Boston Consulting Group: The Future of Work Revolves Around Talent
Featured article for this week's Brief
Read time: 2.5 min
Big Idea
Apply people-focused strategies like developing generative leaders, providing continuous learning, and improving talent management and workplace flexibility to address work effectiveness and employee needs.
Top Thoughts
Encourage generative leadership by investing in programs that develop leaders who can motivate and enable employees to perform at their best.
Promote continuous learning and make upskilling and reskilling opportunities a part of everyday work processes to continuously advance employee capabilities.
Ensure that workplace challenges are addressed, such as by creating a more purpose-driven company culture, assisting frontline workers to become more adaptive, and diversifying talent models.
Create work initiatives that strategically plan for efficiency and future talent management.
Improve productivity and job satisfaction by better supporting distributed teams and addressing the emotional needs of frontline workers to increase job retention.
Quick Quotes
“Attracting and retaining employees are among the top motivators for organizations of all types to support workplace initiatives. Leaders consider these reasons even more important than improving productivity, keeping up with competitors, and increasing cost-effectiveness.”
“Invest in changing employee behavior… Bringing about real behavioral change requires significant investment in developing new and upgraded capabilities. Such investments would, for example, fund communications to articulate the required changes and embed new behaviors into upgraded operating models, people processes, and tools. Some of these investments could be to bring continuous learning into people’s daily work and to offer leadership coaching.”
“Eight of the top ten factors that cause frontline workers to quit their jobs involve emotional needs rather than functional ones, underscoring how important it is for employers to understand and attempt to meet those needs. Yet many organizations do not prioritize or even consider meeting such needs. Those views are short-sighted, given that frontline workers make up an estimated 70% to 80% of the global workforce and that companies are still contending with significant frontline worker shortages.”
“Organizations can help their teams by building managerial capabilities at all levels. The goal should be to develop generative leaders who can coach, challenge, and support their teams in daily interactions. In addition, these leaders should help employees expand their existing capabilities by exploring internal opportunities, such as a temporary or permanent reassignment, a transfer to another part of the organization, or rotations through multiple roles.”
“One way that organizations could improve the frontline worker experience and retain more employees is by increasing their shift schedule options and letting them choose which shift works best for them. In addition, employers could give frontline leaders more training and tools to inspire, coach, and connect with their teams.”
“Leaders who can get past the obstacles and improve the work environment can hire, retain, and upskill workers more effectively—and gain a significant talent advantage.”
“Companies are asking the wrong question if they are only asking about how to get office-based workers back to the office more days a week. Instead, they should be asking how to help their distributed workforce collaborate more effectively. Nearly all companies that are pushing for a greater presence in the workplace recognize the value of maintaining some level of flexibility. But the bigger issue is creating an environment that increases productivity and even sparks joy.”
Actionable Advice
Enhance employee value proposition - Create personalized value propositions for employees by understanding their needs and desires. This will improve employee attraction and retention.
Use design thinking - Apply design thinking methodologies of research, synthesis and ideation to re-evaluate and improve how work functions for different groups of employees.
Facilitate effective collaboration - Instead of focusing on returning workers to the office, create strategies and environments that support distributed teams, working in-office and remotely, to collaborate more effectively.
Address frontline worker needs - Increase flexibility in scheduling, provide additional training for frontline managers, and improve the emotional work environment to enhance satisfaction and retention of frontline workers.
CEO involvement - CEOs should take a front-line approach to leading work initiatives that emphasizes the importance of their role in driving and supporting changes that address current and future organizational needs.
Source(s)
Lovich, D., Ullrich, S., South, N., Kotsis, A., & Lavoie, K. (2023, Oct 19). The Future of Work Revolves Around Talent. [Web Article]. Boston Consulting Group. (Link)
