Part two

The four dynamics: how are organizations calibrating to power the life-work shift?

Part two

The four dynamics: How are organizations calibrating to power the life-work shift?

Dynamic #1

Strengthening workforce agility

Employers around the world face intense competition for talent. But only a minority of firms are harnessing innovative approaches to improving workforce agility.

Across the board, Vanguards are substantially more likely to have adopted these tools and tactics to improve their ability to work in new ways.

Figure 6: Vanguards are more likely to have taken critical steps to improve workforce agility

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Vanguards have a particular advantage in using contingent talent. They are more likely to have a clear strategic approach, and they are more likely to forecast an increase in the use of contingent talent in the next five years.

I think there’s an increasing number of people who want to be a contingent worker rather than a permanent employee, which means we get better access to talent. We are discussing skills-based hiring, where we first identify the skills we need, then look at how we recruit them – whether it’s contingent or permanent should be the last part of the conversation.

Kirsten Tolfree-Dart
Contingent Worker Program Manager, Kantar

Figure 7: Only about half of firms have a clear strategy for their use of contingent talent

[Base size: Vanguards = 56; Rest of sample = 278]

MRC Global: Using recruiting as a service to scale at pace

For MRC Global, a leading global distributor of pipe, valve and fitting products and services to energy and industrial markets, the disruption caused by the pandemic has given way to an exciting new phase of high growth. This is creating huge demand for talent, explains Malcolm O’Neal, SVP of Human Resources.

The response? A rethink of how the company hires. “What has evolved for us is an ‘as-a-service’ model,” says O’Neal. “Rather than try to build out our own talent acquisition function, we’ve formed a strategic alignment with external partners to develop recruiting-as-a-service. The contingency concept allows us to really move fast."

The new approach is helping MRC Global to scale at pace, and O’Neal recognizes the benefits of partnering with specialists. “Now, we’ve got people who eat, sleep and dream recruiting,” he says. “Whereas if we were trying to do it internally, we could only be as good as what we know.”

The new approach to hiring has been backed up by a fresh take on developing employees. Historically, promoting internally was a “core component of our talent strategy”, says O’Neal. But he says that a problem has emerged recently for key roles such as sales service representatives: “We don’t have enough people to progress.”

The company has developed a new development program that it can recruit into – and with cohorts set to go through the program every 8–12 weeks, O’Neal says that the plan is simple: “We’ll hit repeat and keep replenishing those internal pipelines that will feed the organization.”

Dynamic #2

Reinventing the employee experience

Employers are continuing to face deep challenges in attracting and retaining talent, with fierce competition for roles at all levels of the market.

Leaders say that a wide range of factors is contributing to the issues, but they see the top causes as a lack of progression opportunities, uncompetitive pay and benefits, and poor life-work balance.

One of the five pillars of our people strategy is professional development. It’s one of the best ways to fight employee churn – to make sure that people feel like they can develop and grow within Evoqua.

Anthony Webster
EVP and CHRO, Evoqua Water Technologies

Figure 8: Career progression is more important than compensation in improving retention

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

A lack of understanding among employees of the wider value of their work is also a factor, which means that purpose is a vital tool (see BASF: The importance of purpose and a “greater good”).

For Vanguards, the response is to redefine/redesign the employee experience and experiment with new ways of working (83% for both, compared with 68% and 62% respectively among non-Vanguards).

The data shows that, compared with other firms, Vanguards understand more acutely the importance of the employee experience in improving talent acquisition. This group is more likely to:

Have started offering higher wages and better benefits
(57% vs 38% of the rest)
Provide better skills and development opportunities
(66% vs 51%)
Have improved the annual leave allowance
(62% vs 45%)
Have introduced policies such as salary transparency
(54% vs 42%).

Figure 9: The Vanguards are more likely to be taking steps to improve talent acquisition and retention

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Vanguards are alert to their competition too: 79% benchmark compensation and benefits against competitors (vs 58%).

How do you sell your culture? How do you provide some work/life balance? And a purpose that employees can believe in? Those are the things that will attract people.

Cherice Schmidt
KellyOCG

Figure 10: Two-thirds of firms say they are redefining the employee experience following Covid-19

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Vanguards seem to benefit from the commitment of their senior leaders to reinventing employee experience: 57% say that at least one C-suite stakeholder has been very involved to date – almost double the rest (29%).

Figure 11: Vanguards make improving the employee experience a
C-suite priority

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Companies still face potential blind spots when it comes to understanding employee engagement, though. Less than half implement measures to assess employee engagement. Vanguards are more likely to use the tools available, from employee surveys and focus groups to assessing company reviews on Glassdoor.

Figure 12: Vanguards are more likely to listen to their employees

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

BASF: The importance of purpose and a “greater good”

There is no doubt that employers need to respond to demands for greater life-work flexibility – but they also need to paint a bigger picture, says Crystal Lannaman, Head of Talent Acquisition and University Relations at BASF.

“Candidates want to work for a company that has a ‘greater good’ and an impact in the community,” says Lannaman. “At BASF, the chemistry we make goes into products that touch consumers’ lives from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed. That’s huge!

“We’re also helping to solve some of the world’s toughest problems. How are we going to feed the nine billion people on the planet in 2040? How are we going to help people find places to live? Those are things that employees can say, ‘Hey, I contributed to that.’”

