Aon New Better The New Better, Aon, COVID-19, pandemic

Helping Organizations Chart a Course to The New Better

GLOBAL SPECIAL REPORT

The COVID-19 pandemic has meant that organizations around the world have had to tackle a set of once-in-a-lifetime challenges. And leaders have met the moment with urgency and innovation. Building resilience against other massive unexpected risks is a complex process – but one that can be achieved by convening people, ideas and outlooks. What follows is a collection of insights, including case studies from leading companies across the globe, that can help define the path forward.

Read the Executive Summary

When was the last time in global economic history that every single company in the world, big, medium, and small, stood up and addressed a single risk at the same time in a way they never had before? The short answer: never. In this highly volatile world, risk is ever present and – because we are more interconnected than ever before – it is also more severe. The global COVID-19 pandemic has underscored how we are living and working in extraordinary and unprecedented times. The decisions made during this crisis in both the public and private sectors – no matter their size, location or industry – carry immense weight. Every organization in the world is reacting to this unprecedented challenge. There was no roadmap to guide a response and no past data to inform analytics or predictive models to help prepare for the future. As a company keenly focused on risk and closely connected to our clients, we felt compelled to embark on a collaborative effort to help move society and the economy forward. This year, rather than simply accept the constraints imposed by the pandemic, Aon made an active decision to define the “new better” in collaboration with clients. That is why Aon brought together over 100 leading companies and organizations across 10 global cities from a broad range of sectors to examine the issues rising from the COVID-19 pandemic, learn from each other’s experiences and begin to discuss ways to navigate three fundamental aspects of society and the economy: working, traveling and convening.

Setting a New Benchmark

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Accenture Bord Bia JLL McDonald’s Merck KGaA Helle Thorning-Schmidt

HOW LEADING COMPANIES AND INNOVATIVE THINKERS ARE NAVIGATING CHANGE AND REIMAGINING BUSINESS:

Read the Executive Summary

Companies must now work along two dimensions – managing current issues related to the pandemic and strengthening their risk management strategy for a complex future through the identification and planning for various long-tail risks. This does not mean simply reacting to the events of this year, but understanding how the confluence of business changes and external factors will shape risk going forward. Rather than a focusing on a return to normal, companies must prepare to navigate new forms of volatility with more innovative solutions. The majority of company leaders in the U.S., EU and the UK agree that COVID-19 exposed new risks and vulnerabilities that require a significant change in how their businesses think about the future. Volatility will always exist and will grow in the future – indeed, climate risk, geopolitical issues, cyber risk, digitization, talent challenges and other complex issues are shaping the business environment. Companies that carry forward their successful pandemic approaches and decision-making strategies can better position themselves to navigate that volatility.

Navigating New Forms of Volatility

Defining Moments of COVID-19: A 12-Month Timeline

Click a month to learn more

Dec 2019

Jan 2020

FEB 2020

MAR 2020

JUN 2020

Wuhan confirms dozens of pneumonia cases from unknown cause

Dec 31, 2019

The COVID-19 pandemic has challenged companies to think – and act – quickly. Supply chains were strained, unemployment rose and virtual offices had to go up overnight. At the same time, health care systems mobilized in response to the rapidly unfolding public health crisis. The vulnerabilities and complexities of our interconnected, interdependent global system were brought to the forefront. Leaders across the globe met this moment, quickly building and navigating a path through the storm. They quickly shifted to remote operations, evaluated the economic impact of a global public health crisis, took care of their workforce and determined how to address competing challenges in real time. This moment isn’t over, but it has helped companies reorder their priorities and accelerate innovation in critical business areas, which will continue in a post-pandemic world. Going forward, there are four major areas where companies can realize significant impact for their organizations.

Reshaping the Future: Four Core Priorities

GROWING STRONGER FROM TODAY’S CHALLENGES

67.5%

of C-Suite leaders and senior executives feel the pandemic has exposed new risks and vulnerabilities that require a significant change in how they think about the future*

New York

Chicago

Madrid

Dublin

London

Netherlands

Germany

Tokyo

Singapore

Australia

Collaborating through crisis

Return to the Office: Participants looking past the pandemic to the reopening of offices are defining their new protocols, from temperature screenings and deep cleanings to social distancing and masks. Staggered work schedules to avoid crowding public transportation and office buildings are also on the agenda.

Future of Work: While initial work-from-home expectations were uncertain, the transition has been better than expected. Technology has played a crucial role, and many companies have discussed how it could be used in the reopening of offices – for instance, wearables that can enable real-time alerts about social distancing, testing and health advice. Most companies are also identifying how virtual work will continue, as pockets of the workforce are hesitant to return to the office and some have seen productivity spikes with employees at home. Performance metrics at large corporations have been adjusted to meet the COVID reality.

Leadership and communication: Companies agreed consistent communication is key – and that as leaders make decisions, clarity and transparency for stakeholders is vitally important.

As with countries across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic brought instability and uncertainty to the U.S. Infection rates have fluctuated as each state manages the pandemic differently. At the same time, the country has also confronted issues of social justice and companies have found themselves quickly responding to two different crises. The Work, Travel, Convene Coalitions in New York and Chicago came together to identify priorities on the path to recovery – and consider how to power the economy, keep people safe and create a more equitable society. Emerging themes included:

A Focus on Community Wellbeing

NEW YORK and CHICAGO

Leading global businesses and innovative thinkers reveal their strategies and action plans as they make their way to the new better.

Leading Through Change: Case Studies and Perspectives

A Data-driven, Accelerated Approach to the Future of Work

An Agile, Collaborative Approach and Risk Preparedness

How We Can Learn from Crisis

Network Building, Collaboration and Communication

Leading with an Insights Agenda

Safety, Strategic Planning and Integrated Decision Making

FOCUS ON STRATEGIC THINKING

As the company was managing through the immediacy of the pandemic, leadership teams identified crisis best practices being developed that would ultimately shape the “Future of Work” program at Merck. Learn More

As a large global restaurant chain founded in 1955, McDonald's has extensive experience in adjusting to changing business conditions. Learn More

New partnerships and greater collaboration are key in Thorning-Schmidt’s view. Learn More

A global presence in real estate services, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has produced a multifaceted response to the pandemic. Learn More

Even though the global pandemic played havoc with their global model, Bord Bia drew on their past experiences in navigating crises and saw the disruption as an opportunity to innovate. Learn More

With offices in more than 120 countries, Accenture leadership first saw the pandemic unfold in China at the start of 2020 and started to prepare for COVID-19’s spread across the world. Learn More

Embedding crisis best practices into leadership and talent development programs.

