Resiliency is one of today’s hottest topics, and rightly so in today’s constantly changing landscape. Today’s “On Aon” episode features host Alexandra Lewis and Aon’s Managing Director within the Talent, Rewards and Performance practice Marinus van Driel. Together they examine what resiliency means, why it is more essential now than ever before, and steps you can take to improve resiliency going forward.
Resiliency is one of today’s hottest topics, and rightly so in today’s constantly changing landscape. Today’s “On Aon” episode features host Alexandra Lewis and Aon’s Managing Director within the Talent, Rewards and Performance practice Marinus van Driel. Together they examine what resiliency means, why it is more essential now than ever before, and steps you can take to improve resiliency going forward.
Additional Resources:
Aon’s Human Capital Solutions page
The Rising Resilient, including a whitepaper and self-assessment
Additional whitepapers on the future of work and remote working:
Tweetables:
“Resiliency comes down to a simple concept — the ability to bounce back amid adversity and to provide the baseline conditions for helping people thrive in the long run.” — Marinus van Driel
“How can we continue doing the things that we were doing really great in the past, but how can we do it in a new way and maintain our organization’s cultures?” — Marinus van Driel
“It’s critical to make sure that folks keep on doing well, and that organizations keep doing well by doing good for their people.” — Marinus van Driel
Voiceover:
Welcome to On Aon, a podcast featuring conversations between colleagues on, well, Aon. This week we hear from Marinus van Driel about the importance of resiliency. And now this week's host, Alex Lewis.
Alex Lewis:
Welcome to On Aon, and today we're delving into one of the hottest topics for today, resiliency.
Alex Lewis:
I'm Alex Lewis, and I am thrilled to be joined here today by Marinus van Driel from our human capital solutions team. He's going to help us discover a little bit more about what resilience means and how you can learn some top tips on improving yours going forwards.
Alex Lewis:
Marinus, welcome.
Marinus van Driel:
Oh, thank you so much for having me on, Alex. It's a pleasure to be here.
Alex Lewis:
Fantastic. How have you been? How have you been enjoying the glorious weather? What have you been up to?
Marinus van Driel:
Doing really, really well and thoroughly enjoying the work that we're doing, both at Aon and with our clients at the moment.
Alex Lewis:
Excellent. Of course, your work is so incredibly important today when companies across the world, across different sectors are absolutely dedicated to helping their colleagues navigate this volatility and these ups and downs.
Alex Lewis:
When it comes to resiliency, it's a bit of a buzzwords at the moment, but it's incredibly important. What's your interpretation of that?
Marinus van Driel:
Absolutely. I think you're spot on. It is a buzzword, and it's something that is coming up in just about every client conversation that we have when we start talking about things like returning to the workplace, or hybrid working, or remote working, or generally just for carving from where we've been in the last couple of months.
Marinus van Driel:
For me, fundamentally, resilience comes down to a simple concept, just the ability to bounce back amidst adversity, and then also to provide the baseline conditions for helping people thrive in the long run. You can over-complicate it, put a whole lot of other elements and components to a technical definition, but for me, personally, in the work that I do, that's really how I would define resilience, both for people and for organizations.
Alex Lewis:
Well, the ability to thrive is a fantastic, positive approach to have, and, of course, you have a wonderful job title of an industrial and organizational psychologist. How do you take your expertise in that area and apply it? Perhaps you can share with our audience today some top tips on how they can individually be resilient.
Marinus van Driel:
Yeah, absolutely. Well, and like to share in our daily work at the moment, we're helping clients think through how to manage through things like returning back to the workplace, or how to manage remote workforces. Obviously, those are very, very complex issues with many different starting points. I had a client the other day describe it to me as being a bit of a spaghetti bowl, and I was like, "Yeah. No, you're right. It is." So, how do you begin, or where do you start? What are the most compelling things that you can do?
Marinus van Driel:
The approach that we've taken is that we really look for that most sensible starting point by looking at data. For instance, we can look at the data that we have about an organization's workforce. What kind of jobs can be done remotely? Which jobs can be done in the office? What are the propensity of certain jobs to be done more effectively or remotely? How does that then play into real estate decisions and things of that nature?
Marinus van Driel:
But all of that really comes down to data about the workforce of the company, and where they want to go. Then based on that kind of baseline information, we then set guardrails with our clients to then figure out what are the go-forward principles that they want to embrace moving forward. Then we start working to align people to those principles as well, and understanding what folks' preferences are. Obviously, we've all had shifts in our own values and our own views on the world and where we want to work. Obviously, based on those shifts organizations then have to optimally fit their people into whatever the new reality is that they will create for themselves and their employees.
Marinus van Driel:
Then moving a kind of a couple of steps ahead, and there are lots of companies that already done that baseline work, then it becomes a question around how do you arrange the workplace to support new ways of working? How do you set up team working arrangements for folks to share office space in a given day? When do people need to be in the office? How should the office be used? Addressing topics like that becomes critically important.
Marinus van Driel:
Then the last element really is, and I think this is yet another buzzword, but it's an important one, it's creating a compelling employee experience. Every employee needs to feel that they have a place and a space in the organization to excel moving forward, and that an organization is providing the baseline conditions for that to happen.
Alex Lewis:
You mentioned the new reality. Where have you seen some of those bigger shifts for companies? What are those new ways of working where you see most demands that companies are really seizing these new opportunities to work more efficiently and effectively?
Marinus van Driel:
Well, I think across industries, remote working is here to stay, and the big topic of the moment, if I can put it that way, is figuring out what that means for a given organization. Obviously, there are industry nuances and company-specific nuances to that, but I think the common thread really is, is figuring out what does remote working look like.
