Companies Search To Rise To The Problem Of Disruption
It is still unclear how willing office workers will be to return to work after the lockdown … [+]
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Almost a year after organizations began shutting down their offices and allowing their employees to work from home, the idea that remote working would be a passing phenomenon had long since vanished. There is general agreement that we are now going through what is probably the most significant change in labor input since the industrial revolution. The information revolution, driven by ever more powerful and faster technology, is said to have been going on for years. But despite a lot of discussion about it that spawns a new approach to work, for many the only difference they have noticed is that thanks to smartphones and laptops, they not only work in the office but on their commute as well as home. It took the pandemic and the government’s request to stay home to deliver on the long-held promise that most of the work would no longer necessarily be done in offices.
Although the place and the way and how the work is done may have changed radically as a result of the crisis, the actual work appears to be evolving in a similar way as before. According to the study on global talent trends for 2021 published today by international management consultancy Mercer, due to the financial impact and the disruption of working life caused by the pandemic, UK employers are focusing on redefining flexibility and skills development to ensure that their company and theirs More employees become resilient and agile in the face of disruptions. However, last year’s Mercer survey, which was just released at the start of the pandemic, also showed some interest in skills development and retraining.
The difference is that, as with many other aspects of business life, the current crisis has accelerated already discernible trends. While last year only a third of HR managers said they were investing in learning and re-qualifying workers to equip themselves for the future of work, this time more than 90% of companies cite skills development as the main focus for 2021. It’s almost as if executives had previously absorbed all the talk about the speed and extent of change with a pinch of salt, but now realized it was real. As Mercer points out, the nature of the disruption today means businesses must change quickly to stay ahead of the competition.
Lisa Lyons, UK Workforce Transformation Leader at Mercer, said: “2020 has had a major impact on the shape and design of the workplace. Most companies are now working to adopt a more flexible business model in order to gain competitive advantage. ”This is reflected in the results that 40% of companies are facilitating internal talent exchange and 36% plan to do so this year – a response to the Need to redeploy internal resources to meet demand. Similarly, nearly two-thirds of companies review the flexibility of their workforce, and almost half focus on qualifying critical talent pools. Lyons added, “Our research underscores the importance of looking at work and people through a competency lens so that companies can act quickly and flexibly in the face of disruptions. By redesigning workplaces where skills take precedence over daily tasks, employers can also better support people in their careers. “
However, the pandemic is not the only factor changing businesses and especially the concerns of HR specialists. The Black Lives Matter protests acted as a catalyst for communities around the world to sometimes defy the rules of social distancing to combat inequalities and discrimination. And in ways that have probably never been seen before, companies of all types have been more positive than reactive to the past. Even if some companies are struggling to survive, companies seem more than ever to accept business practices that are in the interests of employees, shareholders and society in general. And they get an extra boost in the form of institutional investors who require them to consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.
Proof of this is the fact that just under half of UK companies include ESG metrics in executive personal performance targets, and more than 80% of UK hiring managers (and two-thirds of their colleagues around the world) say companies are at the pace in Direction of an ESG and multi-stakeholder business approach continued or accelerated. It also shows the seriousness of the effort in the race for better analytical tools in the areas of equal pay, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing.
Lyons added, “For organizations to make effective change, responsible business practices require deliberate thought and effort. In the current environment, companies need to lead with empathy and understand which topics are important for their employees. Based on the intent, the ESG needs to be included in the culture and strategy as a core element and not just as a window dressing. “
As she says, this will require a change in leadership behaviors and thinking. Whether this is likely to happen is likely to depend on your view, whether organizations believe they can return to something like the old status quo once the worst of the pandemic’s effects are over, or – as was often voiced earlier in the year – crisis – this is a real opportunity to turn business upside down. It looks like the longer the situation is as it is now, the more likely we will return, as the office workers are still out of the office and a return to other facets of “normal life” is still a long way off from the beginning last Year to see that this is a great opportunity to push for change that is widely believed to be critical to the success of businesses and, indeed, the future of society.