Shared purpose is key for performance, says Lannaman: “When everyone knows the north star, we're able to align around it.” Purpose undoubtedly helps with talent attraction and retention, too, she says: “It helps everyone, including contingent workers, take pride in and ownership of what they're doing.”

Dynamic #3

Taking concrete action on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

The data shows that Vanguards continue to be differentiated by their efforts to make DEI a reality in their organizations.

Despite the high profile of DEI issues in the past two years in the US and around the world, our survey reveals that only about a third of firms have implemented innovative initiatives to improve DEI.

Figure 13: Less than half of firms are taking critical steps to improve DEI

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

The majority of executives (53%) say that leaders are failing to create an inclusive culture. At Vanguards, leaders are substantially more likely to regularly engage with employees on DEI. But many still recognize a need to go further, faster: Vanguards are more likely to agree that, in reality, their DEI strategy only pays lip service to the need to support underrepresented groups.

Figure 14: More than half of firms say their leaders are not actively creating an inclusive culture

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Global Biopharmaceutical Firm: How leaders’ authenticity is supporting DEI

“Our firm has a huge emphasis on diversity, inclusion and belonging,” says the Global Lead for External Workforce at a biopharmaceutical multinational.

Current priorities include driving up the number of diverse hires into the organization, increasing the number of management-level individuals in diverse categories, and increasing spend with diversity suppliers. The company has formed employee resource groups that support different communities, which both employees and external workers can take part in. And these groups are working hard to build awareness about DEI among employees.

This has been supported by a shift in how senior leaders engage with employees, with a new level of openness on sensitive topics, says the interviewee. “Leaders are hosting more personal conversations, where we’re learning about them, their families and their personal challenges.

“They’re being open about things they may not have addressed in the past, such as if they have children that are in the LGBTQ community, they’re talking about that more.”

The new spirit of openness is having a real impact: “Leaders are bringing a more personal touch – and it’s spawning more discussion among staff.”

Supporting mental health

In the wake of two years of global crisis and uncertainty, mental health is in the spotlight.

Our survey shows that many employers have taken action to support employees, but concerns remain. Across all firms, 27% say that the number of employees who took time off or left their jobs for mental health reasons has increased over the past year. Less than a third say they have a workplace culture that makes it acceptable to disclose mental health issues (30%), while just 40% feel that their organization offers adequate resources to support employees’ mental health.

However, the data reveals that the Vanguards are going further to promote mental wellbeing across the workforce: 47% of this group say they quickly address behaviors that would be considered bullying or discriminatory (vs 31% of the rest), while 41% say employees are entitled to paid leave for mental health reasons that have not been formally diagnosed (vs 27% of the rest).

If there’s a silver lining to the pandemic, it’s that talking about mental health is no longer taboo.

Malcolm O’Neal
MRC Global

Figure 15: Vanguard firms go further to support employees’ mental health

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Dynamic #4

Adopting the right technologies to empower today’s workforce

In the digital age, businesses have better options than ever for finding the right tools and technologies to power their talent management strategies.

Yet uptake is limited. Just 40% of firms overall have adopted data analytics tools that capture key metrics, for instance. There is a huge opportunity to accelerate the digitalization of HR and talent processes to gain advantage.

The Vanguards understand the importance of technology adoption in improving workforce agility and productivity: they are more likely to have adopted all of the relevant technologies, including data analytics, knowledge sharing and pulse survey tools; as well as dedicated training platforms.

We are on a journey to unlock the value from our workforce data. We have a team that’s dedicated to analyzing this data – including the data on our contingent workforce – and we are now able to present this insight to our leaders, even to the extent of providing a complete cost of the people within the business.

Kirsten Tolfree-Dart
Kantar

Figure 16: Many organizations are failing to unlock the benefits of technology for improving workforce management

[Base size: Vanguards = 149; Rest of sample = 851]

Evoqua Water Technologies: How embracing analytics has improved talent visibility

Technology has huge potential to help companies plot their path through today’s talent and HR challenges – if they have the capability to use it. One company that is increasingly using data to inform its approach is Evoqua Water Technologies, as Anthony Webster, EVP and CHRO, explains.

Evoqua uses the HR information system SuccessFactors, along with Power BI, Microsoft’s data analytics and visualization software. “We’re doing more and more with those systems,” says Webster. “It really gives us a lot more real-time visibility and the ability to pull insights out of the data and utilize them.”

The evolution of technology is continually opening new doors for HR. And for Evoqua, there are huge opportunities to improve how it recruits. “The big thing that we’re focused on now is predictive analytics for hiring,” says Webster. “For a given type of role, if you have x plus y plus z – whether it be the company that the candidate is coming from, or their educational background, or whatever it may be – does that lead to higher or lower attrition?”

That could give Evoqua a critical edge in a competitive labor market, says Webster: “How do we look at data in different ways to understand what trends we’re seeing, in ways that we can make decisions and choices about how we go forward?”

Monitoring performance

In the era of hybrid working, another key dimension for technology is its potential for monitoring employee productivity. But what do employees think about these tools?

Our survey shows productivity tracking tools have generally been positively received by employees – especially in Vanguard firms.

Not everyone is convinced about the role of these tools, however, at BASF, productivity is tracked using annual target agreements and KPIs. “That’s the kind of productivity we want to see,” says Crystal Lannaman. Tracking tools are likely to add most value as part of a balanced approach to appraisal and performance management.

Figure 17: Productivity measuring tools are received more positively at Vanguard firms

[Base size: Vanguards = 56; Rest of sample = 278]

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