A Perfect Storm – How companies are moving to a Services and Outcome based way of getting work done

Many companies around the world have now found themselves in a perfect storm of disruption over the last 12 months and the world has obviously been rocked by the appearance of the Coronavirus. It will be a long time before companies around the world manage to come to terms with the changes to their basic operating models, let alone the terrible loss of life.

Global Lockdowns and restricted movement of people have severely impacted the economy and different markets, shocking all businesses - from large multi-national businesses, down to a plethora of high street retail and hospitality businesses and everyone in-between.

However, in reality Coronavirus has only added to the storm that has already been brewing around companies for the last 5 years or so.

This is the building storm of disruption businesses have found themselves in, caused by various elements such as the unrelenting speed of technology, changing consumer activity, the growing number of very successful agile start-ups threatening the status quo, transient workforces, and increase in cyber security attacks.  Changes to liabilities in the taxation of skilled contract workers (IR35) is further adding to the disruption.

Coronavirus has highlighted the inherent weaknesses in some business models and how they often operated on one, single dimension.

In response, companies and Boards have been wrestling with how they quickly change their models, as well as the absolute need to accelerate digital transformation, versus growing legacy technology debt. Many have had to face the reality and the inconvenient truth that they just don’t have the internal skills, vision or talent to drive the change needed to compete, or even survive in the new normal.

Coronavirus has only magnified this further as companies have been forced to make redundancies, postpone projects and rush to move to disparate teams working from home or remotely literally overnight.

This has radically changed where, when, who and how work is done and may change the way businesses operate forever. Even those businesses who rebound quickly will find they need to operate in new ways to avoid finding themselves on burning platforms as more nimble competitors take their market share.

With the delivery of the Coronavirus vaccine rollout, Brexit claiming to be “done”, the easing of Lockdown and a re-setting of new market opportunities, there is a gap in the clouds and a real sense of optimism and investment for 2022. However, businesses that survive the immediate crisis will need to solve a multitude of problems and deliver value through their much needed business change and technology change projects and programmes in the short, medium and-long term.

But how do companies propose to do this? How do companies tap into specialist, flexible Project Change teams who can deliver the outcomes you want? How do companies still keep the workforce flexible, whilst up-skilling their Permanent staff at the same time?

Moving to a Services model to get work done

Increasingly companies are now stating that they are looking for more efficient and measurable services and outcomes to get work done. As companies prioritise critical 2022 projects, plus re-starting postponed 2020/21 projects - alongside keeping the lights on in business as usual - many realise they don’t have the internal bandwidth to rigorously manage change projects or deliver the change value they desperately need.

This is where outcome-based, Statement of Work (SoW) work delivery models are quickly becoming the growing answer to how to get things done in the rapidly evolving return to recovery.

More and more companies are turning to smaller, agile organisations, that specialise in delivering change & transformation based projects and programmes to defined, co-created objectives and pre-agreed outcomes. A professional services approach delivered by pre-formed teams, with deep expertise who can make a difference quickly both to project delivery and internal capability.

The key is flexibility and impact – the need might be for a short independent discovery piece of work to establish a business case; or a set of unbiased eyes to suggest what is the art of the possible? Maybe it’s a team of Business Analysts, Architects or Testers required to work across a portfolio of projects? Maybe you need access to a PMO? Perhaps it’s an end to end project you want fully delivered? A technology upgrade, a Cyber Security review, a new Finance or HR system?     

Delivering business and technology change projects on-time and on-budget will be a major focus for business leadership teams, as well as delivering the benefits desired. To do this, organisations want proven solutions, experts and trusted delivery partners. Increasingly they want this from outside the traditional big 4 / big 10 Consultancy firms. They now want agility, expertise, certainty and value for money.

As the economy starts to get moving again in 2022, FD’s and CFO’s will manage cashflow very carefully and controlling project cost will be vitally important. A partner who is working to defined deliverables and milestone-based payment schedules, on projects it is helping to deliver, shares financial risk with its customer. This represents an attractive alternative to the traditional open-ended Contractor time-based payments.

