On 23^rd March 2021 Morgan Hunt hosted a webinar on developing an inclusive hiring strategy. We were joined by Amarjit Singh Basi from the Black FE Leadership Group, Ann Allcock from Marshall E-Learning, and Kira van Niekerk from Thomas International.

The session covered both the importance of having an inclusive hiring strategy, as well as the practical steps to implementing one. Watch the full recording below.

On 24^th February 2021  Morgan Hunt hosted a webinar on the power of  team coaching titled ‘Building inclusive teams for growth’. We were joined by team coaching experts Lucy Widdowson and Paul J Barbour, who shared how team coaching can be used to develop inclusive teams which benefit from increased performance.. Read the summary of the webinar below or watch the full recording at the bottom of this page:

Following the events of 2020, the importance of diversity and inclusion for organisations is being recognised more and more. Organisations are becoming actively engaged in building diverse and inclusive workplaces as a result of demands from staff for greater representation, but also due to the proven benefits for organisations. Benefits include:

• Winning the battle for talent
• Improving employee satisfaction
• Improving the quality of decision making
• Increasing innovation and customer insight
• Improving the company’s brand image
• 33% higher profitability (McKinsey, 2018)

It is clear that, for organisations, there is a lot to be gained, but how can improved diversity and inclusion be achieved? There are several factors that influence the diversity and inclusion of a workplace, but Lucy Widdowson and Paul J Barbour suggest developing more inclusive teams through team coaching is a good place to start.

When we talk about the diversity and inclusivity of teams, what do we mean? Diversity describes how team members are different from each other, improving the range of ideas and perspective brought to the table. Inclusivity, however, describes the style of interaction (the actions and strategies) that help people feel included, which is essential for effective teams and organisations. Diversity improves the variance of ideas, but inclusivity is what enables these thoughts to be shared.

The diversity of teams can be improved through recruitment, whereas inclusivity can only be built through a focus on the interpersonal relationships of teams. In order for team members to feel included, psychological safety and trust must exist within the group. Individuals must believe that the group is a safe place for interpersonal risk taking. Only then can members feel truly comfortable to contribute and share their ideas.

So how can inclusivity be improved? In the team coaching sessions that Lucy and Paul run with organisations throughout the world, they work with teams to develop empathy and to determine the shared purpose, values and beliefs of the group. Empathy leads to understanding and having shared goals ensures the group moves together in the same direction. One exercise they encourage people to use to build empathy is to watch the news, then try to understand a person who has an opposing view to you and think about what you would say to them.
 

What is team coaching?

“Coaching that helps teams work together, with others and within their wider environment, to create lasting change by developing safe trusting relationships, better ways of working and new thinking, so that they maximise their collective potential, purpose and performance goals”

Building psychological safety and trust can be achieved through a number of team coaching methods and exercises. Through their work, Lucy and Paul have defined 7 characteristics of high performing teams. These are:

• Purpose – (Why do we do what we do/ who do we serve)
• Identity – (How do we want to be known)
• Values & Beliefs – (What do we need to value and believe in to achieve our purpose?)
• Awareness – (How aware the team is of how they interact with the rest of the business and what the areas of development within the team are)
• Relatedness – (Psychological safety, building relationships, trust, enabling open and honest conversations)
• Ways of working – (The processes and rhythm of the team e.g. decision-making effectiveness) 
• Transformation – (How the team continues to learn, grow and innovate)

For improving inclusivity, Lucy and Paul recommend focussing on the awareness and relatedness. Here are some exercises you can use to maximise these characteristics:

• Have everyone say something at the beginning of a meeting
• Practice ‘non-violent communication’ (This means listening beyond what people say to understand people’s needs)
• Practice conversational turn taking, which increases collective intelligence and team performance
• Encourage more positive conversations by replacing “but” with “yes, and” to build on people’s ideas rather than shutting them down
• People are naturally averse to feedback so before challenging someone’s point make sure they feel supported

Paul and Lucy also suggest using scenarios to open honest conversations about how people would respond. Through this people can feel safe to share without judgement, as well as be corrected if their response could be improved. Here are some scenarios for you to use and discuss with your teams:

Scenario 1

Amy in a team meeting uses an incorrect terminology for a colleague in another team saying ‘Jo the blind person’. What do you do?

Scenario 2

Every time Amin makes a suggestion, another team member Tom ignores them and speaks over them. What do you do?