Evolving its talent approach to access broader strategic skill pools, especially for location-independent roles, now sourcing with a more global mindset.

Expanding into flexible workplace guidelines 2.0 which are about building upon its strong foundations for virtual work, but also developing other flexible work options.

The workforce of Merck KGaA¹ (“Merck”) includes more than 56,000 people in 66 countries working across healthcare, life sciences, and performance material. As the company was managing through the immediacy of the pandemic, leadership teams identified crisis best practices being developed that would ultimately shape the “Future of Work” program at Merck. “We are a very purpose-driven, pragmatic company,” says Alexis Saussinan, Global Head of Strategic Workforce Planning People Analytics. “We want to make meaningful and lasting moves, aligned with our DNA.”

A data-driven, accelerated approach to the future of work

MERCK KGaA

Aon Insights:

of senior HR leaders and professionals* rate understanding adaptability and collaboration communication skills as critical

The COVID-19 crisis has thrust organizations around the world into uncharted territories and forced them to face new risks – risks for which they were largely unprepared. There was no roadmap to guide a response and no past data to inform analytics or predictive models to help prepare for the future. And as the news of the past few weeks has shown, the COVID-19 pandemic is like no other crisis we have found ourselves in: on one hand, large parts of the world are either in or heading for a second lockdown while, on the other, concrete progress is being made in developing an effective vaccine. Nonetheless, the organizations and their leaders with whom we have spoken in the process of putting together this report have come to understand a key idea: things cannot go back to the way they were. And what’s more, to face the perils that could confront them, organizations will need to step up their efforts to prepare for these new risks. Organizations will need to prepare themselves for the risks posed by a volatile world and to not settle for a new normal but to instead strive to achieve the new better. And that means starting to think about not only today’s pandemic but long-tail risks such as climate change, cyber threats and the health and wealth gap. The conversations we have had across the global network of Work Travel and Convene Coalitions, together with the data and case studies we have brought together for this report, have shown us a new way of understanding what is happening and, through the use of surveys and data and analytics, begin to develop new predictive models and solutions to tackle challenges.

Striving for The New Better

IN CONCLUSION

Proportion of senior leaders* who agreed the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed new risks and vulnerabilities that require a significant change in how businesses think about the future

68%

SEP 2020

lEARN mORE

Explore our whitepaper

For many business leaders, COVID-19 has been the most disruptive, world-changing event in living memory. And the challenges caused by the pandemic affect every aspect of an organization. Decisions made by business leaders during a fluid and uncertain environment will shape the future of their organizations.

How Are Business Leaders Making Decisions During Complex and Volatile Times?

Explore our whitepaper

Explore our thinking

The pandemic has accelerated change – from the skills today's leaders need to the reshape of the world around us. While there is uncertainty, there is also tremendous opportunity to redefine traditional ways of thinking and build a stronger, more resilient future.

The Future Will Be Different – What Might It Look Like?

Explore our thinking

Download our guidebook

COVID-19 will not be the last unprecedented crisis businesses face. To navigate future shocks, companies must create a workforce prepared to withstand new disruptions and stresses. The path to the workforce of the future requires using data intelligently to mitigate people-related risks, optimize people investments, and empower workforce agility and resilience.

How Can We Prepare Workforces to Withstand Future Disruptions?

aon.com | Contact Us | Legal | Privacy | Cookie Notice

Share the Insights:

Explore aon.com

Workers have experienced a fundamental shift in where, how and when work gets done over the past decade. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many companies’ moves toward a remote and digital working environment. On top of this, they have had to re-examine their strategies when it comes to employee wellbeing. The urgent issue today is building a resilient workforce of employees better equipped to adapt to change, manage stress and pressure and maintain productivity through uncertainty. An organization can clear a path to this resilience by implementing a series of measures from reassessing their employee wellbeing and compensation policies to building their workforce’s digital capabilities. Resilient workers have a stronger capacity for upskilling and reskilling and keeping up with the pace of change – qualities every organization will need in the years to come. Many companies turned their attention to employee wellbeing during the pandemic and that’s likely to continue as they build resilience.

Building a Resilient Workforce

Companies seeking to access and reallocate capital have the opportunity to unlock more strategic value and accelerate growth. The pandemic has highlighted how increasing and intensifying risks push companies to get creative in accessing capital – which can also mean redefining its source. In a changing business environment, companies’ most valuable assets may be something they are not prioritizing such as intellectual property and other intangible assets. Many organizations have not put in place the tools or strategies to manage intangible assets the way they do their hard assets, but this misses a critical opportunity. As the market changes and external forces shape the business environment, companies must turn their attention to innovative, modern ways of thinking about and managing capital. Data and advanced analytics will be a crucial part of this journey – strengthening companies’ approach to capital and scaling the potential of their own assets.

Rethinking Access to Capital

As the COVID-19 pandemic claimed lives and livelihoods across the globe, many business and government leaders sounded the alarm regarding the impacts on underserved industries, economies, communities and individuals. The pandemic exposed the pre-existing vulnerabilities of those underserved entities in a variety of ways – economic resilience, health care, digital capabilities, risk management approaches and beyond. Now, multiple stakeholders are coming together to address these gaps. Strategic and targeted solutions must be tested and then scaled for meaningful change to take place. In health care, for example, disrupted supply chains and medical transport can have severe consequences for entire communities – but their risks are complex and often go unaddressed. With the right approach, expertise, and level of collaboration, powerful solutions can be found – better serving those communities, businesses, and individuals most in need. Again, better data and analytics will help ensure high-quality solutions meet the urgent needs that exist now and on the horizon – and that they can be delivered across the globe more successfully.

Addressing the Underserved

Explore the Report

Executive Summary

Defining Moments of COVID-19

Four Core Priorities Reshaping the Future

Work, Travel, Convene Global Coalitions: Collaborating Through Crisis

Leading Through Change: Case Studies and Perspectives

Conclusion

See the Case Studies

Merck KGaA

McDonald's

Helle Thorning-Schmidt

JLL

Bord Bia

Accenture

Guiding Principles Pair with Data to Make the Best Decisions

To enable long-lasting change, Merck ensures data serve as the foundation for its strategy. As the company started building the program, it used a range of internal and external data, market trends, and interviews with executives, board members and the crisis management team to help build a complete picture of what was needed. Four guiding principles shaping its “Future of work” program were determined: increased work flexibility; sustaining trust and collaboration beyond boundaries; accelerating data and technology in must-win areas; and, lastly, continuing to evolve its leadership culture – including further developing virtual leadership skills, empathy and empowerment. The company also brought together various business areas for best practice sharing, visibility and transparency, to reach larger objectives — from managing data security and cyber in the virtual world to sustainability to best-in-class digital customer experiences.

