havaspeopleblog

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A-level students struggling to make sense of what is happening

Nearly half (49%) of A-level students (in England) say that the uncertainty created by the coronavirus pandemic is negatively affecting their mental health and wellbeing.

This is just one of the things we heard from students as part of a snap study we conducted between April 4th and April 7th, 2020. At Havas Education we have always had a strong connection with our student audience. In these times of uncertainty, we reached out to current Year 12 and 13 students to find out how they are feeling, how they are making sense of what is happening, and how this is impacting their university aspirations.

It comes as no surprise to learn that over half (52%) say they are feeling anxious. They are finding life under lockdown very difficult – from worrying about their loved ones to missing their friends. But chief amongst their concerns is not knowing what will happen with their education in the next few months (82%) and the impact it will have on their future in the long term (76%).

In terms of A-level grades, 69% of our students felt comfortable that their teachers would assess them fairly. But at the same time, nearly half (46%) also told us that they are finding it difficult to keep track of and understand the education-related developments taking place.

Our study was conducted just after Ofqual released further details on assessments; so it remains to be seen how well students actually understand this guidance and how this might change their attitude and expectations.  We will be exploring this further as part of our ongoing study over the coming weeks.  

Despite all the developments, 91% of our Year 13 students are committed to going to university. It is the start date that some are wavering on. 67% said they were sure they wanted a September 2020 start, prior to the pandemic. But now only 59% feel certain of this.

Overall, our findings reaffirm just what a difficult and confusing time this is for students. Especially for female students or those from a BAME background, who indicate higher levels of uncertainty than their peers.  

For universities, it will be vital to stay in tune with and be sensitive towards how students are feeling. And to reflect this not only in what they communicate, but how.

We will be releasing full details of our study after the UK Easter break.  

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The Future of Work: The Humans are Coming

Last month, I had the opportunity to attend ‘The Future of Work: The Humans are Coming’ - an event hosted by Minds@Work in HKX - our London office. Minds@Work are a movement dedicated to eradicating the stigma of mental illness and creating workplaces that are life-enhancing, so there was no doubt this was going to be an insightful evening.

Perspectives came from speakers including:

Mo Gawdat. - formerly Chief Business Officer for Google X, now author and leader of #OneBillionHappy movement

Magdalena Bak Maier  - neuroscientist, Ted speaker and author of two books on productivity and the heart/mind connection

Gethin Nadin - bestselling author of “A World of Good”, employee engagement expert, director at Benefex

Phoebe Tickell - renegade scientist creating decentralised, non-hierarchical and participatory organisational cultures

Nic Marks - Ted speaker with over 2m views, founder of employee happiness measurement software “Friday"

Quite the line up! So it’s been a challenge to pick out a few key takeaways, but here we go.

1.       Making work a fun and happy place is simply about changing our mindsets, not policies.

It’s purely our own thoughts that determine whether we are happy or unhappy. The world around us doesn’t change, in reality, the only thing that changes is the state of our minds. So if we spend time identifying the small, simple things that make us happy and focus our energies on these, we can overcome our negative thoughts, and become happier leaders. And implementing this mindset can ripple through into our teams and make for a far more positive workplace.

2.       Events vs Expectations.

When the events of life meet our expectations, we are happy, because life seems to be going our way. So if we truly embrace transparency - are honest about our workloads, priorities, and build realistic expectations for our colleagues - we can keep our teams happy too.

3.       Invest in emotional connections at work.

Emotional connections are key to feeling comfortable in bringing your whole self to work - both in heart and in mind. And when our logical and emotional systems align, that is when we make our best decisions and do our most extraordinary work. So, invest in relationships with your employees and colleagues - because the cultures we want to be a part of, and stay a part of, are those that allow us to be integrated humans.

4.       In a world where everything is personalised, why shouldn’t the employee experience follow suit?

The time has come to start trusting in our employees from the outset (no probation periods!), investing in individuals and making time for personalised experiences in order to keep up with the future of work. Because in a world where everything is personalised, why shouldn’t the employee experience follow suit?

5.       Embrace creativity by shifting away from hierarchical cultures

It’s not just millennials that are striving for a meaningful purpose in their work, beyond financial success. It’s something we all want. So how do we achieve it?

We need to step away from the hierarchical cultures we are used to, and welcome horizontal, participatory environments where we rotate the decision making, continuously switch our meeting facilitators and share ideas. This will create environments that are far more inclusive; where brain power exceeds, humans thrive and businesses benefit from the collective intelligence of all their people.

6.       Our emotions are the core of who we are, and AI can never change that.

AI, robots and computers can never truly feel what humans can feel, so they’re not something to be threatened by. The rapid developments of AI are what will ultimately take the pressure off us, and pick up some of the slack in order to give us the time to invest in our emotions and working relationships. And that is how we will start building intelligently happy organisations.

So to conclude, what I learnt at The Future of Work: The Humans are Coming, is that the future of work is not to be feared. It will require a shift in our mindsets, but once that shift takes place,  it will result in far more positive employee experiences for us all - and likely see us making our livings at workplaces that make time for supportive human relationships to develop in teams, where the jobs are flexible by design, so people can use all their unique strengths, and where trust, mutual respect and empathy are rife. In short, the future of work is a future where workplaces will actually, enhance our wellbeing, and we will all find a meaningful purpose in our work.

- Hannah Reeve, Junior Marketing Manager

Image Credit - Minds@Work

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What I learnt at the Future of Work Summit: Part 2

You’ll have no doubt already read about some of my thoughts from London Tech Week’s Future of Work Summit here. Of course, that was just the first part. Now you get to complete the picture with thoughts 6-10.

6. There needs to be balance between corporate tools and personal choice. Chances are, the tools and apps we use in our daily lives are not the tools and apps that our businesses require us to use. Why, for example, would we want to use Microsoft Teams when WhatsApp seems to do the job most of the time? Yes, it comes down to an understanding of what some tools can offer you, but telling your workforce they have to stick to a set number of tools is unlikely to go down too well. 

