Supporting your people through times of crisis

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good afternoon welcome everyone
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okay i see most people are online um can you hear me if you can can you please drop a
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note in the chat
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all right um welcome my name is charlotte chadville i'm the regional head of
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operations for cipd in the middle east joining you from dubai and i'll be your host today
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and before we do start the session i'll start with some housekeeping remarks so um this session is being recorded you
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will be able to find a recording on our cipd websites and all social media channels afterwards i know the team is
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quite responsive so very very soon thereafter um
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during the session we'll try to make this as interactive as possible we are focusing on giving you information today
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and hoping to give you a couple of takeaways and trigger some thinking around how you as organizations and
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leaders can respond to the crisis um but we would love to hear your uh your
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thoughts and questions in the chat so please do let us know if the session is being helpful if you have any concern we
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haven't addressed yet um in the chat or the q a box would be checking both during the session and
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we'll be taking questions towards the end this webinar is um one of our rapid
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response um initiatives uh but continuously supports equity members and people professionals we also have set up
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a ukraine crisis hub much like we have done for during the corona crisis you can find it on our website and i believe
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my colleagues will drop it um in the chat box right down below right away you'll find guys and support around
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topics from managing conflict at work to social responsibility mental health and well-being and much more
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for civil members in the uk and in ireland and you also have access to two of our hotlines for legal support call
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our hr inform helpline which is available 24 7. um and of course over the past two years
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with the global events impacting every single one of us and our mental health and well-being and we've set up a
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well-being hotline so cgpd in the uk and ireland can access it um it's provided
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by us to cipd members it's free available 24 7 and 365 days a year
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via the phone or for online consultations if you need somebody to talk to i'm pleased to head out to them
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and again my team will uh our team today will be dropping the details of this helplines in the chat
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so today we're exploring the implications of the ukraine crisis for employers and how people professionals
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and leaders can best support their people through this difficult time just as we were getting into a new
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normal two years into the pandemic the invasion of ukraine has definitely propelled us into a new uncertain scary
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and wearing reality um for the first hand victims of course with over 2.8
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million ukrainians turned refugees overnight um for the people and residents of russia being affected by
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severe economic sessions but not just the tensions between the west and russia
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and the economic sanctions are having a very far-reaching impact on our societies economics leaders in
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workplaces we'll have friends family colleagues and typically affected by the crisis um from
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worrying about direct family members to being overwhelmed by the news um which are which is contributing to worsening
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global mental health crisis that has started with the pandemic as well economically the impact of sanctions
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will bite uk and eu nations with businesses they're already suffering um
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the surging inflation disrupted supply chains that like we are starting to see in the car industry um oil and gas and
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ffb um which could could definitely have an impact on the macro economic um outlook this is very uncertain we will
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not be giving you predictions but we as businesses and organizations can expect
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um a direct impact on our workforces even from strategic planning standpoint
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and having to have to resort to layoffs or certain measures
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today um we'll be taking a focused look on social responsibility vulnerable
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leadership compassion mental health and conflict network all of these issues having great surface for the crisis um
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we're looking specifically at how you employers and leaders can tackle them um we're hoping to again give you
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some thinking um try and try and draw from the lessons the pandemic and previous crisis
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into how we can take them forward um and uh and uh and hopefully hopefully
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support you through this in in a small way um my panelists today are peter ortiz
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our global chief executive at the cipd um who will um talk a little bit about
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responsible business and human leadership um rachel our senior employee relations advisor at
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the cipd will focus on mental health and well-being tony jim jamis ceo of oyster which is a
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global employment platform that manages hr for companies with international employees and we'll be talking about how
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they as an employer are responding to the crisis and giving us a couple of ideas in how we could do it and finally
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louise haycut last but not least with a partner at fragment um and give us uh
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insight from a new immigration standpoint and let each of them talk and share a
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few viewpoints in the hope of again triggering some thoughts and and getting us all to think and reflect on how we
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can best respond um and later on we'll try and get into a discussion picking on some of your live questions so please do
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drop them throughout the chat thank you again for joining us so peter over to you
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thank you thank you so much and uh lovely to have you all again with us on one of these webinars it's
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incredible as charlotte said i mean we responded hard to the pandemic it would hit
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organizations everywhere of course and we have to adapt very rapidly and the hr profession i think became
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very front and center so much the organizational response and ashala said we work hard as the cipd to support you
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and yet here we are again here we've come through one big crisis and we're now into
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another one of a very different nature um and again it's about a lot about our
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people about how we sustain and support them about but across many other aspects of the response which i'll touch on in a
