People Matters Magazine December 2022: Working in a Disrupted World

step back and take a breath

2022 has gone by as if in the blink of an eye, and looking back at the year, we see that we've come through an incredible amount of disruption and uncertainty. The end of the pandemic clearly wasn't the end of our troubles.

Global events have had major indirect impacts on how people view work and the workplace. The ongoing Great Resignation or Great Turnover has presented challenges in recruitment and retention, even as macroeconomic challenges led to massive layoffs in the tech industry. Inflation and looming recession have placed fresh concerns on the plates of leaders. Changing

approaches and attitudes toward flexibility and the hybrid working model continue to shape work cultures worldwide, not just among younger generations but across all geographies and demographies.

Among the changes and challenges, this year has given us tremendous opportunities to learn and develop, adjusting on the fly to changes in the economy, in the geopolitical environment, in employee expectations and workplace norms. Forward-thinking companies have been able to ride out the turbulence with open minds and agile approaches, and more cautious organisations have still been able to draw on the lessons of the pandemic to evolve their business approach and workplace culture.

Now, it's time to take a pause and consider what we have seen and learned. What

patterns have emerged? What trends characterised this year – trends that might carry forward into 2023? Can we build upon what we've seen this year, to upgrade and adjust our strategies for the next calendar year or the next financial year?

In this issue, we take a bird's eye view of some evolutions in the world of work that may be the springboard for tomorrow. We review trends that emerged over the last 12 months and draw on the expert opinions of leaders and industry analysts and observers to highlight key issues of the year: from hybrid work to retention challenges to digitalisation to economic headwinds.

Our Big Interview is an intensive interaction with the Head of International and Executive Officer at WTW, Pamela ThomsonHall, who shares her expe-

rience of starting work in a heavily male-dominated industry and gradually bringing about greater gender equality and inclusiveness.

People Matters is gearing up for more exciting conferences next year, beginning with our Talent Acquisition Conference in Bengaluru on 9 February. We look forward to welcoming CHROs, HR Heads, Head of Culture, Recruitment, TA Leaders, Engagement, C&B, Reward and Employee Experience leaders to lay the foundations of a radically different approach toward talent management, built on operational flexibility to meet times of volatility with courage. Watch this space as we open more paths and bring more ways for our community to Become The Answer.

We have also launched two exciting new platforms for discussing and sharing

insights and perspectives. Our Big Questions series, live in both India and Southeast Asia, invites leaders to put in their thoughts on the fresh trends and burning questions of today's world of work, from moonlighting to layoffs to micromanagement. And my own new podcast, People Matters Unplugged, brings candid conversations on people and work straight to your digital doorstep. Catch us on LinkedIn every month as we bring you more bold and innovative discussions.

As always, we welcome your views, comments, and suggestions regarding our stories.

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NotE to tHE READERS the views expressed in articles are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of people matters.

although all efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the content, neither the editors

nor the publisher can take responsibility for consequences arising from errors or omissions in the information provided. reproduction in any manner without prior permission from the publisher is prohibited.

Pamela Thomson-Hall, Head of International and Executive Officer at WTW by Ramya Palisetty

Letters of the month

On engaging pe O ple and investing in them

It's very interesting to hear about the challenge in getting people to be as invested in themselves as we the managers are in them. Of course some areas such as well-being may be a more tricky thing to engage people on, because it is not something that shows immediate results or where the results can be linked to tangible benefit. As compared to skilling where one can clearly draw the link to career advancement and job opportunity. But the challenge is 100% always in showing people why certain things are important to them and why they should put their own efforts in to match. After all, if something is not important or valuable, why would the company invest time and money into it?

Managers can make or break a company's morale, motivation, & productivity Insights like this are a great reminder that skilling is for everyone. Leaders and managers must keep themselves up to date not just on business matters but also on their own specialty. Which is leading and managing. They

are there to do the job of making work and the workplace better which requires its own set of skills. That in turn requires skilling and learning programmes in the relevant areas.

Agility and adaptability demand better strategic analysis

A great practical guidebook on how to carry out one of the most critical parts of strategy. For the teams that are not used to working with data it is a slow and tedious process at first, but with practice and familiarity, it soon becomes faster and more efficient. Then the value can emerge once the right measures have been found and the key members of the team have a strong grasp of how to read and interpret the data on these. Maybe it is not a skillset that many people managers are used to, but it is a most important thing to learn at least the basics of.