7. Identify employee flight risk. There was a great talk from Jordan Pettman (Global Head of Data, Analytics and Planning at Nestle) who spoke about how the company were using data and AI to predict the flight risk of employees. Identifying when and why they might leave. I also loved the fact that they were using this to help with succession planning and not as a tool to try and stop people leaving. Something of a futile task in a world where people consider four years as a decent amount of time in any one role or organisation.

8. Education needs to change. One of the most powerful speakers at the Summit was Emily Jenkins, a Youth Ambassador at Girlguiding UK. More importantly she’s an A-level student looking to forge a career in computer science. But her view was that unless she goes to Oxbridge (and she’d done the research to back this up) her chances of being able to do so were greatly reduced – even if she went to somewhere like Durham who are one of the best universities for the subject in the world. That can’t be right can it?

9. Agile isn’t a process. Sometimes – actually, maybe all times – I think we forget this. We make the mistake of seeing agile as a process to make our work faster and smarter. Agile shouldn’t be a process though. It should, as former Apprentice-candidate Jordan Perrott said, ‘be a mindset’ where people view priorities, success and failure very differently. With people comfortable making proactive choices that might not always work.

10. Our work will only get more interesting. For anyone who works in our sector, things will change. In a few years-time we won’t be trying to help Stagecoach et al hire bus drivers. We’ll be trying to find customer service representatives who want to work on autonomous vehicles.

So there we go. Hopefully you feel far more informed than you did a few minutes ago.

 - Jonathan Lee, Associate Creative Director.

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Meaning in the Age of the Employee

People wouldn’t care if 77% of brands disappeared!*

A startling statistic, but one Havas Group has been exploring for close to the past decade.  Through a proprietary study, we’ve measured the quality of benefits brands bring into people’s lives – and given the statistic above, many brands are still coming up short in the value exchange with their audiences. They’re missing the opportunity to add meaning to the experience. And we’ve found that there are three key areas brands should focus on to address that gap in the value exchange: deliver the products and services they say they’re going to deliver, improve people’s lives and play an active role in the communities they touch. Only brands that create meaningful connections with people will prosper.

One of the major elements a modern consumer expects from a brand is tailored content that’s specific to their wants/needs/hopes/dream/fears – the whole range of human emotion. Great content is an enabler for building meaningful connections and adding meaning to an experience. In today’s world, people expect brands to provide content that inspires, entertains, educates, informs and helps them. So, what does this have to do with employees and their experience? It’s time to stop focusing on the world of employment as a siloed experience – a compartmentalized aspect of someone’s day-to-day. Companies are now seeking to create value for their employees – beyond the traditional means. Just as people are expecting brands to provide meaning and value in their lives as consumers – they’re expecting the same, if not more from their place of employment. They want something more than a job. They want to be understood as an individual.  They want personalization. They want interactions to matter. And they want employers to live up to the purpose and culture that’s been promised on career websites, in job descriptions and in interviews. In short – they want us to value their experience as employees as much as we value their experiences as consumers.   The good news is if we can deliver on those promises and provide an engaging, meaningful experience we’ll be able to cultivate an environment of trust and engagement. A huge benefit to us all because when employees are engaged, they are 39%* more likely to become an advocate for the organization and 38%* more likely to remain loyal to their company. What’s more, inspired employees are two times more productive than just satisfied employees. So how do we get there? At Havas People, we specialize in building meaningful employee experiences and believe employee experiences should be designed as thoughtfully as customer experiences. When we approach our communication strategies, we look at it as an infinity loop.  Candidate and employee experiences should not be looked at as separate actions, but instead holistically to ensure meaning is being built into every single touchpoint.  This means using data and research to provide a meaningful recruitment process, onboarding process, and even offboarding process.  And building programs to keep employees engaged while they are at your organization. It’s translating the principles we’ve used so successfully in the consumer world to employment. Take onboarding for example, typically a one-size fits all, templated, tick the box exercise. ​But we’re all different and have different experiences and expectations. We carry different histories and have different needs when starting a new job. The level of information, training, support needed all varies. Now think of buying a brand-new piece of tech. Your level of comfort ability to naturally use it, understanding of the potential will vary compared to your neighbors. Does the company selling you that product treat you as an individual and do their best to tailor their content and guidance on your behalf? Or do they just leave it to you to figure things out on your own? Do they give you really generic advice that’s not applicable? If they did the latter, would you consider buying something from that company in the future? That’s the essence of adding meaning to your employees’ lives. It’s combining employee and customer experience principles to better understand what matters most to your people. And using that information to identify pain and gain points for the journey you’ll take them on in your organization so you can be sure you’re adding meaning where and when it matters most to them. 

Tim Middleton - Agency Director, Havas People USA

Source: Meaningful Brands powered by Havas Source: The Edelman Trust Barometer 2019

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What I learnt at the Future of Work Summit: Part 1

Last week was London Tech Week and – as part of that – the Future of Work Summit was hosted at WeWork. Don’t worry if it passed you by, because I’m about to give you my top ten take-outs. Which is surely worth 240 seconds of your time. To make stuff even more palatable for you, I’m going to do it in two parts. Off we go.

1. People need to collide more. Benjamin Samuels from WeWork was the first to speak, and perhaps naturally given who he works for, pushed the importance of the space we work in. Fostering collaboration through the use of spaces that encourage people to collide. A good reminder of what we have at Havas’ HQ in Kings Cross. 26 agencies all under one roof, with floors and staircases designed so that those collisions can happen more freely.

2. The importance of quiet days. Our wellbeing is pretty important, and if we all continue to work flat-out we’ll quickly burn-out. So it was nice to hear Angela Evans of Microsoft advocate quiet days. Days basically where you have no meetings, no phone calls, no catch-ups. So time to focus on the things you need to do.

