Special Episode
in the last Australian HR Institute (AHRI) SA State Conference, we had the opportunity to interview some of the attendees discussing all things the Future of Work.
Listen to Daniel Franco interviewing 13 wonderful attendees of the event and was able to pick their brains on their thoughts about the future of work. Their responses were far and wide with some really great perspectives with the common theme that the future work will be all about the people.
Michelle Holland, Executive Director of Synergy IQ also gives us a quick recap of the day.
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
Special Episode
in the last Australian HR Institute (AHRI) SA State Conference, we had the opportunity to interview some of the attendees discussing all things the Future of Work.
Listen to Daniel Franco interviewing 13 wonderful attendees of the event and was able to pick their brains on their thoughts about the future of work. Their responses were far and wide with some really great perspectives with the common theme that the future work will be all about the people.
Michelle Holland, Executive Director of Synergy IQ also gives us a quick recap of the day.
Join the conversation on Synergy IQ LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram (@synergyiq) and please support other leaders by liking, subscribing and sharing this podcast.
Access SynergyIQ Website to get to know more about us.
Say hello to our host Daniel on LinkedIn.
Welcome to Creating synergy where we explore what it takes to transform. We are powered by Synergy IQ. Our mission is to help leaders create world class businesses where people are safe, valued, inspired and fulfilled. We can only do this with our amazing community. So thank you for listening.
Daniel Franco:Hi there Synergizers and welcome back to a special episode of The creating synergy podcast. My name is Daniel Franco, your host, and today we ventured down to the glorious sanctuary room at the Adelaide Zoo for the Australian HR Institute event on the future of work. Synergy IQ were lucky enough to be a local sponsor for the event. And as a result, I was lucky enough to set up a podcast area where I was able to interview for 13 Wonderful attendees of the event. During the mid morning lunch and afternoon breaks. We chatted for a couple of minutes with each of these local legends, where I was able to pick their brains on their thoughts about the future of work. Their responses were far and wide with some really great perspectives with a common theme that the future of work will be all about the people. Thank you to everyone who braved the bright lights, the potential public embarrassment to come speak with me. And apologies to anyone who wanted to come on the show, but we ran out of time. All in all, it was an amazing day. And thank you to everyone at Ari for putting on such a great event. Before we jump into the interviews, Michelle Holland, Director of synergy IQ will just give a quick recap of the day. If you like the podcast, be sure to hit subscribe and check us out at Synergy IQ calm day you and synergy IQ on all the social media outlets, geez.
Michelle Holland:Synergy IQ were the very proud sponsors of the Sa ra conference this year. And there's really nothing that we like more than to support good South Australian businesses. And we know that our South Australian Human Resources, people contribute hugely to that. As a participant, myself of the conference, there were some great things that were talked about by the speakers. I must say I was really impressed this year with the State Conference. I've been involved with Ari for about 20 years, and have been to the conference a number of times over that period of time. And this year, I felt that the conversation had lifted, lifted more into the strategic space lifted more into organizational development. There was really great conversations around culture, around leadership around who we are as leaders and how we turn up. There was also a real flavor of evidence based understanding and evidence based learning, which was dotted through most of the presentations, which I as a research and data nerd, absolutely love that. I love to see things being backed up by real evidence and real information that actually proves that what we do, and how we're turning up as leaders actually contributes positively to our organizations. The first session in the morning, I really enjoyed Hayley Lokan, she was talking about building inclusion, connection and accountability. Haley had a wonderful structure for being able to look at these three really, really important things in organizations. She also gave us some really good insight into how she works with the people she works with, to embed these topics into the way in which they work. So she looked at the organizational structure, as well as team structures, as well as the individual. I really enjoyed Haley's conversation. The next one that was just, I was amazed with which because it was all evidence based, and it was all information based and I was taking lots of photographs, was presentation about the future of work from Govert Mellink. Govert is from PWC. And he presented the future of work report that PwC has done over the last little while. So there were some real interesting trends that had occurred some changes because of COVID because of the changes that we have been going through as organizations because of our response to the global pandemic. I found it fascinating to look at some of the things that the PwC has been able to find out about, through doing some really great research. They do the Future of Work Research almost on end You'll or biannual basis. But this time, obviously, with the changes that we had gone through, there was definitely more concentration on thinking about things in a bit of a different way. I liked his structure and allowed the structure of the future of work. And it looks at work places and work forces. And it also looks at work types. So not just about one thing. So the experience of work is work type workforce and workplaces. And when they talking about workplaces, he's talking about the space that we use, whether it's at home, whether it's in office, and and all the different stats associated with that. What the stats actually came back was that when the experience of work, so those three things are taken into account, and we think about that, then productivity and profitability go up by 21%, which is just really amazing. So have a look at that report. And and dive into that. It was it was really interesting. I think one of the things that stood out for me as well was the conversation across a lot of the presentations about the work from home. And I think one of the things that really sparked my interest was, we talk about work from home, like it is something new, that is the future of work. And really, it's actually the current of work. There's a lot of organizations that have been doing work from home or a hybrid model for years. And a lot of people that have been successfully navigating that remote working. The other thing I think it sparked for me is that when we're talking about the impact of COVID, we can't only talk about the work from home versus work in office, because that actually only covers a small percentage of the actual workforce in Australia. People that work in retail, people that work in health care, frontline people, essential services, people, people working in libraries, you know, people who have got a physical component to their job, don't have the opportunity or don't have the access to work from home model. So I think as HR practitioners, we really need to be very cognizant about the different types of work, and that work from home isn't the only flexibility solution. In the afternoon, I really enjoyed the conversation from Rebecca Christiansen, she talked about a real life experience about bringing a people and culture strategy to life. And she also had a guest from Flinders University that actually helped her explain the detail behind how she brought the