A flood of moonlight

With all this controversy about moonlighting we should indeed remind ourselves that it is in fact a symptom of some problem that the employer has not addressed. Sometimes the problem is with the person, sometimes it is with the wider system, most often it is with the employer. Guess it is difficult and awkward to self-reflect and so employers would rather sack and blame employees than make changes internally.

Interact with People Matters

Focus and follow up on your talent

Reading this, one realises that we do not think of career development and career advancement as a reward, yet it is in fact one of the greatest rewards derived from any job. Perhaps only pay can compete with it, but then even pay also depends upon that development and advancement.

Saudi's World Cup rise and leadership lessons from Herve Renard

Wonderful parallel between driving a sports team to success and driving a workplace team to success, especially the point that heroes are not self made. A team is about everyone working together indeed, and when there is a job to be done, no one person however previously successful is to be held above the rest, it is a matter of all contributions taken together.

people matters values your feedback. write to us with your suggestions and ideas at editorial@peoplematters.in

Does our pay for performance process deserve rewarding?

This article asks many excellent questions. Too often the way we pay for performance is taken for granted, when in reality it has been based upon some archaic idea that was done in maybe the 1950s and then never updated. What is the performance that is important to this organisation, what pay for the performance, how are we benchmarking it, what is the whole purpose of this process? Rewards and incentives would be much more understandable, plus fair and reasonable, if we kept these and other points in mind.

Employee policies amid moonlighting and quiet quitting trends

The most important point is career growth and social connectivity. It's a great mistake to think only of what the employee is giving (productivity) without thinking about what the company is giving back (growth). And realistically, who is going to think only about work all day? Give people space to breathe, that's the important thing.

tata Communications @tata_comm

In this candid conversation with @ PeopleMatters2 our CHRO Aadesh Goyal, discusses our employee engagement strategies, L&D initiatives, and shares the importance of investing in a diverse and distributed workforce in the new #hybrid world of work:

Merkle Inc. @Merkle

"We put a lot of focus on flexibility and collaboration at Merkle," notes @kirt_ merkle Learn more about how companies are meeting employee expectations #postpandemic in this @PeopleMatters2 article featuring Liz Rafferty:

Jacob Morgan @jacobm

Leadership styles can influence workplace motivation, says @PeopleMatters2. Read all about it here: ow.ly/ IQ5M50M6fEf

#FutureOfWork #leadership #leadershipstyles #motivation

NLB Services @NLBSInc

Tap here - lnkd.in/dGyifykh to know Sachin Alug, CEO, NLB Services' take on the top trends that set the narrative for work in 2022 in an industry trend story published by @PeopleMatters2.

#Talent #Trends #Workplaces #Recruitment #NLBServices #NextLevel

HRCurator @HRCurator

#Career cushioning: Everything you need to know about this latest workplace trend — @PeopleMatters2

SHL @SHLglobal

@PeopleMatters2 - #SHLLabs discovers that how leaders hold interviews is the topmost reason for the IT services industry to have hurt its ability to hire and retain talent.

#TalentAcquisition #TalentInsights #HRTech

Ethics and compliance management platform LRN has acquired Compliance Learning, the online training arm of Thomson Reuters that focuses on risk, compliance, and regulatory training, for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition makes LRN the largest global provider of ethics and compliance learning solutions, with an operating presence on all continents. It also increases LRN's strategic presence in Asia Pacific markets,

Goldman Sachs planning to lay off 4,000 staff next year

Goldman Sachs is apparently drawing up a layoff plan which may see as many as 3,900 employees sent packing from January. According to various reports, up to 8% of the bank's 49,000 global workforce may be laid off in an urgent move to scale up the bank's

including the financial services powerhouses of Singapore and Hong Kong, as well as Japan and Australia. This deal is one of the large but rare acquisitions by LRN, which last made such an investment in September 2020 when it acquired Ireland-based Interactive Services.