Also, due to the Service elements included, the robust external Project Management and Service wrapper provided around any project team deployed, will also take away the man-management time from the client that would be usually needed to recruit, onboard, put through compliance, vet, induct and hand hold on a day to day basis. 

As already touched upon, businesses will now be all too aware of the potential impact new IR35 regulations will have on their flexible Contractor workforce, as well as the threat of heavy HMRC fines and unwanted bad press for the business. Potentially reducing the access to that Contractor pool of skilled talent in the current climate we find ourselves in is a potential disaster for some and if not handled well, business critical skills and talent could literally walk out the door overnight for others. This may leave many businesses and projects exposed as we witnessed when IR35 was rolled out in the Public Sector a couple of years ago.

There is good news. Engaging with a partner through this Services consultancy model and tapping into their bench of expert talent and pre-formed hybrid teams, changes the work delivery model from a disparate Recruitment time + materials contract, to a Services contract. As a result, this can help to mitigate IR35, whilst still giving access to much needed, flexible talent. An essential lifeline.     

In summary

Companies are now launching their projects and programmes for 2022 and are looking for a partner who can support them. However, in this new normal businesses now demand value for money, a partner who is agile enough to pivot left or right mid project, whilst offering the trust and peace of mind that the group of people leading their project, or the technical teams onsite, have real life experience of delivering results within that project environment and not just quoting theory from a book, or trying to re-sell something from of an out of date playbook. Companies can no longer afford to be kept in the problem anymore.

James Harvard partners with companies across the Private and Public sector that require scalable solutions to generate real business benefit, at speed and a cost-base not possible with the larger, more traditional consultancies. We were born out of agility and this growing client need, by a group of delivery experts who have unbiased, independent thinking and have been working together to disrupt the traditional consulting model for many years.

Project delivery success is about impact and the outcomes that are achieved and project value that we deliver “as a Service”. But most of all, it’s about supporting our clients to weather the storm and getting work done.

Contact me for a discussion around how James Harvard could support your business, hear what we have done for others, IR35 support, or just to discuss ideas and how we work.

Steve Corbett, Director, James Harvard

Steve.corbett@jamesharvard.com mobile: 07597 521 683

Does remote working impact tech career progression?

James Harvard

The move to remote work during the Covid-19 pandemic created a boom in demand within the tech industry. There has been a huge drive for expertise in cloud and infrastructure, cyber security, data science and change management, to name a few.

To build the right tech workforce for our future remote and hybrid working world, employers must ensure their people have access to the personal and professional development they need, no matter where they are working. 

Don’t stall career progression of your tech talent

Tech workers are worried about advancing their careers while working from home, with women in tech particularly badly affected. Our research found that 39% of the tech workforce said they believe that flexible working limits career development, but that belief varies greatly depending on how senior they are in the industry.

James Hallahan, Director of Hays Technology in the UK and Ireland, said that when it came to the impact of flexible working on career progression, there is a "fairly stark disparity" between those more senior and newer members of staff.

Only 30% of Director-level professionals, for example, think that flexible working limits their progression – perhaps because they've already built a successful career and have strong networks in place. In contrast, more than 1 in 2 graduates are worried about the effect on their careers.

Organisations need to prioritise personal and professional development across their workforce, from junior to senior staff. There are many ways to achieve this, from online learning to professional qualifications.

Prioritise development for early-career tech experts

MIT reports that remote work actually improves confidence among early-career employees by 80% and enables geographically distant colleagues to connect and help early-career employees learn on the job and share knowledge. This ultimately enables them to progress at a faster rate.

However, further research reveals that a lack of mentorship and training due to remote work can affect staff. Regular contact while working remotely is essential for first-time workers. Particularly when they don’t have the opportunity to learn by example like they would when working alongside more experienced colleagues in an office.

So, make sure you maintain the support and development of your staff – especially your early-career employees – even when they’re working remotely.

Invest in online learning platforms

To tackle the issue of career progression for remote staff, online learning initiatives have risen in popularity, with tech companies creating more training opportunities for staff, using both remote and in-class resources.

