Caring whilst competing helping our workforce through

This insights summary is based on a Deloitte’s digital dialogue on Caring whilst competing – helping our workforce through these extraordinary times which was held with business professionals and specialists including Lutfey Siddiqi; Visiting Professor-in-Practice, London School of Economics and Political Science; John Brodie, Consulting Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Africa; Fortune Gamanya, Associate Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Africa.

Moderated by Dr Martyn Davies, MD, Emerging Markets & Africa, Deloitte Africa

Caring whilst competing – helping our workforce through these extraordinary timesDeloitte’s digital dialogue – May 2020

Caring whilst competing – helping our workforce through these extraordinary times© 2020. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. 2© 2020. For information, contact Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited. 2

Caring whilst competing – helping our workforce through these extraordinary times

As we continue to live in times of COVID-19, Deloitte is hosting a series of digital dialogues to provide insights for clients and support decision-makers both within business and government to navigate through the world, business and the workforce post COVID-19.


In a short number of months and weeks, the world has found itself in a ‘new distance economy’ following the COVID-19 outbreak. There has been a rapid change with regards to how work is done and carried out, which is resulting in an urgent need for repositioning of workforce skillsets, a change in the nature of work, a change of the workforce, and ultimately the adaptation of the workplace.

Economies around the world are at different stages of the crisis, however, advanced economies arguably are further ahead in terms of loosening restrictions and getting to a post-pandemic way of working.

Leadership and inclusion in stress-testing times

The world is currently facing extreme, stress-testing times, which are slowly forcing organisations to test various leadership theories.

The true nature of an organisation is generally challenged when there is diffused management. In times such as these, there are two styles of leadership that can be highlighted: 1) Transactional leadership, where leaders require full compliance

by the follower, and 2) Transformational Leadership, which is more empathic, encouraging of feedback and is co-creating for diffused teams.

The latter leadership style is more appropriate in situations where uncertainty is high and organisations are facing the unknown. “Transformational leadership is arguably the style of leadership we need at a time when teams are diffused, distanced and isolated,” said Lutfey Siddiqi, Visiting Professor-in-Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Research shows that organisations are able to go through risk scenarios and avoid blind spots only if they welcome and accept diverse views and processes in the workplace. This can help organisations to avoid succumbing to ‘group think’. “Applying transformational leadership demonstrates good risk management and risk resilience”, Siddiqi further added.

Stakeholder capitalism is one of the critical steps for inclusion in organisations. This means that organisations need to join the stakeholder capitalism bandwagon, where the number one stakeholder and constituent is the employee.

“Transformational leadership is arguably the style of leadership we need at a time when teams are diffused, distanced and isolated.”

– Lutfey Siddiqi, Visiting Professor-in-

Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science.


An example of stakeholder capitalism is seen in Singapore, particularly the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Business School Summer Programme. The courses of the programme are similar in content and price as many Western Universities, ranging between US$2,000 and US$3,000. However, Singaporeans have access to government-subsidised schemes1 through which costs may drop to just under US$300. This tremendous subsidisation of reskilling from government is to ensure that while Singaporeans are under lockdown they can acquire new skills at the expense of the state, instead of forcing companies to train people they may end up losing in preparation for what will be a reshaped economy.

Improving local supply chain efficiency

There are two trends that are evident in this current crisis. The first trend is social distancing and a hyper-focus on efficiency, which may give way to deliberate redundancy in the system.

The second trend is de-globalisation, which essentially means that supply chains will be closer to home, particularly food and medical equipment important to national security.

According to Siddiqi, Singapore will probably try to increase the share of domestic food production from 20% to 30%. The country therefore needs to create more capacity in food production by, applying methods that value efficiency, for example, building vertical farms.

Managing the unprecedented rise of unemployment

In a typical traditional way of doing business, organisations would have opted for retrenching employees in efforts to cut costs and go into survival mode, often in an uncaring and impersonal manner. However, there has been a shift away from this approach, more so as companies are now benefiting from public support, either directly or indirectly.

Companies are largely expected to avoid retrenching employees and rather use this method of cutting costs as the last option in times of crisis. However, some industries may change dramatically owing to spill-over effects of the crisis, to a point where they may not be able to carry the same amount of resources in the organisation, including human capital. Because of this, there will be some redundancies, but this option has to be last on the list of considerations for companies’ recovery strategies.

“Applying transformational leadership demonstrates good risk management and risk resilience.”

– Lutfey Siddiqi, Visiting Professor-in-Practice at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

1 Singapore Government Agency, 2020. Financial support for Singaporean students at every stage of education. Available [Online]. https://www.gov.sg/article/financial-support-for-singaporean-students-at-every-stage-of-education

https://www.gov.sg/article/financial-support-for-singaporean-students-at-every-stage-of-education


Preparing and building resilience for post-COVID-19

When facing uncertainty organisations must practice honesty. The false sense of security where organisations pretend to know more than they actually do could cause damage. For example, believing a model that tries to trace out a curve that is somehow static may be harmful to an organisation. This crisis is not a linear path. There will be spikes in infections and hospitalisation as lockdowns are lifted and economies are opened.

