Friday, December 7, 2018

HR SPECIAL ....TRANSFORMING THE WORKPLACE


TRANSFORMING THE WORKPLACE

It is important to help employees grow and feel nurtured in the workplace to ensure overall success

Transformations have been the cornerstone of evolution of the workforce. Every new wave that redefines the future defines new skills and capabilities that will drive the success; at the same time, it makes skillsets redundant. The skepticism around automation making jobs redundant is neither new nor unfounded. As businesses evolve to be cutting edge, it is only fair that they expect workplace programmes to be 21st century too.
Skills are the new currency of impact on the business. This has raised the bar on learning significantly. Continuous upskilling of workforce in line with the current and future needs cannot be an afterthought. It has to be the original intent of enterprises who are competing for talent.
While helping the organisation grow the capabilities for it to excel, development of workforce needs to be accelerated. Anything else, does not result in impact.

THREE WAYS IN WHICH HR CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE-
A – Chart new career paths: Technology has opened doors for new skill sets and hence, new jobs. As HR, we need to understand the scenarios and proactively work towards charting new organisation structures and career paths. Prepare your workforce in terms of technology readiness ahead of time, upskill your organisation, create experts and you will see the benefits in the organisation in many ways. Until we become intentional about careers, we will never be able to address the talent deficit.
B - External Ecosystem: Another way of getting a pulse on things is to work with startups and communities outside of your organisation. It’s rules of road for managing talent to keep an eye on the market. For example, hackathons are a great way to identify gaps. Working with startups also helps you to understand what can work and what can fail, albeit in a much, much faster cycle.
C – Don’t forget your culture and values: To keep up with pace of change, never underestimate the power of developing and instilling the right culture and the right values. A culture of trust, inclusion and empowerment at the work place goes a long way in helping organisations achieve digital transformation. As it is said, “It is impossible to create monopoly on the workforce, but it is possible to have the best culture.”
Jim Collins, in his book, Good to Great says a good company is one that stands for the brand it has created in the society and it is a testament to what can make or break, in this day and age.
In an organisation which is decades old, there cannot be a straight line to path of digital transformation, it never is. But as the organisations pay attention to their fantastic talent and undertake upskilling programmes to update their employees with the latest technologies.

— RUCHI BHALLA, VP Human Resources, Pitney Bowes India
ET28NOV18

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