• Invest in upskilling all of your staff, not just the tech experts. With advancing digitisation, many non-tech workers may need to switch to more tech-led roles in the future. It’s important to provide training for both these workers and your current tech workforce. Amazon, for example, pledged $700 million in upskilling and training across several departments as part of its Upskilling 2025 initiative. This includes the introduction of a Machine Learning University (MLU), to help tech workers build their machine learning skills.
• Personalise your learning platforms to the individual. Everyone learns in different ways. While some individuals prefer online lessons, others may want to sit in a classroom. Also, everyone’s pace of learning differs. So, it’s important to personalise your learning initiatives to give everyone the best chance of success. Mastercard, for example, launched its Degreed learning platform to provide personalised learning experiences and help staff access the right resources for their career development. Launched in 2016, the platform has gone from strength to strength during the pandemic and recently achieved 96 per cent engagement levels with staff.
• Explore tech-forward learning tools. VR, or ‘v-learning’, for example, is growing in popularity within the tech industry. This tool can create virtual learning environments that allow delivery of training and development programmes in an immersive way. In fact, a PwC study on the use of VR in soft skills training found that learners trained in VR were 275 per cent more confident to act on what they learned after training, which was a 40 per cent improvement over similar classroom training and a 35 per cent improvement over e-learning methods.

Thanks to the rise in remote working, career ownership now lies with the individual. But in the competitive and dynamic world of tech, organisations must help every member of staff develop the right skills for the future.

To talk to an expert about creating your own training platforms, or managing any large-scale projects contact us today.

Making diversity, inclusion and creativity work in tech

James Harvard

Equity, diversity and inclusion are driving forces of innovation, with many tech leaders, such as Sabina Ewing, CIO of Pfizer Upjohn, recognising that teams with diverse backgrounds and mindsets drive transformational growth. As the world of tech continues to push the remote work agenda and adopt remote or hybrid working models, what impact will this have on the level of creativity and inclusion at your own organisation?

The technology industry has a diversity problem

This Harvard Business Review article highlights two recent examples where a lack of diversity has led to negative consequences within technology. In these examples, facial recognition software exacerbated discrimination against people of colour and virtual reality headsets, designed by men, made women feel ill when used.

Remote work could potentially help improve diversity in the industry. Two-thirds of tech workers predict that the growing acceptance of working from home will increase inclusive participation in terms of disability (79%), gender (77%), and race/ethnicity (72%). 94% also believe it will boost geographic diversity, attracting talent from different areas and cities.

Microsoft recognises the need for inclusive comms

While these stats are encouraging, remote work is not a quick fix to promote diversity and inclusion. Remote or hybrid working models bring about many new inclusion challenges that you would need to consider, too. For example, how you communicate with your remote staff has a direct impact on the extent to which they feel included.

Microsoft launched a research initiative at the start of the pandemic and have recently released their findings: “While some found online meetings more inclusive, due to the “level playing field” of all-remoteness, others who were less likely to speak up in physical meetings were also less likely to contribute online.” 

Groupthink is also more likely during digital communications, where decision-making is ruled by the ease of conformity, stopping innovation dead in its tracks. Plus, virtual meeting attendees are more likely to zone out. “The lack of physical cues, body language, and ability to gauge emotions were said to be significant hurdles to productive disagreement and decision making,” according to one report from Microsoft.

Done right, working remotely can breed creativity

But the disappearance of those in-person ‘casual collisions’ may not be the only factor potentially impacting your organisation’s creativity. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal, economist Enrico Moretti expressed concern around the fact famous tech hubs like Silicon Valley are dispersing and moving to remote set-ups, stating, “a worker in a city with many companies in their field will produce better ideas at a faster pace”. Moretti also said that when a worker leaves one of these specialised cities, or tech hubs, they innovate at a slower pace.

However, interestingly, our research found that only one quarter of tech staff think the office provides them with a more creative work environment than working remotely.

And it makes sense. When it’s done right, remote work lets everyone contribute their ideas, gives them access to new collaborative tools, boosts diversity of both staff and their ideas, and gives everyone access to the best facilitators.

