In the new world of work, organizations that transform their HR strategy and the role of the chief human resources officer stand to win big, while those that remain mired in legacy approaches will be left behind.
The global battle for talent is fiercer than ever. Employers in 42 of the 43 countries and territories surveyed for the Q3 2021 ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey expect to increase the number of people on their payroll in the coming year. But attracting and retaining enough skilled workers is going to require that employers be willing to make some big changes.
“Corporate structures are stuck in the 1960s and ‘70s,” contends Tim Lewko, CEO and managing partner of global consultancy firm, Thinking Dimensions Global. “We can’t let legacy thinking get in the way of what’s coming next.” CEOs must make strategic moves to win these critical talent wars.
Value Your CHRO
Too often CHROs are considered mere administrators. But maintaining a thriving workforce has become mission-critical to organizational success. Given that this involves everything from recruiting and performance management to learning development, selecting HR technology, and much more, it’s time to embrace CHROs as strategic leaders driving business decisions. Global organizational consulting firm Korn Ferry, advises thinking of the CHRO as the president of a business unit, focused on delivering return on the company’s investment in talent.
Kevin Silva, CHRO of Fortune 500 company Voya Financial, concurs. “The role of the HR professional has evolved,” according to Silva. “All of the actions and activities [of effective CHROs] underpin the strategy of the company—both financially and in regards to human capital. Additionally, they are tightly aligned with the board of directors, CEO, and each member of the senior leadership team in executing these strategies.” Lewko agrees, noting, “Smart CEOs are rebalancing their teams so all the functional areas have an equal seat at the table.”
Flatten The Workplace
In today’s business environment, organizations need to be able to pivot quickly. Trading a hierarchical, role-based workplace for a flatter, skills-based entity allows employees to be quickly redeployed from one position, department, or location to another.
Instead of roles, ManpowerGroup recommends thinking in terms of the critical skills needed to meet strategic goals and hiring for those capabilities — or helping employees develop them.
The Milwaukee-based staffing giant estimates that 20% of future workforce goals can be met by upskilling or reskilling employees — something 84% of employers polled in the Employment Outlook Survey plan to do. Manpower dubs this “net zero employment.” As the skills businesses need shift and jobs disappear, savvy employers will re-train workers to fill the new jobs that arise.
Build Your Employer Branding
Attracting and retaining employees requires branding and “selling” the employee experience just as selling a product or service to customers. What makes an organization different? Why would someone want to work for you? For example, highlighting social responsibility initiatives; employee mental health benefits; or commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion could help brand an organization as an employer of choice.
Think about how best to engage workers, from the job posting onward. “Everybody wants to work with Google and [other] tech companies,” says Lewko, “because they’ve positioned themselves as on top of trends.” Attracting the same kind of interest may require rewriting an organization’s narrative. Don’t forget existing employees: Korn Ferry advises using talent analytics to monitor employee sentiment, engagement, and job satisfaction.
Cast a Wider Net
Talent doesn’t have to mean permanent, full-time employees. Savvy organizations are taking a creative approach to finding the skills they need. Some 42% of workforce spending now goes to secure external or temporary labor, compared to between 25% and 30% pre-pandemic, according to an SAP and Oxford Economics study. Temporary workers help organizations manage labor costs in uncertain times; the International Labour Organization theorizes companies using temps are better able to bounce back from economic downturns.
Strategic use of alternative workforce arrangements, such as gig workers, remote employees, and job-sharing, can enhance organizational responsiveness. Interfacing Technologies Corporation, a software provider based in Canada, recently hired an employee in Algeria. “Would we have done that in the past? Maybe not, but now we’re working 100% remote,” said managing partner Scott Armstrong. “This is the future. Telling people that I don’t care where they work, that they can sit on a beach in Mexico providing excellent work, [differentiates us] when hiring.”
Embrace Automation
By 2025, ManpowerGroup predicts that machines will displace 85 million workers but will also create 97 million new jobs, where labor is shared between humans and machines. Rather than replacing people with robots, Deloitte suggests exploring ways people can work with machines to add more value than either can deliver on their own.
Robotic process automation, machine learning, and AI could perform preliminary evaluations of a loan application, for example, while bankers could draw on human capabilities like imagination and critical thinking to make better underwriting decisions.
Competition for talent will remain fierce for the foreseeable future. Companies that hope to prevail must design a new battle strategy—one that elevates the CHRO as a strategic leader, flattens organizational hierarchies, rethinks your employer brand, uses gig workers, and embraces automation. By devising a workplace that supports both the employees’ needs and the employer’s goals, forward-thinking organizations will emerge victorious.
