We are here again for our weekly discussion, excited to talk about transitioning back to the office. For those of us who work from home permanently, not a big deal, but for those of us who this is a new thing, I know everyone's excited to get things back to "normal."
Speaker 1:
Welcome to the Jay Mark Business Innovation Technology Experience.
Todd Nielson:
Okay. Welcome, world. We are here again for our weekly discussion, excited to talk about transitioning back to the office. For those of us who work from home permanently, not a big deal, but for those of us who this is a new thing, I know everyone’s excited to get things back to “normal.”
Todd Nielson:
So I’m Todd Nielson, chief strategy officer at Jay Mark. And Christina, you want to introduce and we’ll go around?
Christina Koontz:
Sure. I’m Christina Koontz, and I do marketing and events at Jay Mark.
Todd Nielson:
Dex?
Christy Hedrick:
Christy… oh, Dex.
Dex:
I’m Dex [inaudible 00:01:04] not Christy, I’m Dex. And I do content strategy at Jay Mark.
Christy Hedrick:
And I’m Christy Hedrick. I am the HR generalist at Jay Mark.
Todd Nielson:
Okay. So we’re excited to have Christy here. We thought it would be a good idea to have somebody who knows a lot about HR because transitioning back to the office has a lot to do with that. So I think the big thing going through everybody’s minds right now is-
Dex:
Where we have to start wearing pants again.
Christy Hedrick:
You will [crosstalk 00:01:41]
Christina Koontz:
HR is like, absolutely.
Christy Hedrick:
Well, actually, Dex and Todd [crosstalk 00:01:46] Ask anyone else in your household, but Christina [inaudible 00:01:53].
Dex:
Okay.
Christina Koontz:
Noted.
Todd Nielson:
Okay, now that we got the pants question that everyone’s been wondering out of the way, but I think the big thing that business owners are thinking about is, is it time. Is now the right time, or when is the right time to head back to the office? And I think the answer is different, whether you’re an essential business or nonessential business. What are some thoughts that you have, Christy?
Christy Hedrick:
Well, that was exactly what I was going to say. And even outside of that, I think it just depends on the specific business. It depends on what you’re doing. I think they’ve even found that some nonessential businesses that are opening back up, just making sure that you’re following the social distancing guidelines in your area, in your county or city or state, for that matter, any of them. Just making sure that you’re staying within those, keeping your employees safe, keeping the customer safe. That’s kind of the key point. But definitely wanting to follow the guidelines in your specific area.
Todd Nielson:
Yeah, the guidelines, though, even… if you’re an essential business, and the guidelines maybe don’t fully… you don’t have to comply fully with them. But if you’re a nonessential business, then you do. But then even if the releases are done, and governor and government says, “Hey, everybody, it’s time to go back,” you’re going to have a lot of people still wondering, okay, is it really the right time? Are my employees going to come? Is there going to be fear still? And I think that’s something important we have to discuss and figure out because even though you’re an essential business, I think you have to ask the question, do you need everybody at the office to do the work? We’re an essential business, and we’re spread out all over the place, and we’re getting work done.
Christy Hedrick:
And I think that is the big thing that people need to work at, is not only essential or nonessential, that what is your business doing, and how can it be facilitated there or not? Having the people in your office if they do choose to come in, making sure that they’re social distanced. But if they don’t need to, at this point and it’s still kind of up in the air and they’re able to do that, then maybe having them still be there is a successful means.
Christy Hedrick:
I have multiple friends in the banking industry right now. They are an essential business, but they’ve even gone to half staff. There’s only certain people in, with the lobbies closed and whatnot. A lot of their business can’t be done online or remotely, for some of their people, but their just working with their half staff crews and they just have to make it work. There are some people that are working really long hours because of the way that they’ve had to stagger it and have certain people there that work a longer shift, so that only certain people are there on certain days of the week. And everybody’s doing it a little bit different. I think it just really matters what fits your business needs, essential or nonessential, and what keeps everybody safe.
Todd Nielson:
Right. So if you’re an essential business, and the orders are lifted, the social distancing orders, you decide to open the office, you’re still going to potentially have some people that are fearful and may not want to come back. How do we deal with that?
Christy Hedrick:
It is a really hard question. It’s a good question, and we’re facing that right now here. I think that the big thing is going to be comfort for the people for sure, but at some point, when the authorities and the experts on this start to lift things more and more, we do have to lean on that guidance. Just as when they shut everything down, we had to lean on that guidance, we have to trust and just take measures of the extra cleaning and the keeping distances apart and possibly wearing masks and doing temperature checks and encouraging people to stay home if they don’t feel well, and things that you can do like that. Because at some point, we are going to have to go back to business as usual, and there’s always going to be someone that isn’t comfortable with the situation. And each one of them will have to be handled a little bit differently. We definitely don’t want to put someone in a situation, we don’t know their circumstances Just on the cover. they might have a situation at home, where they have someone high risk that they don’t want to take something back to. And maybe those are just individual conversations, where if you’re able to facilitate that, then you take that into account a little bit longer, just to make your employees feel comfortable.