people and culture, strategy to life for a college within the university. It was really interesting, it was really practical, it went through all of the elements of culture that we need to be thinking about. And I really enjoyed Rebecca's conversation. Chris Hewitt, he spoke, and he was a remote speaker. And I got to say, you know, sometimes when you have remote speakers at a conference, you kind of lose track of what they're saying, you kind of check out some time. But Chris, he didn't allow you to do that. He is a communications expert. And for those of you that were actually at the conference will know that how engaging he was in the conversations, the the stories that he told, were just absolutely spot on. He's a fighter pilot. He's a poet, he was sharing all sorts of information that was really relevant to how we actually turn up and have deep, meaningful, interesting conversations and how we lead change. The last part of the afternoon was great because I had panels. So I always find panels really interesting, because there's a number of different speakers. We had a number of speakers that you'll actually hear on this podcast today, talking about the future of work. And we also had a panel of speakers really talking about advancing your career as a HR professional. And I think one of the things that I found really interesting, I think, because I'm a complete culture nerd, and that's my specialty area is when Peter seamen from people to people was talking about the impact of and the changes of the global response to COVID on recruitment. She was talking about obviously, the impact of trying to get people trying to get new people into our organizations and we know how hard that can be sometimes particularly getting skilled people. But one of the things that she went through was the research that people do people have actually put together on the list of what do people want? What are the questions that people are asking about the organization when she's trying to recruit, the number one thing was culture. That was before the pandemic, that is still the same after the pandemic. The changes to that after COVID was very much around the second and third things and the issues that people are asking about. So before COVID, people were asking about salary and how much money I'm going to get after COVID. They're much more asking about flexibility. So I think as HR practitioners, we really need to be thinking that if we're not working on the culture, if we're not getting our organizations and our leaders thinking about the culture of the organization, and really, really focusing on that experience of our people, then we're missing out on a great recruitment strategy as well. We ended the day with Rhonda Brighton-Hall. And she came in again, as a remote speaker. But again, Rhonda is so engaging. So it was really great to listen to her speaking about her experiences, and her ideas around focusing and leveraging culture. One of the things I really loved that Rhonda said was this idea of what she called sonder. And sonder was really about recognizing that we are all unique, I'm unique, you're unique, everybody is unique, we have unique experiences, and not to undervalue those experiences that we have, be able to leverage that by think for us at Synergy IQ, our mission and our vision includes our ability to help people be valued, safe, inspired and fulfilled. So this idea of sonder absolutely resonated strongly with me. I really enjoyed the conference yesterday, it was great catching up with some colleagues that I've known for a very long time people haven't seen for a while it was great to be in the room face to face. And I hope you enjoy the conversations that Dan had with some great HR leaders at the state conference. He asked them, What does the future of work look like? So listen to these guys, and find out thanks.
Daniel Franco:Welcome back to the creating synergy podcast, I'm Daniel Franco here at the Ari event. Talking about the future of work, I have the lovely Melissa, she plays with us. Thank you for joining us.
Melissa Ciplys:Thank you for having me.
Daniel Franco:Tell us a little about yourself, Melissa, what do you do? Where are you from?
Melissa Ciplys:So I am the head of people and culture at an engineering firm home showroom in Adelaide.
Daniel Franco:Beautiful. And so just in keeping with the theme for today, what is your thought process on the future of work,
Melissa Ciplys:my thought process on the future of work, I think the future of work is going to become more and more genuinely human. And so Hey, chars role in that is really about humanizing the workplace. So we're seeing a little bit of that with respect to remote work flexible work practices. But extending that through to HR policies processes, inductions, the employee experience, really looking for ways to humanize that and make it personal.
Daniel Franco:Absolutely. We trade our paper well, and they customers receive the benefit that I don't know. Absolutely. What are some of the industry trends that you're seeing? Like, especially with you guys, at the moment, you're very innovative in the way you work? What are some of the things that you guys are doing at Shell
Melissa Ciplys:group? Yeah, so we're actually really focusing on professional development despite COVID. And so we're looking at ways to enhance our leadership capability in all of the different roles that we undertake, whether you are a manager of a person or not, you might be running a functional group, you might be leading a client team, for example, but looking at ways that developing your leadership capability. And we're doing that in a really innovative way. So at times, we're doing that face to face where we can but with COVID restrictions in place out of place, up and down. We are looking at running those virtually looking at interactive sessions, with some people in person, some people virtual and a range of different activities that engage people in that blended learning experience, despite all the disruption of what's going on. Yeah, beautiful.
Daniel Franco:So given what we heard this morning with couple of speakers, we heard about 60% of people want to stay home and work. Is that something that you're seeing as well. The hybrid model is here to stay.
Melissa Ciplys:Absolutely. So we're seeing a lot of people called choosing to stay home and work. We also have an environment where some of our people do need to work on site, given the defense classification that they're working with. But it's something that people are managing really flexibly. So they're they're working out which components of their role can be done at home, which needs to be done at the office and choosing where they work that best suits them.
Daniel Franco:And how does the head of people and culture manage that hybrid model getting people engaged more often than not like,
Melissa Ciplys:I think it's a hard one. There's a lot of social stuff going on online as well. But I think a really important piece is granted trust upfront. So equipping people to perform well at home that includes everything from ergonomic equipment to making sure that their internet connection is working, and then granting them the trust that they will perform at home as they would in the office.
Daniel Franco:Beautiful. Oh, I gave you too much longer. Thank you very much for your time today. It's much appreciated. We'll catch you around. Thank you. Okay, we're back with V. Collins. Welcome to the show. V. Thank you for being here.
V. Collins:You're welcome. It's an absolute privilege.
Daniel Franco:So tell us a little bit yourself. What do you do with yourself?
Vy Collins:Certainly. So I am the head of people and culture at renew USA, USA. Yes. Government Organization. Absolutely. And I've spent probably the last decade growing up in industrial relations, then moving on to a far broader, holistic people and culture on
Daniel Franco:well done. So today is all about the future of work. Here at the Art conference. Tell us a little bit about your thoughts on the future of work?
