Today we don't know how the lock down will be lifted; no doubt in stages and keeping social distancing for some time to come. Plus possibly moving to another lock down at a later stage...who knows? Therefore sensible HR professionals will be working with their senior teams in scenario planning in order to be ready for most eventualities.

However we should also be taking time to think about creating a "new normal" after this is over. Do we definitely want to go back to the way we were at work or do we want to take this opportunity to redefine working practices? (One client is planning to downsize office space, introduce hot desking, and only have employees in the office on a rota type basis.)

Join us for a scenario planning discussion to share ideas on what we COULD do in the near and far future. Cake and HR members will have the chance to discuss on the 29th April but we will have a bigger Zoom session on the 1st May 11-12.30. This will be advertised on EventBrite and open to only 30 HR Managers. Watch out for the invitation.

Not only should we plan scenarios but also dust off the change management practices and theories that we know and love (?). The picture below shows a comparison of Lewis's unfreezing / freezing model and Kotter's 8 stages.

Lewin talks about unfreezing when in fact this has been forced on us; no need to get employees to see the need for change. It's happened. So in reality we are in the moving stage of change; a chance to try out homeworking ( which was always a step too far for some senior managers but now they find it's actually ok) and use the tech to our advantage.

We are now in the moving (change) stage so it is now the time to plan the rest of this stage with the added benefit of planning how to refreeze the "new normal".
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We believe that plans need to be developed in two or three phases:

1. Staff audit to determine who we can bring back and who may still be self-isolating? Also, are there any employees with underlying health issues that we want to protect?
2. Review of the Government’s updated advice on ‘social distancing’, what can we do to implement social distancing in the workplace? Can we keep teams working remotely at least for the short term? Do we bring them back in shifts?
3. What do we want our organisation/workplace to look like in the future? What will our ‘new normal’ be?

​Join us for the knowledge share of the year!

Strengthscope® is the only Strengths test that has achieved registered test status with the British Psychological Society.  Strengthscope profiling increases self-awareness and allows people to have honest, authentic conversations about what makes them truly unique, what they love to do, and how they can bring their best to work and to life, every single day.

Strengthscope is free to cakeandhr members from July 2020  and if you wish, you can use some of your three hours of coaching from your member benefits to explore your profile further and design a plan to develop your work-related strengths. 
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Here is an example of the Strengthscope wheel, which forms part of the profile report, the purple lines are our ‘significant strengths’, these are our 7 strongest work-related strengths and therefore the ones that motivate us or energise us the most. What are your significant strengths? Email hello@cakeandhr.org for more information.