Spark New Zealand

Heather Polglase

2020 presented all leaders and professionals operating across the people, culture and ways of working domains with a series of unique challenges associated with how to support and guide people, teams and businesses through a global pandemic.

These challenges were often not like any we’ve faced before and they spanned such a range of issues “from issues to resolve and combat, to things only we could influence but not necessarily solve for. Suddenly we had new issues like having to introduce new Health and Safety protocols to manage transmission within our buildings, and get familiar with new terms like PPE, contact tracing and social distancing. Alongside this there was a need for difference in how we communicated and shared updates with our people, who were facing their own personal pandemic-related challenges and anxieties too.

When we went into lockdown, our business continuity plans kicked in “and for Spark, we needed to manage (and in many cases alter) our agile ways of working “which had always been known for thriving on people collaborating and working in the same physical spaces “with people working remotely while also trying to juggle kids, and other responsibilities at the same time!

“Experimentation, co-creation and prototyping alongside our people has allowed us to stay highly responsive and relevant when it comes to the enhancement of our peoples employee experience”

But for all its challenges, the pandemic also presented opportunities - like finding ways to accelerate innovation, and gave matters like authentic well being a new and clear mandate to springboard from.  We saw the real value and impacts of empathetic and inclusive internal communications that put our peoples wellbeing at the forefront of our messaging.

And while 2021 kicked off looking like it was going to be much easier than the tough year before, for Spark in particular, as a digital services company, we were dealing with New Zealand’s skills shortage in the tech industry “which meant my team and I have had to create new and novel ways to grow, attract and retain our talent.

And then delta came to our shores and we were back working from home again, only this time it was for much longer. Although we were well-versed in working from home during a pandemic this time, the challenge for us was trying to look after our peoples wellbeing. After nearly 18 months of uncertainty, our people were telling us that they were exhausted and anxious “both about their health as well as dealing with the stress of trying to do it all while stuck at home in lockdown.  So that presented us with a whole new challenge, of managing the wellbeing of 5000 people across the country.

A renewed focus on wellbeing

Covid-19 provided a powerful moment in time for us to review our wellbeing strategy, and ¯to understand what really matters to our people as part of their life and work experiences.¯ We have since reimagined wellbeing at Spark and have put it at the heart of our culture, as we know if our people know more about how to feel good and put great tactics /habits in place, this is how we can sustain high performance across life.¯ 

Our wellbeing strategy is called Mahi¯Tahi, recognising we need to work in partnership with our people to¯ achieve its goals.¯ We focus on four key realms of wellbeing: 

1. Healthy Work Environment¯“ providing our people with a place to work that looks after more than just physical¯ safety “ but also your mental and social wellbeing. 

2. Connection, Collaboration and Community¯“ ensuring we have meaningful activities in place so our people can¯ foster strong connections with those they work with. 

3. Mind¯“supporting strong mental health capacity and confidence. 

4. Energy¯“building a culture where we help our people keep their batteries charged, so they can ¯can ¯perform at ¯their best. 

Within each of these areas, wellbeing will mean different things to different people, but we focus on finding¯ common ground through initiatives and offerings that different people can access for different needs at different times. 

Over the past year, we’ve launched a range of programmes and initiatives that help our people to focus on each ¯of these areas and take practical steps to support their wellbeing.

We know Covid restrictions and lockdowns have been tough, so we have given our people a day off on us, to support their wellbeing.  We’ve given our people (and their families) free access to Take A Breath “an app and learning platform created by Kiwi, Sarah Laurie, that teaches people the importance of breathing correctly and the impact that can have on anxiety, stress, and mental wellbeing.  We also offered this to our SME customers as part of our recharge campaign as we know wellbeing is so important to all NZers “our people, their whanau, our partners, customers and communities. We have been sending out regular Wellbeing comms that encourage authentic connection between our people - these include videos with our people and people leaders, talking candidly about their own wellbeing.

The last two years have taught me that it remains critical to have a clear vision and strategy, but that your long-term roadmaps need to be balanced with excellent scenario planning skills. Experimentation, co-creation and prototyping alongside our people has allowed us to stay highly responsive and relevant when it comes to the enhancement of our peoples employee experience.

I believe that HR should continue to fast track its role and credibility using data and insights that inform what should be focussed on, and these insights should of course be augmented by people partnering.