Vy Collins:Absolutely. So I think for us, it's looking at employees in their whole selves. So really, certainly acknowledging that they are humans and COVID is absolutely accelerated that and looking at what does that mean, particularly for government where we don't have the remuneration and other benefits, to engage them and attract them and retain them. So we do really need to look at, you know, what can we offer, and a lot of that focuses on them as humans rather than just as an employee as human capital. Absolutely.
Daniel Franco:I love the idea of looking at people at humans is the only way we should really look at people
V. Collins:Most certainly
Daniel Franco:The robot things coming right with all the AIs. So I can you have you seen any trends lately in the industry? In regards to people, you know, from working from home, or the way that we're using in a digital world? What are the trends that you're popping up over and over again
Vy Collins:lately in terms of leaning on digital technologies, and also just leading with data? And I think that's a challenge with many government organizations about how do you lead with data, but also in terms of the people culture profession, I think that's that piece where you know, if we are going to be as PNC professionals going to seem to have more credibility, adding more value at the strategic level, at the executive level. And ideally, at board level, we do need to use data often influence as well as using digital technology, streamline processes, innovate work better, because of course, I'm sure many of us can't find enough hours in the day. And I think the workforce certainly relate to that.
Daniel Franco:Absolute data is key. Look, I won't give you much more longer. So thank you very much for your time, appreciate sharing your thoughts. You're welcome. So welcome back to the podcast, we have Natalie Morris and Natalie, tell us a little about yourself.
Natalie Morris:Hello, I'm Natalie Morris. I'm the director of people and performance at the department for innovation skills. And I'm also a State Counselor for RA here in SA.
Daniel Franco:So thanks for joining us on the podcast, obviously in theme with today's event. We're talking about the future of work, what's your thought process around the future of
Natalie Morris:work. So my thoughts around the future and World of Work. Moving forward is about the skills that we're going to need in the future. And what I've been thinking about is about the data and digital capability. And that's something that we really need to grow within our school system as well as within our, within our workforce. And really thinking about I've got two young children, so a 14 year old and 11 year old and really thinking about like the jobs that they're going to be going into I don't think actually are inventing. Yeah. So how are we going to be upskilling our workforce and upskilling our kids actually to be ready for the future of work.
Daniel Franco:It's an interesting point, what type of conversations you're having with your kids right now in regards to that and preparing them for the future.
Natalie Morris:So I'm getting them to think about the things that they're actually interested in. And one of the big things that they are interested in is gaming and, and computers in general. So it's about talking to them as to how they can use their passion in terms of computing and gaming to be able to develop a career for themselves in the future.
Daniel Franco:So you sound like the future of works really love what you do. It's kind of where it's gonna end up
Natalie Morris:I think it's Yeah, loving what you're doing, doing being able to thrive and being really passionate. And I think also having fun as well. Beautiful.
Daniel Franco:Thank you very much for your time today, Natalie.
Natalie Morris:Thanks, Daniel. Bye.
Daniel Franco:So again, welcome back. We have Hayley Lokan on the show. I saw your your talk up there earlier today was very inspiring a couple of good points in some case statistics. Yeah, really coming out of that.
Hayley Lokan:Yeah, look, I think, in our in our space, the work that we do, we do sort of center it fairly heavily in the data and the research that's been done just to give us a really clear understanding of what the landscape looks like at the moment.
Daniel Franco:So you're the director of ICT consulting, yeah.
Hayley Lokan:One of so there's five,
Daniel Franco:five of you. So what's the type of work that you guys do?
Hayley Lokan:So it's really broad. So anything from individual work, like coaching and professional development 360s through to a lot of team based training, workshop facilitation, culture, change, project, organizational restructuring,
Daniel Franco:we speak the same language? Yeah,
Hayley Lokan:all of that stuff.
Daniel Franco:So tell us about the future of work. What's some of the trends that you're saying? And what are your thoughts on the future of work?
Hayley Lokan:Yeah, look, I think, you know, everyone's probably going to have a similar kind of theme, when we're talking about the future work, you can't ignore the impact that COVID has had in terms of what the hybrid workplace is going to look like in the future. But like I was saying this morning, I think a lot of the challenges that we're facing in these last 18 months are not necessarily new challenges, but just we need to look at them with a slightly different lens. I think COVID has certainly magnified some of those challenges. But ultimately, I would say that the future of work is going to be a continuation from what we're already seeing, which is more flexibility, more remote work, different ways of connecting with one another to kind of do what needs to be done for the business.
Daniel Franco:What's the one quick tip they can give us in it? And how do we connect more with people who are working from home?
Hayley Lokan:Look, one quick tip, there's probably a few, I think it is important just to try and use the technology that's available to us to create those opportunities for connection, even if that means, you know, regular daily check in even if it's just for five minutes. But like I was saying this morning, I think some of the really important constructs within connection. It's not just about showing people that you care, but also showing them that you're curious about them and learning about them and asking questions. It's amazing
Daniel Franco:what you do when you care about someone. Absolutely. Thank you very much for your time. It's been great having you on.
Hayley Lokan:Thanks for having me.
Daniel Franco:Okay. So welcome back. We got Sally Wolford here now on the show from why which is making work. Absolutely. Absolutely here. And I absolutely love that title. So tell us a little bit about what you guys do and what your thoughts are on the future of work.
Sally Woolford:So we don't people and culture consulted but slightly differently. It's all about human Yeah, human aspect of that and all about the people, Future of Work, future workers, the people all about culture, those really happy positive cultures, making sure that we actually look after our people whilst respecting that we've got all this new technology, not everyone can adapt and adopt new technologies in every kind of thing. So what actually can we maximize? What actually opportunities do we have? How can we ensure that our people thrive, but also not just thrive, but really deliver some great outcomes for us?
Daniel Franco:So you and I were having a conversation off air before about really influencing and getting the people and culture and HR world sitting on the executive C suite table? How do we how do we influence this world a little bit more?