Organisations must accept that there is non-linearity and communicate this together with possible outcomes to employees. This is not only to create clarity for employees, but also to help organisations prepare and build resilience while gaining trust with employees.

Leading teams with empathy

In the new world of work, one of the key qualities of leaders, effective in managing teams or businesses through change, is empathy.

There has been a lot of anxiety and concern since the outbreak of the global pandemic. Many individuals have to live with continued stress from the traumatic uncertainty that exists due to the crisis.

The ability to connect virtually and create a space where individuals can process that is key to building trust.

Building trust in teams

Building trust requires leaders to show understanding and empathy towards team members. This is a key step in the journey towards building trust amongst team mates. Leaders must understand that people need to feel a connection with them; that the leader can understand and is willing to be there in their reality and difficulty. The most critical part is balancing being authoritarian and democratic while also creating trust in uncertain times.

Leaders need to be in the current moment, connect with team members and reflect a deep understanding of the current situation as well as changes in the environment. This is the kind of openness critical for leaders to make better decisions as they navigate uncertainty.

Shifting to coaching for performance vs managing performance

The next big shift is moving towards self-directive work teams. People need a strong sense of partnership to deliver as a collective, and a strong sense of shared purpose.

“Reinvention is another component around how to reskill ourselves - rethink the skills we have.”

– John Brodie, Consulting Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Africa.


Without a clear purpose and understanding of what the organisation or team is trying to solve there will be challenges for employees to operate in a more self-directive manner.

It is essential for leaders to intentionally improve the way they manage and lead teams in order to build an autonomous self-directive work team. This kind of approach comes with enormous opportunity for increased productivity in the organisation or team. This is because, as operating models are changing, people are realising that they can work digitally in a far more productive and effective manner.

Organisations and leaders need to be thinking about creating internal controls where teams are driven by their sense of purpose and thus drive self-directive work teams.

Coaching as a core capability for leaders

Things are continuously changing and evolving, therefore leaders need to create an environment where team members are consistently evolving and adapting to the changing ways of working, so that they can play a major role in innovation and value creation. In the ‘new distance economy’, repositioning skillsets is crucial.

It is critical for leaders to practice coaching for employee performance, define clear results of expected outcomes for team members and reiterate the way they work to achieve those results.

“Reinvention is another component around how to reskill ourselves, rethink the skills we have,” stated John Brodie, Consulting Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Africa. Ensuring that the organisation is equipped with the right people and with the right skills that enables them to respond and assign accountability is critical. Without this kind of foundation, challenges will be amplified and thus will create distress and concern in teams. “We therefore need to move to a position where team leaders and team members are continuously learning, adapting and evolving” said Brodie.

Fostering team collaboration through psychological safety – Creating inclusive team cultures

In this time of remote working, leaders have to be conscious about creating a virtual working environment with a culture of inclusivity, by focusing on four aspects:

Fairness and respect: People have to feel that there is a sense of fairness and respect. Leaders must be

“We therefore need to move to a position where team leaders and team members are continuously learning, adapting and evolving.”

– John Brodie, Consulting Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Africa.


deliberate and conscious in engineering fairness, respect and assuring that every voice is heard.

Value and belonging: Individuals have the need to feel valued in their teams and have a sense of belonging. Leaders must give feedback to their teams and remind them that their efforts are valued and recognised.

Safe and open: Team members want to feel that they are able to be open about their lives. Leaders need to create the psychological safety for employees.

Empowering and growing: Leaders should ensure that individuals in the firm that have capacity to assist can do so, and create opportunities that make them realise that there is a degree of growth and empowerment in the organisation and the team.

The biggest challenge among organisations and teams is ensuring an inclusive culture more especially with the current distance which is forced by remote working.

Organisations need to think of talent strategies, collaboration in diffused teams and rethinking skills in order to be conscious about creating the four aspects

that lead to inclusion. “This new way of working allows leaders to create the psychological safety to ensure there’s inclusivity” said Fortune Gamanya, Associate Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Africa. She further stated that “it is about how leaders engage differently and how they become conscious in a way that creates an inclusive environment”.

“This new way of working allows leaders to create the psychological safety to ensure there’s inclusivity.”

– Fortune Gamanya, Associate Director,Human Capital at Deloitte Africa.


Contacts

Dr Martyn Davies

Managing Director: Emerging Markets & Africa

Dean: Deloitte Alchemy School of Management

Deloitte Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 209 8290

Email: [email protected]

This insights summary is based on a webinar that was hosted by Deloitte Africa’s Dr Martyn Davies, Managing Director of Emerging Markets and Africa on 21 May 2020. Speakers included:

• Lutfey Siddiqi; Visiting Professor-in-Practice, London School of Economics and Political Science • John Brodie, Consulting Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Africa • Fortune Gamanya, Associate Director, Human Capital, Deloitte Africa

Authors

Masego Ntsoane

Junior Consultant: Africa Insights

Deloitte Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 517 4307


John Brodie

Consulting Director, Human Capital Deloitte Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 209 8887


Fortune Gamanya

Associate Director, Human Capital Deloitte Africa

Tel: +27 (0)21 427 5824


Hannah Marais

Associate Director: Africa Insights

Deloitte Africa

Tel: +27 (0)11 304 5463


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Caring whilst competing helping our workforce through