Prioritizing People and Purpose for the New-Age Workplace
Here’s how organizations can make digital transformation human-centric.
The COVID pandemic forced many organizations to re-evaluate their employee experience and talent development. Harshvendra Soin, global chief people officer & head of marketing, Tech Mahindra, says with new digital technologies emerging, business leaders should emphasize a humane approach to their talent strategies going forward.
The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed businesses in a previously unseen and unexpected way. Today, as the world looks at the new-age workplaces, it is clear that the speed and scale of an organization’s transformation will govern its future. Businesses across industries and regions are rethinking ways to use digital technology as a component of their business strategies while concurrently focusing on speeding up their operations to match the new normal. The kind of changes that the businesses have been able to implement would have taken several more years for most companies to incorporate in the normal course of events. Business operations are getting faster to the extent that the speed previously regarded as the ‘gold standard a few years ago is below par, and leading brands are even faster than the latest benchmarks.
EQ over IQ
As the physical boundaries of the workplace get blurred, organizations need to be faster and more humane than ever to enable positive employee engagement despite remaining distant. Due to this, the integration of empathy and emotional intelligence in business operations has become an even bigger focus. While in the traditional setup, educational qualifications and the ability to generate greater numbers were regarded as benchmarks of success. Things have changed now, and rightly so. Organizations are increasingly focusing on building a management pool with more emotional intelligence and empathy instead of the tough work-masters approach. Today, people managers should be capable of handling their own emotions and effectively channeling those of their colleagues and teams to achieve the desired results and efficiency. It is now accepted that people must fill leadership positions with high EQ, as their emotions and actions have a ripple effect throughout the company.
Devouring Digital Delicacies
Going beyond the speed of business operations, the pandemic has fundamentally changed the corporate world as we knew it. Only 11% of companies today believe that their existing business models will be efficient through 2023, and 64% believe they need to undertake further digital transformation to achieve their goals. While undertaking digital transformation, business leaders today also need to acknowledge that they not only have to grasp opportunities but also safeguard themselves from future disruptions like the pandemic. Through experience gained in the last two years, organizations are increasing the tech deployment for employees, customers, vendors/partners, etc. However, the heightened use of digital tech has also increased the risk of cyber-attacks more than ever. As a result, cyber security growth trends in this era of digitization have become inevitable, putting all stakeholders at risk. Businesses must balance innovation with prudent safeguards to ensure that employees and customers alike are protected.
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Decoding the New Talent Code
In the wake of the pandemic, businesses are now emphasizing strategy and operations, with more and more resources being poured into digital and tech capabilities. This has created a market demand for digitally equipped full-time employees to better manage this new digital infrastructure. In most industries today, leaders are defined by the digital approach and integration they have already undertaken and are upcoming on the roadmap. It will not be easy for teams to lose momentum or favor if their focus on innovation remains unwavering. For others to make an impact, it is important that they invest in talent, capacity building, forging partnerships, and increasing their research and development budgets.
Another key trend is that businesses adopting a multi-dimensional and cross-functional digital-first framework are more likely to succeed than those only making small changes. An all-around digital synchronization is being sought to create the perfect harmony of progress and sustenance. For instance, the integration of digital, cloud-based platforms in areas such as human resources, marketing, supply chain management, payroll, and corporate communication is positively impacting the performance of organizations. Also, to support digital synchronization, corporate decision makers are actively assessing the extent of their technology capabilities and how much digital tech is required to stay competitive or ahead of their rivals in the years to come. Undoubtedly, the changes must be in deploying machines and in curating the right human talent to oversee these powerful tools.
Thus, recovering from the pandemic will require permanent operational changes for many businesses. The changes must be industry-wide in some areas of operations, such as marketing or human resource management policies. Whether a small business or a global enterprise, none can continue successfully over the long term without making the required changes. Automating routine processes and jobs that machines can easily perform has to be undertaken. The new normal is about less contact and more impact. The business ecosystem must build a landscape where touch is reduced, but a ‘humane approach’ is enhanced. When aided by the right technologies, these human-centric strategies will deliver the best outcomes. Lastly, each business needs to look at the future as a constantly changing landscape, with bold and flexible operations being the order of the day.
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