3. Address the negativism surrounding the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Read or listen to something about the future of work and it’ll probably reference how many jobs will be taken over by robots and how many people will need to retrain. While, of course, it will affect the way we work and the skills we need, we seem to be ignoring the positives. Ultimately, we need to remember that the tools we are developing are being developed by people for people. To make working life easier and smarter, and freeing humans up to do what machines can’t.

4. 5G might be problematic. The 5th generation is going to, again, change the way we communicate and behave. But it was interesting to listen to the problems it may cause in the world of work. Predictably, 5G – as with 3G and 4G – will be better in urban areas than rural. But with the workforce becoming increasingly disperse, are businesses going to be able to make the most of what 5G can offer? (That’s a rhetorical question by the way.)

5. No to tech for techs sake. There are moments in life when you really do get blindsided by the most interesting and surprising facts. That happened to me when Sam Shah – Digital Development Director at NHSX – mentioned that they were one of the world’s biggest users of fax. Now, my immediate reaction, was that this was probably just a legacy system of an organisation that has over 1 million employees. However, I was wrong. (A slightly uncomfortable feeling if truth be known.) The fact is that in an environment where wi-fi can be limited and lead walls prevent communication, fax enables patient records to be sent securely and privately. So there you go. The next time someone says, ‘we need to do something digital’, make sure there’s a reason why.

I think that’ll do for part one. Make sure you return in a few days though when I’ll share thoughts inspired by Nestle, Girlguiding UK and a bloke who got to about week seven of The Apprentice.

- Jonathan Lee, Associate Creative Director.

Image Credit: @LDNTechWeek

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Attending the Wellbeing at Work Event:  Three Thoughts I Can’t Shake

On Thursday, June 6th I had the opportunity to attend and speak at the Wellbeing @ Work event in New York. It was an eye-opening day filled with exceptional speakers and interesting perspectives on wellbeing were shared.

Havas was invited to talk about Meaning in the Age of the Employee and how the consumerization of the employee experience is intrinsically linked to your people’s overall wellbeing.

Stay tuned for my next blog post where I’ll highlight some of our top-level thinking around that subject with some key thought starters worth mulling over!

Today, I want to share a few thoughts from the day that I keep coming back to. Things that were mentioned across a few of the different speakers’ topics that I believe are fundamental to employees feeling ‘their whole self’ at work and for employers to concentrate on when looking to build an environment where their employees’ wellness is a priority.

Homogenization isn’t just about looks.

As keynote speakers go, we were extremely fortunate to have Claude Silver, Chief Heart Officer at VaynerMedia kick off the day. Claude shared personal anecdotes about her journey with VaynerMedia and the steps she took to forge a career that matched her principles and allowed her to lead and build in the way she wants.

A lot of great content and advice was shared, but I keep coming back to Claude’s point about a homogenized workforce. It’s natural for a company that was founded by a few friends to grow and employ friends of those friends – then friends of those friends, but as growth increases that friend network can become very harmful to company culture, morale, and ability to innovate.

Now, if we park the inevitability that these employees will all most likely resemble one another and look at some other issues of ‘going with who you know’ we can see that all of a sudden you have a workforce that has a relatively similar profile. They have all the same reference points, they approach opportunities and problems in the same manner, and probably view the purpose, meaning and value of work in a pretty uniform way.

For a current employee, is this environment going to give them the confidence or freedom to shake things up and try something new – to be who they are, not just another version of everyone else? For a candidate, are they going to feel like they can add anything to your company, or that they’ll need to compartmentalize elements of who they are to fit in?

Essentially, it’s another way to look at the move from hiring for cultural fit to cultural add, but I would say we need to go a step further and begin to start hiring for cultural miss. What types of people are you missing in your culture, what types of skills, approaches, ways of working and thinking will unlock your people’s potential further? Every new hire is an opportunity to add a little bit of a change agent to the mix to keep pushing your culture further.

Rethinking indicative proof points for future performance.

I’ll preface this by saying, I’m not sure how many of us are ready to ditch degree requirements from our job roles, but when Annette Alexander of WP Engine and Ann W. Marr of World Wide Technology spoke in their session about removing degree requirements from a large chunk of their jobs, it made me wish that we could!

This is something that’s been on my mind for quite a while. I’ve been talking with friends and colleagues and asking them if they could do it all over would they have gone to their alma maters and studied the same subjects, gone elsewhere to learn something else, or even skipped school and just gone into the workforce sooner. Very unscientific, but these conversations have been interesting. Very few people would have taken the same path they did. Most would have gone to different schools to study different topics, but a few (like me) would have been happy to just get right into the working world.

When I was looking for a job in advertising, the thought of getting an opportunity anywhere without a degree or some internship experience was crazy to me. But in the (relatively) short time I have had a career the whole landscape of advertising/media/content has shifted. Some high-school aged students have a better grasp on branding and forging meaningful connections with people than folks who’ve spent their lives doing that work.

And this is something we’re seeing across industries. There is this massive pool of self-starters out there who are being ushered into a 2-4 year holding pattern before corporations deem them worthy of contributing. This seems like a huge waste to me. Capturing their passion for work, for creating things, for building communities bigger than themselves shouldn’t be put on hold.

Every aspect of the working world is transforming today and will transform again completely in the next decade or so. If how we evaluate people, identify who can contribute, or even where we look for the next big hire doesn’t completely change too – we’re going to be training and hiring people to enter a workforce that no longer exists!

 Walking the floor matters so much 

Interestingly, this point was mentioned by a handful of speakers at the Wellbeing event – and it’s something I’ve certainly heard at other events and from some of my mentors over the years. Yet, it’s so important when creating a meaningful environment where your employees can feel healthy that it’s always worth mentioning again and clarifying what this is and what it should not be. As a leader, a colleague, a new joiner, or even someone who thinks they are the lowest rung on the ladder ‘walking the floor’ is one of the greatest things you can do. It’s about stepping outside of your work for a moment and appreciating your environment, your coworkers, and your place. It’s a moment to build camaraderie, to check in on a human level, and to celebrate, commiserate and experience all the wonderful emotions that come with being a human being!