profitability amid economic headwinds. Reports suggest that pressure is mounting on Goldman, which has lagged behind peers such as Morgan Stanley for years, to ramp up margins to improve the bank’s stock market valuation. Chief Executive David Solomon hinted at the coming cuts at the bank’s financial services conference earlier in December, saying that there are continued “headwinds on our expense lines, par-

Cisco lays off over 4,000 employees

Cisco Systems Inc. is in the process of laying off 4,000 employees, or 5% of its workforce, in a follow-up to last month's announcement that it will be shedding jobs. The layoffs, billed as a 'rebalancing' act intended to support the 'rightsizing' of certain businesses, are paired with the shuttering of an undisclosed number of its office facilities around the world which the company says are unused or under-utilised. At the same time, Cisco recently announced revenue of $13.6 billion for the quarter just ended, amounting to 6% growth and surpassing its initial projections.

HR SaaS platform

Cobee raises $41.5M in Octopus Venture-led Series B funding

Cobee, an HR SaaS platform that manages staff well-being and employee benefits, has raised $41.5M in a Series B funding round led by Octopus Ventures and Notion Capital. Previous backers Balderton Capital, Speedinvest and Dila Capital also participated in the investment round. The latest capital will allow Cobee to create new product offerings while further developing its current business in Spain and Portugal as well as expanding in LATAM, especially Mexico.

ticularly in the near term,”and that “certain expense mitigation plans” have been set in motion.

Morgan Stanley lays off 1,600 employees

Morgan Stanley is laying off nearly 1600 workers, or 2% of its global workforce, as part of cost-cutting measures and restructuring plans. The layoffs will impact Morgan Stanley’s 82,000 employees across all divisions. This reverses its earlier commitment to pause layoffs during the pandemic, and is the first time since 2019 the bank has carried out large-scale layoffs.

H r T Ec H no Logy LRN acquires Thomson Reuters' Compliance Learning business unit

'Quiet

quitting' boosts

A new survey by US credit company LendingTree has found that 40% of employees who 'quiet quit', or consciously stopped taking on extra work without remuneration, have become more engaged at work than before. 57% said their work-life balance has improved, with that number spiking to 65% for parents with children under the age of 18. At the same time,

Job loss fear grips one in four staff, triggers drug abuse: Survey

engagement: Survey

95% of self-identified 'quiet quitters' still fill at least their full quota of working hours, and 36% actually work more than their required hours. 42% don't even use their full paid time off. However, 56% of 'quiet quitters' are actively searching for a new role - double the number of non-'quiet quitters' doing so. 26% also don't feel secure in their current roles.

S K i LLS

Human skills feature among top 5 most in-demand job criteria

As layoff season kicks off, a recent survey by Perceptyx shows that 25% all employees are experiencing bouts of anxiety, low energy, and sleep disruptions, while 23% of employees at companies that recently laid off employees are becoming more aggressive with family and co-workers. The anxiety level is higher among men than women, and much higher among parents of young children. Industry-wise, tech employees are experiencing the highest anx-

iety (84%) while retail and service employees experience the least (55%). The study also finds negative coping behaviours among employees, with one in 10 saying they have increased drinking or drug use and are exercising less as a result of layoff news.

Communication, customer focus, leadership, attention to detail and collaboration are the top five human skills that today’s employers look for the most in Southeast Asia’s major job markets such as Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Malaysia, according to Pearson’s Skills Outlook. While technical capabilities remain essentially crucial for many roles, employers highly prize human skills such as collaboration, communication, and leadership. Cross-border and intraregional collaboration is a common part of job scopes, especially in multinational corporations. Collaboration skills as well as cultural and social intelligence help employees thrive in such situations. According to the report, businesses are looking for employees who can stay relevant and versatile, and those that fail to upskill will get left behind by the more prepared and adaptable.

Nearly 46 per cent of employees globally would not recommend their company nor their profession to their children or a young person they care about. The number shoots to 66% in India. According to a survey by the Workforce Institute at UKG, 38% “wouldn’t

wish my job on my worst enemy.”

The report finds that the global workforce is burned out, and that overtime is straining the employ-

ee-employer relationship, with employees who work overtime more than twice a week even less likely to recommend their jobs. On the other hand, 88% of employees say that with purpose and trust, they would look forward to work.

