As organizations are moving over the initial layoffs, lost business, and crick that came with the outset of the pandemic, they’re also wondering what’s next. As the pandemic resets major work styles, leaders need to reevaluate workforce and employee planning, management, performance and experience blueprint.
The current pandemic will surely have a long-lasting impact on the future of work. Companies are now moving to what is being called the next normal. Organizations are steering a return to the office, stepping up operations, and engaging more contingent employees.
But that’s not looking far enough ahead. Organizations are considering the post Covid world, but now is also the time for planning for the post-vaccine future. Success in the future will depend solely on how companies will change their workforce strategies based on lessons learnt during the pandemic.
Many of these lessons come from the shift to working away from the office. How do we re- consider our view and grasp new opportunities that remote work will afford? We see answers in the below five areas of advancement and opportunity: geography, cost control, data, competition, and engagement.
Trend 1: Removing Barricade to Talent for the Future of Work
The run towards digital transformation has changed the traditional recruiting methods which were a limiting factor when it came to talent acquisition from any part of the world and virtual on-boarding. Organizations’ that always had a limited talent pool can now be bold and consider candidates in any geography.
Many work aspects where physical presence was considered mandatory have turned out to be negotiable as far as onsite demands. And studies prove that remote work has always resulted in productivity gains. By having an anywhere mindset, a company can utilize global networks of candidates. A remote talent acquisition strategy not only attracts great talent but will also result in boosting retention.
Trend 2: Remote Work Opens Creative Approaches to Cost-Control
Should companies hire new talent or up-skill existing talent? In the Pre Covid world, organizations had to build strategies based on recruiting conditions in their immediate markets. If the talent with a particular skill or learning resources were unavailable, they had to shift their approach in a different direction. Now they can exercise more control.
The flexibility to tap into talent pool in various markets across the globe can result in cost-containment opportunities. This cost factor includes the total cost of engaging all flexible talent and not just at the individual employee level. The best strategy today would be to utilize both options. A broadened market to acquire talent, combined with anywhere-anytime learning, allows organizations to strike a balance between hiring and developing new skills with their current workforce.
Trend 3: Data Analytics and Communication Become a Survival Skill
Access to data is a value addition if analyzed and presented meaningfully at the right time and to the right audiences. The pandemic has stressed enough on the importance of data and analytics in leading a company through such uncertain times. To establish a calm and positive work environment, all you need is engaged leadership ready to communicate consistently at all levels in the right way.
This type of communication requires hard data, also needed to manage flexible workforce. Transparency and visibility to employees are considered to be even more important, and many companies grappled in the pandemic because they lacked these parameters. Companies that were not considerate about these issues earlier now realize that what you don’t know can hurt you.
Trend 4: Leveraging Competitive Advantage Comes in New Forms
The pandemic forced companies to act in ways no one ever thought of. Remote working was not a choice, but this made organizations to get smarter, quickly make work from home a core part of the business. In future, companies will have a better understanding of what it takes to run the business smoothly and reliably while changing their strategy rapidly and effectively.
There is no single proven formula for change. Every company is unique and different in its own ways, but change will happen, nonetheless. Smart organizations are looking to leverage this change they had to make as a competitive advantage in the coming future.
But now is not the time to follow the crowd. Ask the factual questions others are not asking. Preserve and practice the culture you need to grow. The reward is a future where right decisions can boost real relationships with the workforce which you need the most.
Trend 5: Employee Engagement Becomes a Core Priority
How well did you communicate and foster relationships in a virtual work environment? Organizations that had a focused effort on sustaining relationships and were open, transparent, and intentional about what “good” meant to their people will excel in the post-pandemic world.
An employee’s take on a company is multi-facet, and it can make or break an organization’s brand on places like Glassdoor and Indeed. Companies knew the importance of employee sentiment before the pandemic. But now, the attention on worker employee engagement and experience has increased.
Finally, as organizations and work cultures evolve in this unforeseen global crisis, you cannot avoid the quality-of-life conversation. Can someone focus on both their work and life priorities in your company — for a career or even just a temporary assignment? Are you opening windows of opportunities to advance and up-skill?
Don’t run away from these questions. An organization’s future relationship with its workforce solely depends on the actions it takes today to develop a positive work culture that focuses on making lives better among employees and the community at large.
Finally: Learn What to Do When You Don’t Know Something
You cannot fully predict what post pandemic world of work will bring. You can only try to interpret the signals of today. Be rigorous in your approach and commitment to learn from what you see. See and try what works the best for you. And don’t give up looking for the opportunities to get better.
With a combination of flexibility and planning, you can future proof your workforce strategy to keep your organization ahead while navigating the road ahead.
Corporate Culture is a hygiene factor that can either boost or restrain productivity. Words like job satisfaction, employee retention, talent magnet are closely associated with corporate culture. Most companies expect their employees to adapt to the existing corporate culture, instead of evolving it with time to ensure job satisfaction.