It has nothing to do with making sure people are working, are at their desks, are getting their job done. We have other ways to measure and observe that. “Walking the floor” is the opportunity to foster community, to humanize yourself and your teams. To check in and show you care – and maybe get a little care back in return. It’s building that connection between others and yourself. A chance for everyone to show they’re not just automatons working away, but that we’re all people looking for a little extra love in a crazy world.

And this just isn’t about the people you are in the same physical location as. ‘Walking the floor’ with your remote workers is just as, if not more, important. Are you checking in with them in the same way? Are they able to virtually ‘walk the floor’ If needed in other locations or departments?

It only takes a few minutes to check-in with someone and wish them well – to show them you appreciate them. It’ll take much longer to invoke that appreciation if all you’re ever doing is asking them for work or work-related updates.

Tim Middleton - Agency Director, Havas People USA

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Embracing Humanity in a Changing World

March was a particularly jam-packed month for us at Havas People, as a whole host of events dropped into our calendar across the globe. And with a multitude of events, comes the opportunity of gaining further, fresh insight into the changing world of work and technology.

Our team in the UK were delighted to experience UNLEASH for the first time, followed by the annual Changeboard Future Talent Conference, while our team in the US attended both Workhuman and HR Transform. Additionally, our Managing Partner Danni Brace flew out to Singapore to complete the final leg of the Havas NextGen course - a year-long leadership journey that brings together 50 of Havas’ high potential leaders from across the globe and challenges them to become more team-centric, strategic and future-focused.

So on reflection of our particularly busy end to Q1, we thought we’d pull together the top insights that got us inspired last month. So without further ado, let’s get into it.

Using technology to embrace humanity

At this year’s Changeboard Future Talent Conference, speakers talked through their methods of using technology to support the growth of their businesses.  One speaker who impressed our team was Lucy Winkett, a Rector of St James’s Church.  She was inspirational, engaging and funny.  During her talk, one of the questions she asked the room to consider was “who are we at work?”.  She encouraged everyone to think about who they think they are, and who others perceive them to be. She then spoke about the ways in which human interactions can make our work fairer and explored how technology can help us to build a future which embraces humanity, rather than isolating us.

Being Human

So what exactly does it mean to embrace humanity? Albeit from different perspectives, both UNLEASH and Changeboard reinforced the fact that we are human beings not human doings. “Who we are” is not defined by our activities but by our beliefs. Not being robots is our gift, our USP. We are not machines. People are not to be optimised but to be experienced. Quite often, we don’t need personalised experiences, we just need personal experiences. Now that we have robots we have to retrain humans how to be humans, to embrace creativity, complexity and empathy – to become less like robots than ever before because we can never be better robots than robots. We need to reinvent the value chain with people being the differentiating factor, and so people working in HR/talent have a real opportunity to be the new meaning-makers.

Vulnerability is not a weakness

Across the globe in the United States, Workhuman keynote speaker Brene Brown built on this idea of ‘being human’ as she outlined how vulnerability is a vital piece of developing a strong workplace culture. “If you set up a culture within your organisation where there’s no tolerance for vulnerability, no tolerance for failure - then there’s no room for innovation, productivity, or creativity” she said. When people are in an environment where they feel they can bring their whole selves to work, they feel more connected to their organisation and a sense of belonging. This sense of belonging is vital to building successful teams and businesses. It also builds trust among employees, managers and leads to better work outputs.

Engaged employees drive business success

Moreover, at HR Transform we once again heard a spin on how employees are often the determining factor between successful companies and ones that never reach their full potential. Employee engagement is driving business through human capital. Successfully building an employer brand and engagement strategy aligns a company’s culture with its brand. This creates an authentic experience and allows you to easily train employees on brand purpose and what role they play in delivering on that brand. Investing in your people is the key to business success, and if you put a promise out there, it’s vital to ensure your people are ready to deliver on it.

And it seems the final module of NextGen did a pretty great job of raising awareness of all these factors across our wider Havas community.

The module focused on leading through a disruptive and ever-changing environment with a lens on the importance of building your organisational culture and talent to drive your strategy. One quote that particularly resonated with Danni came from Vishnu Mohan; ‘Customers will not love a brand until an employee loves it’ – and at that moment there were a few ‘aha’ moments across the group at the realisation of why Havas People’s specialism existed within a comms group such as Havas. If you don’t invest in creating a positive employee experience why would you think your customers are going to have a positive experience themselves – your brand isn’t a thing in isolation it is the sum of every individual you employ – if they enjoy where they work your brand is more likely to succeed.

So what has attending these events taught us? It’s confirmed that building a culture that embraces the true essence of humanity - one that puts trust in people’s strengths and supports them with their flaws - allows them to make meaningful connections with the organisations they work for. And the result of this? Meaningful experiences for your customers too, and an inevitable improvement on your bottom line. Which is exactly why we do the work that we do, across the entire people agenda, here at Havas People.

- Written collectively by Danni Brace - Managing Partner; Frank Kinrade - Business Development Manager; Hannah Reeve - Junior Marketing Manager; Jo Schopper - Account Executive and Nicky Scanlan, Business Development Director.

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Connecting Wellbeing with the employee experience in Dubai

The Wellbeing at Work Event, Dubai, provides HR & wellness professionals the opportunity to learn about the latest wellbeing initiatives that are enhancing individual and organisational performance. For the last three years Paul Turner had attended the event and got to know the crowd. We decided that this year it was the right platform, right audience, right time to present an Employee Experience masterclass.

Conference themes included: employee happiness and organizational culture; “healthy” corporate cultures; the future of work; wellbeing and performance; the role of leadership in engaging talent; linking wellness to stages of the career lifecycle. All set at The Palace Downtown Dubai, a truly 5* venue with super staff and refreshments!