46% of employees would not recommend their profession to their children

The crypto meltdown of 2022

The story of Sam Bank man-Fried, the founder of cryp tocurrency exchange FTX, has been one of dizzying heights and devastating lows. Just a few short years ago, Bankman-Fried was hailed as a rising star in the world of digital assets, and his exchange FTX, was a go-to destination for professional traders. As the value of Bitcoin soared, Bankman-Fried's wealth followed suit, reaching stratospheric levels.

However, the glittering success of Bankman-Fried and FTX was shortlived, as the exchange filed for bankruptcy and Bankman-Fried was arrested on charges of fraud, sending shockwaves through the cryptocurrency industry and causing a loss of investor confidence. Outflows have been reported across exchanges, and the value of Bitcoin has plummeted from over $67,000 in November to around $17,000, where it has remained for the past month.

The collapse of FTX and the subsequent criminal investigation are just the latest in a series of controversies that have chipped away at investor confidence in digital assets. In addition to rising interest rates and inflation, the failure of stablecoin Terra has further eroded trust in the asset class.

As a result, calls for regulatory intervention have grown louder, as consumers demand greater protection in an industry that has largely operated without oversight. These events have cast a shadow over the future of cryptocurrency, leaving investors and industry experts to wonder what the future holds in store.

Governments in the United States, European Union, and United Kingdom are taking steps to address the issue, but it remains to be seen whether these efforts will be enough to restore confidence in the volatile world of cryptocurrencies.

Is there a silver lining?

The collapse of FTX had impacted some of the trading firm's products and customers, increasing the need to quickly raise additional capital. Crypto trading firm Amber Group has raised a $300 million Series C round as a reaction to the collapse of crypto exchange FTX. While only about 10% of Amber Group's trading capital was with FTX at the time of its collapse, the trading firm tweeted on Friday that certain products "would have experienced significant drawdowns as an aftermath of the FTX default" unless they found a way to better safeguard customers. The trading firm had reportedly laid off 300 employees, restricted employee benefits, ditched expansion plans, and terminated a $25 million sponsorship deal with Chelsea Football Club, following the FTX collapse.

The market downturn combined with concerns about the security

of customer assets has prompted a number of other companies, including Bybit, to reduce their employee

For many Asian cryptocurrency groups, the period following the FTX collapse has been equally turbulent. Hong Kong exchange AAX has had to halt withdrawals, and Singaporean lender Amber has been forced to put expansion plans on hold. Hong Kong-based Genesis Block, which was part-owned by FTX offshoot Alameda Ventures, has had to shut down its trading portal and stop accepting deposits. As investors and industry experts try to navigate the choppy waters in the wake of the FTX collapse, over a million FTX customers and creditors are left wondering if they'll be able to recover their losses.

In an effort to quell the fears of its users, the CEO of Binance, Changpeng "CZ" Zhao, took to Twitter to downplay reports of heavy outflows from the exchange as "business as usual" and to reassure customers that their funds on the platform are fully backed.

Despite the recent collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX exchange, plummeting digital asset prices, and signs of distress within the industry, experts believe that the cryptocurrency market has the potential to bounce back. Last week, Hong Kong launched its first cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds (ETFs), following through on its commitment to establish the city as a regional digital asset hub rivalling Singapore. This rollout is a crucial component of Hong Kong's plan to become a hub for cryptocurrency and illustrates the enduring potential of this volatile market.

FTX implosion: A setback, but not the end for the crypto market

rou P H ir ES ra M EHTa a S c H ro, Sou TH aS ia

Renewable energy solutions provider Suzlon Group has appointed Rajendra Mehta as group Chief Human Resource Officer for India and South Asia. He comes with 27 years' experience in developing and executing strategic human resources agenda of organisations. In his most recent role, he served Welspun Group as president and Group CHRO. He also worked with Synergy Capital as an executive director, DHFL, Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited, DCM Shriram Consolidated Limited, VNL, Bennett Coleman and Co. Ltd, Allied Deals – London and Latin America, Larsen & Toubro Limited, and KEC International Ltd in HR leadership roles.

