COVID-19 changed everything, fast, especially for HR leaders. One day, hundreds of thousands of people were working in offices and the next they were at home. While nine in ten workers say they’re happy with how their company adapted to the mass transition to remote working, only 20 per cent strongly agree their employers are prepared for a new way of working.

This is due to the fact that as we return to work in a COVID world, Australian workers have a higher expectation to be able to work from home – 48 per cent are likely to work remotely most of the time, compared to 30 per cent beforehand.

The quicker you are to adapt to new technology, the more likely you are to keep your employees engaged, customers happy and ultimately stay ahead of competition.

With this in mind, HR teams and executives have an important role to play in engaging employees as we start to return to work in a COVID world. As the future of work requires a focus on enabling productivity among a disparate workforce, let’s take a closer look at how to meet the changing needs and expectations of our employees:

1. Foster a culture of trust

I have been pleased to see how Australian office workers have experienced true mobility during the enforced lockdown of COVID-19. This period has shown us that employees don’t need to be in the office to complete their work, and it’s up to HR to continue driving trust and flexibility across their organisation.

Luckily, efficient, effective communication is simple to achieve with tools like Slack, Zoom and Microsoft Teams, which are changing the way we connect. Simple ideas like encouraging team members to turn on their camera during a meeting, or have the leaders host weekly get-togethers to give employees a place to chat and voice any wins or struggles they may be experiencing at home can deliver great benefits to team camaraderie. Achieving a trust-driven work culture will empower employees to take increased ownership of their work and supports the idea that remote is the new way of work.

2. Remember every employee’s situation is different

The lockdown period has made it clear that work-life balance is as much part of the workplace puzzle than any other piece. Recent research from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed that during COVID-19, parents made changes to their work arrangements to care for their children by either working from home (38 per cent), reducing or changing working hours (22 per cent) and taking extra leave from work (13 per cent).

Not only are parents finding the ability to agile work a success, 48 per cent of workers in general appreciate the absence of the office commute and 46 per cent feel their productivity is benefiting from having more dynamic hours that fall outside the typical 9-5 day. People are attracted to working from home as it works better for them, so HR teams should encourage employees to shape out their own work routine – one that strikes a better balance between life and work without compromising productivity and deliverables.

The lockdown period has made it clear that work-life balance is as much part of the workplace puzzle than any other piece.

3. Use digital tools to fuel productivity

As a HR team, while supporting employees is top priority, it is also important to keep sight of your business’ overall goals. The quicker you are to adapt to new technology, the more likely you are to keep your employees engaged, customers happy and ultimately stay ahead of competition. While tools like Zoom are great, let’s keep in mind that as employees return to work, they’ll have a cascade of new digital skills that they’ve learnt as a result of this mindset.

This period has shown us that employees don’t need to be in the office to complete their work, and it’s up to HR to continue driving trust and flexibility across their organisation.

Providing digital solutions that enable employees to easily facilitate remote is one way to do exactly that. Local organisation HR Central is a good example, having permanently transitioned to cloud-based solutions to support and help their staff adjust to working from their home environment.

Looking ahead
It is clear that the changes to work life brought on by COVID-19 are here to stay. For HR teams, understanding that each employee has unique circumstances, and that working remotely means something different to everyone, is key to ensuring a smooth transition. Now is the time for HR teams to lead the way in driving productivity as we shift from reacting to COVID-19, to reviving the way we work.

Image Source: Pixabay

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Mastercard invests in its current and future workforce by providing employees with opportunities to develop skills that will help them succeed, not just in their current job, but throughout their career, Joscelyne explained.

“It’s our responsibility to support people’s transition between the skills required to succeed today and the ones they’ll need to thrive tomorrow,” she said.

“We cultivate a culture of continuous learning to provide employees a variety of experiences to develop current capabilities and acquire new skills to sustain their marketability.

“For us in talent development and management, this is the triple crown for acquisition and retention of top talent: job satisfaction, social purpose and increase of skills.”

Some of the elements of Mastercard’s talent management strategy include:

1. Fostering an environment of flexibility and learning: Mastercard provides employees flexible work options, comprehensive benefits and support programs to help make best use of their time and get answers and assistance for common work/life/family concerns.

“We’re focusing on development as a critical part of employee-manager relations,” said Joscelyne.

“We also have a culture of learning, where each employee has a development card that isn’t about ratings or results but about a path to a fulfilling and productive career at the company.”

The firm offers progressive workplace programs, benefits and services to support working parents and their families throughout life’s journey – regardless of gender or sexual orientation.

“We’re focusing on development as a critical part of employee-manager relations”

Benefits reinforce the firm’s commitment to balance, inclusion and equity, and it is moving to equal parental leave for men and women to set expectations that family care is a shared responsibility

2. Future-ready: Joscelyne said that Mastercard believes in a future where people are still relevant – and will still be the difference-maker in the success of most organisations.

“As a tech innovator, we think about the skillsets needed to power the digital economy – now and in the future,” she said.

“In our technology-enabled world, where every company has a digital and data focus, talent management is being redefined by the rapid changes and maturation of emerging technologies.”

For example, Mastercard built an AI Garage engine that helped analyse the development needs of more than 17,000 employees and this information will now be used to inform learning and development investments for 2020.

“AI has significantly enhanced our capability in this regard,” said Joscelyne.

The firm has also invested in “learning lounges” in major office locations across the world. These lounges are digital environments where technology connects employees across geographies in real-time, and serve as multi-purpose collaborative environments which offer an informal and intimate experience.

“These foster our vision of creating the most enviable learning environment possible and also support our culture of decency by sharing experiences and innovative ideas among our diverse employee population,” said Joscelyne.

“As a tech innovator, we think about the skillsets needed to power the digital economy – now and in the future”

3. Community engagement: Employees’ efforts create social impact, according to Joscelyne, who explained that a recent internal survey about community engagement and skill-building found that 87 percent of employees equate volunteerism with their job satisfaction.

Mastercard also runs a program encouraging young women and girls to explore possibilities and careers in technology through its STEM education program Girls4Tech

Now in its fifth year, this program has reached more than 400,000 girls, with a goal of reaching 1 million girls by 2025.

The firm is also building a global talent philanthropy program to apply the skills and expertise of employees to giving back and creating social impact, Joscelyne added.

Improving leadership development
Joscelyne explained that it is important to set the vision and strategy for meeting any internal and external talent needs across the global organisation, from talent attraction, acquisition and leadership development, through to succession planning, employee engagement and change management.