Some even say remote working makes us more creative because we can manage interruptions and curate a physical space to maximise creativity. So, by offering flexible working arrangements to your employees – for example, for those with caring commitments who need to vary their working hours – you will in turn be boosting the innovation of your workforce.

Maintain your diversity agenda for the future

It’s important to remember that implementing flexible work at your organisation is just one part of building a more diverse workforce and inclusive workplace. In fact, many tech companies are now setting long-term targets to do better.

In June 2020, for example, Google announced plans to improve representation of ethnic minorities at senior levels by 30 per cent by 2025. The company’s Chief Diversity Officer, Melonie Parker, also wrote an article in May 2020 explaining how to foster inclusion while working from home. “We want everyone to feel comfortable, empowered, and heard, because it makes them — and all of us — more successful,” Parker said, in a statement.

Such sentiments are admirable and may inspire you to set similar ambitions. Remember that a strong diversity and inclusion strategy should focus on empathetic leadership, individuality, and establishing a sense of belonging for everyone, according to a recent report from McKinsey, Delivering Through Diversity.

A great place to start when working on your new strategy is to consider what you can do to invest in your up-and-coming tech talent – those people who are going to form your future workforce. This is something that Mark Holt, CTO at Trainline, has been working on, “To encourage diversity in tech it’s important to invest in the wider community and future tech talent too. For example, we’ve partnered with social enterprise Code: First Girls.” Are there any local community groups you could work with to develop diverse talent? You could consider partnering with local schools and colleges, too.

Inclusion is a commitment

Diversity and inclusion sits at the heart of digital growth, helping innovation thrive. As remote work continues to break down international boundaries, the tech industry has more opportunities than ever to embrace diversity and succeed on a global scale.

Innovation and creativity are also key reasons why tech professionals feel passionate about working in tech and for a specific employer, and importantly, why they stay working for them. But are levels of diversity and innovation hampered when working remotely? The jury is still out.

If you have projects in mind to improve your internal comms strategies, or want to make sure any of your projects are a success, contact a James Harvard expert today.

HOW COVID HELPED US LEARN TO INNOVATE

James Harvard

The year 2020 was one of seismic change for everyone, both at home and at work. Businesses were forced to evolve and adapt rapidly in light of the COVID-19 crisis. In the year where hybrid and home working, virtual meetings, social distancing and face masks became the new normal, many organisations had to completely revamp their business models and working practices.

Innovation became a matter of survival during the COVID-19 pandemic

According to a global study of 899 C-suite executives by McKinsey, companies have accelerated by three to four years the digitisation of their customer and supply chain interactions, and of their internal operations, following the pandemic. Furthermore, the share of digital or digitally enabled products in their portfolios has progressed by seven years.

One of the most common changes for organisations around the world was needing to switch to a fully remote workforce. “Our shift, like other businesses, was very rapid,” says Peter Histon, Chief Technology Officer at life insurance firm Resolution Life Australasia. “We wanted to ensure our people could safely work at home whilst being connected to their team on a daily basis. Our people’s wellbeing is really important to us.

“We used a monthly engagement survey to ask them how they were managing, what further support they needed and if they were set up adequately with the appropriate equipment to do their job. We delivered monitors, chairs and headsets all across Australia. Each leader was empowered to make decisions that would support their team’s wellbeing and performance.”

It was a similar story at PwC UK. Laura Hinton, Chief People Officer, says that prior to COVID-19 around 10 per cent of PwC’s employees worked remotely at any one time. This switched to nearly 100 per cent almost overnight. “Of course, switching all of our 22,000 people to remote working was unexpected, but our investment in technology and embracing a culture change meant this particular adaptation was relatively smooth,” she notes.

Hinton says a decade’s worth of innovation and change took place in months and that some of the new practices, including flexible and remote working, will form the framework for businesses in the post-pandemic world.