a K Ma H in D ra Ban K ELETES cHETan Sav L a a S cH i EF M an rES ourc ES oFF ic E r Kotak Mahindra Bank has announced the elevation of Chetan Savla to the position of Chief Human Resources Officer (CHRO) and Head Sustainability. Savla, a postgraduate from IIM Ahmedabad, has spent over 28 years with the Kotak group. He has worked in multiple business segments for Kotak, including investment banking and wholesale banking, as well as leading the group's strategy division. In April 2021, he took charge of the functions of priority sector lending, ESG, CSR, and financial inclusion under the common umbrella of sustainability.

a PP oin TS r a S i K a Ma Lra a S H r Dir Ec Tor – i n D ia Beauty giant L’Oréal has appointed Rasika Malhotra as human resources (HR) director

for India. Malhotra brings over two decades of diverse experience across international geographies and domains of manufacturing, oil & gas, consumer products, FMCG, B2B, and technology. She has solid experience in business partnering and strategy, organisation development, talent management, driving change, HR transformation, cultural integration, and diversity and inclusion.

Apollo Intelligence, a provider of real-time global data and insights to the healthcare and life science industries, has appointed Rey Lado as its Chief People Officer, a newly created role. Lado was previously VP of human resources for Ciox Health, supporting over 2,500 employees throughout the US in operations, sales, and administrative functions. Prior to Ciox, he served as the talent and organisational development leader for Cox Automotive, a global vehicle remarketing services and digital marketing and software company. He also held organisational effectiveness roles of increasing responsibilities with UPS, Accenture, and Delta Airlines.

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Edtech company Hero Vired has announced the appointment of Samra Rahman as its head, people, and culture. She was formerly the chief human resource officer at Centum Learning. Her notable achievement has been building Digiminds Career Solutions (EQVIP) from scratch under the Bharti Group banner to bridge the existing gap between the 'avail-

able' and 'employable' talent pool. In the past she has been associated with companies such as HCL Technologies, IBM, and Tata Teleservices.

n TS u on B oar DS u n MESH

Pawar a S cH i EF P Eo PLE oFF ic E r

Dentsu has appointed Unmesh Pawar as chief people officer (CPO) for India and South Asia. In his new role, Unmesh will be responsible for building distinctive talent expertise across the Indian and South Asia markets. He will report to Luke Speers, Chief People Officer, Dentsu APAC, and Peter Huijboom, interim CEO, Dentsu India. With over 25 years of experience, Unmesh has also worked with companies like KPMG India, Accenture, among others. Before joining Dentsu, he was advisor, mentor and angel investor at Neev Angels, founded by him.

rux H ir ES For ME r

orn E r STon E H r LE a D a S cH i EF P Eo PLE oFF ic E r

Data integration startup Crux has hired Tina Figueroa as its first Chief People Officer, responsible for leading all aspects of the HR function. She joins Crux from data science firm Deep Labs, where she was Chief People Officer. Before that, she was Chief People Officer of SaaS data analytics firm Appriss, where she built the global people team and managed it through Equifax's acquisition of Appriss; Chief People Officer of fintech company Kyriba; Chief People Officer of mobile advertising platform AdColony. From 2010 to 2013, she was Vice President, Talent (People) and Administration at Cornerstone onDemand, where she was the first HR executive reporting to founder and then-CEO Adam Miller.

T i Ban K Ma L ay S ia a PP oin TS

Too Ba Mo Da SS ir a S c H ro Citibank Malaysia has appointed Tooba Modassir as its Chief Human Resources Officer. Tooba, who has been working with Citibank for over 14 years, will be based in Kuala Lumpur. She is skilled in HR business partnering, performance and talent management, diversity and inclusion, learning and development, leadership training, and talent acquisition. She started her career with Wipro Technologies in 2006.

H o na MES J E r EM y Farrar

S c H i EF S ci E n T i ST

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced that Jeremy Farrar will become its new chief scientist. Currently director of the Wellcome Trust, Farrar will join WHO in the second quarter of 2023, replacing Soumya Swaminathan. He is a clinician scientist who, before joining Wellcome in 2013, spent 17 years as director of the clinical research unit at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in Vietnam where his research interests were in global health with a focus on emerging infectious diseases.

