Making the shift from “survive’ to “thrive” depends on an organization becoming distinctly human at its core - a different way of being that approaches every question, every issue, and every decision from a human angle first.

2021 Deloitte Global Human Capital Trends

If you read nothing else at the start of 2021, I recommend you read this report.

I do not think it is ground-breaking.

It covers subject matter that many of us have been shouting from the roof-tops for years.

1.    Taking care of employee mental well-being.

2.    Empowering workers and providing autonomy.

3.   The importance of team.

4.   Using real-time workforce data to drive decision-making and actions.

5.   Changing HR role from enforcing policy to bringing humanity back into the workplace.

Search my blogs, and you will find all of those topics covered.

But maybe, because it is Deloitte, someone will sit-up and listen!

Last week I explored the first point. This week let’s take the second one.

Unleashing workforce potential

Deloitte looked at the trends and what the organizations focused on surviving are doing as opposed to those who are focused on thriving.

Beyond reskilling: Unleashing worker potential

·     The Trend: Organizations need a workforce development approach that considers both the dynamic nature of work and the equally dynamic potential of workers to reinvent themselves.

·     Surviving: Pushing training to workers from the top down, assuming the organization knows best what skills workers need.

·     Thriving: Empowering workers with agency and choice over what work they do, unleashing their potential by allowing them to apply their interests and passions to organizational needs.

The pandemic of 2020 should provide plenty of insights for executives to reflect upon as they realize the need to prepare for an era of continuous disruption. Whilst much disruption may be predicted, much of it will be unprecedented requiring a workforce that is ready for it.

This readiness will depend on workforce potential.

In a Deloitte 2021 survey, 72% of executives said that the most important, or the second most important factor, for the organization to navigate future disruption was the ability of employees to adapt, reskill and assume new roles. Only 17% said that their employees were ready to adapt, reskill and assume new roles.

There is clearly a gap between intent and action.

Employees themselves recognize the need with 60% of the 10,000 employees in this year’s Voice of the European Workforce study identifying “capacity to adapt” as the most relevant skills they will need to thrive in the labour market.

So how will organizations unleash workforce potential in order to thrive?

Empowerment and autonomy

Leaders have to give employees more freedom – autonomy – to choose how to shape their work environment in ways that allow them to perform at their best.

In my September 2018 article, I said that autonomy was about giving employees the right to do the work they want, how they want and when they want.

In a July 2019 article, I wrote:

Employee autonomy can vary from organization to organization. For some it means being free to set their own work schedules. For others, it means employees get to decide how they undertake their work. There are even organizations where it means employees can choose what they work on, with whom they work, when they work, and how they work. 

Whatever the level of autonomy within the workforce, it should be about allowing employees to shape the way in which they work in order to perform at their best.”

This aligns with the Deloitte hypothesis in the 2021 report.

Organizations that afford workers the agency and choice to explore passion areas will be able to more quickly and effectively activate workers around emerging business priorities than organizations that take a prescriptive approach to filling skills needs.

Agency and choice

Deloitte say that one way to give workers more agency and choice in what they do is through “opportunity – or talent – marketplaces.

These marketplaces are platforms that make visible and communicate to employees opportunities for growth and development.

In March 2020, I described how office manufacturer Steelcase created an online platform called Loop. This was created as they knew they were not aware of the talent they possessed and therefore unable to match it to evolving requirements.

“In a nutshell, Loop allows employees to create a profile, work is posted, and a simple algorithm is used to match talent to opportunity. Once the work is complete, profiles are updated.

This has benefits for the organisation and the employee. As new requirements occur, the organisation can quickly locate existing employees who have indicated interest in new opportunities and who have the skills to meet them. Employees can gain experience and develop new capabilities in ways their current jobs simply didn’t allow. This is like having an internal gig economy.”

Job crafting 

Another way to unleash employee potential is through job crafting

Research by psychologists Amy Wrzesniewski and Jane E. Dutton defined job crafting.

Job crafting describes the way in which we can seek opportunities to customize our jobs by actively changing tasks and interactions with others.

In this May 2019 article I described the three ways employees can craft their job.

1.     Rethink the task - This is the process of adding tasks, emphasizing tasks or redesigning tasks.

2.     Rethink the people - You can craft your interactions with others at work in ways that foster meaningfulness through altering with whom and how you form connections and relationships.

3.     Rethink the perception - You can expand your perceptions. You can increase meaningfulness by broadening your perception of the impact or purpose of your job.

With job crafting, employees have the ability to redesign and reimagine their job and therefore increase meaningfulness, satisfaction, motivation and wellbeing.

Actions

Organizational success is based on unlocking human potential. Organizations should consider action in the following areas.

·     Build talent marketplaces to address both sides of the workforce supply and demand equation.

·     Design roles to allow ongoing reinvention and job crafting.

·     Provide more agency to workers – empowerment and autonomy.

Summary

Empowering employees and providing autonomy can drive learning, adaptability and impact.

When you align employee passion and interest with organizational needs you will improve performance at the individual, team and organizational level.