¹ Merck KGaA is listed German multinational science and technology company headquartered in Darmstadt, Germany. Its majority owners are still the descendants of the founder. Founded in 1668, it has more than 56,000 employees across 66 countries as of 2020.

Along these principles, five strategic people work priorities were developed:

Shaping the Future of Work

Accelerating the digitizing of people solutions via data and technology, make best use of technologies and artificial intelligence to drive impact and best-in-class employee experience.

Focusing on skills for the future — what the workforce needs will be and preparing people for new roles and possibilities.

Culture and collaboration are key to the successful implementation of Merck’s program. “Merck has a very strong and unique culture, and that’s the reason for our success,” says Saussinan. “Our response to the crisis is rooted in our DNA, because we care about our people, patients and customers.”

OCT 2020

NOV 2020

Sources +

https://apnews.com/article/09be6cd295bc66a335e6686da6bbbffb https://www.thinkglobalhealth.org/article/updated-timeline-coronavirus https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/@dgreports/@dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_755910.pdf https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html

Jan 1, 2020

World Health Organization activated its Incident Management Support Team

Jan 9, 2020

Outbreak identified as novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV)

Jan 30, 2020

WHO declares public health emergency

Feb 11, 2020

WHO named the disease caused by novel coronavirus as COVID-19

Mar 11, 2020

The WHO declares Covid-19 a global pandemic

Mar 20, 2020

Central banks of the U.S., Canada, England, Japan, Switzerland, and the European Central Bank announce coordinated action to bolster global economy

End of March

Almost a third of the world’s population is under some form of lockdown

Jun 9, 2020

S&P forecasts 5 percent fall in global office rental income for 2020

Jun 28, 2020

Global cases surpass 10m; Death toll surpasses 500,000

Sep 28, 2020

Global COVID-19 deaths pass 1 million

Oct 13, 2020

IMF predicts global economy to shrink by 4.4 percent in 2020

Oct 20, 2020

OECD warns young people and women are among those at greatest risk of joblessness and poverty as a result of pandemic

Nov 10, 2020

Pfizer announces early data suggest its COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective

Click to learn more

Global Coalitions Bring Insights, Resources and Innovation Together to Strengthen Communities and Businesses

- Greg Case, Chief Executive Officer, Aon

During summer 2020, Aon began forming a coalition of leading companies and organizations to strengthen communities and move toward societal and economic recovery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Launched in the U.S. and then set up in cities around the world, the Work, Travel, Convene Coalitions bring collective knowledge, insight and experience to tackle issues along the path to COVID-19 recovery, how we work in this new environment to building the innovation agenda to rethinking risk. While the pandemic has not impacted every region or organization the same way, there are similar ideas, lessons learned, and overall approaches that are common across borders:

Work, Travel, Convene Global Coalitions: Collaborating Through Crisis

“We all have an important role to play, and we hope that by working with the public and private sectors we can be a positive catalyst in helping organizations, local leaders and the economy come back better and stronger than before.”

*Represents responses from 2,000+ participants in Aon’s fifth global COVID-19 pulse survey for senior HR leaders and professionals, conducted in August 2020.

Find Out More

To better understand how business leaders have weathered the COVID-19 pandemic and view future risk, Aon commissioned a survey of 800 C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S., the EU and the UK. As traumatic as the COVID-19 pandemic has been, the business leaders surveyed believe it has not been the only disruption they’ve had to manage. Those most prepared, however, were those already investing resources into evaluating future threats.

Are You Prepared for the Next Big Threat?

Aon Insights:

of senior HR leaders and professionals** believe digital skills are key to building and maintaining an agile workforce

**Represents responses from 2,000+ participants in Aon’s fifth global COVID-19 pulse survey for senior HR leaders and professionals, fielded on August 25, 2020

A global presence in real estate services, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has produced a multifaceted response to the pandemic. With its many stakeholders around the world – from investors to clients and employees – it was critical that all areas of the business came together. The company quickly assembled a steering committee with business leads from all functions. JLL forged new ties with other companies*, with active participation in peer-to-peer calls to share information, experiences, and partners across industries. “These communications have gone extremely well,” says JLL’s Meredith O’Connor, International Director, Co-Chairman, Headquarters Practice Group. “Even competitors have identified great synergies and truly helped each other.”

As hospitals struggled with capacity in the early phases of the pandemic, JLL partnered with the mayor of the City of Chicago and Governor of Illinois to convert McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America, to an alternative care facility. Teams across various functional areas at JLL were quickly deployed to help with this large-scale conversion intended to prepare the U.S.’s third-largest city to effectively manage hospital overflow.

Partnering With Governments to Combat the Pandemic’s People Impact

Network building, collaboration and communication help the company push forward

Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL)

Investing in technology has always been important for JLL, helping the organization innovate in the real estate industry. During the pandemic, those investments have created new value, and are an important part of returning colleagues and clients to the office safely. From reservation systems to a new app that helps people find an appropriate workspace, JJL is making sure communication and information is streamlined and tech-forward. The company is incorporating more technology into the actual physical space to help keep people safe now and into the future.

Pre-Pandemic Tech Investments Crucial to Post-Pandemic Safety

One of the keys to the JLL approach has been clear and consistent communication. “We have so many offices and leaders in each place, and we wanted tools, information, and direction to be available to everyone,” says O’Connor. “So we worked closely with leaders to make sure they were equipped with the right messaging from the organization. That’s how we can retain our culture and our people.” Communication, coupled with technology, has helped the organization stay flexible, respectful and safe, says O’Connor. “We have an understanding that people work well in different ways, and we’re enabling that.”

Communication Critical to Culture and Engagement

*Referencing participation in the broad coalition convened and led by Aon around Work, Travel and Convene efforts across leading businesses

Aon Insights:

of companies* have moved beyond “crisis management” and accelerated thinking around the future of work for the company, such as roles that could be automated, new locations, and digital experiences for customers and employees.