Sally Woolford:I think that's all about not just going in with that HR mindset. It's about the business orientation mindset, how can I be at that table? And how can I help influence business? Not just having your people head on? But actually, what are those strategies? How do the people make this work? Yeah. So yes, it's about having a seat at the table. But it's also about ensuring that your voice is heard at that table and that people culture voices, including
Daniel Franco:I think it's important going to have the have the overview of what is the actual strategy here? And how do I implement this without people?
Sally Woolford:With the people, not at the people,
Daniel Franco:any trends that you're seeing at the moment in the industries with some of the companies you're working with?
Sally Woolford:Yeah, culture in particular undertaking culture reviews, but very much so in a sense that the boards have been very accountable for that the culture Yeah. And how can a CEO and a board actually look at the culture and look at the opportunities any review provides, and looking externally what's going on as well rather than just sitting in your own little silo?
Daniel Franco:So I absolutely look Thank you very much for your time, Sally. It's been wonderful having you on.
Sally Woolford:Yeah, welcome. Thanks.
Daniel Franco:So welcome back. We've got Lesley Marchioro on the show the lovely lazy people in culture at Sage automation. Joining us pleasure. Now aside, you're very innovative in their thinking, what are you guys doing at the moment at assays we're looking at the future of work?
Lesley Marchioro:All sorts of stuff actually. So the the the at Sage is that the gore part of the businesses, we've got a couple of different organizations. One of them is sage automation, which is about doing industrial automation, automation in our client with our clients. But we've also got a skills lab business, which is actually about educating people in industry 4.0. So there's a number of courses within that that's actually about teaching people growing, growing their skills and building them for the future. So that sort of a client offering, of course, but within the organization, with we've in the process of growing the learning and development that our people get with absolute understanding. And as we've also heard here today, that that's so critical for how organizations move forward into the future. We cannot stagnate when
Daniel Franco:we saw that that was pretty sort of in your face statistics around how learning and development and actually growing at people, especially with the skill shortage is going to be the forefront of every business's mind. Yeah, is there is that sort of behavioral skill sets that you're looking at or technique or all the above?
Lesley Marchioro:Sorry, we're really ramping up the technical capabilities that were that we're trying to grow with our people. But absolutely, looking after the leadership capabilities as well. One of the things that I've recently done is introduced the leadership capability framework. And the the embedding part around that is teaching people that leadership is not a position, it's just you're a leader of yourself first and foremost. And those leadership capabilities might look a little different if you're an individual contributor versus the leader of the organization, but they absolutely are on on all on a pathway and that it's important to grow in all aspects of your life. And, yeah, I kind of see it as a community responsibility in their leadership capabilities. So if I can, if I can send people home to their families, to their partners with a bit more insight of themselves and all those things, done a good job in the community.
Daniel Franco:The ability to self reflect is critical, isn't it? How do I not only get better? My my job? Yeah. How do I become a better person in life?
Lesley Marchioro:So yeah, that's right. So yeah, we're doing all the bits.
Daniel Franco:sighs Thank you very much, Lesley. Yeah, no worries. Thanks, Dan. Okay. Beautiful. So welcome back. We've got let me try to pronounce this right. And Govert Millink from PWC.
Govert Millink:Yeah, absolutely. Thanks, Daniel.
Daniel Franco:So your talk today was pretty amazing. There was some really great statistics in there about what the future looks like for work. Can you sort of, if you remember any of them, can you go through them? For us? Again,
Govert Millink:I always say that if you write something down, you don't have to remember it as long as you can find.
Daniel Franco:It was one of the what's one of the critical points of the future of work that you that sticks in your mind,
Govert Millink:I think the change of the workforce is probably the most important thing. I mean, the world is digitizing at dramatic speed. Just look at the you know, the way that we're using our the all the platforms that are around us all the time, right? We're on our phones, we're you know, we're picking up emails, our cars talk to us, or we talk to our cars, or whatever it is, all of that sort of stuff is moving really quickly, the amount of data that's coming at us from all of the systems that we have, which is probably a massive untapped potential time. All of that's changing. And I think that becoming ofay, with all of that, where some of our younger generations in our organizations probably have that from the from the get go, because that's how they grew up. Yeah, absolutely. And you start thinking about what that means for, you know, for the leaders and of our leaders in our organization. It's trying to keep up and learning how to speak each other's languages, so that you can take advantage of all of the opportunity. That's there. That's probably that's probably one of the 50%. Right, and that digital natives,
Daniel Franco:that so I think there was a statistic that you had up on your slides, which was about the future of work being 50% millennial by the time was 2030, or something like that. And that blew my mind is to just think about the difference in language from that, from that what we're seeing and what we've seen in the past of what the way we're gonna have to speak the socio economic impacts the environmental impacts, and the millennials are going to have this at the forefront of their mind.
Govert Millink:Absolutely. That's this is their day to day thing, right? I mean, you can just, you can just look at it and everyone's always connected. Just walk on the street. Yeah. And everyone's got a neck problem, bending down, right, because they're all continuously connected all the time. Yeah, that brings a lot of risk with it as well, though, I must say that I think that, you know, one of the key lessons that we've learned over the last 18 months is allowing people to switch off and you know, take the stretch out of the illest elastic band. Yeah, well, that has been very stretches in allowing them to sort of like take some time and mentally as well as physically, I think it's something that has been very much undervalued. And we're now, you know, seeing the risk of what that means, you know, for the way that your organization can perform.
Daniel Franco:There was a statistic that you had up there, which was about. Well, I think it was we're working longer, right. And then you did make a little bit of a joke about how we feel like we need to work. Yeah, this sort of imposter. Yeah, we haven't. Yeah. Do you think that companies are looking at some of the data that you're collecting that leaders are looking at, actually is much more beneficial having people work from home? Because they are working longer hours? Or is that an incorrect way to look at it, which
Govert Millink:I think that that might have been an initial reaction. What I'm seeing now is that the, you know, the consequences of that not being able to switch off, are starting to play through it. And one of the other presentations that was, you know, she spoke about the, the tsunami of burnouts that might be coming our way. I think as soon as that starts to happen, people will wake up really quickly that this is not just a gravy train, you have people working harder, because you know, if they fall over, that means that the people that are left are going to have to work even harder than that, which just increases but it's really being conscious of what that means. And I think that that kind of recognition is coming through.