The speaker line-up was a multi-disciplinary team of senior organisational development and HR professionals from the banking, airport and aviation, education, healthcare and hospitality sectors; and industry-leading Wellbeing professionals. While these guys were espousing the benefits of introducing meditative, mindfulness and yoga practices into the workplace, we were in a seminar room, talking our talk on the employee experience. All we had to do was connect our world of EX with the conference theme.

Now,

Clear.

Your.

Thoughts.

Living in an always-on culture, the line between work life and personal life has blurred; employees want organisations to expand their benefits offering to include a range of programs for physical, mental, financial and spiritual heath. Employers, in response, are investing in wellbeing programs as a responsibility but also as part of their talent strategy as wellness and wellbeing are being linked more explicitly to sustainable performance.

Now, of course employee expectations haven’t changed purely with regards to “Wellbeing”.  They’ve changed across a raft of different criteria, every touchpoint of working life. The employee experience encompasses all aspects and all interactions of how an employee perceives everyday life at work. The whole experience of work needs to be fulfilling and meaningful in a multitude of ways. Be it more purposeful work, a sense of belonging, the flexibility to work when and where they like, the physical environment and the technology that is at one’s disposal; there are now a huge range of factors that now influence where people choose to work and for how long.

Brands have to think about their employee experience as they would their customer experience. i.e personalise it; make every interaction matter; and be authentic so that I, the employee, can build a relationship with you, the employer. Because I, like you, would like to bring my whole self to work, wherever that may be and however it may look.

Rhency Padilla presented the work he has done elevating the people experience at Chalhoub, including the creation of 14 people experience communities across the Group. Our client James McFadzean from Nestlé talked about various ways you need to communicate with your people at different stages of their experience with your brand – from Attracting the Masses “When you are strangers” to Alumni and Boomerang engagement, “When you are family”. Talent professionals from PwC, AXA, DHL, Mashreq Bank (amongst others) were excited by their case stories and our approach to EX and got a lot out of the session.

The world of work is changing. The Wellbeing at Work event didn’t happen five years ago. Now they’re taking place in every continent annually with 10 events per year.

And I’m proud and glad that we were able to join and add to their conversation, as they do to ours. It makes my experience of work more meaningful because of it.

- Nicky Scanlan - Business Development Director

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Institute of Student Employers Annual General Meeting – January 2019

On Tuesday 22nd January, I attended the Annual General Meeting for the Institute of Student Employers. Alongside the regular meeting points such as approving and seconding new Board Members and their Annual Accounts (they took a bit of a dip last year on 2017 in case you wanted to know) they also shared some insights from their annual recruitment market survey.

Tristram Hooley, their new Chief Research Officer took us through ‘Pulse’. This survey ran across 2 weeks and was sent to all members of the ISE to canvas opinions on their recruitment trends.

Of the 97 responses the top line was determined as:

·         Early Talent recruitment has gone up (there were 13,000 hires in 2018 and 17,000 planned for 2019)

·         Of the employers that responded to the survey; 98% said they were recruiting graduate roles and 73% recruiting apprentices

·         In 2019 they expect to see this change to 18% growth within Graduate roles and an increased 47% growth for Apprentices.

This growth isn’t a surprise but the large jump in Apprenticeship across the market shows that large corporations are using the levy how it was intended, indeed the average levy spend has gone up this year to 39%, but is there a risk this could be to the detriment of Graduate roles?

Currently the only industry reporting a decline in graduate roles is the Energy and Engineering sector, but this is marginal. However, it is one of the industries that has seen the largest growth in the Apprenticeship space alongside Retail, IT and Legal markets.

Companies are still struggling to fill roles with a whopping 55% saying they were unable to fill on average 12% of their early talent roles. Renege’s are still a major gripe but have fallen. The main culprits seem to be the graduate market who appear to be better and more adept at accepting several offers and keeping companies on their toes till the last minute.

There seems to be little concern or a ‘bury your head in the sand’ approach with regard to Brexit with 70% saying their recruitment will stay the same. This suggests it’s still too early to predict what impact Brexit will have and that resource planning for 2020 hasn’t begun!  

There isn’t a concern at all around filling the roles post Brexit, the concerns are more around the loss of specialist skills at both the experienced and entry level. Over 30% are concerned about specialisms, for example, there is a feeling that Europeans are better at mathematical and scientific vocations. This could suggest why the energy and engineering industries are expanding their Apprenticeships and growing talent within.

Obviously, these are only the views of those who are members of the ISE, Tristram tells us that ‘outside of the ISE numbers are falling and companies are spending less overall on the levy.’ Time will tell what impact Brexit has and indeed what our Brexit looks like even.

- Emma Coleman, Account Director

Image Credit -  The Institute of Student Employers (@IoSEorg)

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Walking tall after the RADS 2019

Nominations are funny things. Having found out we’d got eight of them for the RADs 2019 at the back end of last year, we were pretty happy. But as you get closer and closer to the night itself, you start panicking a bit. ‘What happens if we don’t win any?’ we ask ourselves. As if somehow not converting those nominations into shiny blocks of metal would equate to some kind of failure. A totally irrational response, of course, but hey, no matter which agency or organisation we work for, it’s what we all think.

Fortunately, for us, that did not materialise last night. On another great evening at the Grosvenor, we picked up two more RAD Awards to sit alongside those from the years gone by.

Our first win of the night kept up what is becoming a bit of a tradition as of late. Our client, Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service won the Integrated Campaign category again – this time for the work we’ve been doing to attract Forensic Psychologists into the service. Find the Real Story Inside drew on the complexities of the role and the importance of being able to understand what an offender is really feeling at any moment in time. Central to a campaign that was told through print, digital, social, video and experiential, were a series of illustrations that sought to demonstrate the raw emotions you’d come face to face with every day.

Fifteen minutes later or so we were back up on stage to pick up the best Use of Social award for our work with Next. This was a project of incredible craft and passion, partly here at Havas, but even more so from Next themselves. In September 2018 we launched Walk this Way – a graduate brochure that used Instagram to its fullest potential. Comprising over 1000 Next products, a set that stretched to the length of 12 articulated lorries and 200 individually-crafted shots, Walk this Way appears on Instagram as one long image. What’s more though, you can then find content – be it videos, photos, GIFs, quotes, competitions etc – behind every single square. It was an immense task, and it’s working. Helping Next attract plenty of talent into their graduate programmes.