Leadership development is strongly prioritised within different areas of the business and also across all levels in the organisation, she said.

“A few key aspects covered in our leadership programs are personal awareness: understanding ‘self’, future of leadership, being next generation leaders, ethical and moral leadership: leading with purpose; dilemma reconciliation, decision making in ambiguity and learning from failures, and the power of diverse teams,” said Joscelyne.

Mastercard also offers a Management Associate Program to develop leaders in the early to mid-stages of their careers.

This program is an 18-month rotational leadership development one for graduates with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree focused on building general management skills.

“We thrive on innovation so we can change the way the world pays and gets paid,” said Joscelyne.

“This commitment has allowed us to attract and retain employees who like to work in a creative, challenging environment [and] we believe strongly in learning and career development, by treating the workplace as a learning lab.”

Joscelyne also said it is important to ensure all employees receive ongoing feedback to make the most of their talents in order for them to succeed.

Mastercard also provides financial assistance to eligible employees who want to take their education and professional development to the next level.

“We thrive on innovation so we can change the way the world pays and gets paid”

Reskilling and upskilling existing talent
It is important to understand the revolution of reskilling and the importance of thriving in the future of work, Joscelyne said.

“We’re applying AI tools to help our operations & technology teams with skills assessment and skill-building to support their career development and goals,” she said.

“For the past year, we’ve been working with an on-demand learning content provider to help this highly technical organisation get a better understanding of their skills inventory and gaps and promote a continuous learning culture within their function.”

Using a variety of learning content (from web-based courses and videos to exercises developed by industry experts) an AI-scored knowledge assessment engine lets employees measure their proficiency in a particular skill, with an assessment algorithm benchmarking their skill level compared to other users.

As more users’ complete assessments, this provides insights into technical skillsets across the teams assist with and also assists with diagnosis of development areas and training needs.

This technology has helped support the “two hours per week” learning commitment that the operations & technology business unit set for its people.

“So human leadership still plays an important role – even with the tech supporting the transaction,” she said.

“Employees discovered the platform – and shared word of it with their colleagues taking over 750 skills IQ assessments, and logging over 17,000 total viewing hours.”

All of these results were achieved without the tool ever being formally announced or promoted internally.

The engagement grew from the initial exploration to a formal pilot (1,500 licences) in early 2018 and ultimately an enterprise engagement of 4,000 licences by mid-2019.

“Human leadership still plays an important role – even with the tech supporting the transaction”

“As more users complete skill IQ assessments over time, we’ll be able to gain better insights into the technical skills across teams and better diagnose organisational development areas and training needs,” said Joscelyne.

“We’re also working closely with the Pluralsight team to continue enhancing the platform based on our organisational needs.”

Results and outcomes
“The outcomes of our talent management program and efforts haven’t gone unnoticed,” said Joscelyne.

“We have set a standard and will continue to empower and take thoughtful action to hold ourselves accountable for delivering meaningful results.

“By supporting employees’ efforts to give back to their communities and providing opportunities for them to build skills though volunteering and assignments, we’ve seen a definite benefit in terms of engagement.”

Its most recent employee engagement survey found that 89 per cent of employees responded positively that the company supports their volunteer efforts.

Its Girls4Tech STEM education program for young girls also found that:

• 87 percent of employee participants learned something new about the foundational elements of the business
• 83 percent increased communication skills by delivering the curriculum in a simple, engaging manner
• And 73 percent felt more confident to use the skills and knowledge learned from G4T to be more effective in their job (particularly women)

“Organisations and influencers in the world at large have also recognised our efforts,” said Joscelyne.

“We’re a destination for some of the most highly sought after – and sometimes elusive – employee demographics.”

Mastercard has been acknowledged as a best workplace for diversity, for women, for technologists, innovators, working parents, LGBTQ equality and countless other distinctions, including Great Place to Work’s 2019 Best Multinational Workplaces in Asia.

“At the end of the day, the awards are nice, but it all stems from the world-class culture we’re committed to delivering and the kind of workplace experiences people have at Mastercard,” said Joscelyne.

Image source: Depositphotos

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Over the course of 2019, I hosted, keynoted and ran sessions at employee experience summits around the world. Attendees comprised a broad cross-section of organisations, industries and regions, at various stages of implementing EX — from those who were curious about how to take the first step in bringing EX into their organisation, to leaders of established employee experience functions grappling with how to link their EX strategy to bottom-line business outcomes.

Yet despite significant differences in where organisations were focusing their EX efforts — especially between regions — there was one common conversation: People are still struggling to define what ‘employee experience’ actually means.

At every summit, I asked ‘what is employee experience?’. And while it seems like a simple question, the answers ranged from uncertainty to incredibly long-winded.

This isn’t surprising — EX is still in its infancy. And like any significant shift, be it technology or social, there tends to be an awkward period where we struggle to concisely articulate what this new ‘thing’ actually is. It takes time to collect the relevant data to support it.

“The employee experience is how an employee experiences, recalls and retells the story of their day, week, year and career”

For example, people have been practicing mindfulness and meditation for millennia with positive results, but it’s only recently that neuroscientists definitely proved the impact mindfulness has on our physiology. Similarly, most leaders know intuitively that the employee experience is the right approach, but most are still struggling to prove and articulate why.

This is where a shared definition is crucial, as it gives us a starting point for:

1. Talking about the subject with credibility and influence; and
2. Determining what we should be measuring.

We’ve spent years exploring the science of experiences then applying it to real-world applications. This has slowly distilled into the following definition:

The employee experience is how an employee experiences, recalls and retells the story of their day, week, year and career.

Within this definition, there are a number of elements to consider when incorporating EX into a strategic plan.

Experience: The process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something. By nature, humans are experiential, living life as a continuous stream of moments and feelings. Work is no different.

“Life is a narrative stream we’re constantly remembering, retelling and revising, based on our experiences”

Remembers: We tend to remember things that defy our expectations, especially extreme deviations. When it comes to experiences, our recollection is an average of the peak and end moments. These two instances disproportionately shape our overall memory, however they don’t need to be monumental. They can easily be the everyday moments, interactions, connections and conversations.

Retells: Helping people talk about their experiences by providing the right language and artifacts gives them an opportunity to relive their experiences. This also plays a powerful role in defining the employer brand.

Story: Humans are driven and connected by narratives — whether it’s the stories we tell ourselves to justify our actions, beliefs and identity, or other’s stories that influence our emotions and behaviours. Life is a narrative stream we’re constantly remembering, retelling and revising, based on our experiences.

