Eliminate roles, not people: insights from the CIO Customer and Employee Experience Forum
The speed of change in the business world has accelerated exponentially in recent years. While societal, geopolitical and macroeconomic changes are often cyclical, COVID marked a paradigm shift in people’s expectations of the workplace.
What does this change mean to you from a tech perspective? How do you create a culture of adaptability and continuous learning, enabling your employees to stay relevant and thrive in this rapidly changing business landscape?
At the CIO Customer and Employee Experience Forum UK, Natalie Whittlesey, our C-suite engagement director, moderated a discussion on eliminating roles, not people, with tech leaders Will Osborne-Kennedy (Nexteq) and Pieter Coetzee (Danone). Here are the key takeaways from their discussion.
Retrain, redeploy or recruit?
There’s a well-publicised digital skills gap as degree courses and training programmes struggle to keep up with the implications of new technologies as they emerge. How do organisations acquire the tech skills they need in a changing environment? Is it about retraining and reskilling, redeploying internal teams, or finding fresh talent? The answer is: all of the above.
While it’s often easier and cheaper to keep the talent you have, particularly in tough financial times, the steep tech learning curve means you also need to supplement your existing skills with talent from outside the business. A drop in job applications from the EU hasn’t made hiring any easier. While this can be offset by talent from other regions, such as southeast Asia, it can be challenging onboarding applicants from further afield.
What’s needed is a balanced approach to talent, based on the continuity of your existing team and augmented by the fresh perspectives and skills of new hires and partners. Danone have had to look externally for a number of skills, which has meant a significant investment in their employer branding to secure the talent they need in a competitive recruitment market.
Immediate need versus long-term gain
When you need the skills immediately, there’s always an argument for bringing in the right talent and the right tech rather than building more slowly over time. But if organisations fail to invest in training in new technologies like generative AI to help their current employees grow, they risk being left behind in the future.
With the capabilities of artificial intelligence apparently increasing by the day, organisations are clamouring for talent with skills in AI – but many businesses are still struggling to find solid applications for the technology. If you’ve not yet identified provable pilots that can augment your team’s skills to allow them to focus on non-routine tasks and objectives, you’ll struggle to prioritise investment in AI, despite the noise.
Every one of your people should have a tailored development plan, so that what they learn and when they learn it is relevant to the business – thereby aligning personal development with business objectives. As much as possible, you have to anticipate and acquire the skills you might need in the future. Nexteq are actively investing in their talent pipeline by partnering with Code First Girls, sponsoring individuals to work through graduate and postgraduate courses with a view to joining on an internship at the end. At the same time, they offer their existing team several training pathways to encourage them to cross-skill and expand their knowledge.
The value of visible leadership in times of change
Being visible and present can help bring clarity, confidence and trust during times of uncertainty. Telling your people that change is coming – but you can see a path through it – can very much change the tone of your transformation.
But in a hybrid working environment, knowing what your people need from you is harder than it used to be. That’s why you have to make a conscious effort to reach out to them. Equally, being physically present whenever possible will allow you to be a role model, showcasing and encouraging the behaviour you want to see on a daily basis.
Building trust across international boundaries is especially challenging. There might be a cultural disconnect between two different regions. Many organisations in the US and Asia, for example, may have moved further towards full time, office-based roles than others, which means leaders have to balance two different styles of working and adapt their style of communication accordingly.
Since COVID, there’s been a shift in the way people perceive work. Their motivations have changed. It’s not just about remuneration; they want to feel that they enjoy working for their employer and that they’re a part of something. ESG, purpose and value alignment, and DEI approaches are starting to underpin the way people interact. Although it’s more challenging than ever for leaders to create a positive culture when their teams are geographically dispersed, it’s vitally important that they find ways of connecting with their people to understand their needs as individuals.
Conclusion
When we think about change, we often get hung up on whether it’s positive or negative because of its direct impact on us. In reality, it’s neither positive nor negative – it’s just change. What’s important is the way we react to it. It’s clear that people’s expectations of the workplace have shifted significantly, and we as employers have to work hard to cater to those expectations by providing the flexibility, working environment and meaning they demand.
Through a balanced approach to talent that involves upskilling and redeploying your existing workforce, and bringing in new talent and partners with the additional skills you need, you can give your organisation the best chance of keeping up with the changing tech skills landscape. Just as important is providing strong, visible and supportive leadership that role models the right behaviour and gives your people confidence in your business’s direction.
Many thanks to Natalie for moderating, to the panellists for their insights and to CIO.com for hosting. If you’re a tech leader looking for advice on acquiring and cultivating the skills you need, please contact Natalie or a member of the team at our executive search and interim management brand, InX.