Like we said, just because our other six nominations didn’t get the nod on the night, we’re all still super-proud that they were in the running. So to Cathay Pacific, BP and Direct Line Group (twice) congratulations to you too. Thanks for trusting us and here’s to more nominations next year. (As long as, you know, they go on and win.)

- Jonathan Lee, Associate Creative Director.

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Wellbeing and wellness in the UAE – just part of the ‘employee experience’.

In the ever-evolving world of recruitment communications, organisations like Havas People are constantly having to re-evaluate their service offering and create a point of difference in what is a crowded and competitive marketplace. It’s not just about latching onto the next big thing either; it’s about a genuine interest in the way the world of work is changing and, in particular, the relationship between employees and their employers.

This is especially relevant in a market like the UAE which in some ways is more advanced than the West – how many other countries have a Minister for Happiness for example? However, in other areas it has some catching up to do and one such area is wellbeing.  When I arrived here about 4 years ago, the subject wasn’t even on the agenda but in the last 12 months alone, I have attended a number of events where it has been absolutely front and centre.  Those events have been characterised by senior executives and well-known personalities getting up on stage to talk about their own battles with depression and other mental illnesses and espousing the mantra of ‘it’s ok to be not ok’.

So how does this fit in with what we are talking to our clients about? Our proposition has shifted from a transactional model to much more of a consultancy model where we look at the ‘employee experience’ in its totality. How do candidates feel about the employers they want to work for? How do they engage in a conversation with them? How does the interview process stack up? What’s the onboarding process like? What’s the reality of the day to day working experience? How are their physical and emotional needs catered for in the workplace? Can they learn and develop in their role? And ultimately, would they actively recommend the employer to their friends and acquaintances?

Our aim is to enable organisations to deliver a positive experience to their candidates and employees which will, at the same time, deliver tangible ROI in terms of bottom line impact. To do that, we offer practical, hands-on support and the physical creative outputs to help clients execute effective communications strategies.

In order to explore all these issues in more detail, we are partnering with the Wellbeing at Work Event in Dubai on 19th February, where we will be running a Havas People masterclass during the afternoon session focusing on the Employee Experience. To book your place at the conference and masterclass visit https://fowinsights.com/event/wellbeing-work-event-uae-2019/ quoting “HAVAS30” to get 30% off the ticket price.

We look forward to seeing you there!

- Paul Turner, Regional Director - MENA

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Recruitment Marketing Awards 2018

In the words of the late, great Whitney Houston, ‘Didn’t we almost have it all’. Well, yes Whitney, I don’t think it’s arrogant to suggest that we did.

Last night was the Recruitment Marketing Awards 2018 and we walked away with three awards plus the big one, the Grand Prix. Not a bad return from our five entries turned five nominations.

We won Campaign of the Year, Best use of Social Media and the Grand Prix for our Senior Leaders campaign with Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service. We won’t say too much more on that here because it also won the Integrated Campaign and Work of the Year gongs at this year’s RADs – and you can read about that here. What we will mention is our other shortlisted work.

Challenged with attracting Forensic Psychologists, our campaign Find the Real Story Inside (also for HMPPS) drew on the complexities of the role and the importance of being able to understand what an offender is really feeling at any moment in time. Central to a campaign that was told through print, digital, social, video and experiential, were a series of illustrations that sought to demonstrate the raw emotions you’d come face to face with every day. Shortlisted for both Art Direction and Campaign of the Year, it won the former (and gracefully stood aside to let Senior Leaders win the latter).

Finally there was our campaign for Whitbread that saw the hospitality group take a stand on International Women’s Day and urge everyone to stop calling female chefs ‘female’ chefs. After all there’s no such thing as a female copywriter or a female Prime Minister. Take a look at the video below to see what we did. Shortlisted in the Diversity & Inclusion category, it didn’t win, but that shouldn’t detract from the ongoing mission to drop a label that divides an industry.

Congratulations to all those involved, and to our clients HMPPS and Whitbread. Thanks for trusting us and going with us when we challenged you. There’s more great work to come.

- Jonathan Lee, Associate Creative Director

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Nicky’s Story

Grief is a multifaceted response to loss. Although conventionally focused on the emotional, it also has physical, cognitive, behavioural, social, cultural, spiritual and philosophical dimensions. It is destabilising and isolating and it has a profound affect on your mental health.

My first experience of grief was at university. I lost my dad suddenly during my third year. My student experience was (like many) “work hard, play harder”, a pattern of behaviour I continued into my late twenties. At the time I was in the middle of my finals, trying to squeeze as much out of my last few months of university, cramming Douglas and Durkheim, drinking and dancing as much as my loan and part-time job could afford. My response to his death was to push harder in the library and harder in the clubs. “Not dealing” with my grief was incredibly easy. I hid it behind essays, exams and 21st birthday parties.

And guess what? That response wasn’t sustainable. I developed anxiety around what I perceived professional and personal success to be. Wins at work and 100% attendance at the pub became my showpieces of happiness. It was many years later, in a new (and significant) relationship, that the damage this was doing became clear, it unravelled. I had never properly dealt with my grief, I hadn’t made the time for it and my student experience didn’t bend for it. I wanted a 2:1 degree and I wanted to graduate with my friends. I wasn’t encouraged to defer, I was encouraged to “crack on” with life. Leaving was losing. There was no time to stop and take it in.

Unpicking this behaviour through therapy meant that I could untie the tight knot of anxiety and come to terms with what happened and ultimately, take care of my mum when she got sick many years later.

When she died I couldn’t hear properly; I couldn’t hold my concentration or a conversation for more than a few minutes. Anyone who has been through this experience as the next of kin will know there’s a huge amount to decide and organise. I was given the space to focus on those things. For a while I forgot about work; I was allowed to forget about work.