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minute but it is extraordinary isn't it to think about crises and you can think of them in different ways of course they
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represent a real challenge to us and they always do but they also represent points of learning and stimulus for
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change and there's a lot going on around us i've talked for many years about all the big changes that happen in the world of
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work and all the political and economic and social and technological drivers have changed and then the crises come
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along and accelerate so much of that change and indeed if you go back to darwinian evolution it's the same in
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evolution in all forms i mean yeah steady change but then a long time crisis big existential stimulus for
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change so whilst this is hard again in terms of how we have to respond and all the operational tactical things we have
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to think about it's also an opportunity again to learn and the big things that i think as
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charlotte touched on that we're having to respond in this particular crisis range from of course many of you with
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businesses with perhaps operations and employees in russia and in the ukraine and how you sustain
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and support them the big debates for many businesses where you have live operations in russia and what you do do
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you pull shut them down pull away from them but all the legal constraints behind that and even concerns as i've
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talked to many businesses about this of saying well if i shut my operations in russia the russians may just take it
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over um so there are many many of those sorts of issues as well supply chain issues and
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and of course these big geopolitical shifts cause us to rethink many
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assumptions that we've had before and supply chain is a very good example just as much as this movement of labor and
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it's incredible again to think back since the end of the cold war a lot of people then were even talking about you
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know this phrase of the end of history that all of a sudden we've moved into this world of of liberal democracy
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everybody more or less in the same place globalization opening everything up no barriers to movement of goods labor and
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services and yet steadily not just the ukraine crisis that world has
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seemed to be changing you know brexit and and the trump here in america we're also causing us to sort of rethink some
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of the geopolitics and therefore our assumptions about things like supply chains and who we're really dependent on
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and who we can really trust and even the re uh reshoring of operations as a result of
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these things and i know that louis is going to talk about some immigration challenges and indeed what this crisis
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sort of adds to that but we've got other things how do we respond to sanctions and we've uh and
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indeed as we've talked about within the cipd things like cyber security now that has been an issue for a while but oh my
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goodness when you see a crisis kick off and i'm not just saying it's all coming from one place incidentally russia it's
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interesting that cyber hackers are very smart and they pick up on any big news item and they will hide things behind
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those news items by saying click on this here's an update on what's going on in ukraine and then before you know it
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you've exposed your organization so even things like cyber security we're having to think about
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um but of course what we've learned through many of these crisis and there was some great work we did during the course of the pandemic on trust
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is that one of the things that becomes absolutely essential in an organizational response
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is trust we have to learn to trust each other people got to trust leadership we got to be able to trust our employees as
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well and we know through the through the previous question the pandemic the organizations that seem to respond best and fastest
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you could absolutely say yes they had trust embedded in how they were they engaged with their employees they talked
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openly about the things that they knew and the things that they didn't and they engaged as i said their people in that
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overall response because what emerges also so much as part of these crises is
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all this uncertainty and then recognition of leaders that the world of leadership that so often was part of the
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past and indeed i still see too much of it the sort of command and control i'm the leaders i know what's going on so i
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will just tell you that world is long gone and we're never going to create agile and responsive organizations if we
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don't engage with all of our people but i'll tell you a rather amusing anecdote that i heard yesterday from one of my
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directors but one of his members of staff said said to him okay so um so
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what have we done in this situation before you think what do you mean what have we done in this situation i thought
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we haven't been here before um so it's interesting also of course you can get people in your organization are looking
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to us and say well give me all the censors what are all the rules and policies i've got to buy by now and the
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answer is we have to be honest we're going to say we're working it through and we need to engage with you to understand those things as well
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but of course another very critical part of engaging with our people and rachel will talk more about it is absolutely
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understanding their well-being there's no doubt that crisis and uncertainty create a lot of stress
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and we'll deal with that in different ways but it does it creates lots of uncertainty people will worry about everything from the future their
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organization their jobs to you know perhaps they have relations and connections into into the the ukraine
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and into russia what does that mean for me so so well-being comes again very much to the
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fore in in that sense of building connection to our people engaging with them effectively and helping again as i
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said to really engender that idea of trust so these as i said unquestionably
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challenging times it's just remarkable to think as you said charlotte we came out of one big pandemic uh but with big
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crisis around the pandemic we're all sort of learning how to adapt and what we've learned from that and i've been working and actually some really
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exciting things now and then we're faced with this and it feels like i think overall
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when you look at the sort of geopolitics as i said not only is it not the end of um history and we're all in liberal
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democracies again this is setting the clock back in so many ways and and therefore the retrenchment of