Kathleen Jones, Chief People Officer (interim) at Rathbone Brothers, says the investment management sector has been similarly overhauled in a very short space of time. Much of this change has, Jones believes, actually been a positive thing. “Organisations like ours were worried about embracing flexible working because these businesses weren’t sure how they would manage productivity, but this has made many companies see that people can remain productive and professional while working remotely,” she says. “The pandemic has been a catalyst for a new way of thinking for us.”

How adopting an agile mindset can create opportunities for your organisation

Some organisations had to do more than move to a remote working model, and completely changed their business model to ensure they survived the effects of the pandemic. Across the globe, organisations pivoted to create products to help fight the spread of COVID-19.

Fiasco, a New Zealand-based company which usually supplies touring equipment such as protective road cases for musicians, was forced to quickly rethink its strategy when the live music industry was paused. The business considered what different products it could produce with its existing supply chain and began making home working desks and plastic screens for retailers instead.

In China, Foxconn Technology Group repurposed its production lines to make surgical masks. Meanwhile, luxury goods conglomerate LVMH began producing hand sanitiser at its Dior and Givenchy perfume sites. And in South Korea, CJ CGV, a major cinema chain, created completely contactless theatres, with robots, automated snack bars and unmanned ticketing systems.

Michel van Hove is Partner at Strategos, a US strategy and innovation consultancy founded in 1995 by Gary Hamel. He says that with mounting challenges, many businesses moved quickly to offer new or altered services or products. “There was a general sense of urgency and, in many cases, companies quickly scaled up basic infrastructure that was already in place.”

He adds that in times of difficulty there are often opportunities available to those who can see them. “Generally speaking, when constraints are applied there will always be individuals who see this as an opportunity to come up with different working practices and behaviours that help them achieve better outcomes.”

Why innovative organisations outperform their peers

While an organisational culture that promotes change and innovation can be necessary to survive economic challenges, it can also give businesses a competitive edge when things are more stable.

Boston Consulting Group’s global Most Innovative Companies Report 2020 found that 66 per cent of the 2,500 executives surveyed see innovation as a top three management priority. Yet only 45 per cent are “committed innovators” – that is, they see innovation as a top priority and back up that commitment with significant investment.

“Sceptical innovators” (30 per cent of the total) see innovation as neither a strategic priority nor a significant target of funding. And “confused innovators” (25 per cent of the total) report a mismatch between the stated strategic importance of innovation and their level of funding for it.

The research found that committed innovators are seeing the best results. Almost 60 per cent report generating a rising proportion of sales from products and services launched in the past three years, compared with only 30 per cent of the sceptics and 47 per cent of the confused.

And in Australia, a 2020 survey of 180 firms by Innovation and Science Australia found that SMEs with high growth in technology spending increased their revenue 3.5 percentage points per year faster, and employment 5.2 percentage points faster, than those with low technology spending.

How can organisations continue to prioritise innovation post-COVID-19?

With this in mind, how can businesses ensure that the innovative mindset they gained by necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic becomes a permanent part of their culture? Simple:

1. Celebrate your achievements
2. Continue to disrupt and question your business model
3. Build a culture of clear, consistent communication
4. Update your processes and adopt the latest technology
5. Give your people the freedom to fail
   

Follow these steps, and the only legacy of Covid-19 will be the creativity and innovation that helped us get through it.

If you have innovative projects ahead and want to make sure they’re a success, contact a James Harvard expert today.

HOW AI AND AUTOMATION CAN ENHANCE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

James Harvard

How do we demonstrate the value of AI, so that people are comfortable to share richer data? What are the potential benefits to each stakeholder, and at what point does automation negatively impact the customer experience?

