The only way out is through; because the organizations focussed on ‘accelerate next’ thrive on an internal culture that is best summed up as: The only thing that overcomes hard luck is hard work.
In fact “accelerate next” is more than a catchy phrase. Here’s why.
Rapid digital transformation for decades now has enabled organizations to reimagine the way they work and manage talent: from video conferencing platforms, to digital collaboration software, to ubiquitous cloud-based connectivity, and a data-centric approach to strategic decision-making.
But it took a pandemic to truly accelerate this trend and transform. If you look closer, people aren’t simply collaborating today – they are educating themselves, they are visiting families, they are running virtual marathons, they are attending festivals, they are appearing for school examinations, and they are off course running businesses.
For millions of people globally, technology is upending the word collaboration and rewiring it as co-habitation
In this raging crisis, along with the difficult-to-define and the more difficult-to-achieve term namely, ‘Work-Life balance’, are a few trends that though appeared on the horizon before 2020; if mastered will accelerate the next.
- Emotional and Social connections are now possible in sustained physical isolation
- Adaptability is the new employee-productivity metric
- Agile, Hybrid, and fluid workforce models are more than ever inviting digital nomads and the gig-economy workers.
- Workplace is not determining Workforce anymore.
- Talent as the new global currency is challenging how geographic borders, immigration laws, and government restrictions were perceived
Embrace uncertainty, Navigate Complexity, Harvest hyper-connectivity, Lead with empathy; be fast be bold and think people first – All these principles for many years were designed to be innovation behaviours. After 2020, they will become default.
Simply said, Organizations always knew that primary HR responsibility across decades was to prepare ‘people for the unknown’. And at no other time has this been clearer.
Reimagining talent management practices for the beyond still involves grappling with 5 core questions:
- How do I understand the talent I need?
- How do I understand the talent I have?
- How do I develop talent for disruptive times?
- How do I recruit the right top talent?
- How do I prepare when the pandemic passes?
The answers however would all sound different tomorrow. Having evolved in a COVID year that accentuated technology as an enabler, and changed employee mind sets; Innovative HR’s are now brining focus to a beyond-pandemic world.
Reimaging Talent Management Practices – The beyond
A great takeaway from what has been a dismal year would be to start pandemic learning rhythms and mini-adaptability discussions.
Employees and Talent managers across cultures, and geographies, will gain manifold were they to examine:
- What core-beliefs and company values were tested and how?
- How has the crisis exposed weaknesses and surfaced resilience?
- What are the new post COVID norms that can leverage these learning(s)?
The key in all of this is the, ‘purpose-of-life’ question. Since COVID happened, the answers to real purpose of life, how does work contribute to that purpose and what is critical to an individual’s happiness are all an integral part of the collective consciousness discussion!
Organizations that spend time and effort, and demonstrate intent to positively learn from the pandemic experience will have a head start in 2021.