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organizations and countries and national uh you know national sort of supply chains the retrenchment back from
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these more globalized models is extraordinary it's happening very very quickly so as i said a lot to think
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about i'm just delighted to uh that we have on the panel today uh james and louise and rachel to share in a bit more
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detail on some of those thoughts and i look forward to uh contributing to some of the further discussion so uh back to
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you rachel sorry back to you charlotte thank you peter so much to unpack and
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this is just a one-hour session so we'll try and stay focused but if there is anything you want us to
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come back to later in this session please do let us know through the chat um
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so you've you've given us you've focused uh peter partly on on the on the
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well-being and mental health impact of this crisis um which has come into sharp focus
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already throughout the pandemic where organizations have admittedly made progress yet so much remains to be done
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um rachel i'd like to to call on you um to give us a couple of thoughts around
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how this crisis is affecting mental health what can organizations do to support employees in general those who
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might just be watching the news and feeling overwhelmed and in particular our russian and and ukrainian employees
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who are directly affected by the crisis and having to perform a job thanks
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charlotte yeah as peter said i i think he's given us a glimpse of the huge
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complex issues for many organizations um they're facing with with the conflict in
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ukraine but as well i think as organizations as peter also said the starting point has to be encouraging
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understanding and considering people's well-being and of course that means uh
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considering ways to support any ukrainian or other eastern european nationals that you might employ or who
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have family over there at the moment um who could be based here or could still
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be working in ukraine or or close by in a neighboring country and also um if we
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uh have people from russia as well um will be affected too and but
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also support for employees from any nationality who feel affected by what's
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happening at the moment because even if people don't have direct ties in terms of nationality family to
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ukraine at the moment on a broader level many of us will be feeling deeply affected by the shocking images that
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we're seeing by the distressing human stories that we're curing and of course
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as peter said the time of this crisis comes on top of two years of the pandemic where many people will already
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be feeling um they're living in an uncertain world this is another overwhelming event to cope with over
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which they have no control and it can feel very destabilizing in terms of our well-being and of course that doesn't
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stop when we go into work or when we switch on our laptop to work from home our feelings go with us
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and the backdrop of this is people's uh mental health and how we're coming
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through the pandemic as it is we've just had some findings back at the cipd from
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research of the uk workforce almost one in five in the workplace describe their
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mental health as poor or very poor at the moment of course not all of those have a diagnosed mental health condition
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our mental health fluctuates but we do need to be mindful that some people will
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be particularly affected uh by the events that we're seeing unfold um on
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our tvs and especially for example if you've got a mental health condition already it can
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be very triggering so without singling out people are being judgmental do try and identify people who might
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might need help it's important to send out those organization-wide messages as well offering the support that you've
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got available be very proactive if you've got an employee assistance program employee networks you know
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opportunities to come together and so on because if we didn't fully appreciate it before the pandemic
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it has taught us how crucial communication is with people during a crisis
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um it's even more important when there are challenging issues and people want to discuss those so we need to
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acknowledge that they're happening provide opportunities for people to share um their thoughts discuss reflect
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and so on it can be very hard to make sense of what's happening on a daily basis at the moment and at the heart of
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that is fostering caring cultures where compassion really prioritizes people's
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well-being compassion isn't fluffy it's about kindness and empathy but it's about action as well so it's about
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thinking about what action you can take as an organization and line managers as well that might be cut on a small level
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offering flexibility and so on but um some people especially if they're directly affected and if they are of
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ukraine or eastern european nationality and so on they could be needing time off at short notice for example to try and
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check on the safety of loved ones and so on to track people down and they could
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need um paid specially for example it really will depend on people's circumstances at the moment um
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but compassionately even bereavement leave as well and think of the different scenarios and the
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different groups of people who might be affected in your workforce um in terms
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of well-being as well we can't overestimate the importance of self-care at the moment we should be
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doing this anyway but i think this crisis highlights that again having that healthy routine and i'd start with the
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news it's on a 24 7 loop the social media as well it can we want to be
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informed but there's a balance because it can feel very overwhelming we knew this during the pandemic as well so do
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encourage people to step away take a break get outside if you can
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and line managers we have to talk about line managers there is so much responsibility on them there has been
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right throughout even before the pandemic um they can be the only link that some
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people have got with the organization in terms of accessing the support that's there they're like a gateway in that
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sense and they also hopefully have that one-to-one relationship where you can um have that more personalized support
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where your manager will say how are you um i've noticed this or i've noticed