A few key points here:

1. There’s often a trade off. For example, by collecting more data, you’re able to personalise each customer’s overall experience.. But asking for the wrong data at the wrong time can completely negate the benefits of those potential outcomes. What you don’t want to do is bombard someone with questions at the first encounter – so what is it that might prompt them to be open to sharing more? Is it as a result of receiving something that is useful to them in terms of advice, be it one to one or via content? This is where understanding the customer view is so critical, and of course when you DO ask for that data, being clear about how it will be used, stored and managed is critical to establishing trust with your organisation.
2. You need to put the customer at the centre. #Understanding the perspective, the joys and the frustrations of being a user in any digital environment can only really be achieved by sitting with the user as they experience each part of the process, taking time to understand where things could be better and where they are working well. Doing that is time consuming but so incredibly useful and gives a totally different perspective on the way people are interacting with your environment. Taking those insights and building them in to the design of a product is paramount to its adoption and success, which is what any product designer wants to see.
3. Map out each customer journey. All of us have a range of customers – and a multitude of touchpoints and interactions with each of those customer groups. Often across a huge range of separately built products and processes. Understanding how each of these fit together, from the customer’s perspective, is important to give you a baseline for any future changes as well as the benchmark from which to measure improvements. It’s a complex project to undertake but once you have done it, the review and adjustment is much easier to do and with clearer outcomes and results.
4. Use tools to help you continually evaluate the customer journey. AB testing is an oldie but a goodie – seeing how people actually use your website for example, testing out new designs and seeing what response you get can be incredibly useful. Especially when supplemented by tools like Hotjar which can give you an instant reading on the zeitgeist of how people feel about what you’re offering or asking them to do. We’ve dumped many “fabulous” new designs and schemas for various aspects of our websites when the evidence was clear that even though we thought it was fantastic our customers didn’t!

Want to bring AI and automation into your technology stack? Here are a few things to consider

So, the key takeaways for when you are thinking about bringing automation and AI into your technology stack:

• First, work out what the problem is you’re trying to solve. Focusing on the outcomes you want will help you enormously throughout this process and help you keep a clear vision on what good will look like
• Secondly, look at the process through a customer’s eyes. If you haven’t mapped their journey with you and all the associated touchpoints along the way, that’s a great place to start. Experience all the touchpoints and put yourself in the customer’s chair – if you can, do some research directly with customers to truly understand their point of view
• Once you know which part of the process you want to improve, look at redesigning it – could it be better? Could it be easier? What are the implications of making changes on each of the stakeholders?
• Once you start to look at technology, think about how easily you can explain it to customers – will it be transparent? Does it align with your organisations’ commitments and values? Are you comfortable it doesn’t add bias into the process?
• Have a customer advocate in every project – make it their job to be the voice of the customer and think about how it feels to use that product amongst the other tools and technology you use.

To conclude, if done properly, automation should never negatively impact the customer experience – every customer – it should only enhance it.

I also firmly believe that people, not machines, will continue to play the dominant role in hiring and staff engagement. We will need to set the criteria, we’ll need to bring that magic of human nuance to the table, and we need to build the person-to-person relationship which is all that ultimately matters when our customers make career and hiring decisions.

If you’re interested about the virtues of AI, or want to make sure any of your projects are a success, contact a James Harvard expert today.

CYBER SECURITY: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

James Harvard

Cyber security breaches have recently made global headlines, many of which have been attributed to a rapidly expanded online world because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Consequently, there is a heightened push not only to prevent such attacks from happening, but to develop IT and security infrastructure that can deal with these differing and increased online demands.

Therefore, there has never been a better time to think about the cyber security needs within your business. But how is the function evolving, what are the key skills that these professionals need to have in the new era of work?

Why are cyber security professionals so in-demand right now?

Pre-pandemic, data security was the primary focus of the IT industry, with the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), from its inception in 2016 through to its mandatory implementation in 2018 and beyond, becoming the primary concern for those within the EU especially. This was the first large-scale platform for cyber security professionals to demonstrate their importance to businesses and enabled the function to receive increased investment in the digital era. In fact, 91 per cent of European, Middle-East, African and Russian (EMEAR) companies who suffered a breach in 2017 made significant improvements to security in preparation for GDPR’s roll-out in 2018.

After GDPR laws were imposed, cybercriminals quickly found new ways to target data, resulting in yet more investment in IT security, even before the COVID-19 crisis impacted us all.

