Today I have a bittersweet announcement to make. After 6 years with the company, I am delighted to be taking the helm as CEO of Hive Learning.
I am so proud of the team we’ve built and the impact we’re making. But it feels like a strange time to be making this kind of announcement, given we’re all in such unchartered waters and unprecedented crisis.
For one of my first moves as CEO, I wanted to share Hive Learning’s commitment to you during the Covid-19 pandemic.
I know the coming months are going to be tough for all of us. And first and foremost, our number one priority will be looking after our people, and helping all of our clients, users, families and friends survive and thrive through this crisis in any way we can.
In times like these, I’m also conscious that the strain can often be toughest on those leading our people and HR functions – especially while we’re trying to figure out the best approach to take in scenarios that have very little precedent. It can feel like a mammoth task.
And as a peer learning platform, we’re really passionate about connecting people so they can learn and grow together, so we’ll be doing everything we can to equip the HR, inclusion and learning communities with the tools to swap notes, stay connected and support their people over the coming months.
But while this is a scary time and we’re all in for a tough and perhaps even traumatic few months ahead, I also believe that it’s about to change the way we work forever – hopefully in some ways, for the better.
Some of us will have more disposable time at home to read more books, listen to more podcasts, rest, exercise, make art, play games and learn new ways of being. And I believe that will mean we’ll learn to think differently too.
We’ll be more compassionate, resilient, work out loud more, respect work-life balance, prioritise learning, and take time to reflect. And know we’ll come out of this crisis as creatures who are more comfortable in a digital world.
But I know it will be a long road to get there. And so to support our community through these tough times, we’re making five commitments to you:
#1 Free access to our Resilience Works toolkits for our clients
We’ve produced a series of content on resilience in uncertain times, effective remote working and developing trust and compassion in your team. We’re giving all of our clients free access to the content most critical to them and will publish some of this on our website too for everyone.
#2 Creating a Peer Support Network for HR Leaders
It’s going to be more critical than ever that we lean on our peers, stay connected and learn from one another. So we’re creating an open peer network bringing together conversation and resources on Hive Learning for HR leaders to swap war stories and solutions to the challenges we face as a result of Covid-19 and to figure out what best practice looks like for all us. We’ll also publish a selection of content from our Resilience Works programme for free to help you manage your own mental health and your team’s.
#3 Pool our insights through digital briefings
Whether you’re figuring out how to; maintain your team’s wellbeing, build a culture of agility and resilience in your leaders from a distance, or digitise your face-to-face programmes, we’ll be hosting a series of digital briefings with senior leaders to get insights into those impactful ways to do this. We’ll then play back these insights in short, sharp pulse reports so everyone across the industry can benefit. If you have a burning topic you’d like your peer’s insights on, you can email me: julia.tierney@hivelearning.com.
#4 Free consultation on how to digitise your face-to-face events
We’ve had a lot of clients come to us over the past two weeks asking for ways to digitise their face-to-events on critical leadership and inclusion behaviours, so they don’t lose out on the money they’d spent designing a programme. We’re offering free consultation and design workshops on how to build powerful digital content for a social experience, and another fast start promise to turn your face-to-face event into a digital programme – launching in under a week.
#5 Fast start packages for our Resilience Works programme
Our Resilience Works programme is a practical digital toolkit for surviving and thriving in uncertain times. It’s a practical toolkit to help people understand what it takes to build resilience, lead through change, and problem solve fast. We’re offering our fast-start programme for any businesses who need to deploy this quickly for free and we promise to get you up and running in 7 days.
Lastly, in this fast-changing environment, it will be increasingly important to collaborate and club together. The Hive Learning team and I would love to support you in any way we can. Do let us know how we can help and feel free to reach out: julia.tierney@hivelearning.com.