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that you know how you're feeling and so on and they of course will be affected as
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well possibly directly or otherwise in terms of their well-being it isn't a sign of weakness
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um to access support so they need to know that the boundaries of their role in terms of support and well-being as
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well i think we've got to talk about inclusion really important at this time
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the pandemic of course had a very unequal impact on different groups and individuals and whenever there's a
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crisis and the same is true now i think what's happening in ukraine we can have
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great potential for unity but also divisiveness and that's especially true as well where
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there's emotions that could be running high understandably when people feel personally um affected by what's
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happening so hr is hr's responsibility managers as well to spot any tension if
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there's any hostility even bullying and harassment
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people could have quite different views based on their own circumstances and nationality in terms of
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what's happening at the moment and of course we've got to remember that this is a war that's led by politicians
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not by people um ordinary people so we do need to foster that tolerance
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acceptance um respect openness sharing or all those things can't you know so
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important then final theme really is i want to talk about the importance of coming together as a community
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and great to see you all here today um as distressing as the events are that
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are unfolding it's important i think to focus on the amazing inspirational examples of
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humanity compassion courage giving that we're also seeing unfolding people are
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going out of their way to help and there's a lot of people in our workplaces in the uk as well and outside
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the uk that also want to help wherever you might be in the world and it's really
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beneficial for organizations to channel that as much as possible apart from the
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real humanitarian need we know that acts of kindness giving have as much impact on ourselves as the
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givers as those on the receiving end so think about the practical ways that people might want to help that could be
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um fundraising giving to some of the emergency charitable appeals that have
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been set up by charities um i know my husband's organization is matching every
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pound that employees raise or donate that's one way and there's also the new
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government scheme launching for applications tomorrow homes for ukraine that's an amazing response to open up
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your family in that way but it's a big commitment it's a minimum six months um commitment
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there'll be an infrastructure of support around that but these are displaced people fleeing from a wall many will be
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traumatized they're going to have um economic needs emotional psychological
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needs as well so the responsibility is significant and what's the role of employer here can you
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support people who want to um be a host is there any flexibility or type of
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leave that you can give back as i end on the role of hr because
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you know you've been at the heart in organizations in responding to the pandemic you've shown leadership as
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peter said in a crisis and the same is called for now when people see chaos and
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suffering on the scale that we're seeing now unfold in ukraine you can feel vulnerable you need leadership you need
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reassurance you need continuity and that's steady influence and cultivating
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the workplace as a community as well is really important as part of that we had a briefing last week uh we have
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them regularly peter spoke um you talked about ukraine and it was a safe place to
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share so opportunities for life for that are really important especially people working from home the peer the power of
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peer support for our well-being is really important and so looking for opportunities like that and we've got
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our own online hr community at the cipd as well and that's an opportunity to come
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together as a profession and there are lots of resources that charlotte has already mentioned and i
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think our colleagues are putting in the chat so i'll stop there thank you
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thank you so much rachel um a lot to unpack here so i'd like to bring in tony
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and peter if uh peter if you're still here and otherwise
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otherwise tony so um we'll get back to mental health and wellbeing in a bit because that's one of
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the aspects that you turning as a ceo highlight and and um and have mentioned
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to me in offline um but i want to pick up on your last point first rachel you're you're talking about you know
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responsible responsible business and the importance of leadership
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and so as we're talking to hr leaders i've got two ceos in the room today
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um in your experience tony what role can leadership play in in
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first of all driving mental health what have you decided to do um and then i'd love to hear your
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thoughts on responsible business that's driven from the top rate and that's tough decisions to make to keep business
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and yet ensure continuity yeah absolutely uh
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like there's a leadership need to be reinvented uh in in the last couple of years have shown us that actually that's
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essential in ensuring and thriving and thriving workplaces
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and so so first is really recognizing as leaders that
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the the mental health and well-being of our employees is is at the center of our
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business uh i call it the i call it the golden triangle of of of growth so not only you
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want to manage growth in the business but also you manage customer satisfaction and your employee well-being and engagement so you add
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that as a variable in the way you run your business uh and and you know concretely you know
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what what what we're doing at oyster is uh we
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you know our goal is to demonstrate that uh distributed work because we are a distributed work platform is better for
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business and better for people and uh and and we we focus on uh um
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uh creating an inclusive environment we uh we are a highly diverse environment
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and and uh and it's and more importantly a safe environment where people can can can be
