant our clients were going
to have to rethink how they look at their brands
to make sure they connect with consumers.
These changes prompted us to rethink how
we support our clients and to focus more
on integrated solutions. Another factor at
play was the exciting evolution of dentsu
group, where more and more synergies were
happening between dentsu international
and dentsu Japan, amalgamating our rich
heritage with a tremendous future relevant
offering and supporting our growth strategy.
We are embracing a new journey of the never
before, underpinned by the eight ways,
which are our ideals and through which we
describe our culture.

Did this cultural transformation require you to

think about leadership differently?

Yes; in fact, we created the leadership@

dentsu model to bring our desired culture to
life and support our business transformation.
As part of this model, we defined behavioral
expectations and the competencies needed to
achieve those expectations for all our leaders.
These expectations then informed other HR

 32
activities like leadership hiring, promotion and teams for our clients and bring the best of
performance evaluation. all of us together and deliver what the client
We understand change is the only constant, really needs. There should be no boundaries
and ambiguity and uncertainty are something to opportunities for our people, through
to embrace; we are convinced that this reality collaboration and career development.
requires us all to be leaders. “We all lead” is How do you expect leaders to behave
actually one of our eight ways. We believe that differently in a hybrid environment?
leadership is what we do together. Anyone One of the critical behaviors we outlined for
at dentsu can lead us toward new things and leaders is inclusive leadership. On a practical
support the business’s outcomes. We expect level, we need leaders to be equipped to have
every single person to lead, and therefore, meetings where some people are in the room
we felt that our leadership model needed to and some people are remote. I think the
reinforce that. That’s why our model has an pandemic has brought a level playing field
element of self-leadership, client leadership, because everyone is remote. But it takes a
business leadership and people leadership. certain skill for leaders to consciously think
We also went through the process of defining about everyone on their team and ensure
leadership expectations and specific behaviors everyone has a voice.
for every single level and role within the
organization. We need to make sure employees’ varied
experiences don’t result in differences in
There were some themes that we wanted to bring opportunity. Everyone has to be mindful of
to the forefront of our leadership model based being inclusive by making sure people listen
on how leadership was evolving. For example, and double-checking if everyone is still with
we thought that well-being was an element that them. In a meeting, some people are more
needed to be more explicitly referenced. Related reflective, while others like to jump in.
to that, we also wanted to focus on fostering a Managing these meetings with hybrid teams
culture of inclusion and driving societal value. has to become a basic skill for leaders; it
That meant making sure we were doing the right has to become part of the new normal.
thing by eradicating ethical blindspots. We also
reinforced the importance of collaboration,
with remote and cross-cultural teams. Last but
not least, we recognized that things will always
change and evolve and not just because of
the pandemic, so we needed to reinforce the
importance of having a change-ready mindset.
How did you account for remote and hybrid People traditionally have thought
teams in your cultural transformation?
that they could get an answer or
One of our pillars, radical collaboration, starts solution from someone sitting
to get at how we are accounting for remote and
hybrid teams. People traditionally have thought
next to them in the office. We
that they could get an answer or solution from really wanted to change that
someone sitting next to them in the office. mindset and instead get people
We really wanted to change that mindset and thinking about how to tap into the
instead get people thinking about how to tap collective genius of all of us. This
into the collective genius of all of us. This idea idea is also important when you
is also important when you think about growing
think about growing talent and
talent and building teams. For leaders looking
to build their team, we wanted them to think building teams.
beyond connecting their employees with the
usual suspects like their other direct reports
or the people that may be sitting next to them.
Similarly, it’s important that we create winning

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  33

It goes back to how we try to instill across regions, service lines and functions. This
empowerment in our employees through included 13 workshops and over 60 one-on-one
the concept that “we all lead.” If someone stakeholder interviews. In these sessions, we
feels like they haven’t been listened to or used technology to show an interactive Excel.
they couldn’t contribute, we encourage them We structured it so that when we asked questions,
to speak up. If you look into our employee all the people in the workshop could concurrently
surveys, empowerment is always one of our give input and everyone could see the results
highest-scored items, along with trust and the on the screen. Some questions we asked were
connection with leaders, which are three very to assess the current culture: “How would you
positive elements to start off with. describe the working environment culture here?”
and “What elements of your culture get in the
Beyond your leadership model, what structures
way?” Other questions were targeted toward
and processes did you put in place to help
desired culture: “What are key cultural drivers
employees shift their mindset and adapt to
that will help drive the brand culture?”
the new culture?
We combined all that input from these
One example that is very tangible is in how
workshops and interviews with different data
we set up rewards and bonuses. The team
so that it was validated and transparent. When
component is quite substantial, and all teams
I had to start embedding the leadership model
are held accountable for supporting dentsu’s across the organization, people included in the
strategic goals. This creates the mindset that workshops were excited to see what it led to and
we want everyone to collaborate. how they contributed; they felt like a part of the
Another example is something that was cultural transformation.
triggered by the pandemic. I wanted to set up What advice would you give your peers
a learning community that allowed people to undergoing a similar cultural transformation?
connect and learn. It didn’t matter where people
were based or who had the content. So quite Be as inclusive as you can in the design of it. The
radically, we built our first global platform. We model should be reflected in every experience
now host monthly live learning sessions that a person has with the company. We didn’t stop
cover topics that matter to our people, from with just the people processes. We made sure
diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), well-being, our culture was embedded in client credentials
leadership and coaching to our work and and our code of conduct too. You want to get to
clients. These can be created by anyone and are a place where people don’t see a model anymore
open to all employees. It’s essentially our own but are just behaving in line with it because it
Netflix because we record sessions and have an is second-nature and very much embedded in
every process, decision, experience, expectation
on-demand library where everyone can access
and measurement that you make.
them. This is another way we want to encourage
people to share good practices, to learn from
each other and build relationships as a result.
It’s been a platform to showcase the best of our
people and their talents too. If people know each
other and their capabilities, then they will start
thinking broader than just the people they know
of. This learning platform is another example of
radical collaboration.
You’ve highlighted dentsu’s commitment to
leadership at all levels of the organization
— your “we all lead” concept. Can you tell
us about how you included employees in the
creation of your leadership model?
We adopted an inclusive approach and gathered
leadership insights from over 750 employees

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  34

 Quant Corner
Adding Autonomy In Crisis
Doesn’t Help, It Hurts
by Morten Wendelbo

Higher levels of employee autonomy are A close look at the data revealed that the negative
generally associated with higher productivity effect occurred when employees were already
and engagement, and with this in mind, many working at or above capacity. Giving autonomy to
organizations gave employees more autonomy an employee who is already struggling to keep up
to offset the increased workloads and stress makes it even harder to get work done, because
caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. After all, as they do not have the time or capacity to exercise
priorities and ways to do work shifted rapidly and that autonomy. Our research shows that globally,
unpredictably, who would know better how to get 83% of all employees were at or above capacity
work done than the employees themselves? in early 2021.
We were surprised when the data showed Don’t abandon your efforts to give employees
that not only was autonomy ineffective at more autonomy, but be thoughtful about timing
lessening the burden on the employee, it was these efforts so employees are able to use the
also associated with a big hit to employee health. autonomy you provide them.

Impact of Increased Autonomy on Workforce Health as Workload Increases

40%

19.2%
83% of the workforce are at or above capacity
2.7%
0%

-13.8%

-30.3%
-40%
-46.8%

-63.3%

-80% -79.9%

Far Below At Far Above

Capacity Capacity Capacity
n = 3,690
Source: 2021 Gartner Workforce Resilience Survey

HR Leaders Monthly | July 2021  35