The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; Organisation Change and the Impact of COVID19, Simon Chell (AstraZeneca), Tim Hardman (COVID19 Survey)
At the start of 2020, most faced changes to the way we work with the spread of COVID-19. Employers and employees embraced a new virtual workspace. Changes were quickly introduced leaving little time for contemplation, planning or preparation.
Our speakers presented on Challenges of home working and future working practice:
Tim Hardman (CEO, Niche Science and Technology Ltd) presented his findings from two broad surveys of the Pharma industry. An early survey of pharma people found that everyone faced personal disruption and change, many people quickly showed signs of isolation and depression.
At 12 months, nations such as the UK were considering the potential to reverse lockdown conditions. Enlightened employers and employees were asking themselves whether lessons learned during the pandemic may be translated into new working paradigms. A second survey was conducted to gain insight into thoughts regarding future working at the time of rising pressure to return to offices and the old way of working.
In Summary;
We may have seen a switch by some freelancers to more traditional employment models.
Hybrid or home working – there currently seems to be no brake in the extent to which we are working. – and we need to address this as it is affecting our lives.
The way we work is changing and if we want to see a new partnership between employee and employer there has to be investment by both sides.
Industry charters and company guides are the responsibility of everyone to be involved with.
Simon Chell (Executive Director, Discovery Sciences, Astra Zeneca plc) discussed a change process to transform the work/life balance of a group that were feeling stress from over a year of working from home.
In Summary;
Understand what has changed and the impact.
Acknowledge the need to adapt.
Be clear on what can be changed and your priorities.
Make sure you listen and act, do not languish on issues outside your control.
We ran a questions and discussion section with like-minded colleagues.
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