Dex:
You know, Todd, I think a big part of that, and Christy talked about this, the conversations. And to me, so much of this always just comes back to communication. And communication on every level. Communication from the company to all employees, from executive teams to all employees, and then communication when you get down to those individual levels, where people might have a certain situation that they want to talk about. And I think, just saying this is another good time to emphasize communication goes both ways. So there’s not just communicating what the company is doing, but listening to how employees are feeling in general and how specific people on your team, or in Christy’s case, specific people in the company, how they’re feeling and then to take all those things into account as you make these deliberate decisions about what to do.
Christy Hedrick:
Absolutely.
Christina Koontz:
And I think empathy, as well. We’ve talked about this a lot during COVID, continued empathy because everything isn’t just going to bounce right back to normal. It’s going to take time.
Todd Nielson:
Yeah, and I think business owners are worried about their employees. It’s not just about safety, but also about making sure that they have funds, that they can pay their bills. And I think the hard decision is going to be safety versus money, but money in the sense of we need to make money to pay people, and that’s how the economy ultimately lifts up. And I think, kind of as we talked about, it’s going to be a little bit of a different decision for everybody. But I think we have to look at the financial ramifications of opening up, and what’s the actual potential. It’s possible that you have an essential or nonessential business, and it’s not going to see a lot of action. So opening it up prematurely will just set yourself up for disaster and hurt employees even more than they already are.
Todd Nielson:
And of course, balancing the safety and the money in the sense of… well, maybe not balancing the money, but balancing the safety in the sense of the hybrid environment. And maybe some people can come back to the office, and some people work remotely, or doing a staggering shift, like you talked about, Christy. All these things have to be kind of walked in. It’s not going to be an easy decision because as anything, we’ve seen that everything is so volatile right now, in the sense that it’s changing so often. The strategies are changing, and business owners really have to look at the way they did business, and not maybe take the opinion that it’s going to go back to that, but maybe there’s an adaptation that they’re going to go back to. And by answering these hard questions strategically about where your market design, where your industry is going, what your employees and staff are capable of achieving, it can really potentially change the entire model of coming back to work.
Christy Hedrick:
Well, and I think that we keep hearing it all over the news and social media. It’s not coming back to what things were before. Everything is going to be the new normal. That is kind of the coined phrase through all of this, is what is the new normal going to look like? And I really think that the new normal is going to look different for every business. There are already some companies that… I know we’re excited to get back together, for our culture, that’s the type of culture that we have here. We’re very excited to get everybody back in the building together and do that. Yes, we do have remote employees that work regularly, like Todd and Dex, you guys are remote, and we work daily on making that experience even better for the remote people, but generally speaking, wanting to get everybody back in the building as soon as safely possible.
Christy Hedrick:
But there’s other companies out there, that that’s not the right fit for them, and they have really found that this has turned a corner for them in another way, and their new normal may have more employees working from home and remotely and giving them more opportunities, for the help with kids and families and having to run and do things, that if there’s certain days you have to work from home. I think a lot of people have realized that it can be done now. And so for some businesses, that has been a key point.
Todd Nielson:
Yeah, I think… oh, go ahead, Dex.
Dex:
I was just going to say, I think as Christy talked about the new normal is sort of abnormal, or we’re not sure what it is, and things are still changing. I think about something that you and I have talked about, Todd, a few times and bring this up, which is sort of building in, when you’re planning out these projects, to build in what I like to call a reality buffer, which is sort of that things aren’t going to go as planned. And so you sort of know that there’s going to be adjustments that need to be made, and that things might take a little bit longer than you would expect in a perfect situation. And I think that’s something to just keep in mind as we go through this, that we can plan out on paper the best policies and the best processes and everything, and then when you actually bring it into the real world, there’s going to be adjustments about all of the things that Christy mentioned, with making sure everybody is working in the right environment and at the right times.
Todd Nielson:
Yeah, and I think the adjustment we also have to think about is… you talked about the new normal, which absolutely drives me crazy. I hate that term, the new normal. But anyways, potentially, if you think about it, say a bank opens up or a restaurant opens up that’s been closed for a while. Banks are operating remotely, restaurants have been doing the drive through thing. The normal is essentially going to be potentially a change in other people’s behavior. And for a bank, for example, what do they need to do from, maybe it’s a marketing perspective or a PR perspective, to get people back into the lobby and interacting and doing things? What does a restaurant need to do to get people back into the dining area? What does a salon need to do to get people back in there? Maybe it involves safety gear to make people feel more comfortable. Maybe it involves new policies and processes. Maybe it involves an event, a barbecue or a promotion or something.
Todd Nielson:
But now’s the time to be figuring out these plans, because even if it happens in a week or a month, and maybe it’s a more gradual hybrid approach, like we’ve talked about, there’s going to be a time where it’s like, okay, we need to try to get back to what we consider our normal, in the sense of a restaurant pulling in people.
