BT Pembroke Lecture 2020 - Black swan or new normal? The changing face of managing during COVID-19

The 2020 BT-Pembroke Lecture marked a series of firsts - it was our first annual celebration of the relationship between BT and Pembroke College to take place online, it was the first to have over 100 attendees from across the world and it was the first based on a non-technical subject. Dr Richard Caddis is the Director of Health, Safety and Wellbeing & Chief Medical Officer at BT and his presentation ‘Black swan or new normal? The changing face of managing during Covid-19’ examined the company’s response to Covid-19 and explored what this and past pandemics can tell us about pandemics in the future.

Dr Caddis leads a team delivering the group occupational health service (OHS) provision, safety management and assurance programmes for BT Group’s UK and global operations. He has worked on global outbreaks (Ebola, Zika, Swine Flu) and is currently leading the pandemic response to Covid-19. He has a vast range of experience from working at British Airways, Transport for London (TfL), Cathay Pacific and Capita. Richard won the Peter Taylor medal for his research into the impact of the London 7/7 bombings on TfL station staff. 

The Master of Pembroke College, Lord Chris Smith, began the 2020 annual BT-Pembroke Lecture by remarking on the long-standing and mutually beneficial partnership between the College and BT. Over 17 years this has led to numerous workshops and research projects, regular internships for our students, and has facilitated a multitude of conversations for BT across a huge number of disciplines among the wider University. This ready two-way exchange of knowledge between academia and industry is absolutely invaluable to both sides, and has led to real world impact. Introducing Richard, the Master expressed sincere regret that we were not able to host the BT-Pembroke Lecture in College as usual but welcomed the increased audience that a virtual event can provide.

Richard began his BT-Pembroke Lecture by summarising his working background, highlighting his experience of previous major incidents such as global disease outbreaks (for Zika, Swine Flu and Ebola), the London 7/7 bombings and the Germanwings tragedy. BT leads the UK national telecommunications infrastructure and his role as the Covid-19 pandemic progressed was to help the company interpret the emerging risks to the business, identify the controls and measures they could use to mitigate these and to understand the business challenges.

Understanding what a pandemic is helps a company respond to a new outbreak when there is limited information and can therefore accelerate business recovery. Richard noted that we have had over 100 years to prepare for this, and that modelling from Spanish flu showed that non-pharmaceutical controls – social distancing, closing churches and shops, and avoiding travel by trolley all helped to control that outbreak. Early on in 2020, we needed to identify what type of virus we were facing and what it did, then we could understand what measures could be used to help control and contain it, and finally consider how we co-ordinate that response globally.

The data were telling us very quickly that this was a novel coronavirus, and therefore that it would transmit via close contact between people. This allowed BT to map the effect on their employees in terms of absence and the resulting effect on operational delivery. It was also clear reasonably early on that some people were affected more severely and that these staff members should be protected by being encouraged to work from home. Further modelling foresaw a high chance of a lockdown in March and enabled BT to prepare for, for example, many more employees working from home. Understanding the virus helped the company decide how to develop contingency plans and manage their response independently while information was still uncertain and guidance limited – and enabled them to put the health and safety of their workforce first. During this time, there was a lot of information flowing around causing confusion and concern. Richard emphasised that clear and regular communications are critical to keep people reassured.

BT plays a pivotal role in providing the internet for the vast majority of the UK, and delivers the 999 service, so they needed to understand the impact of Covid-19 on critical business tasks, including the knock-on effects of supply chain shortages and that many of their staff with caring responsibilities may need to take time off. Richard helped BT interpret the guidance from government, and apply this to BT’s specific context and personnel.

BT were able to work at pace to connect the Nightingale Hospitals, they were also able to set up the Life Lines project that rolled out 300,000 tablets to isolated patients in ICU to enable them to connect with loved ones. BT also pivoted and transformed how healthcare was delivered, harnessing 5G and digital equipment and high-quality video links to allow patients to access consultations and hospital staff such as radiologists to work from home. BT knew that the demands on the network and data would be very high, and they needed to support people to work from home that hadn’t before – OpenReach worked hard to provide broadband and respond to the increased demand. Richard shared how BT even ensured a Call of Duty upgrade didn’t cause a strain on the network! Richard and his team recognised that smaller organisations were not as able to access expert advice – and so they developed a wellbeing toolkit for small businesses to highlight key challenges and recommended support measures for Covid-19.

Richard has now started to look towards the future – planning for the workforce to return to work safely, and understanding how Covid-19 has affected workplace wellbeing. There are still shocks that we are yet to face, but belonging, workplace connectedness and authentic line management and leadership support will be key to positive future wellbeing.

The BT-Pembroke Lecture ended on the challenges that we face in the next 12-18 months of the pandemic in terms of physical health, mental health, and safety. We have a better understanding of the disease now, but are enduring a prolonged period of lockdown and this is taking a toll on people in many ways and will bring new challenges. Richard will continue to help BT’s customers, staff and business by supporting BT with evidence-based advice for the company to provide a Covid-secure workplace, and giving clear communication and leadership. Richard ended on a positive note - we will get through this together!

A lively question and answer session followed, which was chaired by the Master. Lord Chris Smith asked the first question – when this virus first appeared and was unknown, what were the decision-making processes that Richard went through? Richard responded that they used any information they could find, such as what type the virus was and how it might be spreading, and which other countries had seen and what had worked? The picture has evolved over time and we now know much more, such that people who aren’t ill can spread the disease, but the basic principle of staying physically apart - social distancing - is still key to reducing transmission. Richard took further questions on what surprised him (less absence than expected!), global leadership (we need to work together), corporate culture and many more.

BT’s purpose is to connect for good. In the past few months, BT has shown itself to be a true national treasure and has maintained connections and communications in the most trying of times – both in terms of the technology and people. The Pembroke College Corporate Partnership Programme is proud to have hosted such a fantastic BT-Pembroke Lecture and is thankful to Richard for his brilliant presentation and discussion.

5 take-home messages from the 2020 BT-Pembroke Lecture:

• Research - understanding the virus helps to develop contingency plans and manage the response
• Communicate - clear and regular communications with your workforce is key: ‘what does this mean for me? what are you doing to keep me safe?’
• Prioritise wellbeing – prioritise the protection of physical and mental health, safety and wellbeing of employees and their loved ones
• Embrace change – pivoting to utilise existing technologies in new ways can provide valuable support to staff and customers
• Promote resilience – people have risen to a huge challenge already and there is more to come, companies need to keep supporting staff and communicating

Please accept our apologies for the poor sound quality in parts of the recording, this only affects the first few minutes. Copies of the slides are available here. Images from the event are available on flickr.

The BT-Pembroke Lecture is an annual event in Pembroke College’s calendar and is organised by the Corporate Partnership Programme. The speaker is selected by BT to present a topic of current interest, BT has been a member of the Corporate Partnership Programme since 2003. The Corporate Partnership Programme is unique among the Cambridge Colleges and has, for nearly 25 years, facilitated mutually beneficial cooperation between the academic community (in Pembroke and the wider University) and organisations.