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themselves and especially coming from 60 countries so we have we have an amazing diversity in
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the business and it's important we create that safety so everybody can feel can feel um
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safe be being here uh and and also you need to measure that so we have uh we have um
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applications in the business that enable us on a daily basis to get a pulse about how people are feeling in the business
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and i can tell you uh since the war started in ukraine we got a dip in that so as as rachel was mentioning this is
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not only about uh like everybody is affected by this right it's not only about uh the people in the region
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obviously it can tell you about our specific response uh to our our employees in in the affected in the
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region uh but but everybody is infected and we've seen it dipped in in in how
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people are feeling across the company in all these 65 countries that we operate in
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thank you and thanks tony um peter what's around uh we're hearing psychological safety
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it's not responsible business um any any less in addition to response any
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lessons things that we've learned from curved in your experience that would be helpful in in this kind of crisis a couple of
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thoughts i mean the first is is visibility of leadership right i mean there's no doubt and i'm sure tony
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experienced the same thing i certainly did is there's the crisis here people are looking to the leader now we don't
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have all the answers and said but they are looking to the leader how are we responding how are we thinking what's on your mind
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um so we need to be visible and the great thing that we learned through the pandemic is i think leaders
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did step up on their way they were much more visible i know i spent more time with the organization talking to the
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organization we were weekly uh communicating with either online calls or video
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updates all these sorts of things so i think that's number one number two i would say as a building on on tony's
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thoughts about principles just be clear on your principles what you believe in and even though times are really hard
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and we're in time and crisis we're going to stick true to those principles so things like engagement with people
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well-being we've already touched on creating these safe cultures because it is very easy in times of crisis the
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leaders say am i going to say that's all very interesting but i've got a real problem to solve here and you get driven down these very operational things and
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and i i mention that point of trust and trust is built from seeing uh leaders being consistent in their behaviors and
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beliefs around principles even though many other things are changing around them
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and yes absolutely and ben so to reinforce what's being said about safe countries safeguard to start from
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top and they start from us as leaders being open ourselves about what we don't
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know what we do know what we're vulnerable about what our concerns about what our worries are and then that gives
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permission to so many others to speak uh as well safely and openly and that's you know of course leadership all the way
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down to the organization let me add something uh to what peter is saying is that what what is that
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human-centric leadership looks like for me and for me it is it is at the minimum is do no harm what
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what i mean by that is like we have so much pain and anxiety in our life outside of
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work we come to to to work and then these get amplified our insecurity get triggered so how as leaders we make sure
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that the work the environment we create for our organization doesn't trigger these insecurities and these fears and
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that's at the minimum this is where we start and that's actually already a huge challenge to be to be to be aware how to
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create an environment that make people not feel additional anxiety and additional pain and stress being at work
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and if we achieve that which is for me it's a huge challenge is this is where we achieve human-centric leadership
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yeah absolutely we've been we've been doing so many of these webinars and so many diverse topics and the one thing
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that keeps coming back is that is that human-centric leadership is that trust it's due it's culture
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it's it lays the foundation to all the behaviors you're talking about those that are um
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recognized and rewarded and those that are found upon that we do not tolerate um i have a question came into the chat
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so um inclusion came back to the top of organizations agenda throughout the
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pandemic with unfortunately minority employees and females and female employees being hit harder
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um we are seeing it yet again in a very different way this price is shedding a
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light on uh inequalities um and i i got somebody in in the chat right now
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talking about how this crisis is disproportently affecting um
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people from an immigration background who are just feeling and at ease
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seeing how they well comparing their experience to the treatment of refugees
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in ukraine um injustice is always is always difficult to tolerate
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inclusion is a constant act what do you say that you can do as organizations to
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maintain this harmony and and i know tony that's that's one thing that is perhaps uh
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closer to your heart as well yeah absolutely charlotte like i'm uh uh
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i was born in lebanon in 1980 i spent the first 10 years of my life in a civil war i got my village got got
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shelling from from syrian tanks for 10 years okay and nobody was there to help me
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escape all right however i have to say that we have to look at this as a positive
31:32
message to the world because uh what we want is that the next refugee crisis and the next war
31:39
the world has learned about this is not okay and and i'm very
31:45
optimistic about uh how the world is going to react in a more human way for the next
31:51
conflict that we're going to have in the future okay that's the message i want to take here uh however
31:56
if you if your organization have employees in in other affected regions where there is a refugee crisis
32:02
you know we talked about the middle east is one of them but it's not only restricted to the middle east you have to be culturally sensitive to
32:09
that and and you have to uh start thinking about how can you create
32:14
a refugee response that is global not necessarily to the
32:19
conflict that is happening now in front of our eyes and to give an example in our case at oyster
32:25
we had few employees in lebanon and we know what's happening in lebanon it's a collapsed country or
32:31
uh there's no no electricity no water no safety uh 20x the evaluation of the currency
32:36
we had to get our employees out of the country and give them a refugee status in cyprus that
32:42
the government was very very happy to help us do that uh so so so you need to think about how