Dex:
One thing that I will add to that is that I’ve seen people I know and businesses that I know also taking a look at the way they offer their services, and if there are ways that they can offer their services in manners that they’ve never had to figure out before. And I think there are two parts of that, which is one, obviously, just taking the time to do that. But also taking the time to make sure and think through the processes of doing that. A perfect example, which I guarantee I’m not the only one that’s had to deal with this, was just earlier this week, helping my mother get set up to do a tele doc video call. And she had never done that before, and it was kind of frustrating to me because I was trying to help her over the phone, based on a process that they had that was really not very clear, and I could see why she didn’t understand it and needed to call for my help. So it’s not just a matter of figuring out oh, we can offer these services in a new way, but also thinking through the process.
Dex:
Again, I guess it comes back to communication. Communicating to your customers, not just in marketing to them that we’re offering this new service or this old service in a new way, but making sure they understand how to take advantage of that.
Christy Hedrick:
Yeah, for sure. Well, like Todd mentioned with some of the businesses and security measures, the place where my son gets his hair cut, they sent out a thing, saying come in, we’re wearing masks. You can bring a mask, or we have masks available for you. Just letting people know that if you need that because it’s been a minute, and everybody’s hair is getting long, you can come in and take care of that safely, and it makes people feel a little more comfortable. And after receiving that, I guess Monday tried to get an appointment, the first available was next Thursday, which I think is the 14th. So yeah, that was the first one that he can get. So I a lot of people felt comfortable with it, I guess.
Dex:
Yeah, no. And that’s a really good point. I actually received a similar type email from the place where I get my hair cut, and same thing. It was really helpful and brought me comfort to be able to see, step by step. They had step by step, here’s what’s going to happen. Here’s what the situation is going to look like, and I thought that was fantastic. Todd mentioned banks and getting people back into the lobby, healthcare, whatever it is. I think in a situation like this, it’s better to err on the side of over-communicating and really explaining because people do have questions, and people are nervous. And the same thing goes, I think, for your employees, too. Not just for your clients and customers, but also for your employees, as you… everything that you’re going to be doing to make them comfortable.
Christy Hedrick:
And that’s one thing that I love about Jay Mark is we have been doing that, having the calls once a week, and just reassuring people where we’re at, what’s going on, what things do you need to know about that you would know if you were in the office, but you’re missing out on it. Just keeping everybody in the loop, and I think that eases minds. And then just opening it up for questions. Everybody has questions. Sometimes your question is going to spark something in someone else, or maybe even most of the time, if someone has a question, multiple people are thinking it.
Christy Hedrick:
So I feel like the Q&A is really important. Even if companies didn’t have access to do the Zoom thing like we’ve done, they could even just send something out to their employees, this, this, this, and let them reply back and ask questions, and then maybe just answer them all blanketly or do a little video post of here are some of the questions that we got today, and we just want to touch on them in case anyone else is asking, too, to make you feel comfortable with what up or next to come. And what concerns do you have about it? Let us know, let us see if we can either quash the concerns for you, or maybe it’s one we haven’t thought of, and it’s something we could bring to light for all of us and put a new perspective or policy in place that keeps something else even safer.
Christina Koontz:
Yeah, I definitely think that that’s something that Jay Mark thrives in, is the communication, and from the employee standpoint, and it is so appreciated. And I think that just comes back to, we truly live by a philosophy of people first, technology second. [crosstalk 00:19:24] and that reminds me of something that I read, when I was looking into what other companies are doing, as far as coming back into the office. And one article mentioned the human component of returning to the office life requires just as much focus as the practical one. For staff who have been away from their workplaces for weeks or even months, returning will feel unsettling.
Christy Hedrick:
And it’s true. It’s so true. And even just… there’s a piece of this that almost feels a little more productive from home because you lost the interactive piece, and there’s a little bit of nervousness that people coming back… I even heard people say, “Gosh, shen we go back, just the thought of the distractions again,” and whatnot, that they’re just hammered down at home, that the remote people can relate to because that’s their normal environment. They don’t have somebody walking up constantly or what are you doing for lunch. Not that that stuff’s not okay. We encourage that. We want to have fun. That’s one of our core values. We hope that other places want to do that too, and we want to encourage it, but it is a little unsettling to think is it going to appear that your production has gone down when you go back and you have to re-acclimate to all of this in a new environment again?
Christy Hedrick:
And so I think everybody… the unsettled feeling, Christina, I think you’re right. I think it’s just what’s it going to be like when we go back? Is it going to be the same? Is it going to change? Are we going to be too close? are they going to make us sit further apart? Is it going to be inconvenient? Can we all fit there? Just what’s it look like? So like Jay Mark’s doing, I think over-communicating is definitely the best so that people know, reach out if you have questions about where you’re going to sit or if it’s far enough away or if we’re having any cleaning procedures or things that are going to help with the safety of it all, just ask and we can let you know, if you haven’t already received that information.
