Hybrid work: 2 Australian CIOs share lessons learned

The past two years have been incredibly challenging for CIOs and their teams. Coronavirus pandemic-related lockdowns and other restrictions have forced long overdue changes in work environments across Australia

John Sutherland, CIO at aged care provider HammondCare, and Angela Coble, CIO and director, business technology at Johnson & Johnson share what they learned about hybrid work and attraction and retention of tech talent during the pandemic with CIO Australia.

What Johnson & Johnson learned about flexible work during COVID-19

Coble says that when COVID-19 first hit in early 2020, Johnson & Johnson was in a good position from a technology perspective with cloud infrastructure and remote networks already in place. But there was work to be done to assist staff who were used to working in an office.

“For me, it was really about the ‘time-space continuum’ really imploding during that period. We [Johnson & Johnson] needed to be clear about the boundaries that we would set for how we needed to work in a [hybrid] environment,” says Coble.

“For the team, it was about helping to create those boundaries; we weren’t working 24×7 … staff need to get a break. That was a big lesson for me.”

Coble says Johnson & Johnson has done some work around what a flexible model of working looks like and what is right for different individuals, teams, roles, and the wider organisation.