Chubb has appointed Margaret Peloso as Global Climate Officer, a newly created role effective January 16, 2023. She will have responsibility for Chubb's climate-related strategies, including business and public policy initiatives, and will also act as the Executive Director of the Chubb Charitable Foundation. Earlier, Peloso was integrally associated with Vinson & Elkins. She served as the law firm's lead sustainability partner with responsibility for integrating sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors across its portfolio.

cH u BB H ir ES Margar ET ELo S o a S g Lo Ba L c L i M aTE o FF ic E r

Rapid-Fire

Brigette McInnis-Day

1

Top business imperative today?

Retaining and attracting workers with the help of emerging technologies, putting a techenabled business continuity plan in place 2

How to bring in and retain the best talent?

Offer flexibility and choice in how and where work is done, allow employees to work in ways that suit their individual needs and preferences – that's how leaders can support diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts and foster a culture of trust, transparency, and flexibility

3

Biggest challenge you see today?

Maintaining employees’ wellbeing

4

Your strategy for addressing that?

Offering mental health-related courses and sessions to employees, allowing flexibility to work remotely, promoting worklife balance by offering unlimited PTO to encourage employees to take time off

As organisations operate with limited bandwidth, process inefficiencies mean employers must consider either making changes or risk losing talent

5

Best way to hyperpersonalise for flexibility?

Work closely with your team to identify which roles are best suited to an office environment and what types of work are conducive to such an environment

current roles more satisfying, and organisations will also need to provide training programmes for their existing workforce to equip them with the necessary skills to manage these software robots

7

Biggest challenge you predict for the future?

Addressing the skilled labour shortage caused by The Great Resignation and restructuring measures undertaken by organisations based on the macro environment

8

Why are the restructuring measures a problem?

World over, office workers are feeling heightened pressure at work because their co-workers are quitting or because of their company’s decision to downsize; labour shortages and mundane work are causing people to quit or quietly quit

9

6

What if flexibility isn't enough?

Workers need tools like automation to make their

The best way forward in your view?

Continued investments in skills and leadership development to ensure a happy, successful, and skilled workforce that can weather any storm

Women in leadership can be game changer for inclusive future of Work

Many organisations find it difficult to turn their intentions of inclusiveness into reality. For the Head of International and Executive Officer at WTW, Pamela Thomson-Hall, “it has always been important to talk about subjects from a gender perspective so as to take purposeful steps towards improving the deficits.”

With the intent to inspire people, she has made some courageous moves in her two decade-long career at WTW, where she has not only put women but also men into roles that were different from what people thought was the right move.

In an exclusive chat with us, Hall talks about the struggles of being one of the first few women in the insurance sector, how she built

herself along with the business, why there is a need for initiatives to give that extra push to underrepresented talent, the importance of benchmarking in pay parity, mentorship and its valuable role in the lives of women returning to work postmaternity, and more.

As one of the first few women in the insurance sector at a time when men were the dominant majority, how has the journey been? What were some of the initial struggles you had to face and how has the industry changed in recent times?

I began my professional journey at a law firm 26 years ago but since there was little chance of progress there, I left the industry and came to the insurance sector. At that time, there

were very few female role models in leadership. I could actually count them on one hand! But my predecessor gave me hope and that has been my biggest takeaway in my career – the importance of role modelling. Having visible women in leadership at the top is critical as we build an inclusive future of work. From tackling bigger problems to breaking stereotypes, my journey was a series of hurdles turned into opportunities.

From being invisible to standing out: In the early years at WTW, as the company grew, women from different countries were recruited and when I looked at the leaders, one in particular from Argentina, she was a very feminine, colourful and glamorous woman – so different from the women I saw in London.

Women here were trying to look like men, dressing up in a way that made them physically invisible.

I could actually relate to women in other countries that were brought into leadership more than I could relate to my peers. These women gave me courage and hope that the industry would change.

Breaking free of the Gentlemen's Club: The insurance sector was very much like a Boy’s Club or a Gentleman’s Club when I had joined, where women weren’t invited to drinks after work, and in some bars in London, women weren’t even allowed. There were some peculiar and gender-

biased rules but slowly they started to fall away.

Supercharging from within: We set up the Global Diversity Council to purposefully address gaps. Around 2002, we realised how the insurance sector was lagging behind other professional and financial service sectors. With technological advancements, we actively started managing data to understand what we, as an organisation, were doing through our recruitment, hiring and promotional process. Our company doubled in size in 2016 and we decided to set up our Global I&D committee to delve deeper into the issue of being inclusive and bring-

ing forth underrepresented talent.