When I came back into the agency, doing my job felt like wading through treacle. I didn’t have the mental capacity to complete the simplest tasks and this was all compounded by crippling apathy; for the first time in my life I just didn’t care. It was debilitating. And I was utterly exhausted.

Getting better has been like climbing a mountain with a vertical incline. When I’ve needed to stop and take a break, work has given me the time and space to fall off with a safety net. Because I’ve been given such a flexible framework in which to work, rest, sleep and manage the sheer administration that comes with death, I’ve been able to establish a much healthier way to grieve. My foot came right off the accelerator, safeguarding my mental health and my relationships, the important stuff.

Employers have such an opportunity (and a responsibility) to step in and offer employees in crisis the stability which can suddenly disappear when the rest of their world is spinning. My relationship with work has changed because of the steadfast support I received during a traumatic time in my life. Conversely, my brother had a less than compassionate response from his employer, (beware the third sector people) and his experience led to his eventual resignation.

Eight months on and I can still struggle to get the right words in the right order. I miss things on the to-do list, I lose the to-do list! And being kind to my partner, kind to myself and productive at work on the same day can be challenging. Thankfully my partner and my manager are both incredibly patient people and I’m learning to be more patient, slowly, every day.

- Nicky Scanlan, Business Development Director

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Atia’s Story

10 years ago in October I gave birth to my son, Rayan. It was a really happy time for both my husband and I as it was something we had longed for since being married. I was absolutely cherishing my time being on maternity leave and enjoying my new role as being a mum. Thinking about juggling home and work was on my mind but I knew that I’d be able to make it work.

Four months into my maternity leave, things took a turn for the worse. My beautiful son suddenly became very ill and we didn’t know what was wrong, seeing him go blue, and not responding was just very frightening and as a new parent I just froze not knowing what to do. We rushed him into hospital and that’s when my nightmare began. Rayan started to have seizures, they could not find the root cause and they were trying all sorts of medication to see if they could stop the seizures, but nothing was working. His seizures started to get worse and he was having up to 100 seizures a day. He was diagnosed with having infantile spasms which cause children to have this number of seizures. We were told this was the worst type of epilepsy to have as it affects a child’s development, but we still didn’t get to the root cause. After an MRI Rayan was diagnosed with a condition called Polymicrogyria. I know - what is that you’re thinking. It’s when the baby’s brain does not develop, and Rayan’s front right of the brain was affected which was causing his epilepsy. It’s not a very common condition. I totally struggled with this. I couldn’t believe this was happening to me, seeing my siblings have children and nobody affected by anything I couldn’t understand why me, why were we having to go through this. The rest of my maternity ended up being doctors, osteopaths, physiotherapists, anybody who could help us in trying to get Rayan better again - we had to start again with Rayan getting him to hold his head, to sit up, and with intense physio he did finally begin to walk. Going back to work was harrowing - trying to find a childminder that would take Rayan with his needs was a challenge in itself as people were not willing to look after a special needs child. Eventually we found someone and it gave me the freedom to go back to work. Work was my escape, a place for me to be normal again and to have a life outside of home. Being a special needs parent is a lonely existence, your child not being invited to that birthday party that everyone is at, being excluded from events because you’re just slightly different. Work has helped me cope with my personal circumstance, it’s a place where I feel I can achieve and be successful. It helps ease the pain. Rayan’s needs will never go away, and it won’t get easier, the older he gets and the stronger he becomes within himself, taking care of him will take a lot, but he’s our son and my wish would be to see him talk and take care of himself. We just know we have a long journey ahead. Having a strong support network has helped, you realise who will be there for you and who you can rely on. Talking about it with my family and friends has helped but having a supportive husband to help me with this journey has kept me together. Without him, I wouldn’t be where I am today, juggling home and a career.

- Atia Irshad, Head Of Client Delivery

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Charlotte’s Story

I’m a fairly out-going, positive person so it never entered my head that I may one day suffer with depression. To a point, you can hide it from other people, and even yourself.  It took me a long time to realise that some of the feelings I was having were symptoms of depression.

The first time I was affected by the illness was in 2007. I had a very demanding job of Group Account Director. I found myself in a position where I had a large client portfolio, was involved in every piece of new business going, and managed a team of six people. For a long time, I thrived on this challenge and enjoyed the adrenaline of being so busy.

To keep up with the work load, I started to include my personal time in my working day, allocating tasks to be done ‘that night’ or ‘at the weekend’. Soon that became the norm and my way of keeping up with the work. After months working in this way, I started to feel different – I describe it as ‘my head feeling fuzzy’. I wasn’t able to think properly, couldn’t prioritise, couldn’t face the volume of tasks I had to get through. And I felt really fed up, everything was an effort. I can remember sitting on the office floor in tears, because my head wouldn’t work. I would meet up with my close friend Jon and barely be able to speak, it was like I was on shut down. A wise colleague and friend, Helen (whenever I’m stuck with something, I think to myself, what would Helen do), urged me to go to the Doctors for help. So I did. A lot of tears later, I was prescribed Prozac due to work related stress and anxiety. I had no qualms taking this and took it for 18 months in the end. This was the single best thing I did as it helped me get my head together enough to start making better choices and find a way to fight my way out of the fog I was in. I had a week off work but felt that I could cope better with everything by being in work, in my routine and familiar surroundings and familiar people, but with more help in managing my workload.

