Back to the future of work

Considering the rapid changes that all of us are experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the trends that HR leaders are actually just discussing or seeing have been rapidly advanced. Before our eyes, the future of work is evolving at an unprecedented rate.

Immediate impact

In March 2020, my discussion with my colleagues at ServiceNow focused on how we can best support EMEA employees: employees who have been affected by the pandemic and are preparing for areas where infection rates are still low but are expected to rise.

We know that we must start from three aspects: protect the safety and well-being of everyone in the workforce; communicate clearly; and enable everyone to function as effectively as possible.

Internal, company-wide updates are important to formulate our approach, but we have found that taking time for regular, informal communication does help our employees adapt to the home office setting.

We have been learning, but I believe that our collective empathy and open discussions between colleagues and teams have brought us closer together.

We actively utilize our own platform and new emergency response applications, and our team quickly developed these applications to share information, understand the impact on employees and manage our situation.

We managed to effectively respond to the unique first phase of the influenza pandemic while maintaining the safety of our employees. I have also seen that our customers have also initiated some great initiatives, such as the Washington State Department of Health. The customized solution mobilized the emergency team on the Now platform.

Adapt to new daily business

The first step is to respond quickly, but as the COVID-19 pandemic is bound to have a lasting impact, teams around the world are facing challenges to adapt to new ways of conducting “daily business”.

At ServiceNow, we have embraced the method of working anytime, anywhere, which really helped us to transition smoothly to the new “work from home” reality. However, due to physical distancing implemented throughout the EMEA region, we also attach great importance to bringing the workforce together.

The global “town hall” meetings led by our CEO Bill McDermott, as well as the regional and local meetings of our business leaders, provide much-needed support, motivation and assurance at this challenging time. Our workplace services team also acted swiftly and launched a virtual program to strengthen our culture of inclusiveness and belonging.

The fully digitalized HR process supports the continuous growth of recruitment. We have changed from in-person onboarding to a 100% virtual experience to ensure that it is integrated into ServiceNow from the moment the admission notice is received.

We have also seen a major shift in virtual participation between managers, team leaders, business leaders and their direct reports. Our virtual world is collaborative, supportive and empowered-these changes will continue to exist.

Back-the new workplace reality

With the relaxation of lockdown measures, we entered the third stage of the COVID-19 crisis, and we began to plan how to bring employees back to the workplace.

We must deal with new challenges. Of course, health and safety will be the top priority of ServiceNow and global organizations. Our recently launched Safe Workplace Apps and Dashboard play an important role in helping us support our employees in returning to the “new normal”.

This application suite is designed to help companies manage the basic steps for employees to return to the workplace safely. It will not only provide data to assess the readiness of the workplace, but also provide us as the head of human resources to make the right decisions to ensure employees’ peace of mind and support employees. Need insights. .

I believe that returning to the office cannot be seen as a “giving” but a matter of personal choice. Flexible work practices that prove their worth during the COVID-19 crisis will help define a new workplace reality.

Most importantly, we need to put employees at the center of the realistic decision-making process in the new workplace. By doing this, I believe we will find the right path for our employees, customers and our business.