32:48
you can create equality in in your response to to to this refugee crisis
32:57
and i quickly and charlatan absolutely feeling said then and really interested to hear about your own personal
33:02
experience which is something i'm sure you share with the organization as well that's about your sort of authenticity
33:08
um but yeah we touched on a little bit before chad about this idea that okay we
33:13
focus a lot on the refugees you know the ukrainians but we have russian employees as well and and it's not their fault
33:20
that this is happening and we've got to be very clear the inclusion thing means that we respect everybody and and then
33:26
we need to make sure we're not creating a culture in our organization which then starts to discriminate against people
33:32
because they happen to be russian and indeed as we know we've got russian employees ourselves they are deeply
33:37
concerned about that themselves um and we've got to make sure that this is safe safe environments to them as
33:43
well in our organizations absolutely before we get into your
33:49
response to an employer tony because i experienced it to this really how do you take these leadership lessons and
33:55
and translate turn them into actions for employers um i was interested to hear um from you
34:01
rachel uh in terms of back to you rachel in terms of uh in
34:06
terms of the of fostering that inclusion and what peter touched upon right now is
34:13
the risk of conflict right we are seeing conflict at work we are seeing people um on the edge as well with mental
34:20
health crisis um would you have two free things that that people professionals could could focus on um to
34:27
try and and and manage this situation as best as can be and provide external psychological safety and support to life
34:34
managers we've mentioned before yeah it's a really important um area at the moment charlotte and
34:40
i think you know when we talk about psychological safety i think you know we should try and pick that a little bit and i think it's just you know at a sort
34:47
of basic human level it's about creating those working relationships and that culture in an organization where um the
34:56
culture is respectful people are kind they're fair and consistent and yes leaders do play a
35:02
massive role in creating that but it's where managers as well i think have a really
35:08
important role to play so i've mentioned the really important role of line managers already
35:13
but if you think about the situation managers are in and they will have a defining influence on um how safe people
35:19
feel to talk up um share concerns and so on and be really honest about how they feel and so
35:26
on and then their managers are really managing at the moment really potentially quite complex situations in
35:34
their teams um and we talked about um i saw um a a message in the chat from
35:41
somebody who said that calls um to the samaritans have got around 50 percent
35:46
around concern for the situation that's happening there at the moment and really it is line managers who are in the so
35:52
the so-called kind of immediate um front line in terms of of how employees
35:59
are feeling so i think or really for hr top priority should be to um
36:06
communicate guide line managers around what their response to this situation is at the moment and how they can help
36:12
create that inclusive culture thank you rachel well all this
36:19
sounds great and it's great lessons and it's here it's yeah it's so much harder to put into
36:24
action and even harder to do it consistently we've seen a lot of organizations do
36:29
well during crisis men almost forget about the lessons of the crisis and try and go back to business as usual and
36:34
then we're constantly playing this play and pause situation so um tony how
36:40
did you translate this vision um into action can you tell us a little bit about how
36:46
you responded as an organization um you know in a couple of points
36:52
yeah i think uh you know oyster is a special organization because not only we have our own employees in the region but we have the employees of our customers
36:59
and we have a bit less than 100 team members distributed across ukraine and russia
37:10
the war broke and and my message to them is it's time to show more humanity when humanity is tested and and here are a
37:17
number of things that we've been doing uh since then and sharing with the wider hr community
37:22
number one is is of offer emotional support and work flexibility that's important that we remind these
37:29
people that we believe that their safety comes first and that's the most important thing and
37:36
they should put that ahead of work uh secondly is really really helping
37:41
them with relocation to a safe place and help them regain stability so we offered relocation
37:47
support uh help with uh moving to a safe country opening bank account arranging
37:53
accommodation um third is really about uh realizing that
37:58
this is this is this is gonna have a long-term impact uh this is more than just safety think about their friends
38:05
and family they will worry about think about survival guilt ptsd everybody is going to i mean even not in
38:12
the conflict itself we're all seeing these images and we're we're suffering from from some form of ptsd
38:20
and then i want to say about come up with payment strategy ahead of time we we know payments getting it's going to get tricky
38:26
in some of these affected region uh at oyster we we were able to build a
38:32
payment crisis team because we want to we're running a human human critical service which is payroll
38:38
and and offer advanced payments specifically in for people that are trying to move to a new country where they're going to have
38:44
additional expenses in that in that time i want to also add we give employee
38:50
access to therapy not only our ukrainian employees but also all of our employees at oyster
38:58
we have we have a service that we use we put at their disposal therapy support as i mentioned earlier we've seen a drop
39:06
in in mental health uh in our company uh through this tool that we use that we
39:11
measure the sentiment of people on a daily basis uh two two more points i want to say we
39:17
you want to work with managers because uh usually people are not going to come to
39:22
hr or to the ceo first they want to go and talk to their manager so you have to have a briefing on the manager
39:28
on a regular basis to make sure that they are ready to inform and support their teams on the ground
39:34
um and um and fine and finally what we're doing at oyster we are waiving all fees for
39:40
companies to hire ukrainian refugees uh so that we we we enable them to to
39:46
uh to to continue to to have to have uh uh uh professional activity uh after they get
39:53
to safety and and we're also donating uh uh funds to to to the to the local
39:58
humanitarian organizations are you hiring tony because i think
40:03
you'll get a lot of applications uh absolutely i mean we we are getting
40:08
uh 12 000 job applications a month uh for a company that is two years old is
40:14
is is is is like we're off chart on that on that perspective i think that's
40:20
i mean great example of a holistic approach to to caring
40:26
about employees into responsible business i mean you've covered kind of the big four relocation support that's that's
40:32
logistics that's psychological safety payment that's financial safety
40:38
um important to us all and not just in terms of that crisis and
40:43
we've seen other situations where we can get difficult therapy i mean mental health and
40:49
well-being is critical and uh and responsible business beyond
40:54
your employees i i love that one and that's one for perhaps a different discussion but
41:01
being a responsible business is not just about the people that you're managing it may be about the people that you're impacting
41:07
further down the line in your supply chain your your partners your clients
41:12
um so so thank you for sharing that hope that gives practical ideas of how we can
41:18
touch different arrays areas um i uh i
41:24
wanted to to to pick up on a question from um from from the chat that we've received
41:30
um around um around business continuity
41:35
so we're talking about responsible business we're seeing a lot of organizations
41:42
doing that and and rightly so it's also important for employee branding and whatnot but it's having an impact on the
41:48
business right the pulling out of russia for so many organizations is having huge tolerance business
41:53
how do you ensure business continuity we're already seeing questions in the chat um around
42:00
protecting jobs or or thinking of ways in which we can continue paying people or give
42:05
them support in a time where we may not get the raw materials and be able to produce any more and where we may have
42:11
to look for workforce um thoughts on that peter and then we'll pick up an immigration aspect um hugely important
42:22
very challenging and i saw maureen's question um the what i'm seeing most businesses
42:27
doing at the moment around some of these continuity questions is is is taking a sort of short-term time
42:33
frame um because we just don't know how long this is going to go on so the first thing is is um
42:39
trying to protect your employees whether in ukraine or russia and if you're having such business in russia then