Years later, in 2016, my ‘fuzzy head’ came back. This time I was coming to the end of a year of maternity leave after my second child. We had just moved house after 13 months of buying/selling hell and I found myself in a new area with two young children in dark, cold December. The feelings of fuzziness increased daily and I felt anxious literally all of the time. I was in tears a lot to my husband and cried on the phone to my sister every morning, unsure how I was going to get through the day. Leaving the house was a complete effort. Christmas was really difficult, I just kept breaking down in tears on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (my birthday). I couldn’t work out how other people could cope with each day when I couldn’t. I pretty much stopped eating and lost a lot of weight, I just had no appetite and didn’t want to eat. I went to see my Doctor and asked for help, Prozac again. It was exactly at this time I was due to return to work after maternity leave. The Doctor cautioned against returning but I said I wanted to, I needed to fight my way back to normal. I returned to work and hid how I was from everyone around me – I didn’t want to have to talk about it, I wanted the distraction of work to help make my brain work again. The familiarity of the work, the people and the environment helped me to focus and function again. This wouldn’t work for everyone, but it definitely helped me. I stayed on Prozac for 6 months and then stopped taking them when I felt like me again.

Depression is lonely, scary and it’s hard to see how you will ever come out the other side. If you feel fuzzy, find someone you can talk to and do whatever helps you to feel more like you.

- Charlotte Fenney, Client Partner

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Frank’s Story

Mental health comes in many guises and for my family this has been in the form of dementia. 

Earlier this year we lost my auntie, who for the past 13 years fought breast cancer and two years ago she had a stroke.  During this time, we started to notice changes, which mainly included repeating herself a lot and getting very confused.  I found myself becoming more stressed at home and at work.  Having to turn up for work with a smile on my face, when really all I wanted to do was shut myself in a room alone was really tough. But rather than closing myself off, I spoke with nurses, friends and colleagues and got in touch with the charity Dementia Friends to understand more about what was happening to my auntie.

To support my auntie who lived on the Isle of Man, I attended all of her hospital and doctor appointments across the UK, to ensure what was being discussed (including new treatment plans) was right for my auntie.  Throughout this period, it was heartbreaking to see the changes physically and mentally, as it became apparent she was no longer able to fully understand what was being explained to her or make an informed decision about her own care. 

Although work were supportive, especially during the time when we lost my auntie, it was a personally challenging time to juggle so many work/personal commitments.  I used the majority of my annual leave over the past few years on doctor/hospital appointments, which meant very little downtime to recharge my batteries which affected my own health and wellbeing.

In the final weeks of my aunties life, my manager suggested working from home on the Isle of Man.  I got to spend more time with my auntie in her final days without having to worry if I would get to the island in time and this was something I really appreciated.  The compassionate leave I was given by work helped me come to terms with the loss so that when I returned I was ready to get straight back to work.

Don’t get me wrong, the past three years have been hard and since we have lost my auntie, some days it feels even worse than our fight to beat cancer!  We always had time for each other, we laughed so much, had great adventures and really appreciated what we both had before it was gone.   

Although my experience of mental health was not my own to begin with, I was affected greatly by another person’s mental health.  I really believe that talking about a problem can help to make things a little better both at work and at home, as the saying goes “it’s good to talk”.  

If you are interested in finding our more about becoming a Dementia Friend, please get in touch with me – frank.kinrade@havaspeople.com.

- Frank Kinrade, Business Development Manager

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Reece’s Story

I’m going to be completely honest. Because that’s how we need to be if we want to help people who feel like they can’t be open with their mental health. Frankly put, I got very depressed whilst in my first job in advertising, at the age of 22 (for the most part of a year). To the point of pretty much constant suicidal ideation. I was very, very lucky to have a supportive family and enough self-awareness to help myself.

Up until that point in life I’d always been the happy guy, making people laugh and smiling. So it crept up on me. Whilst I was in it I had no ability to see what was happening and so I sunk into genuine despair.

Coming straight out of a chilled uni environment into a job that required me to work late almost every night of the week was a total shock. I wasn’t equipped with any time management skills whatsoever. I didn’t feed myself properly, I got drunk too much and I slept nowhere near enough. This alone is dangerous, but combined with a fair few serious problems that were out of my control that I definitely didn’t deal with because I had no energy left outside of my employment, it could have been deadly. 

The circumstances don’t sound that bad, do they? To others I seemed like I had it all going for me, with a few shitty life things here and there. But it didn’t feel that way. Whilst in it, I was very aware of the fact that I ‘shouldn’t feel’ how I did. All that thinking did was make me be even harder on myself and in turn feel even worse. I’m not embarrassed about the way I felt. Although people have it way worse than I did, it still felt real. Regardless of the stimulus, depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. You don’t feel that way out of choice and no matter why you feel the way you do, you should treat yourself with care and love because in your one life as we know it, it’s worth doing right by yourself. When bad or weird or different things happen it’s important to actually address them and not dismiss them as nothing. The little things add up.

Before I sank, I wasn’t aware of what becoming depressed felt like and by the time I actually admitted where my head was at, I was already down there. Continuing with my job, not telling my best friends in the world, allowing negative thoughts to become cyclic and habitual just got me lower and lower until I finally had to quit. I remember sitting at my desk, thinking about how much I felt like I wanted to die at that point and thought, ‘I should probably do something about my life first, right?’ So, I handed in my notice. I took it back to basics and allowed myself some time to recover. I understand how lucky I was to be able to do that. I know some people can’t quit their jobs. So, for those, it’s important to recognise and acknowledge when something isn’t right inside and get help. Catch it early on. There should be no stigma surrounding therapy. Eating enough and drinking water are essential. Getting a few early nights a week and cutting out alcohol for a bit can help so so much. Get the basics right. Being firm with people’s expectations of you at work and not allowing job stress to overwhelm you is integral. Remember your work isn’t life or death. It’s important, but your mental health is far more. Make sure you leave on time when you can and say no to work if it’s not reasonable. Stop being so hard on yourself and don’t feel as if feeling like this makes you weak. It does not. It makes you human.   

I think people need to speak. There is nothing to be ashamed of. So many people suffer without saying a word and that does no good. Although it was the worst time of my life, I can now say that I am more myself than ever and so I am able to look back positively. I now know the signs of slipping and am aware of what can make a person fall so low. It’s also given me experience that I can be honest and open with, to hopefully show others that it’s not uncommon and that it really does get better.

- Reece Creedon, Copywriter