As per the recent trends, organizational culture is one of the top reasons employees leave the job. According to a survey, 25% of candidates stated that they could change jobs to avail better company culture. Therefore, every company must strategize well to build a corporate culture that can attract new talents and ensure talent retention. Here are a few simple steps that can help you do it.
How to Build a Healthy Corporate Culture?
A company is said to have a healthy corporate culture when it rates high in the job satisfaction parameter. According to research, job satisfaction is associated with not only compensation and benefits but also with feelings like appreciation, respect, engagement, and alignment at the workplace. The best way to build a healthy corporate culture involves the following steps.
Evolve with Time
Can you imagine how people would react to tattoos in offices just 5 years earlier? The corporate culture has evolved with time to accept personal choices at the workplace. 91% of Senior managers have vouched that organizational culture has evolved and become more relaxed in the last decade. There has been some relaxation given to dress codes, tattoos, piercing, and a few other restrictions.
Accepting and respecting personal boundaries and choices at the workplace help new employees to adapt to the company culture easily. Moreover, it is the first step of giving them a free hand to express their personality, thoughts, and ideas. Any company that follows this will indeed have happy and satisfied employees.
Nothing is permanent except change. Therefore, the company culture should evolve with time to tap the top tier talents and retain them.
Throw New Challenges for learning
In the cutthroat competition, every employee is focused on learning skills through their current job so that they can grow as a professional. Often employees prefer to change jobs if the job is monotonous and does not help them develop their career.
Skills are best learned when you learn them through challenges. Therefore, the best strategy to create a healthy corporate culture throws challenges at your employees that ensure continuous professional development. Failing at this step may cost you the top-performing employees of your firm.
Know Your Employees
Engagement is an essential factor in building a healthy corporate culture. The employer-employee relationship plays a significant role in determining how good or bad the company culture will be. Therefore, if you are strategizing to build a healthy company culture, you must establish a bond with your employees.
It is essential to know their personal goals and how that can be served as a reward in the near future. Every employee has a different perspective. While some strive for greater pay, some choose a higher position at the firm rather than a monetary incentive.
If you want to develop a magnetic corporate culture, make sure you know the hired talents to retain them.
Offer Career Advancement Plans
As stated earlier, nowadays, employees hate to be stuck in a job that does not provide motion to their learning. Therefore, if you want to attract the top talents in the market and retain them, you must introduce and offer certain career advancement plans.
Career advancement plans refer to training programs for learning relevant skills, cross-training, leadership training, etc. Indeed, these programs add value to your employees and ensure a greater employee retention rate.
Team Building Opportunities and Exercises
A company comprises several individuals, and the company progresses only when the individuals work as a team. It is essential to foster a team spirit to promote healthy company culture. You may have noticed some companies arrange new year parties or a winter picnic for their employees. Yes, it not only refreshes every employee’s mind but also helps them to connect with each other.
This tip may seem to fall in the ‘not-so-important’ category if you do not understand the profound impact of team building. A talent will enjoy working at your firm only if there is no ‘pulling-the-leg’ culture, and this can only be possible if the employees work as a team.
Value Your Employees
The golden rule of building a healthy corporate culture is to value your employee and make them feel values. Top talents strive for excellence, and if you want to retain them, you must chalk out how their abilities have contributed to the excellence of the company. You must provide them with a sense of accomplishment.
The Bottom Line
Company culture plays a significant role in attracting talents and retaining them. Most successful companies have developed greater talent acquisition and retention rates by promoting welcoming company culture. If you have not considered the importance of corporate culture yet, you must start working on the given tips right away.
With the onset of the pandemic, every business has been struggling to keep their back straight. As most companies have stepped into a remote working system, productivity has significantly risen. However, it is no surprise some employees have been taking undue advantage of it and using the circumstances as an excuse for repeatedly missing deadlines and even skipping meetings.
The annual evaluation is just knocking at the door, and it is the responsibility of managers to hand these employees poor performance reviews. Providing a negative performance review may become a challenging task if you are not prepared for it. However, it is a necessary step if you want the employees to be a part of your valued team.
Due to the growing importance of mental health, managers need to make a correct approach to conveying poor performance reviews. As employee behavior has changed over the last year, the manager must be empathetic in his approach to deliver the bad news to the employee.
Here are a few quick tips that a manager can definitely utilize to provide a poor performance review without burning out the employee.
Review and compare self-assessments
Most companies create self-assessment forms to be filled by their employees. If you are going to announce a negative performance review to an employee, you can go through the latest self-assessment and previous year’s self-assessment.
The comparison of these two may offer you evidences to back up your points. Moreover, you can also learn about the emotional state and the impact of the pandemic on the employee. Referring to the self-assessment provides a common ground between the employee and the manager to start a conversation before breaking the bad news.
