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I am sure I don’t stand alone in sharing that if I had to guess what 2020 had in hold for us even four  months ago, I can assure you ” a pandemic and the related potential impact to our talent and business was nowhere on the radar.

We, just like many of you, are navigating a new world.  We’ve gone from a business model where airline travel and being in close proximity, not only to each other, but to the general public was common place ” to working and collaborating on the other side of computer screens from each other trying to engage in the same way using these new mediums to connect.

As an HR leader, my priority is our people.  Ensuring we are keeping our talent a priority while maintaining the sustainability of our business in focus during these times is critical.  It can be challenging to manage through these times without confidence in our HR leadership and their abilities, resources, and data to provide the solutions required.

I want to share a few things we’ve focused on that have helped us provide support for the needs and care of our employees while keeping fiscal responsibility in focus to support the changing business needs.

1. Data Drives Our Decisions

We have the unique privilege of partnering with some pretty amazing cloud technology providers.  By keeping data in focus, and with the availability of the information we needed at our fingertips, we were able to identify our revised revenue projections, where and how quickly we could cut costs to save every valued employee possible – and where those difficult decisions had to be made – providing confidence that those decisions kept that in focus.

2. Transparency & Communication

Our CEO, Jay, along with our executive leadership team, has shared real-time updates via recorded videos on the state of the business, what’s on the horizon and how everyone can help.  As part of these communications and efforts ” include those decisions that impact our talent.  In the early days, there wasn’t much of positive news ” and what was shared was some harsh realities.  While the messages have been at times tough to hear, our employees have shared that they appreciate the honesty and openness.

3. Provide New Ways to Engage and Connect

We’ve implemented a range of different initiatives, including twice-weekly Zoom video conference meetings showcasing someone’s unique talents, playing trivia, teaching others how to cook or how to play the drums. It’s given us all a chance to connect outside of the daily work, and we’ve been able to forge new relationships with each other that might not have happened otherwise.  With our entrepreneurial and caring culture, it’s been amazing to see what our employees have collaborated on to find new ways to connect and forge meaningful support systems in this new reality.  We’ve launched a weekly good news newsletter focusing on good things that are happening around the firm and in our communities.  All of these measures have provided a needed connection that’s so important.

4. Find Creative Ways to Train and Enable Your Talent

We have launched virtual training & enablement tools and support to help our employees diversify their skill sets and provide opportunities for them to engage in meaningful leadership development programs with our innovative partner, Ignite Journeys.

5. Request Feedback Often

One of the efforts we put in place as part of our communication & transparency efforts was to request anonymous feedback from our employees.  We believe it’s integral to our ability to thrive in these times by empowering them to ask the tough questions. We’ve heard the stories of what to do and what not to do when it comes to the decisions being made and actions being taken that impact our friends and colleagues.

6. Invest in good HR Technology!

There is a great commercial with a famous shark tank celebrity talking about HR spending too much time in manual processes and basic administration ” it’s true!  One of the foundational principals in building our HR function when the company was founded was to automate whatever we can to gain efficiency and ensure integrity in data and – most importantly ” a great employee experience.  Now ” we are far from perfect in this area ” but had we not made these investments ” imperfect in some places as they may be, we wouldn’t be able to roll out new programs that are focused on supporting our employees in this virtual environment as effectively.

I am always keen to learn what others are doing to support their organizations during this time.  Please share what you are doing to help your people and your organizations thrive during these times!

Founded in 2018, Spaulding Ridge is a top management consulting firm, dedicated to client success and helping organizations implement and adopt best-in-cloud technology to solve their most pressing challenges. We provide the office of the CFO financial clarity to Sales and Operational complexity by integrating financial and sales SaaS Platforms.

We help:

• Finance gain control ” Increasing financial effectiveness, insight and impact

• Sales increase Productivity ” Hitting quota more quickly, consistently and efficiently

• Operations increase Competitiveness ” Through productivity rates, customer service outcomes, and efficiency

For more information please contact us at [email protected].

Cara Halladay
Director, HR, Spaulding Ridge
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