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Has your approach to the feel and shape of work changed? Part 1

Author: Tristan Peralta | Managing Director, PsychApps Consultancy | IPTER Manila, Philippines

As we gear towards 2 years of pandemic the Covid 19 Crisis has influenced how companies from various industries approach the feel and shape of work.

It catapulted the way we work years into the future. Companies are forced to adjust their ways of working from migrating traditional work practices into the digital workspace to the emphasis of mental health and workplace well-being.

In a paper by (Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends, 2021) They have identified 5 strategies into how companies transition from survive to thrive namely:

  • Designing work for well being
  • Beyond reskilling- beyond workers potential
  • Super teams
  • Governing workforce strategies
  • Accelerating the shift to re-architecting the work

 

Designing work for well-being – The end of work life balance.

As companies transitioned from office based to working at home arrangements the demarcation between working hours and non-working hours begins to blur. Gone are the days were when we log out and go outside the working premises our work life ends and our personal life begins. Nowadays the kind of “always on” work mentality puts a toll and compromises employee well-being.

Furthermore, with the lockdowns and implementations of working at home and the ever-increasing availability of communication companies can easily contact with their employees regardless of what day and time it is. Resulting to a lesser work life balance, with the former overwhelming the later.

Countries are taking action in order to mitigate the effect of the “always on” working mentality to employee well- being. As an example, the “right to disconnect” a concept that initiated a 2017 French Law limiting workers to entertain phone calls and emails during non- working hours.  (Fisher, 2021).

To be able for companies to integrate employee well-being into the work they must take into consideration 3 emerging priorities for companies based on the three levels – individual’s, team and organizations.

  • Individual – Organization must help employees set work and life boundaries through training and any other employee engagement initiatives. Furthermore, they must develop policies and procedure that aims to balance individual, team and company needs.
  • Team – The ability to connect to people is pivotal in achieving the teams’ collective potential. To be able to achieve these members need to be aware and honor everyone’s well-being thus creating a collaborative environment leading to collective efficiency
  • Organizations – Investing and promoting workplace well-being is not only the responsibility of company leaders but also designing and making well-being as important as any factor that affects the bottom line is quintessential in integrating employee well-being in the workplace.

Beyond reskilling- beyond workers potential

Pre pandemic, organizations have reported that the primary challenge in achieving a successful organizational transformation was the inability to have the right skillset. This notion was changed when the world succumbed to the COVID-19 crisis. During the pandemic, organizations didn’t have the luxury of time in redesigning job descriptions and job requirements as well as moving employees where they are needed the most. Companies must rely on the existing workforce; Fast adjustment and redeployment of their human resource was critical to their success.

In the 2021 survey conducted by Deloitte on the Global Human Capital Trends, 72% of executives have identified that the “ability of their people to adapt, reskill and assume new roles” as one of the top solutions to navigate future disruptions. Another 41% of the executives has said that upskilling, reskilling and mobility are key in building workforce capability.

The transformation of the working environment rests in the organizations capacity to fully utilize its human potential. (Deloitte, 2021) has identified 3 areas namely:

  • Shift the supply and demand equation– Organizations needs to consider developing a talent marketplace that can address workforce supply and demand. Likewise, design roles that can address future problems and in return reward employees who can identify critical gaps and address them.
  • Center Workforce Planning on Potential– Organizations need to consider other alternatives aside from the traditional top-down management approach into empowering employees and tapping into their collective potential through letting employees reimagining what, how, who and where works is being done.

Furthermore, taking advantage of AI enabled technologies that can help make sense of internal and external data that will be integrated to the organization’s strategy.

  • Drive toward Real time, Dynamic Action – Collate information on workforce data that provides real time data on employee skills and encourage employees learning decisions that will benefit the employee and the organization.
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