Adpatalift’s head of HR on working through the pandemic on the work and home front

Kate Newey is the head of human resources at Adaptalift Group. She joined The HR Leader to discuss how she guided her company through the pandemic, what she learnt during this difficult period, and tips for parents with unwell children.

Shandel McAuliffe, editor at HR Leader: “What were some of the hardships the pandemic brought to your job?”

Ms Newey: “I absolutely missed the class on how to navigate a pandemic 101! That was not covered at uni! So, I think one of the things that happened during that time was people had [to learn] resilience skills and the ability to shift quickly and be agile, and constantly respond to the changing environment we were in.”

“As HR leaders, it was a really tough period, and businesses would be looking at their HR team for the answers. And most of the time we didn't have the answers. So, we were all just scrambling around trying to work out what was going on, and being in that constant state of flux; and the most overused word of 2022, constant pivoting,” said Ms Newey.

Editor: “How did you adapt to flexible working?”

Ms Newey: “We had this massive science experiment in flexible working. So, it was a bit of this concept before [where] you had the big corporates etc. that had flexible working for years. Then all of a sudden everyone had to do it, and not how we’d all planned to start flexible working, thrown in the deep end, everyone pick up your equipment, take it home, global technology shortages, you couldn’t buy screens, you couldn’t buy laptops, you couldn’t buy toilet paper.”

She continued: “But we got an opportunity to see it work, and to see what bits worked, what bits didn’t work, and do a bit of experimenting as a business. Now certainly in our business, we were brought through that journey by the mandates.”

“In this talent market, the candidates are still telling us it’s a really top factor for them that there is flexibility offered, and it's generally in the form of hybrid, that seems to be the resounding feedback coming through. But we've still got an operation to run, so it's striking that balance between what our employees need and the operational needs of the business.”

“We're still finding our feet on that, and talking to my HR network, so is everyone… It's really been a mind shift for a lot of leaders on how you make it work, and I don't have all the answers... But it's about being agile, it's trying things, it's experimenting – that didn't work, what else can we try? And not necessarily doing what everybody else is doing either, it's about creating what's going to work for your organisation,” explained Ms Newey.

Editor: “How do you make time for work when sickness spreads through your household?”

Ms Newey: “We've had three rounds of COVID-19 in three months in our household… I guess my motto during those weeks is you can only do what you can do. The kids need us, they can't look after themselves, so they're obviously my first priority.”

“It was really setting a plan at the start of that week, juggling days off, my husband worked and [his days off] I worked, so it was just dividing and conquering, working at night when we had to,” Ms Newey said.

“Talk to your employer. I think when people hybrid work as well, it's quite easy to let someone slip away from the organisation but make sure you are checking in with your people.”

She added: “It's about how you carry on, I guess, with your life. And you're trying to run a business and trying to get people to collaborate and come together, which is one of the things we've missed over the last two years.”

The transcript of this podcast episode, when quoted above, was slightly edited for publishing purposes. The full conversation with Kate Newey is below.