In many cases, there has been a complete re-evaluation of what ‘work’ looks like for business leaders and their employees, the majority of whom have spent the past year working from home and conducting business over Zoom and Teams.

“It goes without saying that the changes have been enormous,” said Tilly McAuliffe, Director and Founder of Think Media Group in her introductory comments. “It’s likely the workplace will never be the same again.”

In this session at the PPA Leadership Summit, McAuliffe was joined by Kevin Costello, CEO of Haymarket Media Group, and James Wildman, CEO & President of Hearst UK and Hearst Europe, to share experiences and learnings from this transformational period, discussing how it has affected workplace culture and how this will play out in a future where remote working is likely to play an increasingly dominant role.

Reacting to the pandemic

Costello said Haymarket’s early response to COVID-19 was based on making “good enough, bold decisions” – acting decisively while recognising the prevailing uncertainty. Almost overnight, the company had lost 25% of revenues from live events, and it decided to close its 17 offices ahead of official UK Government guidance on the basis of what it could see happening in its divisions in Hong Kong and Singapore.

The company’s leadership adopted a simple mantra to contain costs, preserve cash and save jobs. Costello says communication was identified as crucial at such a volatile time, with the need to balance the cadence of messages with the right tone of voice. It was about showing that “everything within our control was under control”, he said, while also being honest and transparent, and showing compassion and empathy for people at such a tough time.

The importance of communication and compassion were underlined by Wildman. He said this has extended not just to the health and wellbeing of employees, but also customers. “We’ve really leaned in to understand how we can best support them in what has really been an emergency,” he said.

As part of its internal communication efforts, Hearst holds a weekly all-staff meeting, part of which is devoted to self-care and features practical tips from guest speakers. Hearst employees also have access to 30 mental health ambassadors within the business as well as a 24/7 helpline. Throughout the pandemic, it has also encouraged staff to take 90-minute lunch breaks to draw stronger lines between work-life and home-life, while continually facilitating access to COVID-friendly, socially distanced office space for those who require it.

Despite significant challenges affecting their workforces, Haymarket and Hearst maintained their focus on delivering against their business strategy, with Wildman pointing to an accelerated focus on digital transformation as well as growing print share and diversifying revenues. Working in such a time-driven business as publishing, with clear and consistent deadlines to meet, Wildman said staff have been given “as much latitude as possible to work in the way that suits them best”.

He added that the speed to which people adapted to producing great work remotely was “extraordinary”. It was a point echoed by McAuliffe, who said of the Think team: “I was really amazed by how people stepped up to the new agile way of working – not just working from home, which is really tough, but everything changed. Every project changed. Every client need changed. They had to be incredibly agile, incredibly flexible.”

Costello added that, beyond the response to employer support measures, it was also heartening to see the camaraderie between Haymarket’s employees. “It’s as much about the way our people have supported each other – the esprit de corps that’s been created and the manner in which everyone has looked out for each other,” he said.

The role of the office

Despite any sense of virtual community, however, the pandemic has raised important questions over how company culture can continue to be fostered among a disparate workforce. For both Haymarket and Hearst, there was already a movement towards flexible working pre-COVID, but sustained remote working and the prospect of adopting a hybrid model in the future have amplified the challenges around the sense of feeling ‘connected’.

“We have to work so hard to ensure we don’t miss the serendipity and importance of people contact,” said Wildman. “Everyone talks about mental health and physical health, but there’s a social health as well which we’re missing out on. As we return to normality, hopefully the magic and creativity of teams sparking off each other in real time we can get back to.”

Costello agreed, saying that the office would remain a vital cultural space at the heart of the business, adding that it was not possible to accurately predict what a hybrid future will look like. “We have to iterate, we have to trial, we have to pilot, we have to test. We have to look at each individual part of the business – each brand – and see what the cultural nuances are, whilst at the same time ensure that we’ve got this wrapper of the company DNA.”

Wildman agreed the office would continue to be a focal point, despite some businesses advocating a fully remote future. “Companies that have gone a little bit early in moving and committing to a permanently remote workforce will live to regret it. Our view is that the office will play a central role in the company culture and success going forward,” he said.

McAuliffe also underlined the importance of finding a balance between the clear productivity and motivational gains achieved through home working, while also providing a space for collaboration. “Teams want to come in, they want to socialise, they want to brainstorm, they want to kick around ideas, and they just want to stand around the mythical water cooler and have a chat. What they don’t want to do is come in and do their emails anymore.”

Wildman said the sector was facing a “once in a lifetime opportunity” to give “our people the opportunity to make choices that work for them and ensure they live a more fulfilled life”. However, the speakers were also agreed that, without a roadmap, there may be bumps along the way to a hybrid future, with the need for frameworks, governance and structure to guide the difficult task of establishing effective new ways of working.

However difficult and uncertain the path might be, said Costello, “we shouldn’t be apologetic or frightened of doing it wrong” and that, as a sector, we should “have the courage to believe we will prevail”. Words of encouragement for a workforce who may have faced tough times but one he said has “demonstrably illustrated over the last 15 months how much they care about the businesses they work for, the products that they work on, and the people that they work with.”