Daniel Franco:Beautiful. Thank you very much for your time today. Much appreciated. Thank you guys. Welcome back, we have director synergy IQ, Michelle Holland, Dan Michaud, the theme today being the future of work. Tell us a little bit about your thoughts about the future,
Michelle Holland:the future, the future, the future? It's interesting, actually, I was talking to somebody earlier about I think the thinking and the thoughts that we had before COVID about the future work are probably very different to the ones that we've got now. Because what ended up happening through COVID, is we actually saw a little bit about what the future that we kept talking about could be Yeah, you know, this hybrid world, this online world version of the acceleration of it. That's right. And it just came on. And funnily enough, I mean, I've got many friends that actually work from home, and they have been for 20 years. So really working from home is not the future of work. But actually the ability to be agile and jump on to something really quick. That to me is part of the future of work. So what I saw last year was organizations going, alright, we need to do something, we need to do it quickly. We need to put, you know, teams in place or zoom in place, or some online, whatever it was in place to get it done and get it done quickly. Yeah. So to me, the really good part of that process wasn't the online bit and wasn't the working from home bit. It was the ability actually see that organizations can move and can move quickly. They can adapt quickly. And to me, that's the future, right? So we have to have organizations, we have to have leaders that can adapt, and they can adapt and move and shake quickly.
Daniel Franco:So synergy IQ is a consulting firm, and you work with large corporate firms, especially in the strategic life process or their people, what are some of the things that you're working with, obviously, confidentially some of the things with, with some of the clients? And what are their thought processes around managing the people and making sure that their mental health and well being is actually front of mind?
Michelle Holland:Yeah, so a couple of questions there. I think one of the things that we're absolutely working a lot with with people is in leadership, and really increasing the capacity and capability of their leaders, and been really focused on doing that. And not in the just, you know, we're gonna have feedback conversations, you know, the old feedback conversations, but actually going, what are we doing here? Like, how are we tapping into who we are and what our identity is, and how we turn up as leaders and how we make a change in this world, not just the workplace. So we're working a lot in that space. I think that's really important. One of the elements obviously, you know, resilience seems to be you know, it's the buzzword, you know, resilience and vulnerability of the New Black, we're constantly talking about them now, in workplaces. Resilience is something that we have to build over time. So the reality is, is that it's good that organizations are talking about that now because they have to be doing something with their people, with their business models with their customers to make sure they are resilient to change ongoing, because the reason that we see these dips in mental health and we see the depths in you know, negative emotions, we see all that stuff through a pandemic. It's like no kidding, of course we would. Why are we not going? Yes, of course we would. That's okay. Because our people have got good coping mechanisms. We've got good bounce back strategies. We've got a resilient business model. We've got resilience in our, in our coping mechanisms in the workplace. So that's okay, we can ride through that we know it's gonna drop. It's a pandemic for crying out loud. Of course, it's gonna drop of course cities.
Daniel Franco:So just just on the point of the ecosystem of a culture, and obviously you do a lot of work in there, helping businesses through their culture and the ecosystem that surrounds it with everyone working from home, how does an organizational? How do you manage the organizational change? Where there is a hybrid workforce? And what challenges are you seeing from some of your clients?
Michelle Holland:Yeah, you know, that's a really interesting thing. I think one of the conversations we started having right at the beginning of COVID, was, how do I keep my team engaged? How do I have, keep them connected? How do I in this online virtual world? Now we're having the conversation of, oh, you know, we were having online stand ups every day. And we were connecting every day. And we were putting time and effort into making sure that we had an online, you know, drinks at the end of the week, or communications, you know, and we've let that go. Because we're now back in the office, because we went back now to normal. We're back doing the things we did before. And we want to recapture again, some of that connection. So I think this is a beautiful metaphor for what culture actually is. Because culture is not a set and forget, yeah, it's an every day, every decision everybody thing. So it's not something that we can just go alright, I'm just going to work on my culture. Today, I'm going to put a project together. It's all the time like, we have to be thinking about what you said the word ecosystem. That's the important part. What are all the parts of the puzzle here that we need to be thinking about? The resilience, the vulnerability, the emotional stuff, the you know, what society doing, where we're at adapting our business models, we have to be thinking about all of that stuff, when it comes to managing our culture going forward. So if we're not thinking about that, then we're really missing out on a great opportunity
Daniel Franco:We are indeed. Beautiful. Thank you very much for your time.
Michelle Holland:No problem, always a pleasure, Daniel.
Daniel Franco:Welcome back. We've got Chris Wood. Now on the show, Chris, tell us a little about yourself.
Chris Wood:Hi, fantastic. Thanks, Daniel. I'm the ex general manager of people at the Adelaide Football Club, having recently moved on for that role and about a 10 year state councilor of Ra, who coordinate and run the the Human Resources events that we're at today.
Daniel Franco:You selling yourself a bit sure you're on the board of netball as a as well.
Chris Wood:I do. I'm also a sports tragic, but I'm fascinated by the business of sport. So I spread myself across both elite and then community sport.
Daniel Franco:Let's just dive into that. We've talked about a lot of corporate organizations here in this podcast so far, what is the future of sport and the old working organization within the sporting world?
Chris Wood:You look fantastic. I think like all industries, COVID has challenged sport at a both an elite level and a community level. at an elite level, challenging the financial model that elite sport is based on, which is fan attendance. Its commerciality, its sponsorship dollar, as well. And at a community level. Once sports stops in the community, the revenue stops going into those organizations as well. And financially at both ends, massive challenge.