Todd Nielson:
I think it’s also refreshing to hear so many people talk about productivity. We just had this question over on the Facebook feed about people that they feel they’re more productive at home, and I think that’s a wonderful conversation to have because there are tactics and there are strategies to be more productive in the office. And as we come back to, as Dex was saying, the new normal, well maybe the new normal needs to be new intentionally. Maybe we need to listen to why people aren’t as productive in the office and rearrange or figure out strategies to help them be more productive, based on things maybe they didn’t even realize before. When you get into a situation of going home all of sudden, and all of those distractions are gone, you start to realize things that possible were a distraction during the day. And I think business leaders need to realize that the new normal should be new on purpose. We want to come back to a better normal, not a worse one.
Christy Hedrick:
I agree. I like the term better normal.
Christina Koontz:
Yeah, better normal. If you don’t learn from this or grow from this, then you’re doing something wrong.
Todd Nielson:
The other thing that I was thinking about on this idea of a better normal, and it goes along with everything that we’ve been talking about with communication and productivity and everything. But one of the things that Jay Mark has realized is that what the market looks like after this is all done might be a lot different than what it looks like now. And it may not be. It’s just hard to say. We’re looking at things where the airline industry and the hospitality industry, we don’t know how long it will take for those to bounce back. The healthcare industry, we could get into a situation where all of a sudden, people are going back to the doctor and going back to the dentist and there’s just a massive surge on specialties in healthcare. And I think we need to have the foresight, as business leaders, to look at our products and our services and think, is there a different way I should design this? Are people after this going to go back to restaurants and not go in restaurants as much? Are there going to be more drive through type situations, will people get used to that?
Todd Nielson:
I saw a post in our town about a restaurant that was struggling with the whole carryout because they’re not a drive through. They’re just a regular restaurant. And so they’re trying to make changes in adapting to whatever that new normal is. So it’s important to really think about what’s changing and how will we be ready for the new markets, the new behaviors of everybody when we get back to the office and back to normal, so to speak.
Christy Hedrick:
And maybe even, like you said, the better normal. I’ve seen several businesses that have tried new things that aren’t their normal, that they didn’t previously offer, that I believe seem to be excelling. Just like, for example, those of you in Springfield, we have a sub shop, Mr. Goodcents. And they do takeout and delivery and curbside right now. And when you go onto their app to order and pay, one of the options is grocery, which didn’t use to be there, that you can purchase pre-made things, and you can also purchase pounds of their lunch meat that they make for the deli sandwiches. You can just purchase lunch meat by the pound, which they never have done before, but now you can do that. They’ve also got a place on there that you can… I think it says something like share a pound or pay it forward or something like that. And you can buy a pound of lunch meat that they donate to somewhere locally that is one of the… either like the Harmony House or the Ronald McDonald House or something like that. So while you’re in there, you can add an additional five dollars and send some food to one of those locations, which is really cool. And they never did that before. So now, that might be something that is a better normal for them.
Christina Koontz:
[crosstalk 00:25:54]Todd Nielson:
Yeah.
Christina Koontz:
As a marketer, it’s music to my ears when I hear people are being innovative like that and adapting like that. That is so awesome.
Christy Hedrick:
Yeah, it’s really cool.
Dex:
I think, too, that now… and not just now, 2020, but the world we live in makes it so much easier to do that because technology makes these things possible in a way where your business model can be much more agile and dynamic than every before, as long as you’re willing to be creative and try other things. You were talking about this restaurant you were just talking about, Christy, it made me think around here… I’m in Utah. There’s one of our grocery store chains, which is just a local to Utah chain, and they were the first one that I saw that pivoted to offering checkout as you go. So you can scan the items as you’re walking through the store with your phone and immediately be charged. And all they do is check your phone receipt as you’re walking out the door. And it wasn’t Target, it wasn’t Kroger that did this first around here. Some of them are starting to catch up, but it was a local chain. And technology made that possible. And they were able to quickly pivot and make a change, which Todd sort of mentioned earlier, that people are making changes that might have been on the horizon, and suddenly, we’ve made them now. And I think people need to take advantage of how technology can help you do that.
Todd Nielson:
Yeah, I was thinking when Christy mentioned the deli, I was thinking about what behavior I’ve changed that might continue after this is done. And an example of that is I ordered some things from the local Lowe’s, and I ordered it for curbside pickup. And what you do is, you order it online, you drive up, you park in a certain parking space. They have these signs that say, “Call this number.” And you tell them what stall you’re at, and then they bring out your stuff. Oh my gosh, I would absolutely love to have that when everything gets back to the new normal. I want that to be the new normal because it was so convenient for me to do my shopping online, and then have somebody bring out everything and then just load it in my car. I didn’t have to do [inaudible 00:28:41] I didn’t have to wait in a line, I didn’t have to be around people. Not that I mind being around people, but just didn’t have to deal with everything. And it was just so much easier. And I think that’s a great example of… there’s so many restaurants that fall into that category, or not restaurants, just establishments that fall into that category of people may start liking some of the new behavior. And that’s an example of one I would like.
