Each month, Mercer brings together in-house experts, employee advocates and external thought leaders for an online discussion of the most pressing issues. The program is called #MercerChats and takes place entirely on Twitter, where individuals around the world engage with Mercer’s intellectual capital and other leading thought leadership to share insights and discuss the best solutions to help organizations thrive. Below is a summary of our January 2020 tweet chat, highlighting some of the key themes discussed and insights shared.
To say nothing else of 2020, the past 12 months have rapidly propelled us into the future of work. The pandemic has accelerated trends that have been a long time coming, including the expansion of remote and virtual work, the adoption of new technologies, and the reprioritization of purpose, culture and the health and safety of our people.
The reason for this quick pivot is two-fold. First, there is no precedent or playbook for business leaders looking to confront today’s challenges. While many employers may have experience operating with a remote workforce and decentralized operations, no organization has had to reinvent itself for a full-time flexible work framework. And second, as the pandemic stretches into its second year and new virus strains continue to delay the “return to the workplace”, it’s increasingly clear that employers must confront and adapt to the new reality rather than endure and outlast it.
So as leaders around the world ask themselves how to innovate for the future of work, we invited them to our #MercerChats tweet chat series to discuss their biggest pain points and the areas where they see real opportunities for success. Held in conjunction with the World Economic Forum’s Davos Agenda 2021, it was an opportunity to crowdsource insights from some of the world’s leading minds and thought leaders on the future of work and workplace innovation, and below is a collection of the key themes and trends that emerged from the event.
Every business is about people, and that simple truth will hold true even as managers get less and less face time with those people. This poses a challenge to leaders, who will need to adapt to agile teams and complex projects in the “digital and distributed work environment”, as Stela Lupushor articulated. For many, the growing pains of shifting to remote teams may have been excised by the end of 2020, but organizations still need to find ways to make these solutions permanent.
To start, this means taking a step back to reconsider the building blocks of leadership and adjusting for the new digital ecosystem. As both Christina Dove and Helene Li shared, leaders may have to listen and trust more as the decentralization of the workplace limits close oversight and micromanagement. Doing so will require an increased reliance on digital tools and communication, per April Rudin, but Tamara McCleary pointed out how this also presents an opportunity to reimagine and improve other parts of talent strategy. Consider, for instance, how employers can shift how they evaluate performance from subjective measures like manager’s perception to more quantitative productivity-based metrics. Once again, where the pandemic creates challenges, it also presents opportunities.
A: Leaders have to listen much more & look for visual clues to ensure their employees are coping. They also need to trust their teams much more, empower them to get on with things, & definitely ensure they are looking after their #wellbeing #mercerchats #davoaagenda #megachat https://t.co/BmJY5tFEyz
— ✨ Christina Dove 🕊 (@ChristinaDove7) January 26, 2021
A6.2 The "next nevernormal" will require a different type of leaders who can lead in a digital and distributed work environment (leading agile teams, orchestrating and delivering work, building trust and accountability) #DavosAgenda #MercerChats, #MegaChat
— Stela Lupushor (@slupusho) January 26, 2021
A8: Trust is the common currency to enhance workforce collaboration in the new normal 🤝🤲
— Helene Li ✨🍀 (@helene_wpli) January 26, 2021
Here are a few do’s & don’ts #futureofwork #DigitalTransformation #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda @mercer @guzmand @soumyasanto @AkwyZ @jfouts @sallyeaves @ChristinaDove7 pic.twitter.com/8tYSaincyH
A7: Two things are important here: embracing digital tools that enable effective collaboration, and leadership creating an environment where employees can communicate openly with trust. #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda pic.twitter.com/y6ysGDoK0i
— 🛫 April Rudin 🌏 (@TheRudinGroup) January 26, 2021
A1. The rise of #remoteworking due to #COVID19 has impacted the workforce quite a bit, but I think it has allowed #leadership to manage employees based on deliverables, vs perception. #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda pic.twitter.com/o1u0spedsS
— Tamara McCleary (@TamaraMcCleary) January 26, 2021
Leaders aren’t the only ones who will need to adjust for the new working model. The entire workforce – as a whole and individually – also need to start considering where they fit into the new dynamic and how they can adapt for the future. This is nothing new (as I said, the demand for new skills was a top HR concern coming into 2020), but the need is more acute now that we’ve been forced to leave our offices and everyday routines behind. Heading into the future, organizations must, as Angela Maiers put it, find their way to the next normal.
At its simplest, organizations must prioritize agility, and both Soumyasanto Sen and Dr. Marcia F. Robinson pointed out that this is a process rather than a goal. By evaluating their internal structures and priorities, leaders can identify centers for innovation and growth in their own firms and areas that are resource constrained. Once done, employers can redeploy talent to where it’s needed most. By incentivizing the reskilling of workers, Avrohom Gottheil suggests that employers can give their business a competitive edge in the marketplace and create the skill swaps, job shares and knowledge transfer programs that Yvonne Sonsino notes are the key to the reinvention process.
A6.