Day, week, year or career: A reminder that experiences can be massive, spanning years and careers, but they are also in the day-to-day. We need to consider both when designing the employee experience.

Numerous factors influence how EX is integrated into an organisation — the purpose, the strategy, the culture — ultimately, though, it’s about finding what matters to the people that make up your workforce. This is why there isn’t a single handbook or step-by-step approach to EX, rather a framework that helps leaders build great employee experiences.

Image source: Depositphotos

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Over the course of the past six months, I’m increasingly hearing more conversations centred around talent reviews, with debates about their value as well as how to run an effective talent review process.

My experiences conducting hundreds of talent reviews and building the process for both local and global companies have taught me that there are a few critical factors to create a successful talent review.

A clear, company-specific definition of potential
There are lots of conversations around “competency frameworks” rather than capability ones and many organisations get caught up in the complexity of defining what is potential for them.

Instead of using one of the many global generic potential models that exist (I must admit I’m not a fan of the 9-box process for a number of reasons), I’d suggest you create your own company-specific definition of potential that includes the following elements:

• A track record of sustained high performance/experiences across fundamentally different challenges. Past performance in one job tells us little about future performance in a different job, although many still use this as a judgment lever. I’ve seen many high potentials fail with this approach.
• However, sustained high performance/experiences across different, highly challenging scenarios indicates high cognitive capability and provides insights about resilience, ambition and other critical factors that predict potential.
• Think about how your definition of potential also fits with the four or five capabilities your business strategy requires.

Keep it simple
You should be able to conduct a talent review with two documents:

1. An individual summary of each person including their roles, past experiences, strengths etc, and
2. A succession plan that takes in current and future roles for the next five years.

Remember to look at what future roles may exist in next five years as this will determine the skill/capability requirements your company will need moving forward. Don’t clog your talent reviews with unnecessary data as this will just confuse the conversation.

Talent ownership by leaders
During a talent review, it is critical that leaders are able to articulate their high potentials’  strengths, weaknesses, behaviours and next development steps. Make sure your leaders are engaged in this process and that they have done their homework in preparation for the talent review.

Quality conversation outcomes
HR leaders should facilitate talent review conversations to ensure consistency across the organisation. This may sound basic but before the talent review the HR leader should meet with every business leader who will be presenting their high potential talent in the meeting to review their assessments and screen for any controversial choices. In the talent review the HR leader needs to focus on the following:

• Keep the conversations fact-based: The only facts discussed are those most relevant to accurately place and invest in an individual. Anything else including irrelevant stories, challenges based on levels etcetera must be carefully shut down, with priority focus given to the facts.
• An independent view from HR: Whenever possible, HR business unit leaders should have an independent view about the talent being discussed and actively participate in the discussion. HR should always be the neutral player in the organisation, interested only in the best overall outcome.

Development outcomes for high potentials
In your talent review session, you will have thoroughly discussed each high potential’s strengths, weaknesses and development needs. You will have calibrated that the group agrees with those findings, as this is critical if the high potential is to have support for their development opportunities/roles. You should have the right people in the room to make smart, aligned decisions about that high potential’s next development steps.

Therefore, a key output of a high-quality talent review is to identify the primary development action for each high potential. When you make this decision in the meeting, you have the benefit of not only having holistic input from your peers, but also their alignment and support of that decision.

HR responsibilities for organisation’s talent reviews
Finally, talent reviews mean nothing without follow-up on the decisions made. I have often seen companies hold fact-based, disciplined talent reviews – and then fail to take the actions they committed to follow through on. Follow-up is easier than it sounds and includes:

• HR records every decision made: If it’s decided that the company should move an employee to Singapore next year, for example, this action should be recorded along with the person responsible for that action and date due.
• HR follows up monthly: Once a month, the HR leader who facilitated the process or owns the outcome should check with the leader for each action item to see if that action has occurred. They should offer to help move the process forward the leader isn’t moving quickly enough.
• Integrate reporting into regular group meetings: Most business units have a regular meeting cycle and talent review follow-up should be integrated into that. The status of talent review actions should be tracked and reported just like any key financial or operational metric.
• Consolidated high potential summary by CHRO: This step is vital so the CHRO can have regular conversations with the CEO and executive team members around the bench-strength of the organisation and what areas need to be invested in. This may also include understanding what capability gaps exist in a company’s succession plan and whether these may need to be addressed by external recruitment.

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While it is relatively easy for organisations to maintain a cohesive workplace culture when they are small, businesses often struggle as they grow in size, scale and complexity. Workday, which was founded in 2005, listed in 2012 for US$9.5 billion ($13.9 billion) and today has a market capitalisation of about US$40 billion ($58.5 billion) with around 10,500 people across some 60 offices around the world.

As it has grown rapidly, its HR team and organisational leadership have had to recalibrate internal processes to ensure the company and its culture stay true to its founding values, said Workday’s chief people officer, Ashley Goldsmith and has global responsibility for HR, global impact and workplace facilities.

The company’s founder started with a formula that happy employees’ equal happy customers, with a strong focus on the employee experience from the company’s inception.

“We believe deeply that if employees feel respected, valued and that what they do matters and they can make an impact, then they will do great things for our customers,” said Goldsmith.

“If they’re developing technology, there’ll be more innovative, for example. If they’re providing service, they’ll work even harder to make sure customers are happy.

“So, with this ethos as a backdrop, ensuring we have a strong culture and sticking to our values has been really important,” she said.

However, Workday has faced challenges in maintaining this culture as it has experienced rapid growth.

In 2016, for example, the company had been growing quickly with about 4000 employees on its books.

“We were seeing all these little signals that the culture, values and experience were just not what they used to be,” she recalled.

Internal surveys, as well as external feedback through Glassdoor ratings and LinkedIn, were slightly down from previous highs, and Goldsmith said trendlines in employee feedback were not heading in the right direction.

“We were seeing all these little signals that the culture, values and experience were just not what they used to be”

“That was an important moment for us,” she said.

“We looked in the mirror and asked ourselves whether this was just a symptom of growth and recognition that all companies can’t stay amazing forever and if we were okay with being really good – or if we wanted to be exceptional even through major growth.”

“We decided we wanted to be exceptional, so we implemented a number of measures and steps to refocus on our values and culture in order to improve employee feedback and sentiment.

“We were highly intentional about this at the leadership level and we realised that some of the ways we had been doing things were not working to the standards we wanted, and just hoping that working the culture and values through normal channels was not going to work in the face of high growth.”

