Download PDFDear all,
The results are now in and I’m pleased to be able to share with you the results of the mini survey that has been live for the last couple of weeks.
Just to remind you we asked four simple questions
1. What impact do you think COVID-19 has had on our company’s culture (with respect to our values or passion, innovation, quality, openness)?
2. Are you clear on what is expected from you during this period?
3. To what extent would you recommend the connectivity in your team to others?
4. When you are not working how do you take care of your wellbeing?
5. What should we improve or continue doing this period?
Thank you to everyone who took part – we had just under 200 responses from across the Group. Whilst this is of course only a small proportion of the total people in Colart, it is about two-thirds of those of you with active email addresses and access to our systems….so to the results!
Culture:
Nearly two-thirds of you feel this crisis has had a positive impact on our culture. The reasons you gave are varied (covered later in this summary) but the quote below is a great representation of this result
“I firmly believe that if the positives are maintained and we capitalise on the opportunities that arise from this situation, Colart will come out stronger and will be in a good position by the end of this year.”
Clarity of expectations:
This is a great result and one that Colart wants to hear. A High Five to all leaders across the business for ensuring work expectations are clear.
One aspect that we do however need to pay attention to is getting the balance right as it is clear challenges exist in:
1. Ensuring priorities are not only clear but also realistic
2. Balancing the demands of home (with for example home schooling) and the demands of work
Connectivity:
When we asked the question about you would recommend the connectivity in your teams, we purposefully asked you to score from 0 to 10. If you remember from past surveys, this is the way we get a view of our Net Promoter Score (NPS). The results provide an interesting picture when you compare those of you who feel the current situation has had a negative impact on our culture versus those of you who feel it has had a positive impact on our culture:
So, what does this tell us? Simply it shows the absolute importance and value of feeling connected, part of a team and not alone. This is something that we will focus on to ensure communications are not just through email but have a personal touch ideally through a video call (on Teams which has been recognised as a valuable tool in the business). We do however recognise that not everyone has Teams so we will work with line managers to think about how to build this connectivity.
From some comments, we can see that some of you are struggling with the isolation and we urge you to talk to us – talk to you line manager or your local HR BP. We do not want anyone to feel alone. You are part of the Colart family and we want to support you.
One person had a great idea of making short films on our phones about how we are feeling and what we are doing (particularly if we or a member of our family is supporting in the community). This visual storytelling was felt to be a great way to maintain the sense of team and connectivity. We love this idea and would be keen to receive such films for sharing.
Wellbeing:
Finding out about what everyone is doing to pay attention to their wellbeing showed a wonderful picture of just how much people have been able to do. The visual below shows the main activities that you have listed:
Spending quality time with our families as well as staying fit and healthy features highly in our focus but it was interesting to see just how many people have taken up art – this may indeed be a representation of what is happening in the market as we are seeing a great uplift in our sales through online channels. Also, good to see Elephant Kiosk is also reflecting this picture with a nice bump in online sales.
We will prepare a list of all the activities and add it to the Navigating COVID Platform in the hope that it inspires some of you. Remember, you can use the Wall if you want to connect with others of like minds in wellbeing activities.
Improve or continue:
Through this question we received insightful comments including the following:
1. The frequency and openness of communications has been widely acknowledged as adding value and something that should continue
2. The town halls with Dennis have been a real hit particularly due to their frequency, informality and accessibility. For information, Dennis and Gail will be holding the next webinar Town Hall on Tuesday 28 April.
3. Recognition that non-connected people in manufacturing and logistics may be missing out with these communications – the decision to provide Colart email addresses to everyone to allow the rollout of Splash should help
4. The sharing that has taken place across the business should be maintained. An idea raised was that each team should do a webinar to explain their focus and priorities – something for us to explore.
5. Recognition of the care that has been taken by Colart to protect people in the workplace and a clear expectation that we must not be complacent
6. Focus on the health and wellbeing should be maintained along with the emphasis on the Colart community
7. The enhanced feeling of teamwork and connectivity despite people being physically separated is something that people really want to see continue
8. With all the challenges faced by people in and out of work, Colart needs to recognise that people are feeling a sense of insecurity and this is particularly relevant for those who are furloughed.
9. For those people that are not furloughed, we need to continue being flexible as people are juggling many aspects and pressures in their lives.
10. An indication that when the lockdowns come to an end, you would like Colart to review how we maintain flexible working arrangements for those who can work from home and how we will phase the actual return to work.
11. That we need to pay attention to flexibility for our people in manufacturing and logistics who cannot work from home.
In summary, what is clear is that we are all aware of there being a “new normal” in our lives and this is a discussion that we plan to take further so that we can support where necessary and be agile to take advantage of new opportunities that arise out of this situation. We will use this form of mini survey to explore this thinking. Of course, any questions, please do not hesitate in contacting me.
The final word as always is that we cannot stress enough the importance of following the safety protocols for everyone in Colart and your families: As reminder please visit this site for further information on how to ensure protection against infection.
STAY SAFE, thank you again for completing the Covid-19 survey and for the resilience that each and every one of you has shown during this challenging period.
Regards,
Jane Beeston
Chief People Officer