Daniel Franco:I've always had an interest in the actual the players and how much they time and effort they put into the people and culture aspect of the business are they really aligned with what the work you're trying to do and trying to deliver and in line with what the CEO is trying to deliver from a strategy point of view?
Chris Wood:Yeah, look, absolutely the players in an elite environment are an absolute asset for the organization to to be able to stand up and represent your culture and your values and what you're doing as an organization. And we use them internally quite a lot to align the organization around the purpose and what we're trying to achieve. Because everyone likes hearing from the leaders, the players that are household names. Secondarily, we use them a lot in the community, when we take a player we take an elite football are a well known player in both the women's and the men's teams to community, people want to hear from them, they want to be seen with them. They're an attractive proposition and an asset that you can then use to get your message out. And those messages can be anything from particularly in AFL W. empowerment of women and an ability for women to do what men do on the sporting field in indigenous enabling indigenous players a level playing field in football, how do we transfer that into the workplace? So yes, certainly we do use them as an asset and they're a really valuable asset to the culture of an organization.
Daniel Franco:The trend I'm seeing in sport is that they're really pushing forward on the on the diversity aspect, and really getting that inclusion. Is that something you continue seeing far into the future? Leading the way I should say?
Chris Wood:Yeah, absolutely. I think the interesting thing, as I said, sports is a platform that everyone can relate to. Everyone can play sport at whatever level and what we found is, is the attraction to sport gives sport a platform for messaging But messaging around social change and behavior and who we are and what we do. And I think you see that with the voice that particularly in the US athletes in the US, their platforms are sometimes bigger than the media agencies, the the shift and the change, the players can do Rinaldo and his bottles of coke. Yeah, you know, that the NBA basketball is in the Black Lives Matter movement. And then in Australia, the power of Eddie Betts talking to the indigenous people about engaging and leveling the playing field here in work, and social health and relationships, I think that's what we're seeing. And that's important.
Daniel Franco:Beautiful, very, very good, mate. Thank you very much for your time.
Chris Wood:Excellent. Thanks, Daniel.
Daniel Franco:So welcome back. We've got Susan Sadler, the state president of AHRI, thank you very much for today. It's been amazing. It's
Susan Sadler:been a great day and really happy that we can all be here together. Daniel
Daniel Franco:looked a bit decisive yesterday.
Susan Sadler:I must admit, I've never spent so much time on the South Australian premiers website.
Daniel Franco:It was a sense of deja vu yesterday, when you knew there was an announcement coming. And you would just refresh Refresh until that came out? Yeah, I
Susan Sadler:look, we've been really, really fortunate here in South Australia generally, and to still be able to run this event today. I think it means a lot to the to the HR community, we can still do it and to be honest, great for the venue that they can continue to get back into doing what they're called businesses as Absolutely.
Daniel Franco:So tell us a little bit about your thoughts on the future of work being the theme of the event today? What were you sitting with it all?
Susan Sadler:Yeah, look, I think, um, I mean, future of work, we often think about that physical location, and whether we're in hybrid workplaces, and what that looks like. i For me, the key theme that has come out today is, is really around communication. So our future, the future, in we need to be better at communicating. And particularly when we're not in the same space, physical spaces each other, we don't get to observe the nonverbal cues that we're always used to. So you do need to, as Chris Hewitt, one of our speakers said, what we learned from the Spice Girls was tell me what you want what you really, really want. I'll tell you what, I really Yeah. And I think that's true, we just have to, we have to be a little bit maybe blunter and all or make less assumptions or surprise.
Daniel Franco:Brene Brown, yes, at some point, Brene being one of the most famous sayings as clear as corn, right. So if we can actually be really clear with that message, but he's actually kind to the person trying to receive it.
Susan Sadler:Absolutely. And I think one of the things that I'm seeing with my work at the moment is, and a huge increase in the number of investigations that we're doing around particularly around sexual harassment is still the steady bullying, harassment, but sexual harassment is on the increase. And a lot of it's not that the incidents are more is that we're communicating more about it, we're being prepared to take a stand. But I think that there are some communication issues that are at the core of some of those things as well. And if we are misunderstanding some of the cues, then you know, that's when some of these problems can actually occur as well. So just
Daniel Franco:seeing that they're on the rise it yes, the communicate, we're obviously feeling more comfortable that, you know, it's more front of mind that this is not okay, and I shouldn't be treated like this in the workplace. But in a world where we are at home more, and we're still seeing things on the rise. That's a scary thought.
Susan Sadler:It is a scary thought. And I think, and what I've actually seen as well is that the behaviors that being escalated, or at least sort of coming to me as an investigator, I'm much more serious. So it's not, it's not, not that there's ever a low level, but on a spectrum of things. So they are really, really quite severe. So whether it's, some of them are quiet, you know, our older cases, they are and they are prolonged. So it's a matter of, I suppose that we've had the time to reflect and think and there's a lot in the media and a lot of support and encouragement now that maybe 12 months ago, there wasn't for coming forward and, and speaking out about these things.
Daniel Franco:Very good. So good. Right there move Good move in the right direction. One last question. What are your thoughts? So where are you going in the next year or so? What's the thoughts of Iran that what plans do you have in place?
Susan Sadler:Look, we're I'm really excited about the future of AHRI, we are starting to take strong stance in terms of policy. So for the first time ever established an industrial relations Advisory Committee contributed to the federal government's reforms. We are continuing to speak out in and provide that sensible balance for employers and employees, I suppose the voice of reason is what we're saying that our ears and and also doing a lot of work around mental health and psychological safety. And I think that they're really important areas as well. So that's some of our policy. same positions, but also really focusing on strengthening the HR community, both professionally through certification training and upskilling. But also looking after each other. We know we've learned and been reminded very much in the last 1218 months that that that is really important and that if we burn out, then we're not of any use to anyone.