Christina Koontz:
I agree with you on the delivery. And not even curbside. I have been using an app for grocery delivery for quite some time, probably six months to a year. And while sometimes I feel guilty when the person that’s shopping for me is messaging me through the app, saying “They don’t have this, would you like this?” And I’m like, I’m at home. I don’t even know what I’m doing. But it’s just down time and not having to go do it. And I’m saving money because when I go to the store, I’m impulse buying, and so I’m just picking up things I don’t need. It never fails, at Walmart I buy way too much stuff, or Target, I end up with things that I don’t even need or didn’t go for. But I have a list, and I order it, and it comes, and that’s it. And I’m like, okay, so I have saved money in doing that and using a service, and it’s been really nice.
Todd Nielson:
So let’s assume… oh [crosstalk 00:30:15]
Dex:
No, you go ahead with yours, Todd.
Todd Nielson:
I was going to say kind of to transition the topic a little bit, assuming that people are back in the office, and we’ve talked a little bit about strategy and communication, how do we work in an environment where there are people that are potentially scared to come into the office, they don’t quite have the confidence yet in the situation, and still operate how we need to? What’s this hybrid model that we really need to adapt?
Christina Koontz:
I think that the marketing team [inaudible 00:30:56] a lot to that since that’s how we always work. We have a few people in Tulsa office, a few people in the Springfield office, and then two people at home in Texas and Utah. So we’re kind of old hat.
Dex:
So Christina, what’s your perspective on that? How has that gone for you, being one of the people… because there are going to be the people that are in the office, so what’s your perspective on how that’s gone for you, as far as communicating with the rest of us and collaborating with the rest of us, that sort of thing, while being in the office?
Christina Koontz:
I think what’s worked for us is from the very beginning, we over-communicate, we have our set tools that we all use, we have our communication guidelines, and we always, always use video. So I feel like we’re all in the same room, basically.
Christy Hedrick:
So since I’ve been home, that’s what we’ve done as well. When I have a one on one with Russell, we use the video. Any time that I have tried to get together and chat with other people, I try to use video. Or at the very least, call them so that there’s just the hearing of the voice, instead of the chat. Of course, no differently than when we’re here. There have been some chat conversations. But when it gets into needing to do more than that, I do prefer the video or the calling. And the video, it does, it makes you feel like you’re right there, like you’re just in the same room, and you can talk about things. And I think the teams that’ve done that, I’ve heard great feedback from them, being able to use the video, and that makes a big difference. And there’s a little bit of accountability, too, with video, that we’re there and we’re doing what we’re supposed to be doing and in the right spot. And maybe makes you get out of your pj’s or like Dex said, put a shirt on, even if you have no pants on.
Christina Koontz:
Welcome back.
Christy Hedrick:
Yeah.
Dex:
Yeah, there’s Todd. Todd, you’re muted.
Christy Hedrick:
No mic.
Todd Nielson:
There we go.
Christy Hedrick:
There you go.
Todd Nielson:
Glad to be back. So speaking of video, do we have any more questions on the Facebook channel, the Facebook Live?
Dex:
While we’re waiting on that, one thing I wanted to mention, since I’ve had a little bit of experience with this, going back to people worrying about being productive at home versus in the office. And I have a feeling, not just based on Jay Mark, but based on talking to people in my family, friends, a lot of businesses are doing these in different manners. I’ve got one sister who, they’ve basically laid out what everybody can do from home, they’re all working from home, but they’ve figured out over the last month or so that some things are simply easier to do in the office. Some of the tasks that they have. And so they’ve basically mapped out, here are the things that you can do from home, here are the things from the office, and they’re thinking through the process of making sure that not everybody ends up at the office on the same day, trying to do those. So it’s taking some time.
Dex:
But also, this idea that I know she mentioned that it’s going to be kind of weird working both places, going back and forth, you sort of tend to think you’re either working from home all the time or you’re working from the office all the time. And I’ve done that in the past, actually, with a couple of different jobs, where I’ve worked both places. And for me, to keep the productivity up in both places, there is a different mindset in each place. And the simple thing that has always been most effective was taking time to plan out deliberately, at the end of the day, what you were going to get done the next day. Especially if you were going back and forth.
Dex:
So it’s a lot easier now. At one point when I’ve done this, it was back before cloud computing and having access to files and things that I might need online. But even now, it still helps to be deliberate, to plan out what you’re going to do the next day, so that wherever you are, you’ve got access to the tools and the things that you need so that you can get your work done, and so that you know what you’re planning on doing. So that those distractions you worry about when you’re going into the office, you’ve already got your plan. You know what you need to get done that day, and that can help minimize those distractions because you’re not sort of showing up and saying, all right, now what am I going to do? You already know.
Christy Hedrick:
I do the same thing, Dex. I have a list, and so I’ve worked mostly from home, but I’ve come into the office a least a day or two during the week because I’m a paper person. With a lot of the things that we have, with the files for people, and so there are some things I have to print and touch and have. And so for a long time, before even this, I have been a notebook person. And then I have a notebook, and at the top of it, every day I’ve got the date, and I make my list of things to do.