Scenario 3

You have a culture of all going to lunch together when in the office or spending time chatting informally when working virtually at the end of the day on a Friday. Ray doesn’t join in. What do you do?

By applying some of the techniques, you can begin to create more trust within your teams which will improve communication and performance. If you would like to learn more about team coaching and how it can be used to develop high performing teams, Lucy and Paul recently published their first book titled “Building top performing teams”. You can purchase a copy via the links below.

Kogan Page
Amazon
Purchase through local US & UK book stores

Remote working and hyrbid working is here to stay. Covid-19 has changed the nature of work forever and people now want, and expect, more flexibility from their job to manage the other elements of their life better. So if you want to attract and hire the best talent, excluding remote workers isn't an option. 

With this change comes increased expectations of employers. Remote employees starting at your organisation expect to get an onboarding that is equally as good as one done in person. Why should they miss out on this just because they work from home?

The positive news is that they don't have to accept an inferior onboarding process. Providing a meaningful onboarding that prepares them to their job and integrates the new starter into the organisation can be done remotely. Here's how. 

Paperwork

Use online electronic signature software such as DocuSign, allowing new employees to sign and return key documents securely with an encrypted audit trail. Work with your HR team to adapt your standard compliance process for onboarding.

Support your new hire

Be aware of the worries your new member of staff may have handing in their notice in such a challenging and uncertain market. It is critical to support them and keep in regular contact during this period. These are uncertain times so it is critical that you engage with and keep in regular contact with your new hire over the course of their notice period – we are seeing candidates accept counter offers from their current employer at the last moment. So, it is crucial to keep this in mind and ensure that you start involving them in team calls even during their notice period. Really utilise any opportunity to interact and encourage them to engage with the team culture during this period.

Keep them engaged

Encourage as much face time as possible with their new team, any opportunity for interaction is important, for example including them into a group chat on WhatsApp, Skype etc. This will introduce them and engage them in the team culture. Your key goal before and during onboarding is to over communicate.

Get equipment and logins out swiftly

Ensure that they have all they need to carry out their duties on day one including any computer equipment and the necessary logins. If there is any means of providing them with organisation/ corporate literature remotely, all the better. Ensure they have remote access to all relevant company documents and files. Think about sending a small ‘care package’ as a welcome gift.

Do regular one to ones

One to one meetings are important so that new members of staff have an opportunity to communicate with you and other key team members privately, as well as in a group/ team setting. Remember to encourage social get togethers as well, such as using video platforms for a team coffee or drink in order to encourage social interaction.

Record a ‘welcome video’

It allows you and/ or another team member to enthusiastically welcome the new employee to the organisation, discuss the team and how they will be able to carry out their role remotely. Include members of the senior management in this welcome video.  

Review your standard induction process

Pretty much every part of the standard induction process in week one can be moved to a virtual process. All training can be delivered online and it is likely that you already have training modules around compliance or health & safety etc. that are delivered via online training. Work with your internal training team or training providers to enhance your virtual offering for new starters.

Organise a team wide meet & greet session

Organise a team wide meet and greet session as a group call and then arrange individual one on ones with key team members so that the new hire is both introduced again to the team but also has an opportunity to start building key internal relationships.

Think about all the key stakeholders that your new hire needs to meet and arrange these as video calls. The more structured you can make this in the first few weeks the better – this will assist your new hire to understand their role and duties more quickly.

Task them with keeping a list of key questions

Ask your new starter to keep a list of key questions they might have and then ensure that they have a platform to start to work though these queries, for example a daily video call with their line manager.

Clearly, working day to day in an office allows these questions would be answered naturally, so it is key that they start with the habit of noting questions as they work so these can be addressed on a regular/ daily basis.

Check in regularly

Check in regularly but don’t keep checking up. By setting clear daily expectations and then following up, you or the line manager will be able to naturally track progress and development. Ask for help and perhaps a HR colleague can support you by organising a monthly catch up call with the new hire.

This will give an extra insight and assist you in keeping an eye on their overall wellbeing.

This is a stressful period for everyone, and a new hire will perhaps be feeling extra pressure to prove themselves in a new organisation.

Be open & adapt

Remote onboarding is a relatively new process for most organisations, so naturally there will be a few issues and perhaps challenges early on. So, it is important that all parties involved are understanding and willing to learn from mistakes. Have this conversation with your new hire early on – ask them to be forging but also ensure that you gather feedback and work to learn from any early mistakes.

If you would like more information about any aspects of remote recruitment or remote onboarding, please get in touch.