The business world is in for a turbulent time of it over the next decade, according to Rohit Talwar, futurist, award-winning speaker and chief executive of Fast Future Research.
Without doubt, the world as we know it will change as a result of continued economic uncertainty, political instability, the redistribution of wealth from west to east, relentless advances in science and technology and intense global competition from emerging economies.
Talwar explained his stance at a recent networking event: “Organisations that can survive and thrive in what promises to be a decade of turbulence have to ensure they have a real understanding of the trends, forces and ideas shaping the future, and are thinking through the long term implications of the decisions they make.”
He also believes that both HR and communications professionals will be central to the process of “building real organisation-wide understanding and ownership of the implications, and facilitating collaborative approaches to defining and sharing the resulting strategies and actions the organisation will pursue to secure its future”.
One attendee at the event, Alastair MacDonald, who is an employee communications and engagement interim, agreed with Talwar’s views.
But he pointed out that, while it was now necessary to create environments that were much more comfortable with uncertainty than in the past, such a process required building trust between both employers and their staff.
“Sadly, all too often, trust between organisations and employees is fragile. We have a great opportunity to develop our role – perhaps a little less partial to the boardroom and its decisions – and form a coalition with our HR colleagues to increase engagement in our organisations,” he said.
The changing nature of employee relations was likewise a key theme of Talwar’s presentation. While workforces have always been multigenerational, he pointed out that these generational differences have now been polarised through a combination of an ageing population, which is resulting in people remaining in the workforce long after retirement, and the decentralisation of communication driven largely by the social media explosion.
As a result, Talwar believes that the employers and workforces of tomorrow will require a very different approach from both HR and communications professionals, an approach that can be summarised under four key headings: technology, attitude, innovation and agility.
1. Technology
For organisations that are not up to speed with peer-to-peer communications or, worse still, are trying to block it, there will likely be trouble ahead.
Because too many leaders have not kept up with the pace of technological change, company cultures have failed to do so either, which means that there remains an over-reliance on traditional command-and-control management models.
This means that HR professionals have a real opportunity to rise above the transactional processes that they are all too often accused of hiding behind and work strategically with the business to look at key issues such as organisational design, performance management, reward systems and the learning and development approaches necessary to equip their organisations for the future.
2. Attitude
Another consideration is changing attitudes towards communication in the workplace.
Virginia Hicks, director of Comma Partners, explained: “There is little desire for complex analysis by the majority, and patience for lengthy business cases is wearing thin. With the expectation for immediate feedback and dialogue increasing, management teams need to be nimble and tuned in to what their people want.”
This means leadership teams that agonise over perfecting operational messages behind closed doors will “miss the opportunity to be part of the real conversation that their workforce will be having anyway: conversations that will be happening without them”, she added.
How leaders communicate with their people has, of course, always been high on the HR agenda, but the risks associated with not getting it right have magnified in the online world.
Kim Borrowdale, a communications consultant working at a national legal practice, elaborated: “I’ve put more focus on the tone of voice rather than the messages themselves as teams take more control of their own communications at a local level. I coach them to communicate in a much more conversational style where appropriate – a good exercise in helping them understand what they are saying to whom and why.”
But while ensuring communications are timely and informal approach may help with staff engagement, HR also needs to make change comfortable and as unintimidating as possible.
As a result, Philippa Anderson, a strategic communications consultant, believes that it is essential to refer to the business context and changing customer needs in every communication so that employees understand that organisations cannot stand still.
“The more we talk about the changing market, the future opportunities and challenges it presents and explain how and why the business is doing what it is doing, the better,” she said. “Linking everything back to the organisation’s vision so employees understand how their own goals and objectives fit into that vision becomes even more important with decentralised control over communication.”
3. Innovation
So what might an average workplace look like in 10 years’ time? Will current ‘normal’ ways of working still be recognisable?
Jenny Nabben, a senior interim manager who focuses on the large corporate market, said: “Leadership teams need to get comfortable with employees having the big ideas. This takes courage and humility – it’s a fundamental shift in the traditional workplace relationship.”
But many departmental structures are already looking a little tired and all too often stifle the flow of knowledge that they were supposed to promote, which tend to slow decision-making down.
Therefore, Nabben said: “We need to be working towards a genuinely cross-functional approach where flatter and less hierarchical structures focus on capability and knowledge-sharing. We need to create environments that unlock the intelligence, creativity and innovation that exists within any employee base. This isn’t about skills: it’s about a shift in mind-set.”
Communications and engagement interim MacDonald agreed. He believes that it will be necessary to embrace new thinking and working in order to “enable our organisational cultures to catch up with technology.”
“In order to create organisations and businesses that will be truly sustainable on the global stage, we have to get comfortable with challenging the status quo,” MacDonald added.
4. Agility
Unilever has introduced an Agile Working programme, which aims to show staff that it values their performance and output. Rather than just sitting at their desks from 9am to 5pm, the goal is to entrust employees with a greater say in how they work.
Jacobina Plummer, the consumer packaged goods manufacturer’s global change and communications manager, explained that, while traditionally, time and attendance metrics had been used as the key yardsticks, they are now considered “artificial barriers that can be removed”.
“It’s about creating environments where employees want to work, where there’s a palpable energy to improve business performance and where individuals at all stages of their working lives feel valued,” she said.
As a result, the company’s working practices are now based on concepts such as idea-sharing and collaboration. “By giving people more choice about how and when they work, we improve talent attraction and retention, increase our capability across the globe and improve productivity,” Plummer said.
Although this process doesn’t happen overnight, the firm has put a real focus on preparing its managers “to manage for the future”.
As a starting point, this approach involves “trusting their teams to deliver their work anytime, anyplace”, while “part of our role is to help teams create the visibility around how and when they will communicate with each other and to share their expectations around delivery and accountability”, Plummer explained.
The challenge of engaging a multigenerational and ageing workforce in organisational structures that are more fragmented, fluid and virtual than they once were cannot be underestimated. This means that HR processes must centre on individuals’ changing requirements throughout their employment lifecycle.
It also means that HR and their communications colleagues must work together to create a culture that tolerates change and uncertainty as the new ‘normal’.
Being able to build and sustain employee trust and engagement will become an even higher priority for employers over the next decade than it is today and, while internal communication professionals may be able to help, it will be HR practitioners that get the opportunity to really shine.
Alison Boothby is freelance business writer for Comma Partners working on behalf of interim recruitment agency, Comma Partners.