Changing the business with ‘why’: We embedded inclusivity in our design of policies and procedures, making it a part of the fabric of how we hired, retained, promoted, attracted and talked about talent. It wasn’t just an add-on as we wanted it to be led by the business, for the business and not by HR. For the business to lead it and embed it within their everyday, we realised explaining the “why” was imperative. We understood that having diversity of thought at the leadership table results in better decisions, which has been repeatedly proven through empirical data. From a gender perspective, it gives you a 15 per cent better return on your investment and from a multicultural framework, exponentially better decision making by 33 per cent.

Back in the day, the "why"’ was missing. No one really understood it and even today it is still not spoken about often. But the ‘why’ was a game changer for our organisation when we could explain to people that inclusivity and diversity is not about being nice but creating that equaliser for underrepresented talent of all nature including gender. The sea change it brought was a surge of women into leadership roles.

Inclusivity and diversity is not about being nice but creating that equaliser for underrepresented talent of all nature

Bold moves for visibility and voice: My first business leadership role was leading the Central Eastern Europe, Middle-East and African divisions. 10 years ago, it was hard to imagine a woman in a leadership role running industries in the Middle-East, Africa, Central Eastern Europe including Russia and Ukraine which were male-dominated patriarchal societies. But the organisation made some bold moves, putting me and a few other women in clear leadership roles. In some select business areas, if there was a balance between a man and a woman and both could do the job, the woman got the chance because we wanted to give them the visibility and voice, which was critical.

Tipping the point: In every industry, there is a tipping point that we need to reach that we haven’t reached yet when it comes to diversity, where originally people and government, in particular, around the world are mandated to have a woman on the board. Now, if the board comprises two or three members, it’s fine but with 10 members, a woman on her own wouldn’t make a difference. So, we, as an industry, needed to get to that tipping point of over 30 per cent where the tone in the room starts to change and the discussions are different and more open.

Why do we still see single digit percentage of women in management roles or even as Fortune 500 CEOs? What are the ways in which we can tackle this crisis as we move ahead?

The tipping point is just the beginning, and it really needs to trickle down to the bottom line. Even when you reach the tipping point in the leadership team, there is still work that needs to be done underneath. In the

aware of the need to be inclusive.

Flexible work: After COVID-19, flexible and agile work was fast-tracked, which is both a blessing and a hindrance. While we can now work from any part of the world, we still haven’t honed the skills to design inclusive people management activities for those not visible in the office. And that’s probably the next evolution for the industry; to make sure that

insurance industry, from a gender perspective, you come across more parity at entry level but that trickles away as time goes by for various reasons, including unclear career paths and business being discussed after work, which results in women missing out on the real bonding. While we see efforts being made at the top, it’s not the same in the middle. Hence, it is essential for people managers to be

we get to a position where caregivers and people with other commitments are able to take advantage of the flexible work environment, while also being present at the workplace where opportunities are arising for them to be visible.

The extra push: At WTW, we launched the Next Three project for women where we partnered high-performing women with women who just joined the company to

give them visibility and lead ship, while learning with new team members remotely on new projects. What it did was raise the profile of highperforming women, with a number of them getting promotions, and those who were thinking of leaving, stayed because of our commitment to ensure they were seen and valued.

Double deficit: These tactics are equally applicable to the underrepresented talent pool, where the challenge lies in intersectionality. For instance, if you belong to an underrepresented nationality, race or religion, and you are a woman, then you have different challenges and a double deficit in the ability to progress. And the challenge of intersectionality is prevalent among men too. But the good news is that we are talking about it and taking purposeful actions to bring balance to the workforce.

With access to a global talent pool now, why are companies, DEI and HR leaders still struggling to actively hire underrepresented talent?

In any industry today, we are all vying for the same talent: good people who can make a difference. But there just aren’t enough people out there to satisfy the need. Although there is a genuine talent shortage with the war for talent on, the great thing

is underrepresented talent isn’t in hiding anymore. It is a good position for individuals to be in.