Workday’s people leadership summit
Workday started by focusing on its people leaders, as Goldsmith explained that they have the greatest cultural impact on employees’ day-to-day experiences.

“To start, we brought every single one of our people leaders from around the world together for two days to meet with Workday’s co-founders and our senior leadership team, to learn why we need to nurture our culture and how to create positive experiences for employees,” she said.

The executive team taught all our people managers about what it means to lead and manage in alignment with Workday’s values and culture – which was the exclusive focus rather than company goals and results.

“Managers make or break the employee experience, right?

“If our founders could have wonderful views and corporate could be really a great place to work that’s great, but your actual manager stinks and isn’t reinforcing the values, then you’re going to be having a really different experience,” said Goldsmith.

This original get-together in 2016 has now been formalised into an annual program (called the people leadership summit) which is designed for every people manager in the company who has been newly promoted or who is new to Workday within the previous year.

“We continue to hear people come out of it and say it’s one of the most impactful things that they’ve done,” said Goldsmith.

“We’re looking for points of correlation in the data which can assist us with creating our desired employee experience”

Assessing employee experience
Another initiative Workday has adopted is a survey to measure employee sentiment on a weekly basis.

Every Friday, every employee across the globe receives two questions (which take about 15 seconds to answer) via mobile phone, and the questions are part of a set of 34 questions which are broken down over the course of 17 weeks.

Feedback is collated and populates a dashboard which every manager has ongoing access to in order to understand the experience they’re creating for their teams.

The system also pushes managers content on areas for improvement in order to further their development and increase employee engagement

This content is delivered in bite-size format to improve accessibility, according to Goldsmith: “So if listening was one of the three areas I need to improve on, for example, Workday learning would push content to my phone with suggestions on what videos I could watch, what courses I could attend or which articles I could read – all to hone listening skills,” she said.

“The system constantly refreshes content for managers with guidance and advice to help improve the employee experience of their teams.”

This data is also important for Workday’s HR team, with data points that can be leveraged in conjunction with other rich data within the company to help define areas for focus and improvement.

“We’re looking to create a consistent employee experience which is in alignment with our culture and our values, so we’re looking for points of correlation in the data which can assist us with creating our desired employee experience,” said Goldsmith.

For example, female employees in Workday’s Dublin office indicated that they felt they weren’t being treated fairly and that their voices were not being heard.

“This was pretty alarming for the Dublin leadership team and for us to see,” said Goldsmith, who explained that a half-day session was convened to look into the reasons behind this less-than-ideal employee sentiment – followed by actionable steps for implementing change.

With the completion of the next cycle of 17-week survey questions, with feedback indicating dramatically improved results for the Dublin office.

“You need to be willing to try things, understand what the real business issues are, how technology might help solve these”

“This was a good example of something going astray in the face of growth and change, recognising the problem and then taking a targeted approach to fixing it quickly,” says Goldsmith.

Hiring for culture/values fit
With a renewed focus on culture and values, talent acquisition also came under the microscope to ensure the business was hiring the right people at the beginning of the employee experience journey.

All managers (including hiring managers) undergo an “ignite training” program which helps them understand what values to look for in candidates and what kind of questions to ask in order to identify behaviours which fit the culture of the business.

Workday also has a process called “results-based selection” in the talent acquisition process, which focuses on specific examples of achievement to help hiring managers understand how candidates respond in certain situations.

“We want to make sure that their values are going to be consistent with ours at all times,” said Goldsmith, who explained that Workday recently brought together 200 managers from across the US for ignite training.

“If these 200 people are engaged in interviews and hiring people into the company, but they’re not subject matter experts, then how can we ensure we cover off all the areas we need to?”

To assist with this Workday is piloting a “culture ambassador” program to help strengthen the process of effective talent acquisition and culture/values fit across the business.

“If I’m hiring somebody on my HR team, for example, I could have a software engineer who might interview a candidate, and this engineer is somebody who we’ve recognised as a really strong reflection of our values as a company.

“So, they’ve been trained on how to do this and what they should be looking for through a really objective lens – so they can add value to the interview process.

“We’re eager to see how this helps, because as we grow, one of the most important things we can do is make sure we have people who are aligned to our values,” said Goldsmith.

“If employees opt out and leave us, or we opt that they are not right for the business, that certainly indicates we didn’t hire well”

The evolution of HR
As a finance and HR technology company, innovation is an important focus for Workday and Goldsmith explained that this is also reflected in its approach to HR.

While HR professionals don’t have to be technologists or software engineers to extract the most value from technology and data, they do need to possess a deep curiosity about what technology can do for them.

“You need to be willing to try things, understand what the real business issues are, how technology might help solve these – and then engage,” said Goldsmith.

“Historically, I don’t think HR has had a strong ROI mindset and we need this to move forward.

“We need to look at the outcomes that our work is generating and asking ourselves: are we measuring those outcomes? Are they adding business value? Is it delivering the results that we want (or not)?

“And we need to be willing to phase out the things that are not having an impact,” said Goldsmith, who explains that this approach is particularly important in cultivating a good working relationship with the CEO and executive team.

Business strategy should drive the company’s talent strategy and all HR initiatives and programmes, which will provide a clearer line of sight and stronger discipline around tangible outcomes.

“It’s easy for HR to focus on the output rather than the outcome, so our HR team is focused on ensuring that all our people strategies support the business strategy,” she said.

Results and outcomes
Internally, the company measures its HR success in a range of ways – many of which focus on harder business outcomes.

When it comes to training, for example, Goldsmith observed that most companies assess training effectiveness through good faith and smile sheets which ask participants about whether they enjoyed the course, if they liked the instructor and if they feel the training was relevant.

There are correlations between positive business outcomes for people who have higher sentiment levels and a better employee experience, and to this end, Workday assesses the employee experience for people whose managers have attended ignite training, versus those whose managers have not.

“It’s easy for HR to focus on the output rather than the outcome, so our HR team is focused on ensuring that all our people strategies support the business strategy”

The Workday survey encompasses 13 dimensions, and Goldsmith explained that across each dimension there is a statistically significant difference in the employee experience of those people whose managers that attended ignite versus those who had not.

“Knowing this training correlates to legitimate business outcomes such as higher retention, better promotability, stronger intent to stay, better candidate referrals as well as higher performance tells us that we should continue to invest in this training – rather than just hoping that it’s a good programme,” she said.

Workday also measures traditional HR metrics such as 12-months attrition rates, and Goldsmith said this is an important indicator.

