HRO Today March 2021 - 12

COVID-19: ONE YEAR LATER
EYE ON EMPATHY
If COVID-19 has proved anything, it's that humans are
resilient. " The human spirit needs constant attention
and nurturing, but we are incredibly resilient human
beings, " says Gibson Smith, chief people officer for
Avionos. " No one had written a pandemic playbook,
so we needed to make up a lot of this as we went
along. The biggest lesson learned over the past year is
that leading with empathy will put you ahead of the
game. "
John Murabito, executive vice president and CHRO
of Cigna, agrees that empathy has a greater role in
business than ever before. " Overcommunicate and do
it authentically. It's more important than ever to be
present and connected to your teams-even if it's just
a quick phone call to check in and say hello with no
real work agenda. "
" The past year has highlighted the importance of
leading with empathy and providing employees with
flexibility to focus on their wellness, " says Joan Burke,
chief people officer of DocuSign. " Leading with
kindness and creating a sense of togetherness across
teams has been critical as we continue to support
employees during this very challenging period. "
The pandemic has impacted every employee and every
household, creating a sense of understanding during
unprecedented times. " The ultimate learning, " says
Mike Fenlon, chief people officer of PwC, " is that we
are in this together and that we are all navigating
new ways of working. There is no better time to be a
values-driven leader. Clarity of purpose should serve
as a compass for organizational leaders in times when
there is no road map or easy answers. "
" We found ways to be more empathic and flexible
with employees, knowing they were balancing
virtual schooling and care-giving with working from
remote locations-something we'd never done
before the pandemic, " says Kathie Patterson, CHRO
of Ally Financial. " Every single part of our company
had to adapt in some way, but this inspired greater
innovation and new, simpler ways of working. "
Editor's note: For additional strategies on Leading with Empathy, see our special section starting on page 40.
" Over the course of the pandemic, we quickly saw an
opportunity to improve the way our employees experience
the DocuSign culture, " says Chief People Officer Joan
Burke. " We reimagined our onboarding experience,
created cohort groups for employees to connect, and
challenged ourselves to think creatively about how we
reinforce inclusion. We have been pleased to see that our
engagement scores during this period continue to remain
very high. "
Joining a new company while working remotely
can present some obstacles, so DocuSign acted very
thoughtfully to ensure newly hired employees feel
connected to the company culture. To enhance virtual
communications, new hires have their own community
via a Slack channel and the company's internal platform
" DocuSign Learning. "
" Additionally, we created a 24-hour virtual Zoom coffee
break so that employees from all over the world have the
opportunity to join the platform and meet in a friendly,
low pressure way, " she says.
[12]
HRO TODAY MAGAZINE | MARCH 2021
In a new virtual reality, leadership and employee support
is more important than ever, and managers are a crucial
piece of that puzzle. For DocuSign, investing in people
managers is key to helping employees work to their fullest
potential.
" It's been important to find new ways to support our
managers with new tools and new resources so that they
feel comfortable leading in this remote environment, "
explains Burke. " For instance, one of our programs focuses
on helping managers understand the power of tailoring
motivation and rewards to what is meaningful to the
individual. In other words, one size fits one. "
With no timeframe for the pandemic's length, Gibson
Smith, chief people officer of Avionos, led with the future
in mind. " All of the programs we put in place were focused
on longer term approaches versus quick hits or quick
wins because we wanted to make sure we created some
structure of new normalcy for the long haul, " he explains.
A sense of normalcy is clearly something employees seek
out during times of uncertainty. To offer that, Avionos

HRO Today March 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of HRO Today March 2021