Christy Hedrick:
And at the end of the day, if there’s anything left on the list, I flip to the new page, write the new day, and at the top of the list is anything I didn’t get completed from the day before. And then I can add to it from the day. And there might be things that pop up the next day that prioritize over what I didn’t get done the day before, and I just have to work around that, but I’ve been doing that back and forth, and you need that to stay on task because if you are trying to do things at different places, like you said, it’s a different mindset. You’re doing different things, more focused in one place than you are the other. And so the list really does help just keep you going down the checklist and making sure you’re getting everything done.
Dex:
And it’s weird [crosstalk 00:37:10]
Todd Nielson:
Oh, go ahead.
Dex:
And I’m sure, hopefully, you would say the same thing, Christy, that for me, even after doing it for a long time, it’s easy to be dismissive of something as simple as making a task list because you’re like, I’ve been doing this job for a long time, I know everything I need to get done. And inevitably, the times that I don’t, without fail, that’s the times that I’m not prepared to have everything I need to get the work done. So something as simple as that, it’s amazing. It still makes a big difference.
Christy Hedrick:
Yeah.
Todd Nielson:
I think it kind of goes into… you mentioned the idea of processes and taking what works. And I think that’s really important because, as we get back to things, what worked in the home environment that we can potentially replicate in the office environment? And what can we take away from that? Next week for our discussion, we’re going to talk about having a retrospective of the entire work from home situation, and how do you go about doing a retrospective? Retrospective often also called post-mortem, so to speak, but that’s probably not the best term, nowadays. To learn what was right, what was wrong, and how are we doing to adapt to make a better normal, so to speak.
Christina Koontz:
So we have a question from Facebook. I’ve heard of companies that are work from home and in the office in shifts. That seems even more disruptive. Any thoughts?
Christy Hedrick:
I think we just kind of covered that one. That’s kind of what we talked about with having people that are doing a little bit of both and how disruptive that can be, and just having a plan of action when you’re at one place and when you’re at the other, and then carrying it over and making sure you have a list of things that can be done. If you’re working from home mostly, and you go in the office, make sure you go in with intentions and you’ve got everything mapped out on what you need to get done while you’re in there.
Christy Hedrick:
Because, one of the other big things that’s going to happen, and I don’t think we mentioned this specifically, you’re going to go in and you’re going to run into people that you haven’t seen in a while. And it’s going to be really easy to get off task. It’s going to be really easy to get excited to see people and to want to catch up, and to know that you have specific things that you have to get done will be helpful. It’s not going to keep the other things from happening, but maybe it will lessen it and keep you on track because you’re like, I have a whole list of things, and I only have this many hours I’m going to be here. Because you know tomorrow, you’re not going to be. So you need to go ahead and knock them out and make sure you get everything done.
Todd Nielson:
I think too, something that you kind of made me think about, was the examples of leaders and managers. As we’re moving back to this situation, it’s going to be even more and more important for leaders in the organization to be showing the example of productivity, the example of hard work. And knowing that there are a lot of people under stress, and there are a lot of people that are still worried, there are a lot of people that may have family members and other relations that are going through struggles, as a manager or leader in the organization, you’re essentially serving them. It’s servant leadership. You’re working your tail off to show them that they’re important, and that, in turn, motivates them to turn around and put as much effort as they can towards helping the organization be successful and adapt to the changes.
Christy Hedrick:
That’s right.
Dex:
I think another aspect of that that sort of came into my mind when I saw this question was, I think this worry of having people, maybe somebody… two people on a team that are working on the same project, and one person’s working on it in the evening, and the next person’s working on it the day, and how do you collaborate when you’re not on the same schedule? And I think that’s something that is a legitimate concern. But also, there are a lot of tools, now, to make that possible. And I think taking advantage of those tools, I know for us on the marketing team, we use Trello to map out our projects that we’re working on. And it’s fantastic because it’s very visual. And so you can see where things are, you can see who’s been working on something and what they’ve done. And I think that way, even if people are not in direct contact with each other, you can catch up really easily.
Dex:
And I know that’s helped us. We’ve had times when Christina is gone to a trade show, in the past, where she’s basically out of the office. She’s working that day, but she’s out of the office. But she can come back in and hopefully catch up really quickly on what I did the previous day, while she was unavailable to see and really get right back onto whatever we were working on together, to do her side of things. And I think taking advantage of those types of tools and the way that technology makes that happen today is really important.
Christy Hedrick:
Another question that came up on Facebook was is there a good strategy for helping employees that might be dealing with mental health issues during the lockdown, that do not want to raise the issue with their manager, and are therefore hard to identify? And that is true. We’ve been hearing on social media and on the news and different things that that is one of the number one things that is happening right now, is the mental health issues that are going on with all of this, and some people are really struggling. And it isn’t obvious always. There are sometimes things going on behind the scenes that we don’t know. And what we can do as companies and HR teams and leadership teams is just make sure that our employees know what is available. They don’t have to talk to you about it. Some people don’t feel comfortable with that. Some do, and that’s great. That makes it very easy when they are comfortable bringing it to you and asking questions, and what resources are there for me. But just making those resources available, we recently had… I know you guys all know, being here, that we posted several things. We had a speaker about some different things recently, regarding the same topic. And just putting those materials out there for your employees and letting them know there are resources.
