The last months we organized several virtual IMD Reflection Forums with international CEO’s and CHRO’s from France, Italy, Germany, Canada, Mexico and the U.S.A.. The purpose of these meetings was to share learnings and discuss different topics related to leadership in crisis and to evaluate the past months.

Read below our main insights of our last week IMD CHRO Forum:

• Loneliness and despair when having poor working conditions at home begin to take their toll on parts of the population in many companies
  
  
• The majority of people experience an increase in workload since Covid-19 especially since last summer
  
  
• Organisations are struggling with the question what they can do as employer to ensure the well-being and strengthen the emotional resilience of their people while working remotely and lead them through the crisis
  
  
• Leaders should focus on providing a sense of comfort to their people to be able to deal with the current situation as well as being faithful that their organisation has the ability to find solutions to cope with future challenges
  

• Emphasizing that people are priority number 1 (more than results) and that you need them more than ever is important to keep engagement & productivity levels high

• Job assurance (just the fact of having a job) and clarity about company policy with regard to COVID-19 have both proven to be crucial to maintain engagement and productivity levels high
  
  
• Organisations observe a significant reduced turnover and continuous high employee engagement levels but expect post-pandemic effects at the beginning of next year because people are not everywhere coping well with the situation

• Leaders should deal differently (more flexible) with performance management in the coming months and, more than ever, know how to lead by example