In the latest of our interviews with IT leaders from key sectors affected by the Coronavirus pandemic, we look into the Charity sector and talk to Paul Smith, who has been with the UK Lifeboat institution RNLI during a period of rapid change. The charity sector has been badly affected by the impact of the pandemic, with revenues falling across the board as fundraising activities stop, and the nation’s focus turns to those charities supporting NHS workers and providing vital PPE. I spoke to Paul as he was preparing to take on a newly created role designed to navigate the course of this historic organisation into the digital age.
Who are you, what’s your background, what organisation do you work for and what’s your role?
My name is Paul Smith, I work for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI), I have been the Head of IT for nearly four years, and am now taking up a new role as Head of Digital and Technology Futures which is a very exciting new role for me and for the organisation.
Since you joined RNLI, what do you think the biggest change has been in terms of how the organisation views technology (up until the pandemic)
The RNLI is quite a traditional organisation, which comes from a history of saving lives at sea for almost 200 years faced with all kinds of challenges, and with that comes quite a complex legacy technology estate. Part of my role has been about unpicking and modernising this with a view to now setting the path for what next generation lifesaving, powered by technology could look like. I think the RNLI now sees and is ready for the role that technology can play in this. A significant proportion of our strategic change portfolio as an organisation now includes technology initiatives of various flavours, so the importance now placed on technology as a catalyst and augmenter of the organisation’s capability is clear and encouraging to see. In short, technology is critical now to the RNLI, more so than ever before, and we see it as both a real enabler of our mission and differentiator within the charity sector.
What improvements are you most proud of from your time in that role?
I now have a team capable of delivering on any tough questions asked of them by the organisation. We’ve gone back to basics in many areas, externally benchmarking ourselves with a real desire to ensure that those things are right before we move on to anything else such as resetting the bar. We focussed on organisational outcomes and technology building blocks which are ‘fit for business’, and ensuring the teams had the ability to ‘up-skill’ in a way which suited them best so that they could rise to the organisation’s challenges when called upon. This also means they are well placed from a motivation, personal and career development perspective too. Risks are managed and opportunities exploited accordingly in what we call a “no regrets” investment of our valuable donors funding. We know exactly why we make significant technology investment decisions, understanding how they map to our capability and outcomes clearly.
What do you find surprises people about your organisation and how it uses tech?
I would say firstly the breadth of the organisation – people don’t always understand or have visibility of all we do. For example, we are a Search and Rescue Service, a Fundraiser, an Educator and Trainer, a Hotelier, a Boat Builder, a Logistical and Supply Chain service, a Lifeguard Service and also an international influencer and cause for good. That all needs underpinning by appropriate technology. This is probably closely followed by our very diverse user demographic which includes all ages, backgrounds, beliefs and technical capabilities. Each presents their own unique challenges, perspectives and opportunities to power the organisation’s mission.
How have you responded to the remote working challenge of the pandemic?
My team have been tremendous. I know I would say that, but they truly have, supported by a very understanding and pragmatic user base. Luckily, from a technology perspective we had many of the foundations already in place for what we needed to do, as a result of work already completed, or in progress, due to previously identified risks and opportunities. The focus moved more with a sense of urgency to enablement, support and education to ensure we were getting the most from our platforms and that users could seamlessly do what they needed to, in a way which worked for them. The pandemic presented us with a compelling event, sense of urgency and common cause. There as an organisational will to become more digital, almost overnight, so that we could continue to work as expected. So, for once we could visibly see that traditional change management model work in real life, albeit in an expedited way!
Have you furloughed many IT staff – how did you manage that and how are you keeping those staff engaged?
As an organisation we had furloughed staff, in the region of 30% in fact. We had to take some pretty tough views on critical activity versus activities which quite frankly had less urgency around them, or that we could accept some pain for a short period through pause or slowdown. We care about our people deeply, so these things are never easy. The status of needs is never static – so we have to stay flexible, keep assessing the landscape and be dynamic in response with the appropriate sense of urgency. Interestingly the response from our staff has been varied from gratitude for the ability to care for loved ones at home, to more challenging situations for lone individuals, or through the culture shift we find ourselves experiencing from this new operating model where we have many people experiencing working from home for the first time. We also make sure that as line managers we touch base with our people to check in on them, keep them up to speed and to also invite them to that ‘virtual coffee session’ for a chat with their work friends and colleagues. There are clearly rules about what staff can and can’t do on furlough, but we’ve seen many taking the opportunity to access learning platforms to do a bit of personal development!
Will the effect of the pandemic change your priorities as an IT organisation?
To an extent. It certainly enables a renewed clarity. This is an opportunity to assess what is important versus what we thought was important and what would really ‘move the needle’. It has resulted in decisions to change focus and to throw more weight behind some existing initiatives and others that previously had been in the ‘not just yet’ pile. That has also been borne out of necessity too, whether that’s a reduced income outlook or uncertainty around the future – be that for the organisation or the people and ecosystem we rely so much on to be effective. We see it as an opportunity to take stock, re-prepare ourselves and to come out fresh and fighting with the technical capabilities we need afterwards. The new dispersed organisational operating model has certainly demonstrated our true ability through more digital ways of working and collaboration, which we are all very excited about.
Where next for you and your organisation?
Firstly we want to ensure that we learn from Covid-19, and make sure we remember what we are capable of when we need to move quickly. I am looking forward to setting up the new “Digital and Technology Futures Department” and laying out the strategic path for the organisation across various technology landscapes such as Digital Marketing and Income Generation, Lifesaving, User Enablement and other underpinning technology capabilities to drive the organisation forward as we approach our 200th birthday and beyond.