“If employees opt out and leave us, or we opt that they are not right for the business, that certainly indicates we didn’t hire well,” said Goldsmith.

“We do track these numbers and we have an internal target for what we should be aiming for, and we also benchmark attrition more broadly as well specifically against our industry.”

Throughout the globe, Workday has never exceeded 10 per cent attrition (whereas the industry benchmark tends to run at 20-plus per cent).

Workday has also been recognised in numerous external surveys including #4 in the Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For 2019, #2 in Fortune’s 40 Best Workplaces in Technology 2018, #3 in Europe’s Best Places to work (Great Place to Work 2019) and #3 in Fortune’s 100 Best Workplaces for Women 2018.

“We’ve very open about what works and what doesn’t,” said Goldsmith.

“There are some things which haven’t worked, but we have stayed focused on good business outcomes and that is a very important success characteristic at Workday.”

Image source: Depositphotos

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Many companies have recognised that embracing neurodiversity is an incredibly powerful way of enabling real diversity of thought and perspective in your organisation, said Alex Linley, co-founder of Cappfinity, which is a global leader in strengths-based talent acquisition, assessment and development.

“Employing people who genuinely ‘think differently’ is guaranteed to bring new perspectives and insights,” he said.

“It allows companies to be more innovative, to spot value and solutions others may have missed, and make better decisions as a result.”

However, there is still room for improvement and Linley predicted that there will be more interesting developments in this space especially with new technology in the future.

Linley’s comments come off the back of recent CIPD research which found that just 10 per cent of HR professionals say consideration of neurodiversity is included in their organisation’s people management practices.

Neurodiversity refers to the natural range of differences in human brain function, and among employers, it’s become the term used to describe alternative thinking styles including dyslexia, autism, ADHD and dyspraxia as they relate to diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

These can have unique strengths, ranging from data-driven thinking to sustained focus over long periods, an ability to spot patterns and trends, and the capacity to process information at extraordinary speeds.

However, due to a lack of awareness within organisations and the way that most organisations are physically and structurally set up for ‘neurotypicals’, many workplaces do not enable neurodiverse individuals to perform to their full potential.

“There are real opportunities for forward-thinking employers which want to embrace and celebrate the value that people who ‘think differently’ can bring”

For example, the CIPD research found that 72 per cent of HR professionals said that consideration of neurodiversity wasn’t included in their people management practices, and 17 per cent said that they didn’t know.

Neurodiverse candidate challenges
Linley, who has a PhD in Psychology, observed that the number one challenge for organisations and neurodiverse candidates is always going to be a lack of resources.

“Oftentimes, those people who are neurodiverse tend to need extra care and attention during the interview stages and even into onboarding and beyond,” he said.

“That isn’t to say that there’s not a plethora of solutions to overcome this; it’s just that companies need to take the time to educate themselves and become more aware of best practices when it comes to people who are neurodiverse, which in turn will benefit culture across the board.”

As neurodiversity becomes more widely recognised and understood, Linley said there is no excuse for being left behind.

“Instead, there are real opportunities for forward-thinking employers which want to embrace and celebrate the value that people who ‘think differently’ can bring,” he said.

Neurodiversity and improving recruitment
To embrace neurodiversity, organisations need to consider both their recruitment practices and how they enable neurodiverse people to perform at their best once they are in the role.

A starting point for HR is to use multiple ways of assessment to find candidates, so that people who are neurodiverse have an opportunity to showcase their strengths.

At the interview stage, for example, it is important to account for neurodiverse candidates by giving candidates the option of a one-on-one interview rather than a panel, avoiding hypothetical ‘what if’ questions and allowing reasonable adjustments and extra time.

“It’s important to accommodate neurodiverse employees through strengths-based practices to allow them to focus on what they are best at”

“Moving forward, it’s important to accommodate neurodiverse employees through strengths-based practices to allow them to focus on what they are best at and what they enjoy most while aligning with these abilities to company goals,” said Linley.

“This might incorporate a mixture of flexible working arrangements like varied hours or working from home days.”

Linley said it’s also a good idea is to develop a neurodiversity policy which sets out the company’s position in relation to neurodiversity, how people who are neurodiverse are supported, and how this plays through into recruitment, performance management and progression practices – and why this is important.

Neurodiversity trends and advice
There are a number of important trends on the horizon for HR, and Linley explained that the biggest shift will be in relation to awareness, acceptance and active embracing of neurodiversity in the workplace.

“We are increasingly aware and accepting today in 2019, and more and more companies are moving to actively embracing the benefits that neurodiverse employees can bring to their business,” he said.

“As this active embrace of neurodiversity progresses, we are likely to see a shift in what becomes standard policy and practice for managing neurodiversity and enabling neurodiverse team members to use their talents to best effect.”

Linley also said that HR can take a more strategic approach to hiring neurodiverse candidates in three key ways – the first of which is building awareness and acceptance for neurodiversity right across the business.

The second step involves actively embracing neurodiversity as a talent priority for making the most of people who ‘think differently’ – in order to bring different value to the business.

A third step is to design HR systems, policies and procedures to account for these potential differences.

“This is often best done by talking to people who are affected, understanding what would make a difference for them, and then implementing this across the HR lifecycle,” he said.

“We are likely to see a shift in what becomes standard policy and practice for managing neurodiversity and enabling neurodiverse team members to use their talents to best effect”

Guidelines for employers
The CIPD has released a guide for employers to help improve neurodiversity within organisations, and said there are four areas organisations need to focus on:

Recruitment

• Ensure job descriptions are jargon-free and clearly signal that your organisation welcomes neurodivergent individuals
• Many recruitment practices often rely on competency frameworks where people are filtered out if they don’t meet minimum standards on a set of wide-ranging capabilities – review your recruitment approach to ensure you’re not screening out talented individuals
• Ensure interviewers are informed about neurodiversity so they are fair and empathetic in the interview process (such as by choosing a quiet interview space, avoiding rapid-fire questions and understanding why some people might not make direct eye contact)

Workplaces

• Avoid really bright lights in your office that can be distracting or lead to sensory overload
• Consider how noisy open-plan environments can be distracting or lead to individuals feeling overwhelmed
• Complete a desk assessment for any new joiners, helping them make sure their computer screen isn’t too bright and they have everything they need to aid personal organisation (such as trays and filing drawers)

Management

• Train line managers so that they feel confident and able to assist neurodiverse employees at work and help them make the most of their skills
• Encourage regular one-to-ones and feedback between line managers and their reports to keep communication channels open and help motivate and support all employees
• Make sure neurodiversity is welcomed and championed by senior leaders and that a culture of celebrating difference is encouraged throughout the organisation

HR

• Highlight employee support networks and similar resources clearly in the on-boarding process and on the company intranet for anyone who needs them
• Ensure individualised support is available to all, from access to mentoring, coaching and counselling – make sure that support is clearly signposted
• Address comfort at work on a regular basis through workspace preference questionnaires and broader employee satisfaction surveys

Image source: Depositphotos

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SiteMinder is the global hotel industry’s leading guest acquisition platform, and it has increased headcount by 65 per cent over the past three years to more than 800 employees worldwide to keep up with business growth.

