HR Insights

Over the past five years, OI Global Partners has been producing an annual Future of Work Global Study. OIGP is a highly regarded global coaching, leadership development and consulting network, of which Choice is a partner. Combining survey results from thousands of HR and Business Leaders in hundreds of organisations worldwide, the study gives incredible insight into people challenges, skills and trends driving global business.

While always insightful, the 2020 report might be the most valuable yet.

Every cloud has a silver lining, and the impact of COVID – while chaotic and disruptive – provides an opportunity for businesses to reflect and build better practices going forward. The OI Global Partners report goes a long way to help plan for a future of work that no one anticipated.

The study includes a lot of data, so we’ve pulled out the most relevant and interesting findings. Here, we’ll take a more in-depth look at what they mean for you, what you can do with it, and how you can use your own experiences and those of others to build a better future.

During the thick of it, we were in survival mode, running off adrenaline. Few of us had the opportunity to stop for a second to look around and notice what we were achieving. But many still haven’t.

One person who did though is Sabina Read, renowned psychologist and corporate health management coach, and this month’s Disruption Circle guest speaker.

In our latest and last event of the year, she provided us with some fascinating insights into her observations of human and organisational life during the year of COVID. She’s a strong believer in using what you’ve learnt (good or bad) to set yourself up for future success. And now that we’re mostly through the hardships of the pandemic it’s time to do just that.

Has this year just been a strange anomaly, an unfortunate detour? Or can the processes and practices implemented out of necessity be retained to deliver long term benefits?

Sarah Stockwell (HR Director, ANZ at McPherson’s), guest speaker at our latest disruption circle event, gave interesting insights into how an ASX listed company approached their pandemic response. Unlike many other organisations, they continued to focus on the big picture (growth and delivery), and only changed their expectations on how they would get there.

HR professionals are responsible for balancing both sides of the coin – managing what’s best for the business, but also what’s best for its people. While staff have never needed support more than they do now, actually delivering this support hasn’t been easy. These months of disruption have challenged everyone in terms of the actions to take to maintain the organisation and the support for the employees.

This begs the question, can the approach we take to supporting staff make a difference to overall business performance and the organisation’s resilience?

It’s a question that took centre stage out our latest Disruption Circle event. Rebecca Supierz, HR Director for ANZ at Seek, discussed the approach they took in the face of major disruption and uncertainty – an approach that was significantly different from that of many other organisations. She made a great example of how a change of attitude and looking closely at what’s really important helped with a successful operational pivot.

Then COVID hit. Many industries were impacted immediately, while many more have found themselves increasingly affected as the months have gone on. Which leaves many of us facing a tough situation: Downsizing organisations and saying permanent goodbyes to employees.

In such an overwhelming and unprecedented situation, how do you go about carrying out a restructure? Logistically it can be hard to exit employees en masse. But it is also challenging from a human point of view – how can you lift these valued members of your team up at the same time you have to let them go? What will be the impact on the remaining employees?

Organisational gender diversity, particular at the executive level of business, has been a topic of discussion globally for a long time. While there has been some movement in diversifying business in recent years, we are still seeing large disparities in representation.

So, why has it been so difficult to get more females into management and executive roles in businesses?

In our latest Disruption Circle event, we discussed the issues of leadership and diversity with guest speaker Michelle Guthrie. A lawyer and business executive who has held positions at News International, Foxtel, Google and the ABC, Michelle shared her experiences and suggestions for industry-wide improvements.

The outcome was that there are tangible advantages of leadership diversity, and that there is a unique opportunity for businesses and individuals right now to achieve true diversity and organisational change.

Over the last 10 or so weeks, disruption has become the norm. But just as many of us are starting to get used to our new normal, it’s all changing again. While a lot of attention has been focused on how our current situation is affecting operations and economics, it’s also affecting something else – people.

This will become even more noticeable as we move into this next disruption. As many businesses get back on track and move their people back into more traditional work environments, people, disruption, and wellness will intersect.

It’s not surprising that this topic took centre stage at our latest Disruption Circle with guest speaker Daryl Mahon, former Vice President at Ford Motor Company.

But while this is a moment of fear for many – for personal safety and business performance – we received valuable insights into how it also presents an opportunity for outstanding people leaders to demonstrate their skills.