It’s been more than a hundred days since COVID-19 came to the Philippines, and organizations are now looking into transitioning from the surviving stage to the thriving phase. To successfully do so, you need to instill a company culture that can embrace change, and the key is to nurture a resilient and adaptable workforce.
During this crisis, HR is the face of change and your employees will be looking to you for guidance. To help HR usher their companies in this journey, HR Nation held a Masterclass webinar titled “Culture of Change: How to Survive and Thrive” last Thursday, June 25, 2020. Esteemed HR speakers Karlo Jay Plata, Chief People Officer at QuadX Inc., Sarah McLeod, Managing Director at Q2 HR Solutions, and Judah Hirsch, Chief Executive Officer of Salarium, tackled how to sharpen employees’ ability to adapt efficiently to change.
For Karlo Jay Plata, it is important that the people in your organization understand culture the way you, as HR, understand it. Culture is unique to your organization, and a well-defined one will be noticeable even when you don’t advertise it, like at Starbucks, where they treat their employees as partners. He also pointed out that culture is more than just the visible elements like vision, goals, policies, and shared values—it also includes the invisible ones like shared assumptions, unwritten rules, norms, and company histories that become stories.
Karlo also discussed that if organizations use culture for increasing productivity, being innovative, and attracting and keeping talents, it can also be used for building resilience in your organization from all layers: individual, teams, and organizational level.
At the Individual level, HR must create an environment that increases optimism and self-efficacy, pay attention to mental health, and invest in interventions that promote overall well-being. At the Team level, you must build trust among teams, establish common frameworks (roles, responsibilities, and the way members interact), and reward improvisation which is often overlooked. At the Organizational level, you must anchor your shared purpose, determining what shouldn’t change in your company so you can identify what can. You must also distribute control with centralized coordination, compared to the traditional centralized control with distributed coordination.
Karlo closed by emphasizing that resiliency is not just a job for HR to build; it requires the combined and coordinated effort of everyone in the organization.
Download Karlo’s full presentation here: KARLO PLATA (HOW TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE).pdf
Sarah Mcleod reiterated that culture happens whether you like it or not. If you have an accidental culture, it will take longer to change it, so HR has to be intentional on establishing one that will lead the organization to the direction it wants to go to. COVID-19 has really made everyone understand that there is a need for flexibility, and their company was no exception.
Sarah shared that Q2 had their fair share of struggles in adapting to change, especially in the early stages, as Work-From-Home was not a part of their culture. Moving everything to virtual platforms such as Zoom was challenging, and they weren’t doing very well at their Happiness Index (a weekly survey among employees). They’ve decided that Q2 will continue with their goals, and to do this, they needed to make significant structural changes. This includes calling teams to be more interdependent, being more externally focused than internal to see how outside factors affect the inside, and changing community culture to an entrepreneurial culture.
She then presented an “8-step Model on Implementing Change Powerfully and Successfully”, which Q2used as a framework to efficiently and effectively adapt to change in a systematic and process-driven manner.
The first three steps were for Creating a Climate for Change:
- Increasing Urgency
- Building the Guiding Team or task force
- Getting the Right Vision and Strategies.
Steps 4 to 5 are where communication comes in, Engaging and Establishing the Whole Organization:
- Communicate for Buy-in
- Empower Action and Remove Barriers
- Create and Celebrate Short-term wins.
The last two steps are allotted for Implementing and Sustaining Change:
- Empower Action and Sustain Acceleration
- Institute Change
Sarah also emphasized the need to rally the people in your organization and provide them with a clear vision, goal, strategy, and plan, then provide them with support and enablement. Be intentional about what you want your culture to be, then reinforce it with the good behaviors you want everyone to have.
Download Sarah’s complete presentation here: SARAH MCLEOD (HOW TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE).pdf
With all the new added tasks for HR that can make or break your organization’s efficient transition from the surviving stage to the thriving phase, and with virtualization of processes an already non-negotiable aspect, it is now the best time to start looking into HR technology.
Judah Hirsch shares how Salarium, a cloud-based payroll solution that’s complete from timekeeping to payout, can help businesses kickstart their thriving phase in the new normal. Since it’s cloud-based, all areas can be accessed regardless of where they are.
Salarium’s Transparent Timekeeping module enables you to monitor employees, whether they work at home or in the office. To meet every business timekeeping needs in the new normal and beyond, they also now offer FacePass: a Touchless Timekeeping Solution.
FacePass pairs S.A.F.E. Tech (Secured Attendance & Face-Enabled Technology), an advanced touchless facial recognition device, with Salarium’s complete and cloud-based time and attendance system to meet every business’ timekeeping needs.
S.A.F.E. Tech detects facemasks, scans body temperature, and records cock-ins or clock-outs—all at the same time. It can accurately recognize an employee in seconds even with their masks and face shields, and alarms when someone exceeds the normal body temperature.
Salarium’s timekeeping system enables HR staff to create, track, and manage shifts and schedules, manage overtimes, undertimes, and leaves, and complete attendance reports instantly. It also includes an Employee Self Service (ESS), which allows employees to access their records: time and attendance, shift schedules, leaves, and overtimes and undertimes via any device, so they can view it anytime and anywhere.
For more information, visit: https://www.salarium.com/facepass/
Salarium’s Effortless Payroll accurately completes payroll computation in a few clicks, generating up to thousands of payrolls in minutes. Employees can also access their records via any device.
SALPay is Salarium’s disbursement module, which is securely linked with their Effortless Payroll so you can pay your employees directly without needing to go through traditional banks. Aside from being a Visa Debit Card, SALPay is also paired with an e-wallet, so your employees can enjoy convenient digital services such as online purchases, paying bills, and buying load.
Salarium is currently serving over 600 companies in the Philippines. They work in partnership with Unionbank, BancNet, and Visa, and is regulated by the Banko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Download Judah’s full presentation here: JUDAH HIRSCH (HOW TO SURVIVE AND THRIVE).pdf
