Staying ahead of the game to be able to stay in it: Top trends to follow.
“The future is already
here; it's just unevenly distributed.” ~ William Gibson
I am always saying that
Covid19 has just accelerated the transformation in areas like digital
transformation, new ways of working and different areas of business. In view of
different global, technological, workplace and workforce trends, the total
narrative will change. If you want to distinguish between high performing
organizations and average organizations following are the focus areas, high
performing organizations have. It is just not for their corporate
presentations, but they have strategic intent which is very much weaved in
their corporate strategy.
I have spoken with
different leaders/CHROs during pandemic, participated in different webinars and
studied different research done by top consultants like McKinsey, PwC etc. and
I have interesting findings. Following are those imperatives & trends if
followed, chances of being successful is more.
“People
First” Focused Strategy
Speaking about “People
First” strategy is very good. Most of the organizations are already speaking
about it, but very few organizations are working on this. It is very sad that
organizations are laying off employees who are working with them for long.
However high performing organizations are now consolidating on talent strategy.
They have already incorporated 3P (People, Planet and Profit) elements in the
strategy.
People: I have read and listened
to a lot of CEOs quoting that people are their asset. The statements of those
CEOs like, “We can’t be successful in the society which fails”. Or “Business
can't succeed in a failing society” are popular in the media. However, very few
organizations have pragmatic policies on this and integrated with their purpose
and mission statement. Organizations which have integrated are doing great
today. Taking care of people who are working with you and people around you in
society is novel thought. It is not just about employees but society at large.
Sustainability
& Planet
Sustainability is a long
term. It is avoidance of the depletion of natural resources in order to
maintain an ecological balance. Lot of organizations are working to reduce
their carbon footprint and trying to maintain the ecological balance by
manufacturing clean products and focusing on 3R (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). It
is very important to understand which planet we want to transfer to new generations.
Profit with
ethical standards
We are grown listening
that earning profit is bad. So-called leftist ideology and trade unions
associated the business as a bad evil and conditioned the mind of people
negatively like capitalism is there to exploit employees and society. But they
totally failed to understand that you can’t survive on their principle and
hence big communist countries themselves are capitalist mind exploiting the
society.
High performing
organizations have views that ethical profitability is far more than merely
operating within the boundaries of the law. The true test of ethical
profitability is whether or not the company is a positive example to its
employees, to its customers and even to other companies. Such companies
practice the truest form of leadership-by-example.
Digital
Transformation to Digital Integration
We have discussed a lot
about digital transformation. We all know that Covid19 has accelerated the
digital agenda in organizations. High performing organizations are not now
speaking about the transformation but digital integration. It is about creating
a habit of using and integrating digital platforms in our day to day life. You
need to develop people on how to use those, how to present, how to sell and how
to collaborate. It is about different behaviours than digital technology
itself.
Gen Z Will
Take Over, (born between 1997 to 2016)
Organizations always
struggle when there is an addition of the next generation in the workforce.
Youth born between 1997 to 2000 are ready to join the workforce. We have seen a
lot of challenges of generation X while managing the millennial generation. All
generations are different and unique. Their style is different, and their
ambition is different. Organizations have to work on inclusion and diversity
and making the life easy of all generations. It includes training them on
managing people, bringing the diverse view in talent management and talent
development initiatives. Your talent management process which you used to work
10 years back will not work today. You need an action -based talent management
system instead of just mapping the people in the talent grid and then
forgetting them. Organizations also have to change their views on the
definition of talent.
The Gig
Economy is the New Economy
We have seen gig workers
in e-commerce, food delivery, travel aggregators like Amazon, Swiggy, Uber, Ola
etc. Indian industry has been working with contract labour for the last 2
decades. The gig economy is now prominent in blue collar jobs. After covid19,
it will still be popular. However, I am expecting this in white collar jobs
also. The Younger generation will be more interested to find the joy and more
income from different jobs with different companies with different skills. Free
lancers, consultants and retainers will be more. Organizations have to frame
policies on how to manage and engage those workforces. There will be social
security and information security issues which have to be handled carefully in
future.
Innovation
in Business Models
Business needs to be more
innovative. They need to reinvent themselves and different business models driven
by the technology. Companies also have to think about what those new models
are. We have some examples improving the business with the help of technology.
Disruptive innovations are changing the rule of the game and you really need to
think differently if you want to be in this game.
Customer
experience is in the focus,
It is not just selling
your product or service. It is more about the customer experience. In the
market where your product becomes a commodity over a period of time, you don’t
have an option to differentiate it with the value and solution selling. Your
customers will come back only when they are happy, satisfied and delighted with
your services. It is not about the price and product itself but how it is sold,
delivered and serviced further without any problems to the customer.
Instant
Reviews
Online reviews are a double-edged
sword. Small mistakes can cost huge loss in reputation and revenue. We have a
lot of examples in recent years. If customers are treated with respect and
service well, they will be your brand ambassadors. Company CEOs and celebrity
brand ambassadors need to be very cautious on what they communicate, write and
speak on social and public forums. Instant reviews about your product and
services will decide the future of your business.
Meaningful
career and not only jobs
Meaningful career is where
you connect with the purpose of the organization and your job. You feel
satisfied and happy by doing that in a stress-free, enriched, and ethical way.
To do this you understand your interest values and skills. You identify your
preferred style and find the community to help you to grow in the organization
or outside the organisation. In short, a meaningful career is one where we feel
an authentic connection between the work we do and a broader life purpose
beyond the self. Millennials and Z
generation is more motivated by the purpose of the organization, career
development, empowerment, and openness. They will continue and will be more
demanding in this.
Few organizations have
already started prioritising talent management agenda. Lot of organizations
have to follow it to be competitive in the market.
From skills
to Human skills, Innovations in creating those skills.
To do all above we need
talent. With the technology changes and new way of working, employees will have
to work on human skills instead of just technical and functional skills. With
AI, ML, Sensors, IoT, Additive Printing etc people will need skills where they
will manage the automation speedily but also people around them.
Organizations will become
more flatter; Organizations will move to project/product-based work groups
without any formal reporting lines. Employees will have to work in a web and
matrix environment where networking and influencing, collaborating on a virtual
platform will be crucial. To do this every employee will have to learn fast.
Hence if you want to stay in the course develop your people on human skills
along with functional skills.
A wise person said that
only one thing is constant in this world is change. There are external forces
which are forcing us to change. There are some indications we are already
getting, and we need to take a clue from that.
Finally, I would like to
quote Darwin, (researchers say that Darwin never said it) “It is not the
strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives.
It is the one that is most adaptable to change.”
Please read the print
replica of my latest book written for leaders on amazon kindle, Vitality in Human Resource, Adding human dimensions in HR processes
(Opinions are purely
personal & does not represent my organization)