42:45
many businesses trying to you know keep some form of payment coming through to the russian employees
42:51
we're all acknowledging it's very very tough and the huge challenges in the russian economy as well because of
42:56
sanctions so so i think responsible employers are trying to say look they're our employees it's not their fault what's going on and if we're going to
43:02
reopen our business at some point in russia we've got to do what we can to look after them so even if they're just
43:08
saying look for the next three months we will sustain payments through to you and then we'll see what happens they're at
43:14
least signaling right from the very beginning that we understand these things we need to look after our employees wherever they are
43:20
um and of course other other effects like if we're having to support movement of
43:25
ukrainian stuff from ukraine to safe places again we'll sustain that perhaps for a period of time and then we'll see
43:31
what emerges so it just speaks again again to this idea of agility and responding to these really important
43:38
principles wherever people are we want to try to protect them and look after them but we know this is a very fast evolving
43:45
situation so we're going to have to keep coming back to these questions in the coming weeks
43:51
absolutely and again back to what you were saying earlier um
43:56
although the situation is entirely new and unknown and unexpected in many ways
44:02
for many of us um a lot of the impact that's being felt isn't new during the pandemic we had
44:09
entire industries not being able to function because we didn't have we didn't have people getting to work we
44:15
weren't able to import so context was different but the impact was similar in the workforce um and so uh
44:23
of course we're not giving answers at the end it's still early into the crisis but do you think peter that some of what we've learned around maintaining risk
44:30
killing upselling our workforces could come in handy right now yeah absolutely as you said we during the
44:36
pandemic we were in somewhat parallel situations of having you know perhaps to
44:42
to let go people um all certainly further than what's different of course is we don't have the financial support
44:47
that we had during the pandemic so many organizations have said saying look we know we could sustain this for three
44:53
months or so and then we're going to have to review where we are um because the governments aren't stepping in to say right well i'm really sorry you've
44:59
had to close down your operations but in russia but here's some furlough payments to see you through um so yes there are
45:06
things we can learn but it's also understanding there's some different different things as well um and i'm sure i'm sure louise will
45:12
have some thoughts on that as she gets into her session absolutely thank you
45:18
all right so the you gave me a great segway tony by covering all different areas that you did so um tony you're
45:25
imagining the location support um that you offered to uh your teams during this
45:30
crisis and not just you're mentioning how you've helped um lebanese employees moving to cyprus how you've partnered
45:36
with governments um if for those employees that have tried to support it sounds easier than it may
45:43
actually be um so um so louise would you give us maybe some
45:48
context around the immigration situation right now what it means for employers and then we'll get um we've got quite a
45:54
few questions around immigration on the topic thank you for being here louise louise is from
45:59
oh thank you so much charlotte and thank you for inviting me to talk today it's been really fascinating um discussion
46:06
and i couldn't agree more about the importance of the visibility of leadership about engaging with your
46:12
people and about thinking in terms of the support that you're offering who it
46:17
is that you are offering it to um what support you you can give is it
46:22
your people is it your people's people and i think we've all learned an awful lot um
46:28
through the the pandemic as we've discussed before and whilst we haven't been here before we can employ some of
46:34
those those strategies uh again and like you say it is very important to understand the context
46:40
of what we we are are dealing with and who we might be talking about the the people that have left ukraine
46:48
have done so um having traveled in a very dangerous situation um men aged 18
46:54
to 60 of course can't leave so those people are predominantly women or they
46:59
are elderly or they are our children and and that may guide us in terms of the the immigration options that we
47:06
might look for for those people so in terms of of breaking down who it
47:12
is that we are talking about who it is that we can offer that practical assistance to it could be the ukrainians
47:19
who are still in the ukraine and what they can do to to get out it could be at ukrainians who have left
47:27
and need an onwards destination to say to somewhere that they can be they can be safe they could establish themselves
47:34
for a period of time and like we said before we don't know how long this is going to go on for but ideally they
47:39
would have options in terms of social welfare they would have options in terms of being able to work if they if they
47:46
wanted to be that for your organization or indeed for for somebody else
47:52
um and then lastly of course finishing off on on russians and we've said before rachel put it very very well that this
47:59
is a a situation caused by a russian regime not by russian individuals and
48:04
and equally they do need um our our support uh in this in this scenario
48:11
um if i i could also just make one other point of course is that covert hasn't gone away
48:17
and particularly for russian nationals we do need to remember that there may be requirements for them as they try and
48:22
enter other countries particularly as the sputnik vaccine isn't recognized by very many countries so just an extra
48:29
angle to think about if you are looking at offering the the relocation support that tony was was discussing
48:37
now we'll talk first about ukrainians in ukraine clearly the the most uh compelling they can only now travel by
48:44
by land to a neighboring country uh the majority um into poland and then hungary
48:50
slovakia romania maldives moldova of course they will have been through a dangerous and long journey and i'm sure
48:57
that the well-being support that um rachel discussed would would be of a phenomenal uh benefit
49:05
uh to to them now ukrainians can enter the schengen area without a visa they
49:11
can go into those bordering countries now usually they would need a of force of biometric passport actually what
49:17
we're seeing is there's lots of concessions for ukrainian nationals they simply need to be able to prove their
49:22
identity and so for example the um a child that doesn't have a passport could
49:28
produce a birth certificate we're seeing a real will of those nations to ensure
49:33
that they are creating that safe passage for individuals into those those countries
49:40
for those individuals that have left obviously then they need somewhere to go now there's many jurisdictions that are
49:45
offering lots and lots of concessions lots and lots of of humanitarian help um
49:51
but because of geography i'll just focus on on the eu and the the uk
49:56
uh for for today so the european union and has invoked the the temporary protection directive
50:04
now what that does is it deals with the mass arrival of ukrainian nationals um
50:09
and their family members or those that were covered by humanitarian protection and they needed to have been residing in
50:15
the ukraine um before the the 24th of february now when they go into a european uh
50:22
union country they will be able to apply for protection under this directive they
50:28
would get a one-year protection that would run from the 4th
50:33
of march 2022 so everybody's would be finishing on the 4th of march 2023
50:38
and but that is extendable firstly in six month increments and then the european union could extend it by a third a third year
50:46
now with that individuals would be able to work they'd have access to social welfare
50:51
um and each member state is going to implement that on a membership basis so
50:56
we're seeing at the moment lots of countries announcing what that process is going to look like so really for
51:02
those individuals that are fleeing the con this conflict the european union is providing a really good protection for
51:09
them and something that means that they can feel safe and that they can feel protected for a significant period of
51:15
time um now for the uk the arrangements are are slightly um slightly different
51:22
um a ukrainian would need a visa to enter the the uk and there was been a lot of press about whether or not that
51:29
should be removed um there are a number of concessions and new categories that have been uh announced uh firstly if you
51:36
are already in the uk um as a visitor and you're a ukrainian you can switch into any of the the usual um categories
51:44
so you could be a family member you could switch into um work permission for
51:49
example without needing to to go anywhere anywhere else so the usual
51:54