Daniel Franco:Absolutely. So for all those listening, get on board, the train is going in the right in the right direction. Absolutely. So thank you very much for your time today. Susan's [inaudible audio] having you,
Susan Sadler:It's been my pleasure. Thanks so much, Daniel.
Daniel Franco:Welcome back, we have Andrea Sumner from the red wagon workplace solutions. Thank you for joining us. Thank you. So you're an expert in all things, industrial relations, tell us a little bit about that world in looking forward into the future?
Andrea Sumner:Well, I guess it was a really interesting time, we've just heard the speakers talk of the panelists talk about their responses, kind of the agility what they had to do very quickly. As soon as you know, lockdowns happen and all of that, and industrial relations, we saw unions, working with government, and, you know, policy creators, and, and all coming together to draft responses, you know, to changes in legislation that was going to affect workers.
Daniel Franco:So time when no one really knew what was going on. That's
Andrea Sumner:right. And typically, and traditionally, you know, it's been, you know, an us against them, you know, well, you know, in terms of unions versus business or business, you know, and government and then unions on the other side of the table and the ICTU so. And then what we saw was this pretty amazing collaboration. So it was really, you know, really important for workers that then happened, because all of those changes meant kind of going against legislation, right. So it was sort of, so even though employers needed to move their workforce and do things differently, there were legal constraints to that. Absolutely. So. So having those changes were really important. But then I guess now, as well as reflecting on what has worked, what hasn't worked. And what we've been hearing so much of today is I think, you know, that real move that shift towards employee embracing of really flexible workforce, and that's what people want, as well. And I think, you know, that works in some industries, you know, obviously, in the hiring industry, you know, there's certain industries where that just doesn't work. Yeah. But, um, but I think, you know, that flexibility is really serving people and businesses, are people
Daniel Franco:becoming more productive with this flexibility? Or they are you finding, are we finding that workload and work stresses are going up and work affecting them is going down?
Andrea Sumner:I don't think so. Yeah. I mean, I, maybe maybe stresses are going up. For different reasons. I don't know. But But I think productivity, you know, I haven't spoken to anyone who has found that their productivity is less. But that is, but that, but that's the caveat. Like, obviously, if we're in a lockdown, or if you've got kids at home, and or if you're caring for an elderly parent, or you know, that kind of thing, obviously, then your home environment isn't going to be as optimal as you know, somebody else's. Absolutely. And then, you know, and maybe that environment isn't, or it might not be safe, you know, for for various reasons. But for a lot of people, you know, I think it is, it is possible, and it is generally speaking, I think more productive. Yeah. So, excellent.
Daniel Franco:Very good. Well, we won't keep you much longer. Thank you very much for your time. It's been great having you and hearing your insight. Thanks. Thanks very much. So welcome back. We have Fiona McAllistar, senior IT consultant and expert in customer experience working for synergy, IQ. Thanks for joining us,
Fiona McAllister:my absolute pleasure.
Daniel Franco:You know, one thing that we are seeing with the future of work is everyone's talking about the people with inside a business but being an expert in the customer experience pace. How do you tie in the future of work? And what does that look like from a customer point of view?
Fiona McAllister:It's really interesting. I was thinking about this earlier, because people are talking about employee experience equaling customer experience. And I think that that is part of the equation. But if one thing the one thing that I've been thinking about over the last year is that people are so so hardwired for connection and that's been more that's more demonstrated ever before, sorry, probably not the right language. But you know, I'm seeing that more in customers, people are saying that they actually need to connect. And that means they need to connect with your organization and your people. So organizations need to be considering that, and how they're engaging their customers, they're wanting that level of connection. The other thing that I've been thinking about is they also want to see progress. It's not necessarily heard, they're influencing what your organization is doing and making sure that they're being heard. They want to see you changing your organization. And I think that that's where successful organizations are going to be in the future as well. customers see that you're actually making changes, whether it's an innovation, new products, new services, they're going to stay with you longer, and you're going to retain their service, whatever that service particularly is. So those two things I think, are really important. And they do want to they want to be part of your brand, almost, they want to be able to influence that organizations in order to actually continue that loop, and need to be a bit predictive in the way that they're doing that. So using tools that are not just taking surveys for customers, because yes, that gives you great data, but it gives you it gives you customer data that might be a bit latent. Yeah. And you really need to be talking to customers and understanding them, you need to be really involved with what it is that they're expecting, so that you can learn how to preempt what it is they're going to need in the future as well.
Daniel Franco:So what's a good way that leaders can get the people on board with that thought processes of customer first? Or is that something you're seeing with other clients that you're working with customers always first? Or do we have to really push that forward?
Fiona McAllister:I don't think it's explicitly with customer. The key insight is that leaders need to get the people on board with whatever their vision and their strategy and the values that underline that because the other things that customers will be connected to will be the demonstrated values of an organization. So they will be attracted to that. So you might have a customer focus strategy, and that's brilliant. So but you've got to really articulate that in a way that the people in your organization can connect with it themselves with their personal values as well. But yeah, that's it, you've got to connect to purpose.
Daniel Franco:As always, beautiful faith. Thank you very much for joining us. You're welcome. So welcome back, we got Lauren Lang from PwC, Senior Consultant, you know, database. Sounds good. Oh, good. Thank you for joining us, you just come off the stage, presenting what is, you know, the future of work yet a panel? What was the general themes that you got out of out of that chat?
Lauren Lang:It was good. Sorry. And today, it was a really about for them in terms of practically not very based practically? What are people doing at the moment? Sorry, I think some of the great things that we heard about with with Bill from Ivy kingdom, which was the four day work week, we heard about sort of wellness days, we definitely talked around connections and connections to the outside of the digital space, whether that's a baby care packages or side conversations, but what are we actually doing to make them happen? Yeah. But these I think, are some of the great things that people are doing in terms of moving back into the office.
Daniel Franco:Right, so what about BW say, what are some of the trends that you guys are saying?