*Data collected July – October 2020 by Aon’s proprietary Readiness Assessment from over 50 Work Travel Convene Coalition participants from the U.S., Europe, and Asia. Respondents span over 15 industries and represent multinational organizations with global footprint.

Ireland’s food industry plays a major role in its economy — in 2019, Irish food and drink represented a record €13 billion ($15 billion) in exports to 180 different markets around the world. Bord Bia, the Irish food board, exists to support Irish producers, farmers, and companies’ growth and sustainability. Headquartered in Dublin, with an additional 15 offices around the world, Bord Bia helps Irish food and drink producers maintain a significant global presence. Even though the global pandemic played havoc with their global model, Bord Bia drew on their past experiences in navigating crises and saw the disruption as an opportunity to innovate. “Crisis management is a part of the trade for our industry; it’s a high-risk industry, and we have to be ready for a worst-case scenario all the time because we feed and provide nutrition to the most vulnerable, be it infant formula or others,” says Tara McCarthy, Chief Executive Officer, Bord Bia. “When it comes to food safety, we have a zero-risk mentality.”

Leading with an Insights-Driven Agenda

Bord Bia

Internal preparation and mitigation: Trade events, press visits, and other key Bord Bia business initiatives were canceled. “We needed to pivot fairly quickly to get that reorganized,” notes McCarthy. People: Bord Bia focused on ensuring people were supported as they shifted to remote work, bringing them along on a new journey. In addition, the organization looked to the future, thinking through what the new office would look like and how to train people on new safety measures. Understanding: As McCarthy says, “Back in March, information was difficult to get — things were very opaque.” The organization focused on creating an information network, getting clarity and information from all sectors and markets back to Dublin and published as quickly and regularly as possibly. Support: Bord Bia focused on helping Ireland’s producers, food companies, and farmers navigate their way through the crisis. “We turned around within two weeks a complete grant system to help companies make pivots — going from food service to retail, for example, required new packaging, and that is an investment. We had companies who would have been planning to go to trade shows, but now had to invest in their website instead. So we were helping them to do this.” Future-proofing: McCarthy notes that in past events, such as recessions, people are not always ready for the recovery. “So we wanted to be ready for the end and prepared for the fundamental shifts that were likely to stick.” Navigating change: As the world changes, Bord Bia has focused on keeping pace. The way people and businesses communicate through the pandemic has changed, requiring a change in messaging and format. Peoples’ relationship with food is also changing. “We have to keep pace with how consumer thinking and behaviors shift, and the convergence of several trends, such as an increased focus on sustainability alongside more plastic-wrapped items due to food safety and virus concerns,” says McCarthy. “We have to know which changes are short-term and which will stick and we’ve achieved this through the launch of our future-proofing toolkits.”

• • • • • •

Food safety is not the only risk Bord Bia is well-prepared for; political and economic shifts can have swift and severe impact on their business. “At the time of the Brexit vote in 2016, 44% of Irish food exports were going to the UK,” says McCarthy. “So we responded in a data-centric way.” The organization, together with its exporters, quickly mapped all supply chains and put plans in place for a number of scenarios. This came into play when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. But still, there were new challenges, such as the route to market and outlets for Irish food products. Bord Bia immediately put a crisis management team in place, and began to focus on management and innovation in six workstreams:

All of these workstreams became the foundation for a toolkit that helped build the organization’s and industry’s innovation agenda. “A lot of these trends — digital, functionality in food — were happening anyway, but they have been accelerated,” says McCarthy. “Our Risk Readiness Radar with over 128 Irish companies confirmed this.” From pivoting to virtual trade fairs and bringing chef demos online to energize consumers to incorporating sustainability more deeply in their business, insight and innovation has been key. “We fundamentally believe that insight and innovation is core to the business and that we need to keep driving the excitement of our industry. That includes workstreams that attract top talent,” says McCarthy. And people insight is also a priority. “We’re navigating the new world of virtual in a people business, and making sure our values and connectivity with colleagues shine through. The people part of our business is a huge focus — we are helping our people build resilience and connectivity for the future.”

Aon Insights:

Only a minority of C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S. EU and UK say* they were “very well prepared” for the pandemic.

* Represents responses from an Aon-commissioned survey, fielded August 3 – 16, 2020, of 800 C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S., EU and the UK.

In a discussion with Andy Marcell, chief executive officer of Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions business, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark, urged both the private and public sector to view the COVID-19 pandemic as a new way to approach collaboration to better prepare for future threats. “I’m hoping we will find new partnerships and a new way of doing things, and that we are capable of change,” she says. “And that we’ll move forward with what we’ve learned.” New partnerships and greater collaboration are key in Thorning-Schmidt’s view. “Having a collaborative way of working and an ability to adapt to new circumstances have played a very big role in how a country has gone through the pandemic,” she says. “There are large questions about what governments can do collectively, individually and proactively. We need to step up and ask ourselves what we can do now to prevent this from happening again – or, more realistically, when it happens again, how can we be more prepared?” Thorning-Schmidt says this approach is critical for other crises and long-tail risks. “This crisis will steer us in the direction of looking at risks like climate change and recognizing that we need to be even more serious about this now, because in a few years, certain things will be beyond repair. And insurance companies will be a strong voice here – they know the costs and the costs of non-action.” Thorning-Schmidt believes we must learn from the crisis. “We can use this pandemic to ask ourselves new questions about our democracy, how we react, cooperation between nation states, our health sector and about equality. These issues matter so much, and I hope this crisis will make us wake up and ask new questions and try to find new solutions.” For the full conversation, access Aon’s Fireside Chat Series here.

The post-pandemic era: How we can learn from crisis

Helle Thorning-Schmidt, former Prime Minister of Denmark

The 4 Key Areas

Navigating New Forms of Volatility

Building a Resilient Workforce

Addressing the Underserved

Rethinking Access to Capital

Communication Has Never Been More Critical Effective and open lines of communication – be they internal or external – have been critical to supporting an organization’s employees through the pandemic. While a “view from the top” approach for communications from senior leaders was most important to set the tone for colleagues at the beginning of the pandemic, team leaders may now be better suited to communicate with their teams in a more personal way. Over 84% of companies* said they have developed and documented a communications guide identifying key vendors, local authorities, governmental agencies/ministries, and their contact information that they will need to liaise with during the pandemic.

