What do 3 UNLEASH World keynote speakers think should change the way you implement technology?

Career Ladder or Jungle Gym?

"The standard career ladder has evolved and will keep on evolving as new technology advances," says Gary Bolles, chair for the future of work at Singularity University.

During his opening keynote at UNLEASH World, he explains that the career ladder has now become more of a jungle gym – a concept first coined by former Facebook COO, Sheryl Sandberg.

However, Bolles takes this one step further, stating that employees – particularly those from younger generations – have now replaced the career ladder with a ‘freeplay’ area, ignoring, or at least overriding the traditional workplace rules.

“New generations are demanding more agency,” he says. “They want to help make decisions and to be part of the process. They want to come on the ‘playground’ and figure out how to solve business problems – together.”

This drastic change in the workplace – catalyzed by the Covid-19 pandemic – has created new demands for HR leaders and has consequently flattened organizations' systems and rearranged the hierarchy.

So much so, CEOs and senior leaders no longer pull the strings over employees – they’re being forced to listen to new demands – for hybrid working and increased flexibility, for example – with workplaces becoming a network of humans trying to create value.

“We need to increase the quality and quantity of connections,” Bolles says, “so that people feel included and connected. One way to achieve this, it by adopting the mindset of membership, which focuses on driving a greater feeling of connection through organizations by fostering a sense of inclusivity and membership.”

During her keynote at UNLEASH World, Muriel Pénicaud, senior advisor at Bain Capital and board director at Galileo Global Education, discussed a similar topic: kindness.

“Your role towards people is very important,” she says. “This was not necessarily the case a few years ago, but now we recognize that kindness, empathy, and being people-centered is key for organizations. It’s not just ‘nice’ to have – it can change the way they are run.”

Pénicaud was also a French politician who served as Minister of Labour in the government of Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, between 2017 and 2020. She was well known for leading the reform of the Labour Code and the ‘Professional Future Act’.

Throughout her keynote, Pénicaud discussed the idea that four gigantic tsunami waves will be hitting the world of work by 2030 – the first was of course AI, followed by green transition, demographic changes, and challenges in relation to work.

All four of these will change at least 1 billion jobs by 2030, meaning fostering human connection and employee engagement have never been more important.

Increasing employee engagement with AI

Building connections among employees has been proven to not only boost team morale but to benefit the business’s bottom lines, too.

In fact, Yvette Cameron, senior vice president, global HCM product strategy at Oracle, shared that workforces that feel a sense of belonging generally drive 30% higher profitability for their organization, compared to those who don’t.

But in today’s modern-day workplace, there’s still a major disconnect with employee engagement, which reached an all-time high in 2022 – hitting 22%.

Of course, this figure desperately needs to be improved upon and can be done so when organizations leverage technology correctly.

Echoing the importance of connection and culture that Bolles highlighted, Cameron explains that tech can help employee engagement in four key ways, firstly, by supporting a culture of appreciation with recognition and rewards.

“Culture happens every day, in every moment and in every interaction that individuals experience in an organization,” Cameron says. “For example, this happens when they’re onboarding into a new role, when they’re in the office, when they’re asking for support and being guided through new processes, and so on. For this reason, connection and culture matter more than ever, and technology can leverage these in several ways.”“Culture happens every day, in every moment and in every interaction that individuals experience in an organization,” Cameron says. “For example, this happens when they’re onboarding into a new role, when they’re in the office, when they’re asking for support and being guided through new processes, and so on. For this reason, connection and culture matter more than ever, and technology can leverage these in several ways.”

One way Oracle has utilized technology is by putting recognition and reward programs on top of their HCM applications and deploying them out to the workforce as a way of bringing unsung heroes to the surface, while helping individuals feel highly appreciated.

When these solutions are integrated into core HR as part of the native fabric, engagement levels increase and key milestones are recognized and celebrated.

Another mandatory factor to harboring good cultures with strong connections is encouraging people-centric leadership.

“Today, managers have to do more than just manage the performance and the attendance of their workers,” Cameron says. “They need to foster respected and trusted relationships.”

And technology can help with this, too, for example, by setting daily, weekly, or monthly pulse surveys asking employees: How do you feel today? Or, do you need any additional support with your projects?

AI can also drive nudges to managers to draw attention to significant events and milestones for employees, such as family birthdays, major life events, and achievements within the company.

The final point Cameron highlighted was the importance of personalized communication. “Maybe this is a personal thing, but not much bothers me more than receiving a generic email from HR asking me to submit information that I know they already have on their HCM system.

“Now, we have the power of marketing tools to create campaigns that can be sent to specific audiences based on any combination of data in the HR system. So, just think about that level of personalization. It means that managers can communicate with thousands of people in their organization, while sending messages that really resonate with them.”“Now, we have the power of marketing tools to create campaigns that can be sent to specific audiences based on any combination of data in the HR system. So, just think about that level of personalization. It means that managers can communicate with thousands of people in their organization, while sending messages that really resonate with them.”

What’s more, leveraging AI in HCM applications to drive ‘nudges’ as recommendations should not just be for managers, but for employees, too. AI will guide them naturally through recognizing each other’s greatest accomplishments or achievements, while also aiding with other aspects of employment, such as onboarding, and changing roles.

Cameron adds: “Organizations need to think how they guide employees through their daily work, not just through HR connections.”

This, is a sentiment that Bolles agreed with, as he concluded both his keynote and UNLEASH World 2023 by asking: “How can we encourage greater and greater connections?

"But if there’s one thing I can say to encourage people to run down the hall and back into the workplace, it would be to say:

“Go forth and connect.”