Talkin’ bout a workplace revolution
Steve Hatfield, principal, workforce transformation at Deloitte, joins Kate Graham on the second webinar to dive deeper into the 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report.
Why You Should Care
Get the strategies, tactics and trends that will help you to thrive amidst the workplace revolution.
Watch UNLEASH and Deloitte tackle the big issues of modern work in our recent webinar - but for a primer, read our round-up beneath.
“It’s a workplace revolution”, says Steve Hatfield in the first few minutes of our second Deloitte webinar of 2023. With a statement like that, you know that we are in for some punchy stats and plenty of exclusive insight.
We tackle the topic of this webinar, ‘Workforce Strategies for the Future of Work‘, using Deloitte’s three suggested actions (Think like a researcher, Co-create the relationship, Prioritize human outcomes) to tackle the big questions of modern work, wellbeing, attrition, and AI adoption to name a few.
Hatfield starts as he means to go on with a few key stats upfront, but while the workplace devil is in the transformation detail, he initially talks global variations, keen to underline from the outset the importance of territorial differences. To what level do you think your employees are energized? For example, in China, that figure sits at 86%, whereas in the UK it’s 39%. Clearly we can’t look at employees (and their engagement) as a monolith, but we can look at trends, and one trend that is clear is that unemployment is historically low, the lowest in 20 years in fact, according to OECD data.
And as Hatfield noted, “it’s still a very hot labor market with record openings and low employment”, while going on to remind us to “consider what’s reality and what is myth, what’s real and what’s more of a story?” And sure, the Great Resignation may have been THE story of the last two years, but while that narrative may be on the wane, it can still teach us a thing or two about representation.
New work, new cohorts
As Hatfield continues, “what the Great Resignation is really driving is dialogue about new pools of talent.” But from where?
Well. Neurodiversity is an area of a yet untapped power for many businesses, even though 10 to 20% of the workforce could be considered neurodivergent (per Deloitte’s own research), and that cohort can be “90% to 140% more productive” – eye-opening stuff.
In the US, women’s participation in the labor market is at a 22 year high of 77% too. So, a buzzword that may be on the way out, but one that is raising the right questions about labor market dynamics.
When it comes to job satisfaction and work-life balance, yet more movement we wouldn’t have expected comes to light. According to Deloitte’s 2022 wellbeing report, 70% of C-suite execs are considering leaving their positions in search of better work-life balance. The message is a stark and obvious one, and surface level directives like return-to-office mandates do nothing to address the underlying issues of what makes modern work, work.
It’s no secret that some things work better in person and some work better remotely. Here’s how Steve Hatfield broke it down.
What works well in person
- Idea generation
- Growth of professional networks
- Development of in-group connections
- Creative collisions
- Apprenticeships
What works well remotely
- Idea prioritization
- Job satisfaction
- Reduced quit rates
- Productivity
- Dedicated ‘heads down time’
Such as the breadth of its influence, it seemed impossible not to mention AI at some point, and with 43% of organizations using AI to assist in decision making at senior levels (Deloitte’s AI and the enterprise research), Hatfield suggested it’s time for HR to embrace augmentation over automation. With AI adoption come privacy concerns, and with the idea of “data privacy in your consumer life now entering the professional sphere”, “it becomes critical for organizations to continue to step into this role they have of societal and social impact.”
As we wrapped up, Hatfield highlighted a number of fundamental shifts in people’s thinking that were needed, but acknowledged that part of what it (the ‘Boundaryless World’ report) covered was that “legacy thinking was the number one factor impeding our ability to lead.”
Change is needed – of priorities, mindsets and skills. As Hatfield concluded at the top of the hour, the only thing to do now was to “get to work”.
You can watch this Deloitte webinar on demand here. Sign up free today.
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Editorial content manager
Jon has 20 years' experience in digital journalism and more than a decade in L&D and HR publishing.
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