Supporting a Bespoke Approach to Adapting a New Way of Working Various timelines have emerged across the globe aiming toward a “return” to the workplace. However, a number of challenges have emerged that have sparked the need to redetermine how we work: second waves of the virus, varying regulations from one jurisdiction to another, workers resisting a return to the office due to safety concerns and unique personal circumstances such as caring for children, or for parents and at-risk family members. On top of this, employers have begun to draw up agile or hybrid working models. 87.2% of companies* have defined protocols with their key vendors to support the management process and coordination of return to work.

Prioritizing Mental Health and Wellbeing COVID-19 has been the source of a wide variety of stresses on organizations and their employees. As they look to manage successfully through the pandemic and beyond, businesses will need to recognize the impact the pandemic has had on their employees’ physical, emotional and financial wellbeing. Some employers are already adding to or adjusting wellbeing offerings to meet the stresses caused by COVID-19. For employers that get wellbeing right, the effort can help their teams perform more effectively and productively, and foster resilience — bringing adaptability to change, sense of belonging and ability to reach one’s full potential. It can also make a crucial difference when it comes to attracting and retaining talent. 88.6% of companies* plan to enhance their wellbeing program to focus on emotional and mental health wellbeing as a result of the pandemic.

Explore Coalition-Specific Insights

Coalition launched and in Progress

- Petra Schmidt, Managing Partner and Co-head of Financial Institutions in Aon’s New York office

“The New York Coalition also focused on community wellbeing to ensure that our collective efforts play a role in supporting social justice, as well as societal and economic recovery initiatives.”

- Dimitra Manis, Chief People Officer, S&P Global

“As businesses and organizations across New York City take steps to reopen offices, it’s important that they do so with a people-first approach, making the care and safety of employees the highest priority. It is also vital that we commit to strengthening the communities in which we work and live. The Coalition’s focus on community wellbeing is critical in ensuring we approach these efforts with an eye to the fair and equal treatment of all people, from our employees to our local neighbors. We’re proud to lend our voice and learnings to this group as we move forward together.”

Addressing the underserved: Coalition conversations have focused on how the Australian health care system can adjust to better reflect a new reality. The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated both strengths and gaps in the health care system, and addressing these will be a significant factor in the road to long-term recovery.

Building a resilient workforce: Companies are prioritizing people and finding ways to build and maintain culture and connectivity despite disruption. Health and wellbeing continue to be at the top of the leadership agenda with organizations trying to balance the productivity of their “always on” workforce with more sustainable and healthy practices.

Accelerating change and learning from crisis: As Australian companies and industries navigate uncertainty, many are finding that there is no time like the present to make long-awaited changes to operating models, digital investments, or other parts of the business. Many companies have also found value in flexible approaches to decision-making.

- James Baum, Chief Executive Officer, Australia, Aon

“There is an important opportunity to learn from the pandemic and its impact, to build stronger operational resilience and to explore improvements in how we most effectively use the workplace – effectively looking at the future of work.”

In October, Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, ended a 111-day lockdown after it recorded zero COVID-19 cases over a period of days. Swift and decisive virus containment measures helped the country of 25 million manage the virus. In this context, the Australian Work, Travel, Convene Coalition is creating a knowledge base to help recovery take shape – keeping workers and the public safe while rebuilding Australia’s economy in targeted ways. Initial insights and takeaways from the coalition have focused on several key business themes:

Helping the Recovery Take Shape

AUSTRALIA

Return to the Office: Companies looking past the pandemic to the reopening of offices are defining their new protocols, from temperature screenings and deep cleanings to social distancing and masks. Staggered work schedules to avoid crowding public transportation and office buildings are also on many agendas.

Leadership and communication: Companies agreed consistent communication is key – and that as leaders make decisions, clarity and transparency for stakeholders is vitally important.

- Bridget Gainer, Chief Commercial Officer, Aon

“As the economy begins to open up, we have the opportunity as a business community to step up and work together. More information is going to make that recovery stronger and faster.”

- Lori Lightfoot, Chicago Mayor

“I applaud Aon, as well as all of the Coalition participants, for their leadership and commitment to getting Chicago’s businesses back on track and our residents back to work in the wake of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic.”

As with countries across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought instability and uncertainty to the U.S. Infection rates continue to fluctuate as each state manages the pandemic differently. At the same time, the country has also confronted issues of social justice and companies have found themselves quickly responding to two different crises. The Work, Travel, Convene Coalitions in New York and Chicago came together to identify priorities on the path to recovery – and consider how to power the economy, keep people safe and create a more equitable society. Emerging themes included:

Powering the Economy While Keeping People Safe

CHICAGO and NEW YORK

Return to the Office: Companies agreed that companies in London, particularly in the City and Canary Wharf, faced challenges in getting people back to the office. The high-rise buildings, density of the buildings and people, and dependence on public transport created targeted issues to address. In response, companies will need to rethink office spaces, including face masks in the office and the reconfiguration of desks and people, and provide safer options for commuters.

Future of Work: As companies look to the future, there are new focus areas to create the new better in addition to safe collaboration in the office. These include creating more diverse and inclusive work environments, supporting businesses and employees through technology and having a greater focus on community. Companies agreed that they must play a role in the communities where they have a presence, many of which have been dramatically impacted by the reduction in office workers due to the pandemic.

Importance of data: Companies agreed that the ability to predict future waves of the pandemic and, in tandem, predict the government’s response, will be essential for navigating through a crisis. That means collecting, managing and analyzing data will be crucial to problem solving and integrated decision-making.

- Julie Page, Chief Executive Officer, Aon UK

“We also believe there is an important opportunity to learn from the pandemic and its impact, to build stronger operational resilience and explore improvements in how we most effectively use the workplace.”

Like many global cities, London has faced waves of the COVID-19 outbreak, reinforcing the fact that the public health and economic crisis will not be linear. As the UK went into another lockdown this fall, members of London’s Work, Travel, Convene Coalition discussed a safe recovery path and looked to the future to develop guidelines and best practices. Emerging themes included:

Facing Up to the Challenge of a Safe Return to The Office

LONDON

Agility: Companies agreed that agility was crucial for responding effectively to market demands, but many coalition members still saw gaps in their own agility potential. Becoming more agile is not only an operational shift but a cultural change. To begin, companies can focus on their talent strategy – mapping current skills and capabilities to needs for the future and enabling their workforce to quickly reskill and upskill in response to change. In addition, companies should focus on building operating models that help them work iteratively and collaboratively, including flattening organizational hierarchies that can impede change or idea-sharing. Companies should also evaluate people beyond their roles and look closely at their potential, capability and propensity to change.