Christy Hedrick:
We have an employee assistance program through one of our coverages. So if companies have that, making sure that people are aware of what that is and what it looks like, and don’t wait for someone to ask for it because they might not. If you find out something, or someone brings it to your attention, great. You can address it. But if you don’t know, then you can’t, really. So it’s best to give the information out there to the public and let them know, hey, this is here for you if you need it. And maybe somebody doesn’t even realize it. You guys can attest to, maybe, I think I got some emails back on it, but there was a lot of positive comments and feedback on that mental health wellness speaker that we had recently. It just kind of showed things from a different perspective, and I think people were really like, wow.
Christy Hedrick:
So if somebody hadn’t been thinking about it before, they might have been like it’s okay that I’m going through what I’m going through, and there are avenues to get some assistance. And so I think that we may not know about it, kind of to answer the question. You just have to inform your people of what’s available and what you can do to help them that way. If they want the help and they want to ask for it, they can. If not, it’s right there for them at their fingertips, and they don’t even have to reach out.
Christina Koontz:
Yeah, I think [crosstalk 00:45:17] know as well at the company cares about their mental health just as much as their physical health during this time, then that might make people a little bit more open to that conversation.
Christy Hedrick:
Yep.
Todd Nielson:
I think people need to realize now that mental health, that talking about mental health is not the same as it was 10 plus years ago. It’s respected a lot more, it’s understood that it is an illness, it’s not a personality or a choice or something. And I think that people need to understand that that is a real thing, and people need help just like that. And also, I think it’s pretty common to maybe not want to go to your supervisor about those things. Hopefully, you’d have enough trust in your supervisor and know that they care about you, and hopefully, they’re leading in a way that shows that. But going straight to HR and talking to HR about what benefits there are, or calling insurance company, it’s definitely another avenue if someone’s feeling uncomfortable.
Todd Nielson:
I think that’s completely relevant as we move back into the office because there are going to be people coming back into the office in total relief that spent too much time, maybe, around kids, and too much time around spouses, and too much time around chips and maybe things they shouldn’t have been eating, I don’t know, not enough time outside. And it’ll be coming back to the office, and there could be baggage that comes along with it.
Christy Hedrick:
No, it’s true.
Dex:
And I think it’s important to remember that, as leaders in a company and in HR, that people are also coming back, bringing stresses that they didn’t have before because it might be a two income household, where your company is going fine, and you’ve still got your employees, but their spouse might have lost their job. Or again, childcare might not be an option. And so they’re juggling other things that they weren’t juggling back in February, when they were working in the office. And so keeping in mind those things, people are bringing… somebody mentioned baggage. That’s other baggage that’s being brought into this new… what is it, the better normal?
Christy Hedrick:
For sure.
Christina Koontz:
And it looks like we had another comment from someone, that there’s going to trend a change in the office environment to be more homelike, adding couches, nap spaces, et cetera. Do you think this will become more of a trend, in light of the recent work from home situation? What about mood lighting?
Christy Hedrick:
So yeah, for sure, I think there’s a lot of companies that have already kind of moved to this. I think this has been kind of over the last several years, there have been companies that have added nap pods and different things to make things more comfortable, and lounge areas. So I definitely think that companies might look at more of that even now that we’ve gone through this. But I think, again, in answer to that, like other things, it’s going to be a company by company basis. Do I think that we might see more of it? Maybe. I just think it depends on the company and what that looks for them, what does production look like for them, what does their overall environment look like. I think some will do that. Some will have more things like that because they’re used to it. But I think it was already on the rise, and seeing companies that have started to do the… I can’t of the right… it’s real innovative type things to entice their employees to be able to stay at work longer and be more productive when they can step away and take a nap in a nap pod or things like that.
Todd Nielson:
If there is a change towards that, I personally don’t think that it’ll have absolutely anything to do with working from home. The trend has been due to research in, essentially, productivity, and that’s where those things have come from. There might be some lessons… I think there’ll be lessons learned, of course, from a personal level on what works and what doesn’t work. But it’s kind of hard for a company just to go add a nap pod or add mood lighting [inaudible 00:50:07]
Christy Hedrick:
Agreed.
Todd Nielson:
Unless they’re moving offices, all of a sudden. Imagine that.
Christy Hedrick:
Imagine that.