Since the advent of the pandemic, security has taken on even greater importance, as entire business processes and models shifted online. Where businesses have implemented remote working models for their employees, for example, security breaches have occurred in several ways:

• Valuable data has been left exposed, with many remote networks via VPNs hastily set-up prior to local lockdowns
• Employees logged into company programs using their own Wi-Fi or devices, and then downloaded new video conferencing tools and apps that could breach security systems
• Employees have become prone to lapses in adhering to security guidelinesin general

Threats, enhanced by the impact of COVID-19, will continue – with online and offline worlds set to collide more and more in the future. Ever-more widely available ‘smart’ IoT products, like smart kettles and doorbells or driverless cars, will ensure that cyber security professionals will continue to be in great demand to create secure infrastructures around these technologies.

What key skills does a cyber security professional need in this new era of work?

Cyber security roles have traditionally fallen into one of two categories: specific technical roles around the prevention of, and reaction to, cyber-attacks, such as Security Engineers or Security Architects, or more business-focused positions like Security Analysts and Compliance Business Analysts, which are concerned with the mitigation of risk in lieu of business objectives and projects.

However, the line between ‘tech’ and ‘business’ roles for those within security is blurring. More roles now require someone who is not only responsible for the technical implementation, maintenance and development of security systems, as well as the reaction to any breaches that occur, but someone who is capable of analysing incidents, processes and procedures as well. These professionals need to act as a bridge between IT security and the business; to be a consultant that looks at the risks associated with different business projects and the effect they may have on security infrastructure.

What projects need talented cyber security professionals?

It’s not about necessarily about individual projects, Cyber security needs to run through everything you do, and having the right knowledge and people to ensure your cyber security is top-notch is where we come in.

Get in touch with a James Harvard consultant today if you have a cyber security project and could benefit from our expertise.

HOW TO MAKE SUSTAINABILITY A PART OF YOUR BUSINESS

James Harvard

Sustainability has been moving up the agenda for many businesses,. A 2020 IBM study found that 71 per cent of consumers surveyed indicated that traceability of products is very important to them, and that they are willing to pay a premium for brands that provide it.

Organisations have been responding accordingly. Just before the pandemic hit at the end of 2019, the proportion of S&P 500 firms reporting on their ESG performance surged to 90 per cent, from 20 per cent in 2011.

Meanwhile, KPMG’s Survey of Sustainability Reporting 2020 has revealed that 80 per cent of companies now report on sustainability, compared with just 12 per cent when the consultancy began tracking sustainability reporting in 1993. The consultancy’s latest report surveyed 5,200 companies in 52 countries.

Also in 2019, the European Commission launched the European Green Deal, which aims to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent. But then COVID-19 hit. Would a pandemic pause, slow or completely halt sustainability progress?

How can organisations build sustainability into their post-COVID-19 recovery?

So as organisations look ahead, how can they ensure that sustainability moves back up their agenda and forms a part of their recovery?

It is important that businesses which have discovered more sustainable practices don’t revert to old habits when they reach the other side of the pandemic. Increased public awareness of the need for sustainability will make it easy, not only to retain some sustainable practices but also to develop many others.”

For example, the pandemic has also seen a significant reduction in business travel, which normally accounts for 12 per cent of global transport emissions, equating to 915 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019. Yet during the pandemic, there has been an unprecedented reduction in overall air pollution of up to 60 per cent, which takes into account not only international travel but the daily commute, too. This has been made possible because remote working, something that wasn’t available across the board before the pandemic, has been forced upon employers and employees, who are utilising programs such as Slack, Zoom and Teams to continue to work effectively. A global survey undertaken by Slack in October 2020 revealed that 72 per cent of people would prefer a mixture of office and remote-based working, with just 12 per cent wanting to return to the office full time.

Furthermore, some businesses (including Deloitte and PwC) have already gone on record to say that sustained business travel reduction will form part of their ongoing plans to reduce emissions to net zero. But looking further ahead, what can leaders do to ensure sustainability moves back up the agenda within their organisation?

