I gave a talk at the Organisation of Eastern and Southern African Insurers conference in Kigali last year entitled: ‘Attracting, Managing Talent and Skills Development in the 22nd century’.
Yesterday I looked at my presentation through the lens of what is going to be the ‘new’ normal in the workplace. I was struck by how the progression of certain current and emerging work trends, as well as needs and wants of employers and employees alike, will be accelerated by the ramifications and learnings from the COVID 19 pandemic.
My presentation in Kigali addressed the work landscape as it may look at the turn of the next century i.e. 2099 – 79 years from now. The predictions I made followed a development curve of the likely consequences of a combination of the fourth industrial revolution and the changing nature of employee retention and talent management strategies – noted as follows:
Attract
- Values
- Leadership
- Contribution to society
Develop
- 70% work 30% personal development
- Support
- Creativity
- Challenge
Retain
- Accelerated learning
- Access to information
- Contribution to decisions
- Variety
- Flexibility
- Recognition
Many of these are already embraced by, or on the radar of, employers to some degree. Enter COVID 19. The proverbial black swan has landed, making scrap paper out of many companies’ risk registers and disaster recovery plans.
Employers had days – not weeks or months – to convert their businesses to a 100% work from home model with the challenges that go with it. To name a few: How do we engage with clients? How do we monitor productivity? How do we share and gather information? How do we engage and motivate employees?
No luxury of dry runs, pilot projects, dipping the toe. Straight in.
Employees had to immediately find solutions for childcare, home schooling, connectivity with colleagues, clients and with friends and family. Routines were turned upside down, roles altered and anxiety became the emotion of the times.
Interestingly, many of the industry leaders I have been engaging with have commented on how successfully and rapidly their employees have adapted to these challenges. A number have expressed amazement at how productivity in certain areas of their business has actually increased.
Those that could already monitor productivity via dashboards and analytical tools were able to accurately gauge changes in productivity, both positive and negative.
Many companies are considering requesting sections of their workforce to continue working from home – permanently. Decentralised work structures are not new, however, they will now be more common than ever.
Therefore, consider the challenges of addressing all of the attraction, development and retention needs in the ‘new’ normal. Look through the above bullet points again and consider how much harder or perhaps easier some of these will become.
Does your company have what it takes to attract, develop and retain employees right now? Where are the pressure points, the areas of highest difficulty? Those that adjust the fastest will continue to succeed. Those that don’t will struggle to realise their strategic agenda.
Action is required now.