Empathetic Approach
There is no end to the importance of an empathetic approach when delivering negative news. The best way to start is by saying that you understand how the transformation in the last few months has been unsettling, and the employee is not the only one whose performance has been affected adversely.
The manager poses the role of a leader in the eyes of his teammates. Therefore, striking a conversation with transparency along with compassion, provides the employee with the comfort to understand the leader and perform as a team player.
Negative Reviews does not imply a bad experience
As a manager, breaking the bad news with an aggressive approach is the worst mistake you can make. Instead, present yourself calmly, describing every parameter where the employee lagged and how that can be mended in the next quarter. You must make the employee feel valued by the organization even though you are highlighting some unfavorable reviews.
Reflect on the importance of the review
Unlike other years, there are certain differences in the purpose of the performance review this year. During this chaos, most employees could not deliver expected performance due to the lack of direction, accountability gap, or adaptation to the new changes. Therefore, the performance review is essential to identify the barriers and help employees adapt to the ‘new normal’ transformations.
Instead of rushing with a decision of rooting out bad performers, the purpose of this year’s performance review is to enhance the employees’ performance through their engagement. You must realize that the performance review is a way to communicate with your employee to keep them performing better in the long term.
Be Prepared for Reaction
It is no surprise; some employees may react aggressively or defensively to a negative review. You must not be taken aback by the reaction and offer a counter response. In such cases, the manager must provide some space and time so that information can sink in.
You must have a compassionate gesture to help the employee with a plan of action to achieve bigger goals and better results in the next review. You must outline the steps of the action plan and ensure support to achieve it. In this way, you can convey the poor performance review as well as build a bond of trust with your employees.
The Bottom Line
“Employees engage with employers and brands when they’re treated with empathyand respect.” As a manager and leader, you must ensure the well-being of the company as well as your employees.
Breaking a poor performance review to your employee is not an easy job, but it can be the starting point as a leader to your employees.
Always remember, employees, are assets only when you value them. Discouraging or mentally harassing them would worsen the situation. Avoid confrontations while delivering a negative review. Instead, motivate them to perform better with effective guidance and mentorship.
Amidst the chaos of pandemic, the business world has been adapting to the new normal with demand and supply crisis and a large number of layoffs. However, most companies are now preparing for reopening their offices as the vaccine has been announced, the COVID-19 crisis has led to significant behavior and outlook transformation during this period.
Some of the behavior transformations have been positive and have made the employers adopt a more empathetic approach to their employees. Let us look into the positive behavioral changes that have emerged out of the crisis.
Redesigning Organization with Positive Behavior
After the traumatic experience due to COVID-19, organizations have thrived to deal with the ‘new normal’ and employee behavior changes with some positive behavior transformation.
Delegation and Decision making
As the channels were disrupted during the pandemic, some companies took the bold step of cutting down the hierarchy of decision making, which actually rewarded them in their smooth functioning. Instead of waiting for approvals, large teams were delegated work to ensure fast and effective decision making.
The delegation of authority not only unveiled the value of employees in the company but also enhanced the speed of execution. Clarified work and authority delegation for each position along with 3-4 levels of reporting levels ensures better functioning of the organization even in the crisis period.
Working out with Agility
Agility is a prime necessity to keep the organization running under these circumstances. The companies emerged with agility by building up smart teams and clear delegation of work. While smart teams helped the employees build up leadership skills and collaborating skills, the end-to-end responsibility of the work was handed out to them.
Moreover, using artificial intelligence in recruitment, virtual skill development programs, remodeling performance evaluation through real-time feedback enhanced the virtue of agility in the organizations.
Welcoming Cultural Diversity
Recently, cultural diversity has come into the limelight, and it was reported only 39% of companies all over the world were recruiting a culturally diverse workforce. During this crisis, the emerging importance of cultural diversity in the workplace led companies to rethink their recruitment strategies.
This cultural change within the organization is essential to accelerate the shift of mindsets so that everyone is evaluated on their performance and not based on their culture. A culturally diverse workforce cuts off communication costs as well as ensures more engagement in the organization.
Restructuring Health Policies
Employee behavior has drastically transformed during the pandemic. Most employees are interested in working with empathetic employers. Therefore, most companies have adopted a more empathetic approach towards employees now.
One of the measures of a compassionate approach is the company’s decision to restructure health policies providing allowances for illness. Every company is now focusing on employee’s health and wellbeing. Companies refraining from their role in safeguarding employees’ health may expect employee turnovers soon.
The Bottom Line
This pandemic can be concluded as a global event that has taken every industry by surprise and compulsion to adapt to the ‘new normal’. It has been almost a year; organizations have realized certain aspects must be redefined or upgraded to keep up with the time. Working in the crisis has forced companies to adopt some positive transformations that actually can become a breadwinner in the long run.
These positive behaviors embraced by the companies around the globe have led to a greater rate of employee job satisfaction. Moreover, the organization exhibits greater value and better success rate if they have emerged with these positive behaviors in the crisis.
