Roadmap For A Successful Organisational Change
In the words of Himal Tewari-CHRO Tata Power, "The global pandemic has changed the way people view work. Conventional Employee Value Proposition (EVP) are guided by outdated principles where employees are viewed as workers and work as separate from personal life. Moving from this transactional viewpoint, the organisation’s EVP has to be re-articulated to be aligned to the way employees view work and should focus on shared purpose, deep connections and extraordinary employee experience."
HR will need to start playing a key role in contributing to and driving the Sustainability agenda of the organisation. One of the many ways is to directly add value to the business through the improvement of the ESG score of the organisation. Key ESG HR issues concern how a company engages with its workforce, with a strong focus on a culture incorporating inclusion and diversity, and how it looks at issues of equity, fairness, and human rights. The global pandemic has turned the focus on the ‘S’ in ESG.
Instead of focusing on engagement initiatives only on health, organisations need to adopt a holistic approach to the well-being of their employees and expand beyond employees to include the larger ecosystem including family members of employees. The approach needs to be based on employee needs, data analytics on employee health data and should leverage technology and medical expertise wherever available.
The overriding theme this year has been from adoption to transformation. In the last year, we have seen a lot of adaptation in the human resource (HR) arena. We have shown that we were able to adapt, but the year 2022 will be called as a year of real transformation.
So if one was to crystal ball gaze at the upcoming HR trends to watch out for, they will be;
Acc. To 2021 Employee Experience Survey by Willis Towers Watson, “92% of employers worldwide said that the employee experience will be on top priority for next three years.” As the business in most sectors and segments see a strong positive bounce back, hiring has picked up. Talent, especially those in the sub-10 years’ experience band is in intense demand. But, money won’t play a differentiator factor enough for attracting or retaining talent. Employee experience, flexibility and choice, a culture of fast learning and inspiring leadership will surely become vital ingredients to destination choices of today.
2. Flexibility Becomes Mainstay To Company Culture
With the more recent Covid experiences, people know flexibility is not as impossible to the employee value proposition. People just want more flexibility in their life and work. It is not just about remote working, it is about work timings, policy flexibility, and rewards flexibility. A recent Harvard Business School Online study showed that most professionals have excelled in their jobs while working from home, and 81% either don’t want to go back to the office or would choose a hybrid schedule post-pandemic.
Whether companies have changed their culture truly is a different question. They have announced policy shifts but culture is a reality beyond policy announcements. Individual mindsets need to change for the collective mindset to be different.
3. HR Tech To Enable Employees
A slew of HR technology options, including some smart entrepreneurial platforms, have made huge possibilities to take the drudgery out of the lives of employees, managers, and HR. And yet, as happens with any change, it is not so much the technology but the attitude towards changing to appropriate behaviors which is the roadblock. Petiole love to talk about the power of technology but the downstream cultural shifts are not easy to accept. Information democracy shifts many historical centers of accountability. Not everyone enjoys this. Not yet.
4. Promoting Leaders From Within; Outsourcing Functions Where Efficient
Directionally if you see, its going to be a trend. But not all companies have adequately focussed on developing early-stage talent for these disruptive times. Also, in many organisations, the senior leadership still would love to live in its own world. And that would be assuming who they have are not good enough - the typical issue of over- familiarity. So I am not sure of how much the needle is moving for now. Everyone is saying the right things. But we need to see more demonstrable action. Likewise with outsourcing of functions. Having been a strong practitioner of this philosophy, I hope that more and more companies realise of the value of being strategic lean. But again historical comfort and the fear of the unknown have been holding up the speed of shift.
5. Defining 'Right Talent': Attracting & Retaining Needed Skill Sets
Without a doubt, this is needed. You cannot reimagine a business of tomorrow without redefining the supporting talent needs. It's pretty convincing those growing effort here. However, the sequence need not be the same always. Redefining talent and leadership across all levels can reset the business possibilities. It is believed that this is an untapped opportunity, all the way from the composition of the board downwards.
