It’s no surprise: The who, what, where and how of work continues to change dramatically. The good news is that you can make these changes work in your and your business’ favor.
There are three key drivers of change that can influence the future of work in your favor and are directly within your leadership’s control:
As the first post in our Influencing the Future of Work in Your Favor series, you’ll get high-level insights around each, as well as an introduction to Mursion, a capability-building, talent insights platform that can help your organization develop and glean insights around the key leadership competencies vital in today’s competitive marketplace.
AI and technology continue to be massive drivers of change in the workplace. According to the World Economic Forum, we’ve entered the Fourth Industrial Revolution–an environment where technological innovation increasingly relies on interconnected systems that augment, and sometimes even replace, human decision-making.
The pandemic propelled faster adoption of digital technologies, including automation and AI, which has in turn unlocked massive potential for learning, development, and HR functions. This includes everything from using AI to help with content creation for L&D by finding content faster, to the ability to put that content in front of employees in more useful ways like scenario-based learning, immersive learning simulations and even interactive leadership training.
Consider for a moment the time and energy consumed by routine HR functions that require intake of vast amounts of data like candidate searches and 360 review input that could be automated using AI and chat bot models. Then take it one step further: AI can help intake vast amounts of data while also delivering usable insights around everything from retention models to training/learning adoption.
Second-generation systems can amass hundreds of millions of employee profiles, and often scaling into the billions.
Understanding AI in HR: A Deep Dive, The Josh Bersin Company
Opportunities like these are why smart leaders and companies now develop technology strategy alongside business strategy–they think early and often about technology solutions that work to empower and enable teams.
Let’s assume you’ve successfully implemented some useful technologies and leveraged AI to help your organization identify and hire the best of the best talent.
Now’s when the stakes are highest.
It’s vital to nurture and grow that top talent–as the caliber of your talent has a direct impact on your revenue. As Steve Jobs is famously quoted, “A small team of A+ players can run circles around a giant team of B and C players.”
The data supports this. A 2017 McKinsey report found that productivity among high performers is 400% greater than average performers, and is nearly double that in jobs with high complexity.
Not to mention that the demand for top talent who can handle complex roles and challenges continues to rapidly grow. According to the World Economic Forum, analytical and creative thinking remain the most important skills for workers in 2023. It’s no surprise. These valued skills have a direct impact on business growth–and must be nurtured and grown even once employees have been hired.
Productivity is last year’s news. You’ve probably heard a lot about why measuring productivity is in fact, counterproductive for most organizations. In a 2023 Slack survey around state of work, 60% of executives said they track everything from working hours to volume of sent emails all to measure productivity. That very same survey found that only 15% of employees agreed this tracking helped job efficiency. Measuring productivity in this way demonstrates a lack of workplace empathy that ironically makes people less productive.
So what do you measure? And what has the most impact on your business?
Many companies may have a lot of data about their talent, based on performance reviews, 360’s and course completions like LinkedIn Learning, but often it’s not used to effectively drive performance (which we’ve already stated has a direct impact on the bottom line).
It’s actually workplace ecosystems and leadership’s soft skills that have the most dramatic impact on a talent population’s productivity. And in turn, the bottom line. A Yale-led study in the Journal of Creative Behavior found that managers who acknowledged employees’ emotions — and managed their own — benefited not only direct reports, but also the entire organization.
It’s these leadership competencies that are challenging to measure, yet vital to understand, that can have a significant impact on business success.
Through robust research and technology advances, Mursion has built a unique capability-building, talent insights platform designed to enable organizations to develop the leadership competencies outlined above for success in the Fourth Industrial Revolution-esque marketplace.
As noted above, leaders never see how managers manage in the moment, especially when those managers are managing in stressful circumstances. The Mursion platform can change the view. Through an integration of authentic simulated practice, contextual coaching, and real-time data analytics, Mursion delivers organizational insights and understanding around employees readiness to manage change and build leadership competencies in a complex work environment.
The forces of AI/technology, demand for top revenue-driving talent and insights into leadership competencies amongst talent populations are driving the future of work. These forces are not beyond leadership’s influence and control–especially using resources like Mursion, coupled with understanding of dynamics around today’s nature of work.
As the modern marketplace continues to evolve and adapt, it’s vital to have resources and solutions at the ready not just for what’s here today, but also to arm leaders with insights and preparedness for what’s coming tomorrow.
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