1. Take the chance to change behaviours
   
   

   For Professor Dr Laura Marie Edinger-Schons, Chair of Sustainable Business at Germany’s University of Mannheim, there is hope that these newfound sustainable practices will remain the norm. “Research on sustainable behaviours has repeatedly shown that it is very hard to change habitual behaviours and routines,” she explains. “Thus, this unexpected disruption of our normal work-related behaviours offers a great opportunity for permanent change.” She also adds that many unsustainable practices as a result of the pandemic can be once again removed from business when the pandemic is over. “During the pandemic some industries were forced to use more unsustainable business practices, for example due to an increased delivery of products or use of plastic packaging; however, many of these will not be necessary anymore after the pandemic.”

   Companies can also look at ways to make commuting into work – wherever that may be in the future – more inclusive and sustainable, with nearly 25 per cent of employees having left a job because of the commute. Organisations can look to subsidise commute costs and provide alternatives to company cars – which have been shown to increase household vehicle use by 25 per cent – such as cycling schemes.

2. Challenge suppliers to be more sustainable
   
   

   Businesses can also take the opportunity to revisit supply chains; for example, companies can indirectly become more climate resilient and fairer to society and individuals. “We can achieve more through collective action than as a single organisation, so collaboration with many of our stakeholders, including suppliers and government, is really important,” says Swenson. IKEA’s supplier code of conduct, for example, requires that suppliers meet their standards in areas including working hours, employee benefits and wages, chemicals, waste, business ethics, the environment, child labour and discrimination before IKEA will consider working with them. Meanwhile, German sporting goods company Vaude has engaged with the German Government and stakeholders to co-create the ‘Grüner Knopf’ (the green button), a sustainability label for its textiles.

   These sorts of initiatives are requiring companies all over the world to be more transparent, which will lead to more companies needing to identify their own supply chain risks.  This is something The Sustainability Consortium (a global non-profit sustainability organisation) is helping companies to do through its commodities mapping tool, which addresses where the risks are, what the risks are and how these issues can be addressed.

3. Encourage sustainable behaviour at all levels
   
   

   Within business, however, it’s not just down to the upper echelon to encourage change. “It’s everybody’s responsibility to question the status quo and to participate in rebuilding and shaping our economy of the future. Of course top managers have greater power to change structures and processes, but employees are an equally important driver of change in organisations,” says Edinger-Schons. “And for those privileged few of us that are not facing existential threats due to the pandemic because we have secure jobs, I would say that our responsibility is even higher.”

   But the responsibility to rebuild sustainability does not lie with businesses alone. Governments have a role to play here too – something that we’re already seeing in Spain. The country is set to receive around €140 billion from NextGenerationEU, the European Union’s recovery plan, which will go towards Spain’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The plan covers green fiscal reform and includes bringing forward the country’s Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan goals from 2025 to 2023, the introduction of 250,000 electric vehicles, boosting renewables, especially floating offshore wind farms, reinforcing the grid and investing in smart grids.

4. Make sustainability part of your organisational purpose
   
   

   It’s easy to see how investing in industries that support existing sustainability momentum creates more jobs, and gives us a ‘greener’ normal after the pandemic. But what about the businesses whose existence was never based around these goals? We’ve already seen that investment banks and wealth managers are creating sustainability-focused portfolios, but what about those that, on paper, have very little need for interaction with sustainability practices?

   “For several years now, companies have been worried about what new talent wants,” explains Megan Kashner, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Social Impact at Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University. “Prospective employees want the company they work for to be purpose-driven, to be on the right side of sustainability and to feel their values align with the values of the company. As a result, we’re seeing an increase in jobs that are about sustainable supply chains, that are in clean energy, diversity, equity and inclusion, and that are focused on sustainable finance. We’re seeing some of the biggest financial institutions shift their hiring to put talent behind these necessary initiatives, which it might have seemed they were only giving lip service to previously.” She adds that although previously progress was slow in providing transparency where it wasn’t required by law, “something about the pandemic has accelerated that”, and companies are having to make sure people like what they find.

   So whether it’s an increase in jobs directly in the field of tackling climate change, or in roles in businesses that put sustainability at the forefront of a company’s ethos, the experts believe sustainability is the key to successful business models in the future.

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