As a chief executive, setting a company’s focus on wellbeing during a crisis can be tough. Doing so as a new chief executive? Tougher still. Doing so as a new chief executive at a time when a global pandemic means you can only see your new colleagues via video? Well, just ask Mark Allan.
Land Securities’ chief executive joined the company in mid-April, just weeks after the UK’s first Covid-19 lockdown began. His start date was earlier than he had expected – the pandemic restrictions had scuppered plans for a break after leaving developer St Modwen. But he didn’t meet any of his new colleagues face-to-face until mid-June, when some of the company’s non-essential retail sites reopened.
“I had a whole two-month virtual period, and it does link very much to wellbeing,” Allan says, noting that the company’s workforce has gone from working together entirely virtually during the first lockdown, to a hybrid of virtual and physical working as restrictions lifted, to virtual collaboration again as a second lockdown came into force.
“The key thread that runs through all of that has been about communication and the importance of staying in touch with people, probably more so than if you were just in a traditional working environment,” Allan adds.
“We’ve done numerous town halls, lots of different forms of communication, and it has been much less formal, which we’ve had really positive responses to… I think that does unquestionably help in terms of people still feeling part of something, not feeling too isolated or too disconnected from what’s going on at work.”
As wellbeing has risen up the corporate agenda, the ability for chief executives such as Allan to show an understanding of the issues and a desire to lead from the front on mental and physical health in the workplace has been paramount. And that has only grown in importance during the events of 2020, when workers have been isolated in their homes for months at a time and the stresses of work have increased.
EG asked Allan as well as British Land’s Simon Carter and SEGRO’s David Sleath – together the chief executives of the three REITs in the FTSE 100 index – to share their thoughts on what wellbeing lessons they have taken from the coronavirus crisis, and how they are acting to support their teams, wherever they work.
Work-life balance
Like Allan, British Land’s Carter is new to the role, if not the company – the landlord’s chief financial officer stepped up to takeover the chief executive post from Chris Grigg this week.
“During this unique time, it’s more important than ever for me and the whole leadership team to be visible and accessible, and to make sure we are continuously listening to our teams to fully understand the range of challenges they face,” Carter says.
For the new chief exec, keeping lines of communication open across the group has been critical during the pandemic, and not simply through phone calls or conversations over Zoom. British Land executives have been recording podcasts for the workforce to update them on what is happening in the business, while weekly virtual pub quizzes have offered a more informal way for colleagues to catch up.
Carter knows first-hand the pressures that have come with changing working practices during lockdown, particularly around striking a good work-life balance at a time when it is all too easy to stay hunched over a laptop late into the night.
“One thing that struck me early on is the range of different experiences people had during lockdown,” he says. “Some had dedicated space to work, while others struggled being in shared accommodation and many others were juggling childcare with work. Personally, I found it difficult to always find the right work-life balance. When your office and living space are interchangeable, the temptation is to sit in front of your screen for far longer than you usually would in the office. I definitely underestimated how important the office is in separating my home and work life.”
Authentic messaging
A focus on mental health and wellbeing is new for many companies, but firms have moved quickly to get under way on their journey.
“In recent years we’ve been thinking about mental health as equally as important as physical health,” says SEGRO’s Sleath. “Like a lot of the challenges we face in business that are not so easy to put your arms around, you start off trying to raise understanding and awareness.”
That understanding started a few years ago with 21 members of staff volunteering to be trained as mental health ambassadors, knowing what signs to look for in colleagues who may be struggling and what questions to ask. From there the company introduced similar training for 110 or so managers across the business, and then voluntary mental health training for other people – more than 100 signed up.
But for Sleath, no matter how widespread in the company a culture of mental health awareness is, the message must begin in the boardroom.
“As the chief executive, we are in a very privileged position in our industry when you’re running a public company like ours,” he says. “We’ve got £12bn of assets and we’re a FTSE 40 company. But we’re a small business. We have 350 people and I know every single one of them. And so I feel a real responsibility to look after them as best I can, and I know my fellow leaders do too.”
At Landsec, Allan scores himself a “six out of 10” at leading by example on wellbeing. He and his team have been encouraging staff to take more regular breaks – and staff have been given extra days off around Christmas. Allan himself finally got that break that he missed out on after leaving St Modwen – he has to be a role model, after all.
“All of these things, if they’re not genuinely felt and led from the boardroom, are never going to have the weight of impact they might otherwise have,” Allan says. “These things have got to be authentic rather than having people drafting e-mails that have the chief executive’s name at the bottom of it. I think people see through that sort of stuff relatively quickly.”
Read more about mental health issues on EG’s Mental Health hub
To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette
