Workplace transformation in the age of uncertainty

The “big bang” disruption caused by Covid-19 was previously unimaginable for most organisations. But, looking through the lens of business transformation, the onset of the pandemic was just the beginning of a longer and multi-faceted period of increased disruption.

The world's businesses are in a heightened state of flux as a result of accelerated digital transformation, unprecedented skills shortages and shifts in workforce location, not to mention pre-existing pressures that predated the pandemic. As Rupert Morrison, CEO and co-founder of orgvue, observes, organisations are struggling with the acceleration of the speed of change “if you’re not moving as fast as the market, by definition, you’re hitting failure - no one can rest on their laurels”. In this context, stabilising businesses, replanning for an uncertain future and in-building resilience against future disruptive events has, arguably, never mattered more.

In partnership with orgvue, WIRED brought together global business leaders across a range of industries to source their views on how organisations can successfully navigate the path ahead and redesign work for this age of uncertainty.

The workforce is reshaping at unprecedented speed

A clear legacy of the pandemic, and one that many of the world’s businesses are currently grappling with, is unprecedented workforce churn – often referred to as “The Great Resignation”. This phenomenon is amplifying the pain of widespread skills shortages that were already being felt thanks to a range of issues, including, in the UK, the impact of Brexit. Currently, there are a trio of drivers for the Great Resignation, each impacting different areas of the workforce.

The war for digital talent has intensified, driving churn amongst this cohort. In-demand digital skills, which were already highly sought after before the pandemic, are now even more coveted. As a result, those members of the workforce that hold the pivotal skills that can enable workforce transformation are being tempted away by impressive pay packets and additional benefits. As Stephan Pretorius, WPP’s chief technology officer, summarises, at the moment “there’s a real stratification of the labour market as those with the most desirable skills pull further away from the rest of the workforce.” Companies have always had to battle with top talent being headhunted away, but the stakes just got higher in an increasingly digitised corporate world.

Dissatisfied early-career talent is leaving the corporate world. The group that has arguably been the hardest hit in corporate environments are those in the early stages of their career. This cohort, who joined their first job at the start of the pandemic, have never known a “normal” working life. According to Janine Chamberlin, UK country manager at LinkedIn, “Young people have typically been impacted the most [during the pandemic] because they haven’t had the opportunity to work with colleagues, to learn from colleagues, to network”. They don’t know what working life can be like, and as a result, new and early-stage employees are finding themselves dissatisfied. This in turn is driving new choices and often taking them out of the corporate world.

Much of the workforce has reconsidered their choices. The phenomenon of the Great Resignation is being felt across the board. After 18 months of juggling a difficult work-life balance, careers are being re-evaluated amongst the entire workforce. As LinkedIn’s Chamberlin phrases it, “employees are thinking a lot more carefully since the pandemic about what they want from their careers and what their next steps are to be.” This, in turn, is driving a further exodus of talent from roles that no longer suit their needs.

But it’s not just churn that is reshaping the workforce. The conversation here should not just be about resignation – a view supported by Chamberlin who reframes the issue as a “Great Reshuffle”, a process that is not only seeing employees hand in their notice and switch companies, but one which is also characterised by massive amounts of internal role changes. These internal changes can, of course, be wholly positive – offering employees a chance to extend into new and fulfilling roles that offer greater opportunities and better meet needs.

The Great Resignation and the Great Reshuffle combined are seeing vast movements of people and this, by necessity, is driving significant workplace transformation, as businesses reorganise and reshape in response to new skills needs, new employee demands, changing team sizes and a requirement for greater efficiency.

So, what are the success factors that can help organisations transform at pace, manage churn, offer better career paths and build business resilience for the future?

Successful work redesign will have people and purpose at its heart

The post-pandemic world will need to reconsider multiple elements of work design. As Vaughan Klein, director collaboration EMEAR, Cisco points out, “In the last 18 months, we’ve reversed nearly 200 years of urbanisation. As a result, we need to rethink and redesign multiple areas of the workplace,” Klein highlights how new policies and approaches, from inclusion and inequality to how we best deploy technology to connect our people, are some of the areas in urgent need of a rethink. As organisations work through these areas, several principles will help ensure successful outcomes:

In a world in flux, organisational purpose has never mattered more – it can steady and direct businesses as they navigate the storm of change. Each company’s context is unique – something that needs to be factored into change initiatives. This means ensuring that change is rooted in an organisation’s unique culture, values and purpose. This is something that Bernhard Raschke, Electrocomponents’ chief transformation officer, credits with helping the company navigate the turbulent past 18 months: “your purpose gives you a north star of where to go.” Purpose should be embraced by the whole company, from the newest joiner to the most experienced C-Suite, so that all actions taken push the company in the same direction.

Leaders' role in successful organisational change should not be underestimated. Leaders, in particular, can help to embody a company’s purpose and values, bringing them to life for the wider organisation and setting a positive mindset. As WPP’s Pretorius neatly summarises, “I think when things are tough, the only thing that gets you through is a sense of optimism and a vision that the future will be better than today – that can be an incredibly positive force in a business.” It is clear that, in times of change, this is just one of the many pivotal roles that leaders play.

Organisations need to ensure that they have strong leaders who are capable of supporting their teams – and themselves – in an ever-changing world. For Neena Potenza, co-worker experience manager at Ingka Group (IKEA Retail), resilient leaders make for resilient businesses, as leaders have an impact on their teams. “If we build the resilience of our leaders as a starting point, then they can create psychological safety for their teams,” she says.

Potenza also raises the importance of leaders making space to have meaningful conversations, daring to ask their people “are you okay?” – and knowing how to respond to the answer. Leaders that actively listen and take on board what is being said create a culture of empathy – something that achieves shared understanding, supports adaptability and builds resilience. Sara Robles Romero, Danone’s vice president global organisational development, re-enforces the importance of listening, saying that “listening to employees must be at the centre of what we do, in order to build resilience and support them.” In Robles Romero’s experience, actively listening and engaging with employees means that they feel safe enough to flag any problems – along with their proposed solutions. It also equips leaders to better protect their employees and to celebrate their efforts and achievements.

Ultimately, the impact of good leadership should not be underestimated. Good leaders build feelings of safety and earn the trust of employees – and people follow who they trust. Successful leaders engage and motivate the workforce, but most impactful of all for an organisation, good leaders can make all the difference to churn rates and employee resilience.

Autonomy can empower and motivate workforces. Ingka Group’s Potenza describes “the entrepreneurship of everyone” as a key organisational success factor in today’s disrupted world. Raschke, Electrocomponents’ chief transformation officer, notes that empowering the individuals at the front line and giving them the authority to be decision makers meant Electrocomponents was able to weather the pandemic-bourne logistics crisis better than most. In Raschke’s view, organisations should be asking themselves, “why can’t we institutionalise this empowerment?” After all, every single individual in an organisation can enable it to navigate disruption if they feel safe and secure in their ability to make decisions – and mistakes. This is something picked up on by orgvue’s Morrison, for whom being prepared to make mistakes is a vital element of in-building resilience. He elaborates, “if you’re operating at speed, you have to be able to make mistakes, because if you aren’t you’ll be in paralysis trying to be perfect.” As the old adage goes, perfection is the enemy of success, but making sure that the workforce knows that mistake-making is part of learning fosters progression.

Better use of organisational data can support re-planning at pace

Fresh approaches to data use can transform organisational redesign. In a world of uncertainty, there is one quantifiable source organisations can look to: data. As orgvue’s Morrison states, “you need to have information at your fingertips that's reliable, so that you can confidently make the decisions you need to make”. For him, “organisations have a duty of care to use data well, to interpret it correctly and to use it to create options and scenarios so that they can make decisions that they can stand by” – and this is easier said than done. Morrison describes the “what if?” mindset as an optimal way of using data. This forward-looking way of thinking sees organisations build on their intelligence to experiment with possibilities and create potential future scenarios. The ability to not fixate on certainties means that businesses can spot disruption events faster, model new solutions, adapt more effectively and thrive where others fail. In his view, “what if?” thinking is essential for businesses in the age of uncertainty.

For Danone’s Robles Romero, the HR department needs a greater focus on using organisational data to support change initiatives – something that might not traditionally be seen as the responsibility of this team. As she explains, “data is an accelerator to providing insights and to make decisions.” This can be especially important when understanding the work being done by teams and the gaps that exist.

Understanding your skills landscape will yield dividends. Organisations need to understand what skills they currently have in order to better prepare for what they might need in the future. Planning for future skills needs will help to ensure that the workforce remains relevant and can offer a career “stretch” to those looking for progression. It can also mean making decisions around where and what to automate in order to build value. As WPP’s Pretorius emphasises, “automation is not a threat to jobs; it’s an obligation to unleash creativity.” This is a view supported by Ingka Group’s Potenza – far from shying away from automation, she believes that “organisations have a responsibility to truly automate when it's absolutely building value for employees, taking out the non-value adding tasks and helping to build motivation by creating good quality jobs.”

Another aspect of this skills evaluation is recognising which roles are pivotal, and which roles are critical to the organisation. For Electrocomponents’ Raschke, it boils down to asking one simple question: “what roles are ‘pivotal’ and will create over-proportional value in transforming our business over time to create competitive advantage?”

More change is inevitable

Organisations are working through one of the greatest periods of flux in the modern era. Offices are beginning to fill up again and work colleagues are seeing each other in-person for the first time in 18 months, but this does not mean that the corporate world will revert back to “normal”. After all, the only thing that is certain is future uncertainty. But, this doesn’t mean that negative upheaval is the only thing waiting for businesses in the future. For Cisco’s Klein, “as a result of what's transpired over the past 18 months, the next ten years has been entirely reshaped – it's tremendously exciting.”

It’s the businesses that look forwards with a positive attitude, confident in their leadership, purpose and people, and ensure that decisions are underpinned with data, that will be able to navigate the future that bit more easily, no matter how disruptive the path ahead is.

For more information, visit orgvue and WIRED Consulting 

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This article was originally published by WIRED UK