In this series, we continue to explore considerations for our NEW, new normal in the months and years ahead.
In our last post, we covered a critical decision to be made: Will your work place try to turn back the clock to 2019? Will you remain status quo? Or will you create a new path forward, standing on the shoulders of the past and present?
If your organization is looking to create a new path forward, there are a number of considerations to be explored. The first of which is….your Employees and Talent.
EMPLOYEES & TALENT: What do they want?
The first area to explore in creating a new future for a Post-pandemic world is to consider your Employees and Targeted Talent Pool. What do they want?
You might already be struggling to get the talent you need. Or if you get talent, they don’t necessarily have the full breadth of skills you need or you can’t keep them. This leads to a constant scenario of you and your team being overworked covering for open positions, plus interviewing, the onboarding and training….only to rinse and repeat when they leave.
Here is how I address this with my clients.
I start by focusing in on the employees and talent that are critical to the business model and/or create competitive advantage. Those are the people we need to get really clear on what they want….and whether what we offer is a match.
Let’s take a hospital, for example. Care providers are critical to their business model. Data scientists, AI and technologist might provide some of the competitive advantage to a hospital. These are the employees that I would seek to understand what they want.
Most often, with respect to employees and talent that are business-critical or driving competitive advantage, it is a worker-first world. Physicians have a choice of where to work. Nurses have a choice of where to work. Technologists have a choice of where to work. If you look at your own business or team as to who is critical to your business or helps differentiate it…you may find the same.
So, once you have identified the key talent and what they want, your next question to answer is: Why work with your company?
And, given this is talent that is critical to your business model and creating competitive advantage, what is the risk to your business of them NOT choosing you? If you are a hospital and cannot find enough physicians? If you can't aggregate and forecast and use AI to make preventive diagnoses that has you labeled the best heart/lung/cancer hospital? In these scenarios, you either can’t service your customers or they go elsewhere when given the choice.
What does your business-critical talent want? And particularly, what would they want out of working with you.
It is important to understand that some of what they want has likely changed or evolved during the pandemic.
By understanding what these specific talent pools want…..from working with you….then you can design a work experience that is a fit to get the talent you need to grow and increase revenue.
It should be noted that, often times, working with a 3rd party to help answer these questions removes biases, political agendas, and personal attachments. Can organizations answer these questions on their own? Certainly! And it is usually a bit more painful and takes more time, particularly if resources are limited. Think about bringing in some neutral perspective to gain the best insight into this talent in the most effective manner.
Join us in future weekly blog editions as we explore the Gig economy, representation, role of the office, technology and more!
Interested in exploring what’s next for your organization? Schedule a no-obligation 30 minute strategy call with Heather by clicking here.