Future of Work: Companies in the coalition noted that employees were becoming comfortable with ambiguity and experimentation, despite being used to a more prescriptive work model. This inspired further questions that form the foundation of the future of work strategy: How will changing work models affect a company’s bottom line? How does it add to employee value? Can this feed into a company’s diversity agenda? Is talent search now a global effort, if roles are no longer relegated to specific locations? As companies seek to dive deeper into the data, the coalition’s members determined that they must find new ways to measure productivity. Many of the members agreed that surveillance and monitoring might not be the right approach, but shifting to new ideas of productivity, such as collaboration metrics, could also make a difference.

- Na Boon Chong, Managing Director & Partner, Human Capital Solutions, Southeast Asia, Aon

“In Singapore, we have seen businesses display outstanding agility by accelerating workforce changes such as adapting to remote work, keeping employees safe, using digital collaboration platforms, and upending old paradigms. The focus quickly shifted to data, analytics, and technology adoption − thus ushering in the future of work, far sooner than we had imagined.”

Singapore has been credited with early and aggressive public health measures in response to COVID-19, including contact tracing. In addition to health and safety measures, Singapore has made strides in economic recovery, with multifaceted stimulus strategies. These moves have helped Singapore on its path to recovery and have shaped the course for future economic gains. The Work, Travel, Convene Coalition in Singapore has identified several themes to guide the path forward:

Realizing the Importance of Agility

Singapore

“Bringing together companies across sectors and top leaders across functions in Singapore is a great opportunity to share experiences and co-create new approaches to operate and compete.”

- Alexis Saussinan, Global Head of Strategic Workforce Planning and Analytics, Merck KGaA

of companies surveyed in Singapore* said that an agile workforce is now more important to the success of their business than ever before.

84%

Importance of connectivity to balance attrition: Organizations find a need for guidance to better connect with their employees during remote work. Questions of overall culture and employee loyalty are brought to the forefront as those that are with an organization and lack the connection, might have a short tenure.

Importance of frameworks that provide for localization: Organizations understand the complexity of the situation, and while are open to learning from others, tailoring for local needs is critical. Multinationals find it very challenging to adapt to country specific regulations as a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Locally focused return-to-workplace plans are required.

Balancing interconnectivity of risks: Businesses are struggling with the dilemma between strict compliance to rules and business continuity/survival.

- Marc van Nuland, Country Manager Aon Nederland

“With this coalition, we want to join forces by making use of the knowledge and experiences of leading companies and organizations in the field of work, travel and meetings and making it available in a wider context… In this way, not only the coalition partners but organizations throughout the Netherlands are helped with a safe and gradual transition to normal business operations. This allows the focus again on growth and ultimately promotes the economic recovery.”

Along with many other European countries, the Netherlands is battling to control a second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak, highlighting how there is no defined arc to the current pandemic. The Dutch government has recently introduced further restrictions to its partial lockdown with a review of measures scheduled for the middle of December. In November members of the Netherlands’ Work Travel Convene Coalition met to discuss, among other topics, how best to scale COVID measures across an organization and finding the most effective way to communicate across a workforce. Emerging themes include:

Localization in a Global Pandemic

NETHERLANDS

Health and safety: Some companies set up their own COVID-19 “speed-test” center to prevent whole teams in quarantine. For example, in work that requires teams of people to be in the same place at the same time, if one person is infected, the whole team is put in quarantine.

“A crisis such as the corona pandemic has an impact that goes beyond just economic matters. As far as we are concerned, knowledge of social organizations is therefore indispensable in this coalition.”

- Alex van den Doel, Managing Director of Aon Global Risk Consulting

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

72%

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa. Cum sociis natoque penatibus et magnis dis parturient montes, nascetur ridiculus mus. Donec quam felis, ultricies nec, pellentesque eu, pretium quis, sem. Nulla consequat massa quis enim. Donec pede justo, fringilla vel, aliquet nec, vulputate eget, arcu. In enim justo, rhoncus ut, imperdiet a, venenatis vitae, justo. Nullam dictum felis eu pede mollis pretium. Integer tincidunt. Cras dapibus. Vivamus elementum semper nisi. Aenean vulputate eleifend tellus. Aenean leo ligula, porttitor eu, consequat vitae, eleifend ac, enim. Aliquam lorem ante, dapibus in, viverra quis, feugiat a, tellus. Phasellus viverra nulla ut metus varius laoreet. Quisque rutrum. Aenean imperdiet. Etiam ultricies nisi vel augue. Curabitur ullamcorper ultricies nisi. Nam eget dui. Etiam rhoncus. Maecenas tempus, tellus eget condimentum rhoncus, sem quam semper libero, sit amet adipiscing sem neque sed ipsum. Nam quam nunc, blandit vel, luctus pulvinar, hendrerit id, lorem.

Coming Soon: Germany Work Travel Convene Coalition

GERMANY

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

72%

Coming Soon: Tokyo Work Travel Convene Coalition

TOKYO

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit. Aenean commodo ligula eget dolor. Aenean massa.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua.

72%

Coming Soon: Madrid Work Travel Convene Coalition

MADRID

Jan 2, 2020

WHO informed Global Outbreak Alert & Response Network partners about the cluster of cases

Jan 24, 2020

China expands lockdowns to over 36 million people

Feb 28, 2020

Stock markets report largest single-week declines since 2008 Financial Crisis

Sep 23, 2020

International Labor Organization estimates 12.1 percent drop in working hours in the third quarter of 2020 compared to end of 2019

Nov 20, 2020

Global cases: 54 million; Death toll: 1.4 million

*Represents responses from an Aon-commissioned survey, fielded August 3 – 16, 2020, of 800 C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S., EU, and the UK

86%

of senior HR leaders and professionals surveyed* believe the ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce and create an inclusive culture is key to building and maintaining an agile workforce

*Represents responses from 2,000+ participants in Aon’s fifth global COVID-19 pulse survey for senior HR leaders and professionals, conducted in August 2020

More diversity in background, experience, and thinking is critical. In an Aon survey, 86% of respondents believe that the ability to attract and retain a diverse workforce and create an inclusive culture is key to building and maintaining an agile workforce. The resilient workforce of tomorrow will have a different relationship with technology as the virtual working environment continues to advance and more industries adopt sophisticated technology and digital methods, from manufacturing to aerospace to education. Many companies have had to quickly adapt due to the pandemic. But a more strategic, targeted path forward will help companies build resilience.