routes are still open as well for ukrainian nationals and you can apply in any country that you you would want to
52:01
you no longer need to have a tb test but you would need english language unless
52:07
you are um applying under the intra company transfer regime but more importantly there are two new
52:14
schemes that are specifically dedicated to this scenario and i think what's interesting with both the eu and the uk
52:21
arrangements is they've been very quick to to get new categories up and running
52:26
to make sure individuals aren't pushed down a a standard normal asylum route
52:31
which is very clogged up already and may not allow individuals to
52:37
access the the same benefits as some of these newer protections which would allow work which would allow access to
52:43
benefits etc so the two schemes that um i i wanted to
52:49
highlight first is the ukraine family scheme now this would mean that anybody who is
52:54
british or holds permanent residence holds a humanitarian protection or holds a status under the eu settlement scheme
53:01
which was the permission that individuals who were european residing pre-brexit would have got
53:08
can bring their ukrainian extended family members so that would include parents include aunties including
53:14
in-laws it would include cousins plus their family members
53:19
to the uk for a three-year period they're able to work they're able to study they're able
53:25
to access benefits now that application can now be processed online provided an individual has a
53:32
biometric passport to date there have been 25 000 applications with
53:38
6100 were issued by 4 pm yesterday um within that there is some discretion
53:44
about the types of family members that could apply the documents that you might need i can see that it must be very
53:51
difficult for people that have fed a conflict to be able to provide birth certificates for siblings or
53:56
grandparents or whoever it might be and so do look at practical solutions to
54:03
solving what that might look like and the second scheme which has already been mentioned is homes for for ukraine
54:09
and we've seen this overwhelming outpouring of people willing to offer accommodation that they have um either
54:16
that they they already and have access to or a room in their home it's for sponsors to offer accommodation
54:23
to ukrainian nationals who are fleeing the conflict and who lived there before the first of january 2022 they need to
54:31
offer that room for a six-month period and again there will be a three-year permission that will be issued to these
54:37
individuals now the scheme hasn't opened yet it doesn't open until tomorrow um but both
54:43
organizations and individuals can sign up to show their interest one of the complications about it is
54:50
that individuals are going to have to match themselves to a ukrainian um national
54:55
um it's going to be in two phases tomorrow that goes live is for individuals who are going to sponsor a
55:01
ukrainian um you may have heard me say with the family scheme it was only for certain
55:07
um statuses within the the uk this would allow for example a skilled worker to
55:14
sponsor their family members to come to the uk phase two and we don't have a a go live
55:21
date for this yet will be for organizations and i'm sure there'll be lots of people in the call that are particularly interested in that and
55:27
perhaps we could have another chat at that point um but yet the scheme will will go live tomorrow for for individuals
55:35
and then lastly just to um touch very briefly on on russians obviously the
55:41
concessions that i just mentioned don't apply to to them um it may be that those individuals wish
55:47
to leave and very quickly as a general rule of thumb um
55:52
individuals would need to apply for a visa outward anywhere in a country where
55:58
they have legal residency or nationality which means practically for most people
56:03
they need to apply for a visa from russia there are a few and exceptions to that
56:08
uh for example the the cis countries russians are visa exempt there and they
56:15
may also be work permit exempt i would um you would need to get further advice on on that and but also there are good
56:21
options for example into the uae russians can arrive get a visa on arrival and they
56:27
can switch into different worker statuses if again if work was the particular driver
56:33
and i think you've already mentioned but it's definitely a a point worth reiterating
56:39
that many of you will have russian nationals within your your organization feeling incredibly
56:45
upset about this scenario and i know that rachel um has has spoken already
56:50
about the well-being support there is also an element of practical support as well
56:55
um around the um around the reassurance that as things
57:00
stand um visas if they have one would would be renewed
57:06
um maybe putting them in touch with somebody that can talk to them about that that practical aspect that might
57:11
also be causing a level a level of anxiety
57:16
and charlotte i'll pass back to you because i know that we're nearly at time thank you lewis um we're almost on the
57:24
hour um so um unless anybody who's got questions regarding immigration um let
57:29
us know right away but i think um as we're as we're letting people kind of take in all this information
57:36
um i still have the time of you right now so uh i guess i guess my my perhaps i
57:43
would like to come to each of you and ask you for perhaps final thoughts or what would be your number one
57:49
recommendation for leaders and organizations in responding to this crisis or anything you wish i had asked
57:55
you which i haven't yet i'll start with the attorney oh peter i know you need to leave i start with you peter
58:02
you're on you sorry just very quickly um a really good discussion i think we covered a lot of
58:08
the the issues that i would go back to this point about um being open and visible as leaders in times of crisis
58:14
and really sharing our beliefs and principles with the organization a lot of which we've talked about and i think
58:19
that's something so many of us have said learned through the last pandemic and i think it's just as important that we
58:25
keep that going now thank you peter thank you for joining us
58:30
today um rachel yeah i mean it was really interesting to
58:35
hear louise um set out some of the possibilities for uh people from ukraine to come here and i
58:43
think some employers are already showing um a real interest in recruiting people
58:49
um from ukraine as well and so i think i'd finish on that point just to say
58:55
that that is an opportunity for employers as well at the moment but also to really make sure that if you do
59:02
recruit people into your organization who have fled from um the events there
59:08
that it's important to think about the wider support as well that you can
59:13
um offer for people who are coming essentially as refugees who are now able to work here
59:19
so do think about the wider support that you can offer to people in terms of their needs
59:27
thank you tony uh the last two the events in the last
59:33
two years uh are are are clear we we the universe is
59:38
asking leaders to show more human centric leadership and and this is a time
59:44
to do so it's the time for leaders to change their leadership style and and listen to what the world and the
59:50
employees are asking them so my recommendation to them is this is your opportunity change what leadership is
1:00:00
thank you luis back to you oh thank you i mean i would actually reiterate all of all of the
1:00:06
above but but to engage with people to be able to provide the the well-being and the
1:00:14
practical support uh in in one go and check that those human centric leaders have those
1:00:20
right messages that and that that empathy to be able to to deliver to their populations
1:00:27
thank you lewis tony peter rachel um for being so generous with your insights
1:00:33
and this conversation well hopefully we did we did give you a lot to think about at the very least a lot of them critical
1:00:40
moments for me and a reminder that what we are often talking about human-centric leadership um but it is
1:00:48
not a good to have anymore it's proving to be a must-have it's proving to be
1:00:53
essential to business survival in times and crisis and beyond um so to
1:00:58
remember that a lot of what we are doing right now can be taken into the future thank you very much everybody for
1:01:04
attending um the recording of this session will be made available online if you would like to connect with those speakers i know peter can be connected
1:01:11
or connected with on linkedin at twitter he's very active um tony can people
1:01:16
connect you with connect with you on linkedin absolutely perfect
1:01:22
i'm sure we'll see more of you again in the future and luis thank you so much as always um for tipping in our well-being
1:01:27
hotlines are available to you we'll share more links recordings and resources please let you know what you
1:01:32
thought uh share this on social media and let us know how we can best support you the only way we can respond to your needs is by knowing your needs um so
1:01:40
reach out to us we're everywhere on social media and available on a phone call by email thank you very much
1:01:45
everybody have a great evening afternoon thank you hi everyone
1:01:51
come in