Powering an effective team through tough times – snacks and all.
For all the talk about how well NeuGroup peer group members and their teams have navigated the pandemic – quarter closes, bond issuances, insurance renewals, revolver negotiations, even hostile takeover attempts – there is a nagging feeling that “this can’t go on forever” without more problems manifesting themselves in some way.
After almost four months of a near complete “work from home” or WFH regime, it will still be a while before the full strength of the treasury team is back together in the office. Some companies have announced recently phased-in returns as early as mid-June while others have been told to stay home through the end of the year. What can be learned from the experience so far as the situation stays fluid? Here are some thoughts from NeuGroup’s recent Tech20 Treasurers’ Peer Group meeting.
First, all the BCP work pays off. Treasury’s essential focus of keeping the lights on no matter the catastrophe has long required detailed business continuity plans to ensure access to liquidity, collections capabilities and the ability to make payments away from a compromised office site.
- So, arguably, no team was better prepared than treasury going into the pandemic-driven mandate for staff to take up their posts at home. Some treasurers noted with relief that they had recently tested the BCP and that things had worked out as planned when the order came.
Not much change for some. Global corporations of a certain size already have regional treasury centers in other places of the world, and – especially if based in the high-cost San Francisco Bay Area – varying levels of distributed teams in lower-cost regions of the US, e.g., Florida and Texas. The ability to lead those teams may have taken on a different nuance in the WFH environment, but managers were already used to leading remote team members.
- “We were already very remote so we had that down, and the [quarterly] close wasn’t a problem,” said a Tech20 member who leads both the treasury and tax teams. Nevertheless – and despite a significant redistribution of ergonomic chairs from offices to homes across the Bay Area – several companies gave a stipend of up to several hundred dollars to set up a home office.
Reassure the team with leadership, transparency. With the airwaves filled with COVID-19 news and the increased focus on cash and forecasting facing a very uncertain future, it is natural that people start worrying about losing their jobs. Some companies, including one Tech20 member who shared her company’s approach to leading in times of COVID-19, announced that there would be no layoffs in 2020.
- This company also makes a lot of effort to show empathy with employees and demonstrates its own focus on well-being to reassure others that it is OK to nor just power on as usual. The cadence of communication is important.
Set boundaries, examples. Particularly in situations where the whole family is at home, it’s important to demarcate work time and home time. Our presenting member said her husband oversees schooling the kids and she does “after school” activities. This means she is not available for meetings for a set number of hours in the afternoon and encourages her staff to set similar limits.
- Another member, who also emphasized mental well-being after the intensity of weeks upon weeks of blurred work/home lines – especially for single parents with young kids, and since taking vacation seems pointless if you can’t go anywhere – said he would take a Friday off on a regular basis, signaling that similar actions by staff are acceptable.
A lot of mileage out of small morale boosters. Coffee breaks and happy hours by Zoom, a dedicated Slack channel for office chitchat and family pictures, checking in on the singles on the team, and online trivia game time are examples of team building and maintaining a sense of team and inclusion. The tax and treasury chief from above organized a “remote offsite” meeting to connect with the team and from time to time sends much-welcomed healthy snack packages (from Oh My Green) to her staff.
- All this combined with the moratorium on layoffs have rewarded the presenting company’s management with their highest employee satisfaction numbers, despite the challenging period.
