Spearheading the new world of work

SPEARHEADING

THE NEW WORLD OF WORK

During two important Impact Session at the 2020 Finance Indaba Network virtual launch, leading executives shared their triumphs over the challenges of Covid-19 and explained how CFOs have become chief value officers instead of beancounters.

During the opening session at the launch day of the 2020 Finance Indaba Network, Vodacom group CFO Raisibe Morathi, University of Johannesburg CFO Nolwazi Mamorare and Momentum Corporate CEO Dumo Mbethe shared their views on the challenges of working through Covid-19, and the learnings that will shape the workplace of the future. One thing is clear, while the post-Covid-19 workplace will not look the same in every industry or company, the workplace will not return to where it was before the crisis. For Raisibe, the virtual workplace offers more pros than cons. One of these advantages is how a virtual environment can flatten the distance between leadership and employees. “A digital workplace allows you to connect with many more people than you ordinarily would,” she said. “Location is no longer important. An employee no longer needs to penetrate through management levels to reach a leader within an organisation.” Raisibe believes this is a time for leaders to lead with empathy and consider the different environments from which employees are working. While she held the position of CFO at Nedbank, she kept in regular con-

tact with her 900 finance team members through a WhatsApp group. “The virtual environment doesn’t take away the importance of leadership. Leaders still need to motivate their employees. This is a time to show people that we really care,” said Raisibe. Raisibe also made personal contact with every employee who tested positive for Covid-19. She noted that the new flexibility of remote working makes it possible to recruit talent from anywhere in the country and to be a more attractive workplace to people put off by commuting.

Taking a health check

Dumo doesn’t foresee a situation where all employees work from home or from the office. Rather, he predicts a hybrid approach where employees come to work for part of the week. “We can’t stay away from the office forever – we still need to connect in-person to build company culture. We are already seeing working hubs emerging where a group of employees meets to work in a coffee shop,” he said. For Dumo, the mental health of both clients and employees is a major concern. According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group (SADAG), roughly one in four women and one in five men will have an episode of depression in their life. Remote work can increase feelings of isolation and loneliness, and managers of virtual teams should try to combat that by fostering connection and belonging. “The blurring of work and home boundaries is stressful for employees. This is compounded by the financial pressures that they may be facing,” Dumo added. He noted that calls to the SADAG doubled during the lockdown. To combat stress in the workplace, the company has introduced “no-meeting Wednesday”, with no meetings after 1pm and insists that employees take their annual leave.

A new kind of university life

For Nolwazi, the Covid-19 pandemic was a real test of the organisation’s business continuity plans. The University has 50,000 students and a staff complement of 5,000. “Our goal was that the academic year must not be lost and that no student should be left behind. Fortunately, we began investing in blended learning some time ago. This meant that we were able to open the academic term only one week later than the calendar. We are also able to complete our academic year, which is unusual compared to other universities,” said Nolwazi. The university negotiated discounted data rates for students and leaned on corporate sponsors for laptop donations. “We accommodate some of the poorest students in the country. We could not let them be disadvantaged due to a lack of data or computer equipment,” she said.

Nolwazi predicts that universities will evolve to offer continued value to students. “We expect that a hybrid model of contact and online learning will emerge. We will need to cost this model differently. We must also compete for students with international online universities. The digital world makes these studying options open to local students.” From a personal perspective, balancing a full-time job and supervising school work schedules was difficult for Nolwazi. She predicts that companies will be more open to flexible work arrangements and she believes that parents will benefit. “A more flexible approach provides an opportunity for mothers and fathers to spend more time with their children. This is a huge win for society,” said Nolwazi.

The CFO of the future

Leading corporate governance expert Professor Mervyn King motivated for a “rebranding” of the CFO into the chief value officer (CVO) during another hugely popular Impact Session. Arguing that in addition to managing and understanding the financial position of a company, it is the CFO who is responsible for creating value in the business, he pointed out that, “Successful businesses have moved away from creating profits for shareholders to focusing on long-term value creation. In the C-suite, it is the CFO who drives this.”

The CVO role must ensure that all relevant aspects of value creation and destruction are accounted for and communicated to boards, management, and external stakeholders,” said Prof King. “Key to this is advising companies on public interest issues and sustainability. “The CVO also has to report all assets available to the company and this includes natural assets. They need to report to the board on the financials and the non-financial aspects, including the company’s impact on the economy, society and environment.” Prof King said he believes that the time is right for one set of integrated reporting standards, as the many competing versions create ‘confusion and clutter’ for accountants. This past September, the five global organisations that specialise in sustainability and integrated reporting standards announced that they would be creating a comprehensive approach to corporate reporting. They acknowledged that the complexity around sustainability disclosure has made it difficult to develop a comprehensive solution for corporate reporting. l