With its base in Sydney, it now has six offices globally as well as in remote locations to provide local, on-the-ground presence to its customer base of more than 35,000 hotels across 160 countries.

“In light of such rapid evolution, a recurring challenge for my team exists around securing the right talent at the speed and quality that we need, in order to hit our ambitious growth targets,” explained Dionne Niven, global head of people at SiteMinder.

Two-thirds of the company’s staff are spread across the Australian and EMEA markets, and with both regions experiencing significant talent shortages across the digital landscape, Niven explained that SiteMinder has been pulled into the “hyper-competitive war” for quality talent – not only within the technical fields of engineering and architecture – but across every other crucial function from sales and marketing to finance and HR.

“It’s important for me that, in doing this, we understand the diversity of the talent we are looking to attract and retain,” she said.

“What incentivises a salesperson from the UK is very different to what appeals to a sales professional in Germany, and expectations around training and professional development also differ.”

Niven observed that talent acquisition challenges are exacerbated by regulation and tightening policies around skilled migration visas and an overall decline in IT subject enrolments locally.

“This is a concerning trend for businesses like SiteMinder, which are looking to aggressively scale their employee numbers, while seeking to uphold a very high standard of talent,” said Niven, who pointed to recent Deloitte Access Economics research which found that an additional 100,000 local workers are expected to be required by 2024 in the broader Australian technology industry.

Siteminder has entered the Soonicorn Club (which identifies Australia’s potential unicorns of the future) and generates in excess of 87 million reservations worth over AU$38 billion in revenue for hotels each year, and as a result, it recently hit A$100 million in annual recurring revenue for the first time.

“By identifying a variety of characteristics that mesh well with SiteMinder’s culture and values, we set ourselves up for success from the beginning”

The privately-owned company plans to double down on business growth over the next three years, through further international expansion and new revenue streams that complement its disruptive SaaS model.

How HR strategy supports business growth
A key element of SiteMinder’s HR strategy has been to work very closely with and become partners to the various teams in the business to carefully plan and align to strategy, “so that collectively we are able to work ahead of the curve and operate in a proactive manner towards recruitment”, said Niven.

Given the highly technical nature of many roles within the business, and that a number of staff require assistance relocating from other countries to join the team, SiteMinder plans its recruitment strategy a minimum of 12 months ahead of time to allow for plenty of breathing room in business growth, she explained.

Empowering managers has been another major step in ensuring that the right members are joining the business.

“The reality is, in a high-growth business like ours, we provide the opportunity for many specialists across disciplines to advance into managerial roles for the first time in their careers,” said Niven.

“That requires a completely new mindset-shift and new skills, and it’s important they feel they are set up for success.”

“By providing them with knowledge around new aspects of their role such as the hiring process, they are much more actively involved from the outset, an endeavour that has had the practical effect of greatly reducing staff turnover.”

Operationally, a number of new systems have been introduced to help scale and become more procedurally efficient when hiring at increased volumes to keep up with business growth, which has allowed the HR team to take a more in-depth focus on candidates without being caught up in administration.

Niven said ATS platform Lever has helped improved SiteMinder’s application, screening and scheduling processes, while Xref has streamlined the turnaround time of getting references returned and provides an ideal quantity of feedback in the referees’ words.

SiteMinder also uses The Predictive Index as its “go-to tool” for behavioural assessment, which provides insights that have enabled the business to better internal working relationships.

“The ownership that our tech leaders provide to developers and the ability to work closely with our CTO and most senior tech talent in an open-door environment creates unique appeal”

“Finally, it’s crucial from a branding and acquisition perspective that we’re advertising in the correct locations online depending upon the role and utilising external job-specific recruitment specialists where required,” said Niven.

Getting the right fit for business growth
SiteMinder has grown significantly since it opened its doors in 2006, with the company now recruiting in more than 20 languages across six offices worldwide

While this has added greater procedural complexity, Niven said that “it is more and more important to maintain a simplified, streamlined vision for the culture that we want to continue building”.

One of her key priorities in this process has been the continued knowledge development of SiteMinder’s core values internally, to ensure that its talent acquisition team is able to readily identify the key qualities of individuals who are likely to perform well in the business.

“Through our growth, one thing that’s always been important for our founders and broader leadership team is that we never lose sight of our DNA and what inherently has made our company what it is today and what we continue to look for and expect in our people,” she said.

“By identifying a variety of characteristics that mesh well with SiteMinder’s culture and values, we set ourselves up for success from the beginning.”

Despite the need to hire quickly, Niven said the business actively chooses to invest time in training company leaders about the hiring process, who are now involved in all senior hires.

“By educating them on the concept of unconscious bias, providing them interview and competency guides, and developing sample candidate answers, we create a further safety net, by ensuring that we are bringing on-board individuals that will be a great fit for our leaders to work with,” she said.

Competing for technology talent
SiteMinder’s approach towards technology has always been to invest heavily in research and development and to build everything from the ground up to help drive business growth.

Niven said this approach has allowed the business to build a strong reputation with developer talent organically, as a company that will provide and strive to create cutting-edge, market-leading technology.

“The ownership that our tech leaders provide to developers and the ability to work closely with our CTO and most senior tech talent in an open-door environment creates unique appeal,” she said.

“We’re not looking for assimilation or someone to join us to keep the status quo; we need the challengers and the people who thrive by putting their stamp on things.”

SiteMinder’s employees are also actively involved in the broader tech community through meetups, hackathons and similar initiatives.

“We’re not looking for assimilation or someone to join us to keep the status quo; we need the challengers and the people who thrive by putting their stamp on things”

Niven said they also have a real opportunity to work in close collaboration with the business’ product team, which gives them meaningful insight into how they build technology for the end-user as well as understanding what they do makes a difference.

Employees also have an opportunity to be a part of SiteMinder’s shadow equity plan, which is designed to incentivise staff to grow with the business in the long-term, as “everyone is now effectively a shareholder and in the driver’s seat,” Niven said.