Lauren Lang:Yeah, so I think, you know, personally for us in terms of as an organization as well. So personally, pos is an organization that activity based working, the hybrid sort of approach has always been there. Yeah. But they're in theory versus culture. So I think in terms of the last 12 months has really put it into a culture with organizations like everyone's struggling with, isn't it in terms of you know, what, what should the rules around hybrid actually be? So is it set days off? Or is a flexibility? Or is it different things around flexibility, which isn't about leave or isn't about location? So everyone is working through them? And it's like, someone asked me, What is the future of work the day and it's different for everyone? Yeah. So it depends on the industry. It depends on the person. But I think the key things are around empathy and understanding. What is that? Yeah, what's needed? That's the key word. Yeah, resilience, resilience. But it really is around the actually looking in understanding and asking that. So I think one of the big changes we're finding is in terms of, rather than a thought process or from an executive perspective on what we can do, it's much more of an employee led approach. So what are the challenges are the things that they want and say, because if you're not doing that, now, you're going to get left behind? Yeah. So I think that's one of the big key changes we're seeing into the large
Daniel Franco:John's point of view your your staff are obviously out working with clients who are adopting a hybrid model. Even it's even more disconnected. Isn't it really because you're trying to fit in within another culture, really? Yeah. How are you guys combating that?
Lauren Lang:Yeah, and sorry, you know, like you've got particularly lots of the auditors who are. So they definitely have to go out physically in a room which did not work through our COVID. Yes, it is about working with that client. So in terms of, you know, we have a, we have a lot already, and we have lots of clients that may have been more watch you there next to them. But in terms of the more that they've actually gone to a hybrid model of working from home, it actually makes it easier and Sangha relationships with people around the country. So in terms of rather than actually have the ad late to looking at that. And a whole new talent space from all different parts, as well as you know, seamlessly bringing, I think, expertise into that equation. So there is absolutely the squat for the face to face and the compensation, that connection, but then able to be able to wrap that around with the talent and a team, which makes sense, not based around who actually can be Yeah, in that location has probably really bought a different approach, but something which is really positive
Daniel Franco:to clients. Brilliant. Excellent. Thank you very much, Lauren. That's all but thank you for being on the show. Thank you. So welcome back. We've got Philip Mayes from the Mighty Kingdom. Thank you, CEO, or managing director, managing director. Excellent. So you just got off the stage talking about the future of work? You guys do a few things differently. Four Day workweeks. Can you talk to us through that decision?
Philip Mayes:Yeah, I think that's probably the the one that everyone talks about. We do we do a lot of different progressive policies of mighty kingdom. One of our, one of our goals is to create a workforce that's as diverse as the community that we live in. So we have some pretty high goals in terms of we want to be in terms of gender diversity, age, diversity, a bunch of different metrics. So a lot of our policies are around encouraging a more diverse workforce. I think the one that's had the biggest impact would be the four day workweek. Yeah. If you imagine, as a parent that day flexibility is golden. Yeah. And it came about for us during the year of COVID. Yeah, that crazy year, we reduced hours at the beginning of the COVID outbreak to try and get our workforce through the you get the entire workforce through without having to lay anyone off. As we started lifting hours and moving to a really flexible working arrangement, we noticed that productivity was going up faster than the days that we were adding, right. And to the point that we were seeing in in five days a week, we're seeing six days of output. And that was the the data that gave us the catalyst to try and run a four day work week, we did a three month trial of that. And at the end of that we, we sat everyone down, we settled our producers down. Those are the ones who sort of coordinated was doing when they're doing it. And yeah, sort of asked him the question, how's it going? Would you know, they've laid out all the challenges that are thrown up and, and all the issues? And then at the end of that we said, so? Do you want to keep it? Anyone said Yeah, yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna figure it out. And, and so that's, we were able to lock that in. And
Daniel Franco:that is the other pay still based on the five day full time FTE,
Philip Mayes:or we still pay a full time, fine, we can sort of 30 day, 30 hours a week to be full time. So we pay the same as we were before. And we and we haven't changed any vowel policies or any vowel processes around how we schedule or how we we budget for projects.
Daniel Franco:Is it the same day for everyone? Or is it? Yeah, that's
Philip Mayes:correct. We do Tuesday to Friday, today,
Daniel Franco:on Monday, so Tuesdays and new Monday through
Philip Mayes:Sunday, I think it is it is an interesting thing, where you see everyone complaining about having to go to work on Sunday nights. And then that's fine. Like one of the interesting things has been for for parents, you know, people with young kids in the school, it's not often that you have a daily yourself. Yeah. And you know, I've mentioned up on stage that you've got the weekends with the kids, you've got the you have the week at work and been able to stay to from
Daniel Franco:a mental perspective. That's amazing. Isn't it really the freedom and the cleanness of thought that can go on that one day? Well, that's true, or is it just generally running around wellness shopping in cleaning?
Philip Mayes:Oh, say that the first day? I didn't know what to do. Yeah. Like it used to be that trying to find something to entertain yourself was was quite well,
Daniel Franco:that's an interesting question as MD then I used to working or do you do force yourself to take that day off?
Philip Mayes:So I try as hard as I can to take it on. Now. Obviously, they're, like the rest of the economy still runs, you know, Monday to Friday. So there are things that we have to do occasionally on those days, but we try and limit it as much as possible. I'd say the the more senior you are the probably the greater likelihood that you'd have to do something on a Monday, but we we try and restrict that as much as possible.
Daniel Franco:Really, excellent. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you for being innovative and sharing your thoughts. No,
Philip Mayes:anytime.
Daniel Franco:Appreciate it. Cheers mate, babye
Synergy IQ:bye. Thank you once again for joining us. at creating synergy, it's been great spending this time with you. Please jump on to the synergy IQ Facebook and LinkedIn page where the discussion continues after the show. Join our mailing list so you'll know what's happening next at Synergy iq.com.au And of course, don't forget to subscribe to this podcast. And if you really enjoyed it, please share it with your friends.