Welcome to the November issue of HR Hot Topics. This month we are looking at the Future of Work and we’re joined by experts from across industry and academia.
Together, our guests provide an excellent view from all sides of the effects and ramifications of the past 18 months on the world of work.
Welcome:
- Benoit Hardy-Vallée, AVP Talent Experience Strategy at Phenom
- Martin Thomas, Head of Total Workforce Strategy at Philips
- David Collings, Professor of Human Resource Management at Dublin City University
If you would like to watch or listen into the entire interview, please click here. Below are the salient points derived from the live session.
To what extent do you think the global workforce is changing, or has changed in your organisation?
Martin
Like many, we had to adopt remote working; we rapidly updated our technology, and we recognize now, after two years, that there are there is an absolute need to be together. There is a power of being together, both in terms of innovation and relationships. We want to encourage people to come back to work appropriately, according to the rules in the area they live, and with the right precautions in place. We’ve developed three different types of work guidelines, if you like personas:
- Onsite employees – those who need to be onsite or in an office to do their job.
- Remote employees – those who are client facing and have always been remote.
- Hybrid employees – those who can and should operate both onsite and from home.
With hybrid employees, we’re not suggesting that everybody has to be in our headquarters, but it means you want to be where it’s meaningful for you.
Benoit
I think we need to get used to these bimodal or multimodal ways of working. I think working remotely is here to stay because we proved it can work for so many roles.
If you look at the fully distributed organisation, they are very diligent about how and not just when people work, which means that if you work asynchronously, it’s just like email, — you don’t need to reply right away. You carve out time, you work at your own pace, you finish a part of the presentation of the deck, of the code, of the deliverable.
David
Covid19 has caused an interesting experiment on a scale we could never have had expected. And, I think the jury is still out in terms of where we’re likely to land on the future of the hybrid workplace.
Sentimentally, working from home is now viewed as a positive, and so much has been written on the increase of productivity as well as the work/life balance. But actually, the research evidence is very mixed.
The research suggests that the vast majority of productivity increase comes down to things like the reduced commute time, and ultimately, people working longer hours. Some research even shows how people are spending 150% more time on web calls.
So, it’s a mixed picture, and that’s why I say that the future is uncertain.
I think from an employer’s point of view, the organisations that I see that are further down the journey, are thinking about the purpose of their workplace, creating a message for employees about why they would want and, or need to be in the workplace.
And so, this is a lesson we should learn – we need to define the purpose of the workplace. Why do we want people together? And being open to iteration, learning and failing fast is the advice I would give to organizations as they think about what the future of the hybrid workplace is.
What role do you think technology will play in shaping the future of work?
David
With technology we are doing so much more and we need to be mindful that it’s not all positive. There’s research that shows that Zoom/Teams really drains us because we’re conscious of how we look.
I think we need to consider how we create a new culture for collaboration in this hybrid environment. There’s going to be some really important stages where we set new norms around what’s accepted and what’s not.
Martin
One step is to set the standard Teams/Zoom meeting down from 30 minutes to twenty-five. A perfect example of where the technology can help.
David
We need to put a lot more effort into onboarding interactions, especially at the onset of a new person joining, so you’re building right in the virtual environment.
Martin
You do have to work a little bit harder on onboarding now. We’ve got new colleagues that have joined who’ve never been into a building, who have never physically met each other, because the local environment hasn’t allowed it. And we push for a lot more too; meetings where the onboarding agenda is about the social networking and sharing. We have a virtual drink or virtual chocolate tasting for example.
What’s the single biggest barrier to accessing the global workforce?
Benoit
A big change we’ve seen in the last 12 months is how to retain talent. Talent acquisition has been re-engineered. You have to compete for experience. You have to have a compelling online presence.
Clair
What lessons that you’ve learned over the last 18 months that now will be part of your future hiring strategy, irrespective of whether it’s to fill a remote or hybrid or office-based role?