Marinus van Driel:
I think that the trend that we're seeing really is that hybrid work in some way, shape or form will become sort of the new reality where folks are in the office maybe two, three, four, five days out of the week depending on your job, but it really comes down to figuring out what that working arrangement needs to look like.
Marinus van Driel:
Early on in this journey, what we saw is that a lot of organizations were thinking about the efficiency gains in terms of using their real estate. We know, for instance, organizations like Salesforce and a couple of others that have offices in really, really high rent areas are subleasing their spaces to others, because they're just going, "Well, maybe we don't need this space." But as we've kind of continued on down the road, I think we've also seen that remote working is something that needs to be managed in a way that is very organic and enables people to really still connect with one another and maintain the organization's culture.
Marinus van Driel:
I think that's really the critical evolution that we have to make now, as we're shifting into a new reality, is figuring out for ourselves how can we continue doing the things that we were doing really great in the past, but how can we do it in a new way and maintain our organization's cultures?
Alex Lewis:
How are you best advising on how we make that balance between effective ways of working, but also the wellbeing of colleagues as well?
Marinus van Driel:
Alex, it's a great question. For me, it comes down to organizations really providing a basic sense of security to the employees, but also making sure that folks feel like they're belonging to the organization, and then also creating a great compelling vision for the future. I think those are kind of the baseline things that I would recommend.
Marinus van Driel:
But then, in addition to that, I think organizations also really do need to invest in employee wellbeing. The reason for this is just that we've seen that organizations that have made investments in people's wellbeing really, really see massive uptakes in folks living healthier lives, being more productive at work and also having better work-life balance. I think those things are all really, really critical to make sure that folks keep on doing well and that organizations keep on doing well by doing good for their people.
Alex Lewis:
Totally, and it's fantastic that we have colleagues such as yourself that can spread this advice and guidance to companies across the world. And it's been brilliant to see that Aon has, I think, really taken on some of that advice and guidance in the way that our colleagues have been working, networking, getting to know each other a little bit more over the last few months and really helped to augment that sense of culture and wellbeing across the firm.
Alex Lewis:
But in addition to, obviously, this great advice that you offer out to companies, what advice do you take on-board yourself individually? What are some of those ways that you find to stay motivated and energized?
Marinus van Driel:
Yeah. Well, I think for me, it comes down to a couple of really, really practical things. I think practicing self-care is kind of number one on my list. I think that for me has come to the fore, and it's an interesting way.
Marinus van Driel:
At the beginning of the pandemic, like many folks, I felt like the boundaries between work and life were kind of blurred, and I just had to find some ways to kind of create a little bit of separation. I think a lot of folks have done similar things. One of the very simple things that I've done is on weekends I put my phone in a drawer, and I don't look at it until Monday morning. That's been really, really helpful for me.
Marinus van Driel:
Then also I've also been able to engage in a lot of the activities that I love doing that I previously didn't have time to do because I was traveling quite a bit. I found that really being intentional about seeking out some of the things that I enjoy doing has been really beneficial for me as well.
Marinus van Driel:
Then the last thing that I'll share is just I've been fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of folks with similar experiences and similar learnings, but everybody's learning has been a little bit different. I've chatted with a lot of my colleagues that have been very generous with their time and advice about how they've managed through things, and that's been incredibly powerful for me just to kind of learn what others are doing and learn from spots where they may have knocked their heads and places where they found some personal light and ways to energize themselves.
Alex Lewis:
I think that's some amazing top tips there. Firstly, don't be afraid to lock your phone away. Secondly, discover, rekindle your previous activities, hobbies, perhaps find some new ones as well. And thirdly, I love that point about just have a conversation, be open about your experiences and learn from others as well. Those are great tips our listeners can take on-board there.
Alex Lewis:
Just to wrap up, you're, of course, from South Africa originally, so I expect you're quite used to traveling. You've mentioned you've decreased that slightly now, but when we do have a little bit more flexibility in travel, where would you most love to go and visit?
Marinus van Driel:
Ah, yeah. Well, to your point about decreasing travel, it went from being a constant in my life to being an absolute elimination of travel, which has been a big shift.
Marinus van Driel:
But, yeah, in terms of the traveling, yeah, my family's still in South Africa, so I'd love to go see them. Obviously, there's concern right now around the various variants of the COVID-19 strain that have developed over the last couple of months. That's still a little bit of a ways off into the future for us so that's high on my list of places to go.
Marinus van Driel:
The second one, that just was a nice surprise here over the last couple of months, I have a big birthday coming up this year, so my wife spoiled me with a fly fishing trip to Montana. We're going to get to do a little bit of a little bit of that, provided everything is good and well in the world later on this summer.
Marinus van Driel:
Then there are a couple of aspirational destinations that have always been on the list, but I've never made it to, which are some far-flung and remote spots in the South Pacific. So maybe one day we'll be able to go there as well.
Alex Lewis:
Lots of possible adventures ahead there and happy birthday in advance.
Marinus van Driel:
Thank you.
Alex Lewis:
I hope you have a fun fly fishing trip. Very interesting. I do know that there is a Yammer group for Aon of fellow fly fishers, so maybe that’s a good opportunity to further network with a few more colleagues there and share your experiences of fishing across the world.
Marinus van Driel:
I will definitely have to find that Yammer group, Alex.
Voiceover:
This has been a conversation on Aon and the importance of resiliency. Thank you for listening.
Voiceover:
If you enjoyed this week's episode, tune in in two weeks for a conversation about gray swan events and how crises impact businesses. To learn more about Aon, its employees, solutions and news, check out our show notes and visit our website at aon.com.
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