Page 25 - AdNews Magazine Jul-Aug 2020

three months, and then fight my way through traffic,” he tells AdNews. “I realised that, in my heart, as I was driving, that I didn’t miss this.”
And most people settled into a working-from-home rhythm.
“We are running staff surveys and something like 70 per cent plus, in addition to feeling better, the preference is to either maintain or predominantly work remotely forever,” says Pang.
“As a group, we are asking: how do we make sure we’re capturing people’s preference and still making sure productivity is up at a point where client work is as good or better than it was before.
“A lot of clients were giving a lot of freedom and forgiveness when we were in crisis mode.
“As we move out of it, they’re all grappling with what they need to do for the future. They, too, are realising the same thing: this now kind of works.”
A sameness
Time in lockdown is something of a blurred event horizon; a sequence of sameness, physically and mentally.
A dream within a movie where the character suddenly wakes and finds that a whole day has passed but they can’t recall what they did and whether or not it mattered even if they did remember.
“I’m at my dining room table, I look up and it’s three o’clock,” says Kieran Moore, CEO of public relations and government at WPP AUNZ. “How did that happen?”
Keeping staff engaged and mentally healthy while working remotely became a necessity and an artform during the coronavirus-imposed office exile.
Moore was given the role of running internal communications for WPP AUNZ during COVID-19 and everything was done through the lens of the health and wellbeing of WPP’s people.
“We had to up the ante on our business update so we initiated a virtual town hall every couple of weeks, a newsletter every week, the intranet was overhauled and we made sure leadership was really visible,” she says.
Lastly, Moore went about normalising the new office culture.
“We were lucky because I think 96 per cent of our people jumped into a remote working capability within about 48 hours,” she says.
“The ability for us to get into that remote working from a technical perspective was really good. And it was relatively seamless because a lot of the various companies, brands and teams had already been using Microsoft Teams anyway. So that meant we were all familiar with the systems.
“What we realised quickly was that getting people connected and talking to each other all the time is a tiny part of the story. What we needed to do was support the teams with a whole pillar of learning and
“I’m at my dining room table, I look up and it’s three o’clock. How did that happen?”
Kieran Moore, CEO of public relations and government at WPP AUNZ.
development. We quickly turned on what we call the ‘cafe series’ ... we moved all of our training online and changed it completely.”
The focus was on resilience, productivity techniques and stress management.
“Within that cafe series, there’s everything from mental toughness, how you pace the race, lots of well- being tips and techniques,” she says.
That includes meditation every morning.
“The other thing we’re really focused on is making sure everything we are doing is partici- pative,” says Moore.
“Lots of the content and the story we’re sharing with each other is all created by the teams that are actually doing these really interesting things. It’s authentic and raw.
“What we’ve been focused on is getting information out quickly. And there’s a realness to it.”
A radio station, WFH — Working FromHomeFM—wassetupby AKQA in Melbourne.
“Everyone liked it so much they exported it to the rest of the world,” says Moore. “People take their turn DJing and their playlists are called Foreign Tunes.”
GroupM set up a virtual band from home, brought it all together and laid down a track.
“Design Works in New Zealand has bingo and there’s been lots of really fun things,” she says.
“We share these stories prob- ably once a week and we have the working-from-home heroes.
“There’s the stuff the brands and companies are doing on their own, which we’re sharing and inspiring other people to do interesting things.
“It’s been awesome to see the creativity, the passion and the commitment people have, making the most of the situation.
“It’s brought out the fantastic individuals, the personalities, right across the group.
“A lot of the people who work in our agencies are extroverts who feed off each other. But having said that, the work I’ve seen being done for clients really quickly — 20 min- ute brainstorms, 20 minute pitches — it’s just a whole new way of part- nering with them.”
Deskos — getting dressed up and having a cocktail with colleagues remotely — became popular during COVID-19 lockdown. Katrina Clayton (top right) and Andrea Jones (opposite page) from The Brand Agency in Perth. GroupM AC/DSP band members (above left).
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