79%

of C-Suite leaders and senior executives who said they were well-prepared for a crisis such as COVID-19 would invest the resources necessary to prepare for potential risks in five years' time

* Represents responses from an Aon-commissioned survey, fielded August 3 – 16, 2020, of 800 C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S., EU, and UK

“While our world is more interconnected and interdependent, there are also too many parts of our global society – including industries, economies, communities and individuals – that are underserved or not served at all because of current market dynamics. Today, for example, many industry sectors face highly specific challenges that lack equally specific solutions. The COVID-19 crisis is one of them.”

Greg Case

Chief Executive Officer, Aon

Irish Food Board

Former Prime Minister, Denmark

* Represents responses from an Aon-commissioned survey, fielded August 3 – 16, 2020, of 800 C-Suite leaders and senior executives in the U.S., EU and the UK.

Featured Insights

Wellbeing: Many companies are seeing a rise in productivity, but it is critical that balance exists to avoid fatigue. Coalition members are renewing their focus on work-life balance. Members agreed that this must be a top-down exercise – with wellbeing habits endorsed by leadership, rather than coming only from human resources.

Balancing interconnectivity of risks: Businesses are struggling with the dilemma between strict compliance to rules and business continuity / survival.

Business agility: Companies agreed that the key to managing uncertainty is agility, or the ability to adapt to a new way of working. The COVID-19 pandemic tested companies’ agility as they moved to remote working and replaced on-site events and face-to-face communication with virtual methods. Among Coalition participants, there was consensus that agility increased the speed and approach to decision-making during the pandemic, which was valuable.

- Peter Brady, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Risk Solutions, Health Solutions & Affinity, Ireland, Aon

*As quoted in the Irish Examiner at the time of launching the coalition in Ireland

“The task of bringing everyone back to the physical workplace is an immense challenge and one that all businesses and organizations are facing together.”

“COVID-19 has had a profound impact on the way we work and will continue to present really difficult challenges for businesses as they navigate the next few months. It’s great to see companies working together on how they are managing these challenges and sharing information on what has worked best.”

In October 2020, as COVID-19 cases began to spike again, the Irish government announced a series of restrictions to contain the virus. In a TV address to the country, Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin said: “The days are getting shorter and colder, but I ask you to remember this: even as the winter comes in, there is hope. And there is light.” The Dublin Work, Travel, Convene Coalition is working to build guidelines and best practices for Irish businesses navigating the path to recovery. In the Coalition’s initial findings, several key themes emerged:

Adapting to a New Way of Working

dublin

Aon Insights:

of senior HR leaders and professionals* believe workforce agility is extremely important or very important to the future success of their organization

*Represents responses from 2,000+ participants in Aon’s fifth global COVID-19 pulse survey for senior HR leaders and professionals, conducted in August 2020

McDonald’s Corporation operates in nearly 120 countries around the world. As a large global restaurant chain founded in 1955, it has extensive experience in adjusting to changing business conditions. While a potential pandemic was already in the organization’s risk preparation program, COVID-19 has impacted every community in ways no one could have fully forecast, and its rapid acceleration pushed the company to move quickly. McDonald’s level of risk preparedness, experience in managing health and safety concerns, and supply chain planning all came into play.

As part of its response to the pandemic, McDonald’s developed an agile model and team structure that supported integrated decision-making. A COVID-19 leadership team led the charge, reporting to McDonald’s U.S. senior leadership, which initially met three times daily to address quickly changing information and evolving recommendations. Subgroups, focused on a specific area of the business, brought their own solutions — for example, a team focused on enhancing more than 50 processes in U.S. restaurants as part of the swiftest operational transformation in the company’s history; another team focused solely on engaging with third-party experts to provide ongoing counsel and expertise on emerging science in infection prevention and control and share best practices to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Employee resources and support were also critically important, with subteams focused on office re-openings or dedicated to employee health and wellness. This structure allowed the company to address the pandemic on multiple levels in a targeted way — and agility was crucial. “We have empowered our functional leaders to make necessary decisions to help protect people and our business, but we also wanted to provide consistency in our approach to the pandemic to ensure we emerged stronger than ever from this crisis – having common principles supported this approach,” Garrett said.

Mobilizing Leadership Teams to Enable Agility to Make Better Decisions

Integrated decision-making was at the heart of driving safety-focused procedures for McDonald’s crew and corporate employees. McDonald’s opened a new state-of-the-art headquarters in downtown Chicago in 2018, but its open concept required a cross-functional team of HR, legal, global safety, and others to create an office toolkit that addressed multiple dimensions of working in an open-concept design during COVID-19. The goal is to help ensure that employees are safe and feel confident — and the collaborative approach is successful. “People were surprised at how safe they felt when they walked into the office, so we were very proud of the team that worked together to make that happen,” says Sheri Malec, Senior Director of Workplace Solutions at McDonald’s. “In reflecting on lessons learned during this time, one of my key takeaways is agility. The situation is changing so rapidly so you have to be ready to respond as new data comes out or new scientific recommendations are released.”

Using Data and Feedback to Build Trust and Confidence in Operating Restaurants and Offices

Along with many other organizations, the pandemic has meant McDonald’s is now re-examining its thinking about the corporate workforce post-pandemic. The flexibility the company had already put in place before COVID-19 struck laid a strong foundation for changing working conditions and best supporting employees. Malec notes: “We already had a system to support our people’s personal needs during the workday. The flexibility and working models we had before the pandemic really set us up well to adapt to workforce changes.” General support around health and wellness was key at McDonald’s along with supporting managers so they could help their people. “We gave them the tools to understand how different employees would be affected and make sure they’re adjusting accordingly,” says Malec.

Accelerating Employee Support Pre-and Post-Pandemic

An agile, collaborative approach and risk preparedness is the ‘secret sauce’

McDonald’s

“COVID-19 became part of everyone’s job,” Bill Garrett, senior vice president and head of the U.S. COVID-19 response team at McDonald’s, said. “We pushed ourselves to think differently about many things including menu, operating procedures, and how to serve our customers and employees (in both restaurants and corporate offices) in new and different ways that prioritized their safety.”

Aon Insights:

of companies* have defined protocols with their key vendors to support the management process and coordination of return to work.