Martin
I think it’s a very clear realization that you can find talent anywhere.
Benoit
My hope is that it drives more diversity by broadening the spectrum of where we find people. Again, a lot of research suggests that people from diverse backgrounds tend to be more in favour of remote work. So hopefully that’s going to help bring DE&I front and centre. We’re past the business case in terms of diversity — it’s How do we make it work?
David
I do think it puts a huge onus on us to be very watchful of the DE&I implications of people who are located remotely and ensuring that those folks are not disadvantaged from a career point of view by where they’re located.
I think one of the things we’ve definitely seen in our future of work research is that one of the big challenges organisations face, is they’re very much still looking in the rearview mirror when it comes to skills and capabilities. And most organisations are not at the stage where they’re strategically aligning their talent planning with the business strategy, looking forward. We have a reactive approach to hiring, where we have immediate skills gaps that we’re struggling to fill.
Benoit
Another factor that gets in the way is lack of intelligent, omnichannel recruiting technology. There is talent and there are jobs — good technology should help one meet the other, wherever candidates are at and whatever their preferences may be. Their experience matters. With AI, that quick, easy, personalised matching is possible. Plus, systems of intelligence can better expose biases across the talent acquisition process so they can be corrected to improve more diverse hiring.
How can organisations transform the way they acquire and retain talent?
Martin
It’s prompted us to think wholistically, and we bring all the business areas that are involved in the recruitment process together.
We are strategically thinking about how we acquire talent internally, and how we develop skills internally. We might also borrow skills from somewhere else through a consultancy or contingent workers.
We spend time to review the capability of talent, and use that to look for internal gigs based on skills, not a job.
Benoit
I think this is the biggest opportunity for organisations, as it will highlight their biggest talent gaps. If they can succeed in bringing all the skills into one framework, you have a global view of the talent within, and you can fill your skills gaps accordingly.
David
Certainly, the internal talent marketplaces are something that’s happening more and more. It allows people to find meaning and work. And you know, a lot of our day jobs are fine, but if I can pursue something I’m passionate about, I can develop capabilities and skills.
Also, thinking about the entire cycle through the organisation in terms of skills, I think a lot of organisations have over-indexed on external hiring and skills gaps. I think it’s essential that we think about a more dynamic and futuristic way of getting the balance right between the internal hiring, external hiring, reskilling and upskilling.
Martin
A talent marketplace is about plugging the talent that people have into a profile, so it can be searchable and used to be matched to a project or gig.
We want to focus more on internals hires because we realise that they can be retrained, not just ask them to volunteer by applying, we can actually go find them.
Benoit
When work demands changed, we witnessed resilience and efficiency among many customers who began leveraging their own workers for specific projects or tasks. Having an internal talent marketplace is bringing more fluidity and agility to businesses and more personal and professional development for employees. The concept values skills and outcomes over a rigid job description.
So, what does the future of work look like?
Benoit
In a world where things are constantly changing, you can’t specialise too fast. The key to longevity in a career is to have some specialisation, of course — but more general “soft” skills like communication and critical thinking are essential. There’s no substitute for workers who consistently employ basic logic and probability, have a cursory knowledge of human psychology and cognition, and embody empathy, agility and a growth mindset. While these are not specialist skills, they help people more readily adapt to situations that require new ways of thinking or additional skill development.
Martin
We need to allow people to move or develop in parallel, so they could be running a gig on the side of their work, which could be their future career.
David
We’re gone from a world where people finished second level education, did a degree and they were set up for life. We know the half-life of skills is failing significantly and there’s some data around that.
I think people are learning differently and are shifting away from big blocks of learning. MBA type learning has made way for micro credentials, or even smaller chunks of learning, individualized career paths, development paths and not assuming everybody is coming with the same baseline of knowledge and skills.
I also think, fundamentally a north star for the organisation is essential – one that defines and directs and gives them a sense of where they’re going technically, will inform the skills and capabilities the organisation needs.
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