It’s time to take a fresh look at your workforce strategy
By Terri McClements, Market Managing Partner, Mid-Atlantic, PwC
Amazon is about to disrupt the regional talent market, so now is a good time to revisit your business’s workforce strategy. How are you helping your employees prepare for the future? How can you deploy new technologies like Robotic Process Automation or artificial intelligence solutions, while still putting people first and giving them a great place to work?
Those are big questions, and they’re worth careful consideration as the work ecosystem evolves. After all, if you want to attract and retain top talent, it’s vital to consider the overall employee experience you’re offering. Employees today want more than a job—they’re also looking for a sense of purpose and meaning in their work. They also want to be part of an organization where they feel valued.
To achieve your business goals, it’s important to help your employees stay energized and efficient. PwC’s recent study, Preparing for Tomorrow’s Workers, Today, found that two-thirds of companies are failing to make workloads manageable, and 80% don’t prioritize programs to help workers’ well-being or mental health, even though they realize these issues are important.
While it’s apparent that plans, policies and programs need to evolve as work changes, keeping people at the center of strategy decisions can help deliver a strong employee experience and attract the talent you need to compete. Here are four workforce strategy actions to take as you plan for the future.
Be transparent and engage your people
As your business strategy evolves, your people needs will change, too. Consider what is needed from your employees to achieve your future vision—the skills and behaviors, cultures, ways of working, technology and the work environment. Perhaps you need employees to learn to work with new technologies or to be more focused on delivering a superior customer experience.
Whatever those needs are, it’s vital to be upfront and transparent with your employees to help prepare them for what’s coming. Be as clear as possible about what’s changing and what will remain the same. Help them see how all this change aligns with a longer-term strategic vision. Emphasizing some of the employee benefits, such as freeing up capacity to work on more value-added work or improving productivity, will be believed only in organizations that have an authentic and engaged leadership and a reasonable track record of successful change management.
Help people find new paths
As more companies turn to automated and AI solutions, job roles and responsibilities will change and capabilities will need to be redefined. Focusing on skills, rather than jobs, can help people adapt and see where their capabilities may be a good fit for other roles in the organization. If you don’t have a skills inventory yet, starting one can help you gain insight into the skills your workers have, regardless of the jobs they hold.
Look for ways to offer better internal mobility. The traditional vertical career track is giving way to more fluid career paths as work changes. However, many organizations either don’t have an efficient way to help people find and apply for internal roles, or they don’t champion lateral moves as strongly as they could. Help change that by creating clearer paths for internal mobility, encouraging employees to move horizontally into different roles and allowing them to take on learn-as-you-go positions.
Invest in upskilling
The challenge of finding the right people with the right skills is significant. More than half of CEOs we surveyed this year say the skills gap has affected their organization’s ability to innovate, and it has also impeded growth and profitability in a number of other ways.
It’s impractical to rely on hiring as your primary means of finding the skills your business needs, given that the average half-life of a skill is only about five years. It makes more sense to focus on developing the people you have. By investing in your existing employees and building an adaptive learning environment, you can accelerate the benefits of technology while developing a more agile workforce.
However, for true upskilling to take hold, and for organizations to see a return on their investment in time and resources, leaders must approach upskilling with meaning and purpose. Consider the skills and types of work that will be the most meaningful and useful for the business, as well as for individuals. How can you enable innovation and productivity? Are you optimizing your technology investments to drive the right digital employee experience and level of productivity?
Bear in mind that traditional, one-size-fits-all training methods are unlikely to get fast results . Nor can you simply tailor existing training programs to fit specific roles. Instead, rethink your learning and development methods. Innovative learning platforms and modalities, such as mobile learning apps and wider use of online learning and video-game simulation, can help people gain new skills quickly and efficiently.
Evaluate whether your HR programs are fit for the future
Human resources functions like wellness, productivity tools, and hiring practices will need to evolve as work changes. How ready are your HR programs for the future? Take the time to evaluate what’s working and what may need to change. For example, diversity and demands for equality are reshaping the workforce, yet too few companies are employing data analytics to help de-bias hiring and rewards. Plus, contractors, freelancers and gig portfolio workers are playing an increasingly important role as organizations try to better manage the ebb and flow of demand, but many organizations don’t have a cohesive way to recruit and onboard temporary talent. Policies you may have in place now may need to change to deliver on new learning and development models, career paths, capability models and the redesign of jobs and compensation frameworks.
As work changes, people considerations often fall second to business, financial and technological decisions. In our experience, however, we’ve seen that organizations that integrate their workforce strategy into their planning can gain a more holistic picture of their future needs and a clearer vision of how their organization can thrive.
PwC has a free workforce diagnostic tool to help you assess your overall workforce strategy and compare it with others in your region and industry.
With Amazon’s arrival certain to shake up the local talent market, it’s a great time to reevaluate your people plans, programs and policies so you’re more prepared for what’s to come.
To evaluate the state of your workforce strategy go to www.pwc.com/people.
