“Brand activism” - the new embodiment of corporate values

Where to play and how to play, are the questions that many global brands have positively squared up to in a short space of 100 days. The George Floyd movement, Coronavirus and Donald Trump have given brands a new sense of purpose and redefined societal responsibility in a completely new way.  Brands have moved from being passive to active participants on contentious and divisive issues to ‘take a knee’. On the anti-racism and reform of criminal justice campaigns, mass support has been unprecedented.  From CEOs through to major global sports leagues, all have been vocal on media, company websites, via official social media accounts or through messages to employees.

Read more at https://www.exchange4media.com/marketing-news/on-brands-taking-a-knee-in-divisive-times-105454.html

HR rebooted - Reinventing workplace

For people managers there’s a rethink on workforce strategies, encompassing: composition, compensation and performance

HR Rebooted

Balancing PR agency business goals with innovative workforce strategies. As a new workplace model has emerged, so have the rules of engagement.  PR agencies are no exceptionwith businesscoming to a complete halt.  For agency leadership, it’s a time for re-invention, business survival, client continuity and the need to demonstrate a new type of value add.  For HR professionals, there’s a rethink on workforce strategies, encompassing: composition,compensation and performance.  For the individual, work from home demands discipline, self-motivation and re-learn how to function effectively in a virtual team.

Reboot

Abhishek Shankar, National HR Director, Avian-WE commented: “The biggest pandemic lesson learned, take nothing for granted.  We’re having to almost completely re-write the HR handbook with new chapters as new management routines and rituals have emerged.  Our role as business leadershas been to support the business recovery process and toward sustainable operations with optimism and transparency.”  Vishal Gera, Lead- HR , Archetype, added, “Our primary focus has been to preserve, cherish and enhance the overall cultural fabric of the organisation at a time of uncertainty.  So we’ve completely recalibrated our people processes to move into a virtual scenario, right from hiring, onboarding to engagement channels.”

‘Zoomed’ out

There is no doubt that most agencies have successfully transitioned but managing the next stage of ‘lockdown’ has posed new challenges.  Virtual town halls, company meets, games and jamming sessions have their obvious limitations and most people are ‘zoomed’ out.

Archetype’s Gera, adds, “WFH was not new to us, it’s been part of an Asia strategy pre-lockdown.  It’s definitely played it’s part but people need to feel connected again, especially the younger age groups.  There’s no substitute to the human connect for personal development, employee well-being and assimilating organisation culture.  So, in this next phase we’re looking to build a hybrid work model, combining physical and digital infrastructure to accommodateboth individuals and teams needing to come together.”

The obvious WFH benefits have been outweighed by issues of social isolation, extended work hours, morale and consistent performance.  Abhishek Pandey, remarked, “As office returns have been extended due to safety concerns, home working isimpacting employee happiness.  Traditional channels to vent and share anxieties viaoffice friends and colleagueshas disappeared, and so we’ve been forced to recognise a new dimension to health and mental well-being and provide appropriate support, as and when required.”