With offices in more than 120 countries, Accenture leadership first saw the pandemic unfold in China at the start of 2020 and started to prepare for COVID-19’s spread across the world. The company’s leaders prioritized keeping people safe and healthy — employees, clients, vendors, and everyone coming through their offices — and at the same time prioritizing the stability and continuity of their client services. Accenture also mobilized to set everyone up to work from home. The base infrastructure was there, with services in the cloud, but the CIO group quickly expanded the company’s networks and ensured access to laptops and internet across the world — enabling people to go remote in an extremely short period of time. Establishing a strategy was critical to Accenture’s COVID-19 response. “From my perspective, doing the strategic planning on the front end was invaluable, and we benefitted from being able to build off a pandemic plan that had previously been prepared – most of our changes involved scaling up to deal with the sheer volume this pandemic created,” says Richard Keil, Managing Director, Global Issues Management at Accenture. “That strategy and planning helped us be as well prepared as we could be and iterate as needed both for business continuity and rapid response purposes.”

Unlike preparedness plans for large-scale disasters such as hurricanes, the pandemic’s global impact was far more complex. Laura Schlicting, Accenture’s North America Geographic Services Lead, recalls the lessons learned from teams in China – the country first imposing lockdowns due to COVID-19: “We were able to learn from the approach that China took – how our teams were able to get ready and respond.” As the pandemic’s scope and scale grew, Accenture’s teams were able to build from the approach that was taken in China and continuously iterate and improve, all the while taking into account local variances – from government regulations in specific countries or in the case of the U.S., a patchwork of local laws.

Continuously Adapting, Adjusting and Improving Frameworks

A structure that supported integrated decision-making helped Accenture put strategic action plans in place. Leadership set strategic direction while various subgroups — procurement, human resources, employee relations, technology — brought their own targeted solutions and executed. “Across our most senior leadership, there was a group that met routinely, regularly, daily, as they set the strategic direction,” Schlicting says, and that “all-in” approach was replicated throughout geographies. “We pulled together a configuration of people who wouldn’t typically work together, at least in such a collective way,” says Keil. “That constant communication helped all of our teams prepare for rapid shifts in direction. Everybody had a 360° view on the totality of the situation on an ongoing daily basis. We were able to continuously manage the situation because of really close coordination and collaboration.”

Making the Best Decisions During Rapidly Evolving Situations

Safety, strategic planning and integrated decision making are at the top of the agenda

accenture

As COVID-19 has forced companies to find new ways of decision-making, they have also had to look at the way they communicate – and build new bridges across industries and between the public and private sector. The Irish food industry, which makes up about $15 billion of the country’s exports a year, was hit hard when COVID-19 forced the closure of restaurants around the world. The Irish food board, Bord Bia, had to quickly establish new supply relationships to help those producers find new ways to sell and distribute their goods. Meanwhile, in the U.S., JLL worked with the mayor of the City of Chicago and Governor of Illinois to convert the largest convention center in North America into an alternative care facility.

Virtually overnight, organizations around the world had to shift to a new, remote, way of working. Having to set up an office at home has put new strains on employees. This, in turn, has meant that businesses have realized the importance of a resilient workforce and have begun to prioritize measures that can help motivate employees and, more importantly, safeguard their mental wellbeing. In the U.S., the workforce flexibility McDonald’s had already put in place before COVID-19 struck laid a strong foundation for shifts in working conditions. It also meant that the company could help managers meet the changing needs of their workers.

Business leaders have realized that the pandemic exposed new risks and vulnerabilities that would require a significant change in how they think about the the future. As Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former prime minister of Denmark, explained in her interview: “This crisis will steer us in the direction of looking at risks like climate change and recognizing that we need to be even more serious about this now, because in a few years, certain things will be beyond repair.”

The current crisis has pushed organizations to identify, develop and redeploy team members who could best help find a path to the new better. Through its management of the pandemic crisis, Merck KGaA has identified best practice that it is then planning to use in its future of work program. This example highlights how businesses have had to identify colleagues with the right skills and expertise to facilitate a new way of operating. In its case study, Accenture illustrated how it brought together teams that would not have ordinarily worked togther to help the organization as whole prepare for rapid shifts in direction.

Change the way they assess risk

Look at their organization charts in a new way

Establish new lines of communication

Re-examine their compensation and staff wellness programs

Many of the changes that companies are making today were forced on them – create a virtual office overnight, rethink talent management and take a new perspective on risk. With spikes in infection rates, further restrictions and new developments expected to continue throughout 2021, the pandemic will force new decision-making choices. For example, the progress being made in producing a COVID-19 vaccine has meant that organizations will soon be making choices such as how to factor that into what a return-to-work plan looks like, and what role, if any, businesses will have with respect to vaccine deployment. The acceleration in technological advancements will also factor into how employers that do return to a traditional office environment manage and monitor things like health screenings and office access. Once those decisions have been made, and progress is made against the pandemic, more choices will be coming, including how colleagues and customers choose to commute, travel and meet one another individually and in small and larger groups. One thing is certain from our findings and conversations: How society works, travels and convenes has permanently changed as a result of the pandemic. The insights and expertise that the member organizations of the Work Travel and Convene Coalitions have shared – and will continue to share as meetings continue through 2021 – will prove invaluable in helping organizations not only move forward during the pandemic but, just as important, will help them prepare for what comes next. The underlying principles that were identified as helping business leaders get through crisis – innovation, speed, risk strategy, collaboration – will be critical for the future. These principles will also be the path forward in achieving the result of the new better.

In a rapidly evolving crisis such as the one in which we all find ourselves, there is little success to be had in defining a sure-fire strategy for success. Instead leaders have identified a number of key changes in organizational behavior that have helped them lead their organizations more effectively:

Click below to learn more

Innovation and collaboration: Teams are adapting and adjusting to working differently and their colleagues’ scheduling needs. They are finding new ways to collaborate and connect through technology, though many are still seeking to achieve consistency in how employees utilize technology and tools. Data, analytics and insights will be critical to those efforts. One major takeaway from the Coalition is that companies that invest in innovation throughout a crisis outperform their peers during recovery.

- Leo Varadkar, Tánaiste (deputy head of government) and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Ireland*

*Represents responses from 415 Singapore-based participants in Aon’s fifth global COVID-19 pulse survey for senior HR leaders and professionals, conducted in August 2020

Click an area to learn more

Tap to learn more

Click a city to learn more

87.2%

62.5%

74%

84%

85%

87.2%

62.5%

74%

84%

85%