— Avrohom Gottheil 🇺🇸 (@avrohomg) January 26, 2021
Employers should incentivize the reskilling of its workforce as it will give the business a competitive edge by not having to hire new employees. This is crucial for the individual, as reskilling is key to future employability. #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda https://t.co/N6Qd9X0SUf
A6: Employers are perfectly placed to set up skill swaps, job shares, knowledge transfer & succession plans, shadowing, internships, digital learning – so many ways to trial innovative upskilling! Experiment and learn what works for you #MercerChats #DavosAgenda #MegaChat https://t.co/jvxqMuMfhi
— Yvonne Sonsino (@YvonneSonsino) January 26, 2021
A3: Actions to become more #agile in the #futureofwork
— Soumyasanto Sen (@soumyasanto) January 26, 2021
✅ Evaluate critical #skills and competencies
✅ Consider current and future leadership needs
✅ Develop better #Talent Mobility
✅ Leverage Data and #Analytics for better decisions#MercerChats, #MegaChat #leadership
A3: First, define what “agile” means or looks like in your org. Clarity is key. Employee roles and work expectations have to be in line with what’s needed. That will drive what is expected. Learning will be key. #MegaChat #davosagenda #MercerChats #futureofwork
— Dr. R. - The Workplace Evolutionist (@MarciaFRobinson) January 26, 2021
A3: Five qualities that will be critical for organizations to find their way to the next normal: resolve, resilience, return, reimagination, and reform. #MegaChat #DavosAgenda #MercerChats
— Angela Maiers - Keynote | Author | Change Maker (@AngelaMaiers) January 26, 2021
If leaders and organizations are reshaping for the future of work, then HR better keep pace. That means reevaluating culture and benefits to ensure that no part of your organization is left behind as we pioneer into the new normal.
If they’re looking for a place to start, no place is more important than benefits. From healthcare to leave policies to wellbeing resources, employee benefits are a core part of any organization’s employer value proposition and are integral to keeping a workforce engaged and productive. In today’s remote working dynamic, employees will expect to retain the same quality and access to care they’re accustomed to, and Lisa Lint rightly noted that health and safety are only going to become a greater priority after the pandemic. With this, it’s incumbent upon HR to find ways to deliver care and support to a decentralized organization, and the emergence of the new and innovative digital health services that Nicole Passmore cited are sure to play a major role in this.
Once needs are met, HR can focus on fostering the purpose and culture that are so vital to energizing employees around their work. While seemingly nebulous, culture binds employees together and provides identity and stability to an organization, per Alvin Foo. Losing this in the shift to a remote work model could be devastating for an organization, and employers would be wise to follow Antonio Vieira Santos’s advice to use their business purpose to reset their culture and maintain continuity. This may mean a greater reliance on employer championed social platforms or networks, per Amy Laverock, but the next 12 months are sure to see a renaissance of creative ways to maintain culture from afar.
A2a. #RemoteWork is not going to stop, but the office won’t cease to exist either. Employee #health & safety will be a top priority. #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda
— Lisa Lint (@LisaLint) January 26, 2021
A4. Investments in innovative #digitalhealth can help demonstrate that employers are committed to a culture that values #wellbeing. This aligns w/ the interests of employees, who want a more pro-health environment. #MercerChats #DavosAgenda #MegaChathttps://t.co/A8Uw88zm7M https://t.co/yESomDZC2N
— Nicole Passmore (@npassmore1) January 26, 2021
A8.a. Employer championed social platforms are great to foster a fun, #inclusive and energizing culture and create an internal network. #MercerChats #DavosAgenda #MegaChat https://t.co/J6ke29pTei
— Amy Laverock (@amy_laverock) January 26, 2021
Focus on the ties that bind your employees together. The opportunity is to fashion a new model that best fits your company that could give birth to a new culture that provides identity, stability & belonging regardless when they work. #MegaChat #DavosAgenda #MercerChats https://t.co/KGMboEbRbz
— Alvin Foo (@alvinfoo) January 26, 2021
A2 In a remote world, companies are looking at business purpose has a way to refresh their culture to keep business continuity and employee engagement.#MegaChat #MMCChat #DavosAgenda #ClimateChange #FutureOfWork @TamaraMcCleary @wlassalle @eakboston @channelsmart @MarkSBabbitt pic.twitter.com/QvilP69nwh
— Antonio Vieira Santos #Valuable500 (@AkwyZ) January 26, 2021
So much of the conversation around the “transition to the future of work” has been preoccupied with the transition, but surviving in the new normal means finding a way to make these temporary fixes sustainable. The increased use of online collaboration tools and video conferencing are sure to play a major role in this revolution, as Tyler Cohen Wood shared, but it’s so much more than that. Flexible work is here to stay, and while leaders need to adjust how the manage, train, and reward their workforce, they’ll also need to reconsider what it means to “go to work.”
This is true in the micro and in the macro. As Will Lassalle shared, organizations will now begin accommodating employees wherever they are, which will have massive impacts not only on talent management, but also on recruitment and retention. But it also means our baseline conception of the “workday” is subject to change. It may be that employees are no longer expected to be online and reachable five days a week during a set time period, and instead they’ll engage with work on a project-to-project basis as they balance other priorities and obligations in their lives. While this may sound like an employee-empowering model, Mark Babbitt was quick to point out that it also requires managers to be vigilant for burnout. While there are many different ways to manage this new paradigm shift, one thing is clear: the kind of “work” we once knew may be a relic of the past.
A7. #COVID19 has caused an explosion in use of online #collaboration tools and #videoconferencing . Because of this, we have more insight into people’s home lives, and I think this is really important.... #MercerChats, #MegaChat #DavosAgenda pic.twitter.com/cITpvZI6w2
— Tyler Cohen Wood (@TylerCohenWood) January 26, 2021
#MegaChat #davosagenda #MercerChats A2. Cont. Economic impact will not be determined by locale to attract talent, but by building a stable of top talent. Gone are days of Move to the Job, now we are in the days of accommodate the employee wherever they Live. #futureofwork
— Will Lassalle (@wlassalle) January 26, 2021
A8: Burnout is becoming a parallel pandemic. Give people permission to set boundaries. Especially while at home, encourage them to walk away from work. #MercerChats #MegaChat #DavosAgenda
— Mark S. Babbitt (@MarkSBabbitt) January 26, 2021