How Organizations can bring out Employee Strength (Human Capital Trends 2021)
I recently encountered a PDF report file called “The social enterprise in a world disrupted” by Deloitte. This is for people who want to be informed on the latests organizational strategies that strengthens employees overall. This was a lengthy report, but the most actionable things that was written was the five topics reported to “further explore how organizations can bring out the human strengths that make organizational thriving possible”.
In the historical view of the effect of COVID-19 pandemic on organizations, starting 2020 and so on, it questioned what were the organization’s strategies at the time when the events around them were changing so rapidly. In reading “The social enterprise in a world disrupted” by Deloitte, a publication about business, I will discuss the following in turn: (1) two things that have struck with me; and (2) two things curious about this literature and the enabling conditions that enhance an effective ER. I will relate the mentioned topics to Employee Relations.
It writes about how organizations and leaders can leverage the lessons of this pandemic to fundamentally reimagine work, shifting from a focus on surviving to the pursuit of thriving. For every organization worldwide, COVID-19 had a long lasting effect. I find the terms discussed are very interesting and relevant in our times i.e. survival mindset, thrive mindset, and disruptions. Disruption is explained to be events or circumstances of difficulty or danger that affects the organization. These crises are a disturbance that interrupts business operations from their day to day activities.
In having a survival mindset, organizations are aiming to see what reality is. They are objective and want to succeed with having emotional thinking weighing them down. In having a “thrive” mindset, the organization has an attitude of questioning every detail. The obstacle is the way for them. They seek and face obstacles to attain growth.
Having a survival mindset is necessary for every organization. In a world that changes constantly, no matter what times, being able to adapt and make suitable changes to your environment is very powerful inorder to succeed. Organizations must do things that will make them get results according to their environment. We need to understand what is really happening in reality. When we accept the possibilities that disruptions can cause organizations to move forward, from there we can learn to make decisions to attain remarkable results today and most important the next days to come. If we don’t come to terms with reality, the organization will have outdated views which are not relevant to achieve goals.
The second thing that struck me is how it was reported that organizations are now realizing how COVID-19 pandemic brought out the significance of the employee’s well-being i.e physical and mental as a matter of survival, as protecting Their health and alleviating their stress became critical to operations. work and life, health, safety, and well-being became inseparable. Organizations today now recognize even more how the well-being of employees affect the work. In the new work world, designing work to incorporate a good well-being is what will move the organization forward.
The first thing I was curious about, that has enabling conditions that enhance an effective ER, is the five topics that were written about in the 2020 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends report. I find that integrating workers’ physical, mental, financial, and social health into the design of work is the way to approach. The work itself must have a solid foundation that makes employees have the mentioned benefits. The process of the work experience must address the quality of life. In addressing this, having separate or additional programs that provide employee welfare should not be necessary as it is already included by the work process.
Another trend that resonated with me is the shifting of the HR’s role from “standardizing and enforcing workforce policies to a new responsibility of re-architecting work across the enterprise”. I learned that HR takes care of mindfully adjusting the workforce policies, to create humane quality to the work process of the employees. Every aspect of work has been carefully thought of. They interpret in a new or different light how employees function. HR rationalizes how they can deeply place human considerations to employees that will last for a long period of time.
Highlights
Integrating workers’ physical, mental, financial, and social health into the design of work itself rather than addressing well- being with adjacent programs.
Capitalizing on worker agency and choice as the means to drive learning, adaptability, and impact.
Creating teams and superteams that use technology to enhance natural human ways of working.
Developing and acting on forward-looking insights using real-time data to harness workforce potential.
Shifting HR’s role from standardizing and enforcing workforce policies to a new responsibility of re-architecting work across the enterprise.
