This year has been full of surprises, with businesses needing to revisit goals and priorities to survive and stay competitive, even operational.
It has never been more important to support teams through the change that we see in business, whilst also being conscious of the affect their external environment and community may be having.
McKinsey discusses how COVID has been the toughest leadership test:
“The COVID-19 crisis is proving to be a revealing test of leadership. Emerging from it strengthened, compassionate, confident, forward looking, and successful will be those leaders who can cope with the extraordinary personal and professional challenges. They will be the ones who know themselves the best and can respond to the many challenges.”
Mental health and employee wellbeing is very important…
What key areas of focus have there been in GRENKE UK’s leadership team?
We were fortunate to be able to continue operations in a predominantly digital way.
However, we know that it comes at a cost to the employee. Our new digital interface cannot replace the value of face-to-face contact. When it is safe to do so, bringing employees back together within our wider business community is vital. We acknowledge this with our employees, and try to instil that this is temporary, and that we place their physical and emotional wellbeing as our top priority.
There are a host of tools that leaders can draw on to support employees through this change... From employee assistance programmes to virtual 1-2-1 support, data collecting to be able to listen and hear your employees concerns and opinions in a confidential way and ensuring a welcoming and open approach.
Never underestimate the value of your employees and teams across your business. They are our greatest asset – through this time of change and beyond.
At GRENKE we will continue to connect with our teams and our colleagues and look forward to a time we can safely unite, with customers and friends again.