Dex:
I do think that people have learned, like you mentioned, Todd, about their own productivity, and I think that personally, I think is going to pass over to… because I know, Todd, you’ve mentioned you have had discussions in the executive team about productivity and the executive team has been able to see a little bit more what other people, how they deal with different working situations. And I think that maybe will carry over this idea and the understanding that all of us are productive in different ways, and all of us respond better to different types of environments, and a little bit more inclusiveness, for lack of a better word, as to letting people work in their best manner and be productive in the way that works for them, instead of trying to jam everybody into the same work flow.
Todd Nielson:
Within reason, of course.
Christy Hedrick:
Right.
Todd Nielson:
We have to realize that having a job is a privilege, and there are bad leaders and bad bosses out there, but generally, for the most part, people want their employees to be happy. People want their employees to be productive. Because it’s a give and take. But I think, to go along with what you said, Dex, I think leaders need to be careful in implementing policies and strategies that they don’t, themselves, need to worry about. For example, if you have an open office environment, and you have an office, and you make new rules and policies to help you be more productive where you’re siting in your office, and then that might come across wrong to people. And so we have to be careful in that messaging and lead by example. For sure.
Christy Hedrick:
Agreed. And I think a good thing to remember is employees need to remember not only the leadership teams and the companies, while we want to create a better normal, and we want to make things the best that they can be for the employees, there still are limitations. There still are budgets. There still are things that have to be done and work requirement, and not everything can just be, well, it worked when we did it, so that’s just how it should work for moving forward. Well, we had to adapt and we had to do what we had to do for a period of time, but that doesn’t mean that we have to say yes to everything moving forward.
Christy Hedrick:
We can entertain conversations, and we can look at it and see, and if it’s best for the business model and the person to do that, sometimes it’ll work out. The answer still might be no to some things and some changes. We have to be able to have those [inaudible 00:53:19] conversations too, that we don’t have to say yes to everything just because it works temporarily, and that’s what the employees want. And we have to make sure that we’re doing what they want because they might be stressed and they might, whatever. We can’t also be in fear of those situations, to make, like Todd said, more policies and more things around things. We need to look at the whole picture and not try to think, okay, maybe things come back and are the same normal. I don’t think they will be for a while, but they might eventually be the same normal, if they’re not a better normal, and maybe it’s a hybrid. We just have to be able to know that… we have to be able to kind of stand our ground a little bit too, because there are still restrictions that play into things, like Todd can speak to. There are [inaudible 00:54:02] things that exec teams have to look at, and there are certain things that we can’t just say yes to. We can’t just add nap pods and mood lighting because that felt better at home.
Todd Nielson:
Very true. I think we’ve had a really interesting discussion this morning, this afternoon, whatever it is. Why don’t we do a little bit of recap, for those who might be coming in at the end here, or kind of want to get the bulleted list of transition to home? Because I think we touched on a lot of different areas. So why don’t we go around, and everybody can give a brief bulleted list, so to speak, out about what are the best strategies for transitioning back to the office.
Todd Nielson:
Christina, you want to start?
Christina Koontz:
Sure. I would say from a leadership perspective, just remembering it continue to have empathy during this time. We’re not bouncing back to normal. Mental health is more of an issue now than ever, and it’s just as important to think about the people aspect of it than just all of the tactics of what it looks like to move back into the office.
Dex:
Yeah, I would add my big takeaway is always communication. Communicating to your employees and communicating to your customers the steps that you’re taking. And again, communication going both ways. Listening to your employees and listening to your customers, to help you make the right decisions about how to go about this and the processes put in place and new ways to offer your services or new ways to get work done, to make sure that your productivity remains high.
Christy Hedrick:
I’d say my big takeaway probably piggybacks on both of yours, but probably number one is communication to the employees and from the employees. Just make sure that you have an open line of communication, asking questions, oversharing on things that you think are coming, try to squash any of those fears or concerns or hesitations anyone has, which leads into the mental health piece of it and the questions people might have or the things that they’re going through, where if we’re over-communicating and letting people know where they can find the [inaudible 00:56:25] that they need, overall we can look at this and know that we’re over-communicating on everything, then all of this should kind of fall into place because we can at least be talking about it and finding out what the best new better normal will be, as we move forward.
Todd Nielson:
Agree completely with all of you. I think for me, the realization of this idea of the better normal is the biggest thing for me. I think we as leaders need to look at the strategy of our organization, look at the tactics, figure out how we can come back bigger, better, stronger, and make our employees more productive, more happy. And it’s going to take, potentially, a lot of changes. And leading through those changes and leading by example, I think, are going to be keys to what things will look like in the new better normal, after all of this is done and over.
Todd Nielson:
Well, thanks for joining us [crosstalk 00:57:27] and put on pants, yes.
Christy Hedrick:
Wear pants.
Todd Nielson:
Don’t stand up, Dex. Thanks, everybody, have a wonderful week.
Christy Hedrick:
Thanks.
Speaker 1:
Thank you for attending this podcast. We hope it has been informative and helped convey that at Jay Mark, we are people first and technology second. To learn more and discover additional content relevant to your business, please visit us online at jaymark.com or at LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. You may also call us at 844-44-JAYMARK. Thank you for your time, and we look forward to seeing you again.