The role of HR in driving business growth
As with many start-up technology businesses, Niven recalls that SiteMinder’s approach to hiring in the early years was solely focused on talent acquisition as it sought to keep its head above water and hire as fast as the business was expanding.

“However, broadening our HR team with the goal of growing our talent long-term has been a significant mindset shift,” she said.

“To keep our finger on the pulse, we now monitor employee engagement on a monthly basis, sharing the results openly with staff and deep diving to tackle any issues as they arise, to ensure that the staff feel involved and valued.”

When new hires are made, Niven said one of the challenges for HR is around onboarding and bringing them up-to-speed quickly across different geographies and disciplines to ensure everyone is set up for success.

“We have evolved from one-on-one inductions to a more structured intake and in doing so can better streamline our messaging around our products, procedures, structure and values,” she explained.

Image: supplied

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As new technologies such as automation and robotics are incorporated into the workforce, the nature of work will change and HR will play a key role in looking ahead to ensure businesses are prepared to meet changing demands. Using publicly available research and its own organisational and industry expertise, medical technology company Stryker identified the top 20 skills needed for individuals to succeed when working side-by-side with technology.

As technology advances, the focus on human qualities becomes even more important, said Stryker South Pacific’s senior director, human resources, Erin Cramlet.

She explained that identifying what attributes will be important in the future and helping employees to develop towards those will become paramount to a company’s success.

“Automation and robotics reduce repetitive tasks, therefore human-centric roles can offer more personalised experiences and provide meaningful work for our people,” said Cramlet, who explained that the top 20 skills needed for the future of work are:

1. Impactful communicator
2. Active listener
3. Team player and collaborative
4. Emotionally connected
5. Result orientated
6. Life-long learner
7. Human-centric
8. Influencer and negotiator
9. Value-driven and ethical
10. Purpose-driven
11. Good under pressure
12. Opportunistic
13. Authentic
14. Strong judgement
15. Creative
16. Entrepreneurial spirit
17. Problem solver and critical thinker – design thinking
18. Data interpreter
19. Agility and adaptability
20. Digitally literate

The 20 skills were brought to life by Australian illustrator, Anthony Calvert (see below – click for more detail) and while the illustration is meant to engage and spark conversation, Cramlet said it carries a serious message.

“To ensure we can continue to lead into the future, we are engaging our people to explore how best we can shape the future of our workforce, what a great place to work will look like in the future, and what qualities will be key to successful employees in the future of work,” said Cramlet.

Stryker has also been awarded Australia’s best place to work (in the 100-999 employee category by Great Places to Work Australia), maintaining its position in the top five best places to work for five consecutive years.

“Our focus is on understanding and treating all employees as individuals,” said Cramlet.

“That’s why we have such a focus on a strengths-based culture.”

“When we considered the pace of change over the next few decades, we wondered, what would it be like to meet our colleague of the future?”

“As Stryker continues to uncover how best to use people and technology side-by-side, decisions need to be made about how to help people grow and develop into the future,” said Cramlet, who explained that the company focuses on aligning a potential candidate’s talents and strengths to a role, and not just focusing on their previous experience.”

“While organisations are continuing to recruit for specific skills, the reality is that some roles do not even exist yet,” she said.

Robotics, automation and the human edge
She gave the example of Stryker’s recent acquisition of robotic technology Mako, which is used during joint replacement surgery, and as a result the company now has more than 50 people working in roles that did not exist four years ago.

“We were able to seamlessly hire for these technical roles by looking at what innate talent we needed and thinking outside the box for where to find this talent,” she said.

“For example, we had great success in hiring driven physiotherapists whose understanding of anatomy and spatial awareness helped them to adapt to the technical nature of the role.”

“While organisations are continuing to recruit for specific skills, the reality is that some roles do not even exist yet”

With continued innovation, Cramlet also recognised this will change the nature of jobs, while automation and robotics will reduce repetitive tasks undertaken by employees.

“We have an opportunity to personalise roles to provide more meaningful jobs that focus on the human side of work and offer a better experience to our people,” she said.

“As technology advances, the focus on human qualities becomes even more important.

“Identifying what attributes will be important in the future and helping employees to develop towards those will become paramount to our company’s success.

How Stryker hires for success
Stryker seeks to hire people who will have long and successful careers with the business, and Cramlet said it invests time in really getting to know potential candidates.

“Our focus is on understanding and treating all employees as individuals,” she said.

“We get to know people as people first, and employees second, and take the time to understand all aspects of their life that may have an impact on their engagement and performance at work.”

Developing natural talents into strengths is part of the “Stryker DNA” and Cramlet said the company looks beyond the industry to search for candidates who have talents and strengths which are a good fit for the role and organisation – both now and in the future.

“When we find the right person, regardless of their experience, we help the candidate to identify their strengths and adapt roles to fit the individual,” she said.

“We then harness our employees’ natural talents and build their skills through ongoing learning opportunities, so our people are empowered to do what they do best.”

Employees are also given a great deal of support and freedom to learn, grow and develop, and she said they are encouraged to own their development and drive change when they see opportunities.

“When we find the right person, regardless of their experience, we help the candidate to identify their strengths and adapt roles to fit the individual”

“Our commitment to developing people’s strengths is grounded in positive psychology and empowers people to develop talents throughout their career with Stryker,” she said.

The role of HR in the workplace of the future
Cramlet also observed that the role of HR in the future will not be dissimilar to HR today, as the function will continue to look ahead and prepare for a changing workplace.

“However, to ensure we can continue to lead into the future, we are engaging our people to explore how best we can shape the future of our workforce, what a great place to work will look like in the future, and what qualities will be key to successful employees in the future of work,” she said.

Businesses are constantly challenged by how to attract the right talent for the right roles, but Cramlet said the reality is that some roles do not even exist yet.

“It has been important to widen our pool of candidates, look beyond the typical industry candidates, and develop our people and refine our culture to ensure we remain an industry-leading place to work,” she said.

As workplaces become more agile, she predicted that there will be a greater focus on how to harness and bring to life company culture across borders.

Ten years ago, for example, 90 per cent of the Stryker’s employees were in the same location and many teams were even in the same room.

“Today, we have global teams and the way we work is quite different,” she said.

“There will be a greater need for HR to help leaders develop skills that ensure their teams feel a sense of community, purpose and ultimately, loyalty to their organisation.”

