Recommendations

The Vanguards in our research are performing better across the four dynamics that underpin the new life-work balance. The research also reveals that taking meaningful action in these areas correlates to more revenue growth and better customer satisfaction.

But most firms are not Vanguards. How can these other organizations accelerate their progress? Our data and expert insights show that there are a number of actions that business leaders can take now to improve the agility, resilience and wellbeing of their workforce – and make the promise of the new life-work balance a reality.

Recommendations

#1 Strengthening workforce agility

Simplify, streamline, scale.

For many businesses, the crises of the pandemic are being replaced by the prospect of growth. That brings its own pressures, especially in talent acquisition. “We have to attack a lot of our talent and performance management practices and take out complexity”, says Malcolm O’Neal of MRC Global. One example: focus performance management on near-term work, providing fast feedback to reduce bureaucracy – and allow leaders to pivot with their employees when needed.

Rethink roles.

Employee churn creates opportunities to redesign roles. This can help meet employee expectations for flexibility, and at the same time serve the company’s needs. Crystal Lannaman of BASF says: “Whenever it’s time to post a role, we’re trying to encourage managers to pause and look at their options. Why don’t you give 40% to someone else so that you're stretching and growing them? Or bring in a gig worker for 50% and make a development role for the other 50%? We need to be more creative, open-minded and agile with how we think about roles.”

Refine remote and hybrid working to access talent

For some employers, remote working provided access to untapped pools of talent. “It opened a lot of doors for us”, says the Global Lead for External Workforce at a major biopharmaceutical company. “Being in Thousand Oaks, California, we’ve historically had to relocate people here, because it's not a huge pharma hub. But now we're able to attract talent from New Jersey or Boston and have them collaborate with us without having to relocate.” Retain hybrid models where possible to access a wide talent pool.

Develop as-a-service partnerships

For MRC Global, entering a high-growth mode has created huge demand for new talent – and led to a rethink of how the company hires. “What has evolved for us is a new ‘as-a-service’ model”, says Malcolm O’Neal. Working with an external partner, KellyOCG, created increased hiring capacity and provided access to advanced HR capabilities. The result? The ability to move at speed to seize today’s opportunities.

#2 Reinventing the employee experience

Support the life-work shift

The disruption of the pandemic threw work and personal life out of sync for employees. “When the world stopped, all of a sudden you had to get into these first priorities – like looking after the kids and their schooling,” reflects Malcom O’Neal. The mentality was to give people the flexibility to meet those needs – and that should be a lasting legacy. “That constant juggle is still there”, he says. “Employees can raise their hand and say, ‘Hey, I need to take care of this.’”

Reinvent work, together

Reinventing work is a joint project for leaders and employees together. “A lot of things are changing and changing really fast for our organization”, says O’Neal, “and we're constantly listening to feedback.” There is an immediate link to performance too. “We know that if our people buy into the strategy, the results will be on the board.”

Reward teams

Today’s complex challenges can’t be solved by individual effort alone: they demand great teamwork. Shouldn’t compensation policies recognize that? “We've moved towards team-based compensation and team-based goals,” says O’Neal. Individual goals still have their place, especially for personal development – but to drive team behavior on key business outcomes, compensation needs to be aligned accordingly.

#3 Taking concrete action on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

Show vulnerability

When leaders open up and engage at a personal level on mental health, wellbeing and DEI issues, it can transform the conversation. “We try to help our senior leadership to be spokespeople and to share their own stories on things that they may be dealing with personally or in their families”, says Anthony Webster of Evoqua. “It makes it real and authentic for people.”

Be inclusive of contingent workers

In today’s fluid workforces, employees may have a range of different contracts. Leading employers ensure inclusion extends to contingent workers as well as permanent staff. “We have employee resource groups that support different communities, whether it is our LGBTQ community, or our women's community, or our Asian community. Employees as well as our external workers can participate”, says Global Lead for External Workforce at a major biopharmaceutical company.

Drive inclusion from first line leaders up

Employee’s line manager relationships are critical to their experience of work – so to move the dial on inclusion, work on inclusion with line managers. “We're doing a program for first line leaders called Intentional Leadership”, says Anthony Webster. It prompts those managers to ask: “How does your responsibility and role as a first line leader need to change? How does it need to shift from being just performance and objective focused, to being focused on wellbeing, engagement, inclusion and authenticity?”

#4 Adopting the right technologies to manage and empower today’s workforce

Adopt analytics

HR and talent teams stand to benefit hugely from more widespread adoption of data analytics. “A lot of companies are missing the front-end analytics that allow them to look at the market strategically”, says Cherice Schmidt, Head of RPO at KellyOCG. “Our sourcing strategy team uses all kinds of technologies and tools to look at supply and demand, to show clients what the market looks like, what rates look like, and then build a sourcing strategy. Do we need local recruiting? Is LinkedIn our best bet?” Whether in-house or through partners, companies need to take advantage of the analytics available.

Use data to support DEI

Better data can drive better outcomes in DEI initiatives. At BASF, says Crystal Lannaman, “one of the things that we look at from a data perspective is how fast we are bringing people in – and how fast are they leaving”. If the company only looks at attraction metrics, it is not seeing the full picture.

Cherice Schmidt points out that front end analytics are also crucial for targeting diversity efforts. “You may want four out of five shortlisted candidates to be diverse – but if the market is only 20% diverse, you’re never going to get 80% on your interview slate,” she explains. The better the company’s data, the better it can tailor its approach to what’s needed.

Focus on company results

For some companies, the talent challenge is at the top of the corporate agenda. Their ability to bring on the right talent at the right time could perhaps be their biggest hurdle to meeting financial objectives for the year. As a result, HR is more aware than ever of its impact on business results. Having a singular focus on the company’s financial performance helps people connect and say, “How does my role impact that?” Ultimately, people performance is about bottom-line company results.

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