Future Strategy after COVID-19 – What next?

What comes after COVID-19?

  2020 has already started with great uncertainty (new government in Spain and possible regulatory changes, Brexit, trade tensions between China and the United States, economic slowdown, instability in Latin America, imbalances in the labour market, etc. ).We already knew that we would experience changes as managers of people in companies and as workers, we were going to have to make well-informed decisions in complex situations, and be more human. As a Consultant in Innovation, Transformation and Change, I´d like to share my ideas on the near future:

1. Mobility & Homeworking |  We must be technologically prepared for employee mobility.

What the COVID-19 has made clear to us is that many positions are not “transportable” home. Many jobs remain undone or are done half way and that the economic consequences of a virus are going to affect our country’s GDP this year and the next. Companies are not even prepared for extended maternity and paternity leave, nor for viruses that force us to work from home, even for adverse weather conditions. People mentally are not prepared, neither managers nor workers, it is a radical chip change. And we need to start decentralizing the leadership, lowering the degree of control over employees, increasing confidence and establishing Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that are simple, measurable and sustainable that allow remote management of resources.

2. Sustainability | We must be sustainable over time and accountable with our employees and our social environment.

The first two decades of this century have served to raise awareness of the business community and society that another way of doing business is possible and necessary; climate change, longevity, declining birth rates, everything has long indicated that businesses need to change, because the community is changing. Companies care more about the employability of their workers, the “match” of talent and position, and the inclusion of disadvantaged groups. And since 2010, the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals) have set a pattern of behaviour in companies that leaves no one indifferent, and while it is still considered a “marketing” battle it can be measured and can be followed, thereby implementing it before or After.

3. Digital Transformation in HR |Let’s forget about the department by appointment

HR managers must humanize, experience the “employee journey” create online learning systems for employees, introduce intranets that promote community, and be present using technology as a tool of approach. This without replacing regular feedback and feedforward meetings essential in staff growth and personal satisfaction, key ingredients of their integration into the Company’s Vision and Objectives.

4. Data and Ethics | We will have to learn to manage based on evidence: ensuring that the data we use will help us make better decisions.

Digitization will make more and more data available to employees and people who interact with the organization. But just because we have more data it does not mean that we are necessarily going to make better decisions. Faced with this new reality, we will see how in the most advanced companies ethical debates are opened and limits are set on the use of the information available to their workers, beyond what legal regulations may dictate.

5. Diversity | Diversity is the soul of Innovation.

What really makes a difference in the company and in its results is not the “obvious” diversity of color, gender, ethnicity, it is ‘depth’ diversity based on less visible aspects, such as the diversity of values, beliefs, attitudes, patterns of thought or emotional reactions of the people who make up the organization. On the one hand, we have to question whether our teams bring together the diversity necessary for the progress of the company. If we are clear about the fundamental values of the company, now is the time to analyze the fundamental values of the people who make up the business universe. If we are not clear about our Core Values as a company, it is time to identify them: Company Values and Employee Values must be aligned.

6. Humanity | More digital business models are changing the types of jobs

The advance of machines and software causes employment to be concentrated, as David H. Autor points out, in three types of jobs: a) associated with new technologies b) empowered by new technologies and c) low-skilled jobs that make it possible to get where technology does not reach today. It is essential that we understand how these 3 types of work will evolve in our organization and anticipate what our future talent needs will be, to manage the tensions that may arise from the coexistence within a same organization of very different groups of workers, to design people management practices adapted to the needs of each of these groups, and to train people who may be more at risk of losing their jobs as a consequence of these changes.   7. Talent | How we manage to have the type of Talent we need when we need it In the field of technical training, companies know that a large part of their know-how is internal and the challenge is to ensure that this knowledge reaches as many people as possible; For this, solutions are appearing that allow professionals to get closer to learning communities, platforms or specific training in their area of specialty. Regarding competence training, we see how this continues to be outsourced to consultants and specialists (to start-ups as well), but from a co-creation approach with internal experts.

8. Fundamental Values | from “Employee experience to Human experience” 

It is expected that the approaches that companies have traditionally given to their ’employee experience’ programs will evolve to look at people from a more holistic and individualized perspective that integrates the different life experiences of people, beyond what is their experience as employees, and take into account how these different dimensions interact, integrate and influence the performance and potential of each worker. For this I advise, again, the application of Coaching by Values or a similar methodology to identify alignment of Company-Employee Values.

9. Tribal Leadership | Leadership as a transversal competence

Traditionally leadership has been associated with hierarchy, but in this new decade this relationship will no longer necessarily be bi-directional. The hierarchy will continue to require leadership, but in a context in which more and more work is done on projects. Leadership becomes a much more transversal competence, since practically anyone in an organization, regardless of their post or their range in hierarchy, can find themselves leading one of those projects. Leaders capable of generating confidence, not only visionary, committed and authentic, but also humble and adaptable. 

10. Collective Intelligence | Project work involves collaborative and collective intelligence

As Organizations become more complex and their environment is more volatile and uncertain, they are forced to work in a more collaborative and distributed way. A greater proportion of decisions and operations are left to more or less self-managed teams, making it increasingly difficult to isolate individual contributions and their direct impact on results. The best ideas no longer necessarily have to come from within the organization.  And in search of these ideas companies undertake open innovation initiatives and it is more and more frequent that they use freelancers in projects for which they need capabilities that their employees do not possess. It is a scenario where it is more difficult to determine where the human capital of a company begins and ends and that will make it necessary for companies to rethink their people management practices, beginning by identifying what value they can bring to the different agents that make up these ecosystems.

Endless Learning and Opportunities!