Image source: Depositphotos

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Innovation, as opposed to invention, generally comes from incremental insights combined with bringing together adjacencies, said Rob Hillard, chief strategy & innovation officer for Deloitte Australia.

“The best innovation programmes focus on collaboration, and challenge an existing understanding of the problem that needs to be solved, rather than coming up with new answers to old questions,” he explained.

Misalignment between the ambition of “innovation activists” in an organisation and the corporate strategy is also a common challenge for organisations.

Hillard observed that teams are often innovating in the wrong place, or at the very least in a place that – if successful – won’t matter to the organisation.

“Providing a clear link between the strategic goals of the organisation, and the areas to innovate on, employees are much more likely to create offerings that are valuable to the organisation and therefore access greater capital, support and less resistance,” he said.

Making innovation business as usual
HR also has a role to play in making sure that the best innovators and collaborators within an organisation are identified and recognised, according to Jason Bender, head of innovation for Deloitte Australia.

“HR can provide open dialogue, share stories, and dispel the myth that innovation is just a creative process,” he said.

“Creativity is only one component. It requires insight, courage, discipline AND creativity to foster an innovative culture.”

Innovation should be deliberate and accessible to everyone, recognising that people bring different capabilities to the table, Bender said.

“The best innovation programmes focus on collaboration, and challenge an existing understanding of the problem that needs to be solved, rather than coming up with new answers to old questions”

Innovation challenges should be combined with on-the-job training in new skills which will encourage and spark innovative insights, which should be recognised and celebrated.

“Innovation is more than a separate programme – It is the development of the future of business and the future of the work that everyone in that business does,” said Bender, who observed that innovation can sometimes get lost in the day-to-day running of a business.

“Innovation is also about discipline; it is a robust and repeatable process with good success rates when approached this way,” he said.

The role of HR in innovation
There are a number of steps HR can do to help create a culture of experimenting, failing, learning and experimenting again, with a view to commercialising innovation, according to Hillard:

1. HR should focus on the collaborative culture of the organisations. How is collaboration and sharing of insights recognised, celebrated and rewarded?

2. HR can help align organisational and individual learning agendas. When an organisation’s learning and individual’s learning collide, innovation is more likely to happen.

3. HR is uniquely placed to make sure that job rotation encourages innovation by bringing adjacent skills to bear on new problems.

4. Inspire people with stories and narratives that they can see themselves in.

5. Recognise and reward the right behaviours from the innovators, the leaders, the enabling functions and the client teams.

6. Develop capability across all aspects of the innovation lifecycle from research and insight, through to generation, development and commercialisation. Recognise that this is a combination of training, bringing in new talent and collaborating outside the organisation. Find a balance between the passionate adventurers and the experienced entrepreneurs.

Image source: Depositphotos

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Economists globally are predicting a 20-25 per cent chance of an economic downturn or recession within the next twelve months, and a recent research report found that HR is largely unprepared for such an event.

This is particularly the case in Australia where the impact of the global financial crisis was less pronounced than elsewhere in the globe, said Dee Fitzgerald, a consultant in the leadership and succession practice at executive search firm Russell Reynolds, which conducted a survey of 534 C-Suite executives (including 43 CHROs in the Asia-Pacific region).

It found that 98 per cent of respondents believe a recession is coming while a further 65 per cent anticipated a downturn would have a moderate to significant negative impact on company performance.

The research found that only 4 per cent of all executives within surveyed organisations are ready for disruptions, and only 12 per cent of CHROs indicated their team is well prepared to respond to a downturn.

“While most deem that a recession is inevitable, only 9 per cent of CHROs surveyed would describe themselves as well prepared to manage through an economic downturn,” said Fitzgerald.

CHROs are even less confident in the level of preparedness of their teams, with only 3 per cent of CHROs stating that they are confident in their team’s ability to respond to a recession.

“The HR function could very well be the function that helps an organisation survive through a recession and recover faster than competitors, although the development of the HR function and team is often low on the executive agenda,” said Fitzgerald.

While most senior executives rank the CEO, business unit leaders and finance as the most important functions in managing an economic downturn, CHROs believe that the HR function is critical in helping organisations survive a recession.

“The HR function could very well be the function that helps an organisation survive through a recession and recover faster than competitors”

Organisational resilience through talent management
If an organisation waits for a recession to hit before discovering that it has the wrong leadership in place, Fitzgerald observed that it will ultimately find itself on the defensive.

“CHROs have a critical role to play in helping organisations recognise that the leadership required in the future may be radically different to that of today,” she said.

“They play an important role in building a strong culture and talent strategy, thus ensuring the sustainability of the organisation.

“Attracting the right talent, retaining the right talent and developing the right talent – these are key focus areas for a CHRO, whether facing a downturn or not.”

HR can therefore play an important role in helping the entire organisation to prepare for a potential recession by asking the right questions in relation to talent strategy, she said.

Fitzgerald explained that there are five steps CHROs can take to help executives and their organisations weather an economic downturn:

1. Have courageous conversations with senior leadership
2. Identify gaps, especially around agility and having experience of a slowing market
3. Address the gaps with effective talent strategies, culture and leadership
4. Stress-test team capabilities to respond and execute contingency plans
5. Do it now. “Whatever you do, it is important to never wait,” said Fitzgerald. “Waiting for a recession to hit before realising that the organisation does not have the right team in place may cause a recession to have significant negative impact on company performance.”

“Identifying leaders who can adjust their behaviour to changing business conditions will ensure continued effectiveness during challenging times”

Resilience through diversity & inclusion
Tina Shah Paikeday, global leader of the diversity & inclusion practice at Russell Reynolds, added that the threat of an economic downturn is not the only issue that characterises the landscape of Australia’s current business landscape.

“Our research shows that inclusive leaders can significantly affect their employee’s experience at work, thus improving outcomes including job satisfaction, loyalty and sense of belonging,” she said.

“Inclusion helps employees be authentic in the workplace, and in this sense of belonging creates higher levels of resilience.”

Shah Paikeday explained that CHROs should look to align diversity and inclusion with business imperatives, particularly in an environment where investing in diversity for the long term will ensure sustainability under projected downturns.

Ultimately, Fitzgerald explained that CHROs can play a key role in readying the executive team to weather a recession.

“Identifying leaders who can adjust their behaviour to changing business conditions will ensure continued effectiveness during challenging times,” she said.

“We can never predict when a recession is going to hit, and whether the furore surrounding a potential recession will in fact become a reality.

“While we can hope for the best, CHROs can ensure their executive peers are equipped for the worst.”

Image source: Depositphotos

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