But with the pipeline relatively sparse, we need to continuously be purposeful and nurture them. It’s not enough to retain them with money but with career development opportunities, extraneous benefits, flexible work, training, personal skill development, etc. I believe there is no substitute to nurturing talent and it is essential to look after them.

Coming to gender pay parity, as the International Head at WTW, can you enlighten us as to what leaders can do to decrease the pay gap, and what are some of the key trends you have witnessed in the recent past?

I believe it is the responsibility of leaders to get it right and understand the drivers of any lack of parity.

One should actively manage it without letting it drift or ignore it. We should have frank conversations with people about why it exists and what steps can be taken to address it. While bigger companies have it easier, in smaller companies, it is harder to address as they simply don’t have the money.

This is where mentoring, coaching and sponsorship come in. Mentors can help an individual struggling to understand the pay situation and have a frank conversation. Sometimes you don’t get aninstant answer because your people manager wasn’t on it and wasn’t purposefully looking at the data to find the gap. So, it is the leaders who have to actively manage it consistently and constantly.

We have all seen the data on steep mid-career dropoffs for women. What are

the ways in which we create an infrastructure for newmoms, who are on maternity leave but are eager to contribute a certain amount of time to their jobs?

I, myself, have lived through this and have gone through it. I don’t think it is the duty of the woman to manage it, it is the leaders and people managers who should manage it. The return to work should not fall on the shoulders of a woman.

Legally, in some countries, contacting women on their maternity leave is not allowed so they can have time with the newborn without work pressure. So, any desire to keep in contact with work during maternity leave should be driven by the woman and not the company.

And the people managers have to assess if she is able to devote the time to work.

In most cases, women are eager to keep in touch so they don’t feel excluded from the progression in the workplace. Hence, getting the same information as other colleagues becomes critically important so that when they are back, they are not back to a vacuum. In the UK, we have keeping in touch days, where you are legally allowed to be in touch and the woman is legally allowed to come into work without forfeiting her rights to maternity leave. It also inculcates a sense of belonging to the organisation.

Finally, what is your advice for women on financial well-being since wealth is never really theirs to keep?

My advice to women is to educate themselves. As some-

one who belongs to a traditional patriarchal society in the UK, when I started working, my mother was very confused, and so were my husband’s parents, as to why I wanted to work and why I needed money when I have a husband. There are a number of reasons why women want to work, and for me, it was about my sanity, getting fulfilment, and having a sense of purpose. Being financially independent means that I can look after myself and my family.

Growing up, I didn’t have financial literacy, but I saved my money and got some great benefits from my firm through my pension. I only gained literacy in finances quite late in life so I would say, start learning early and avail the amazing opportunities that organisations are showcasing to educate women in their finances so they can make informed decisions.

You come across more gender parity at entry level but that trickles away as time goes by for various reasons, including unclear career paths and business being discussed after work, which results in women missing out on the real bonding

A key focus for L&D going into 2023 should be business alignment

Venkat Subramaniam of Degreed believes that learning is core to business success and organisations need to invest in the right processes and technologies to adapt to continuous change

Venkatachalam Subramaniam is the Regional Vice President of APAC at Degreed. He comes with over 2 decades of rich & extensive global exposure in Strategic Business Development & Management, Operations Excellence, Stakeholder Engagement and People Management. Venkat is a People Leader who has successfully led and motivated teams in cross-cultural & geographical environments towards growth and success in the organisation; created a clear & compelling view of the future through coaching and execution.

Before joining Degreed, Venkat was a General Manager, Head of Sales at Oracle NetSuite India. He also had successful stints at ADP and Adrenalin — leading HCM product and services organisations. In conversation with People Matters, Venkat outlines critical trends that will impact L&D strategies moving forward, the urgency of investing in power skills, aligning learn-

ing solutions to business outcomes and employee experience and more.

What are those key talent and business trends that will impact how organisations design L&D programmes in these turbulent times?

Organisations are dealing with multiple pressures in these turbulent times, including the shift to hybrid and remote work, and the recession impacting some countries (less so in APAC region, but still a factor in the global economy). Understanding the outlook is key for L&D teams planning for 2023, but that ties in with a wider shift — becoming more strategic and aligned with the business. Because everyone in the organisation needs to see, clearly and undoubtedly, that learning is core to business success. That’s the only way you can justify learning budgets and gain buy-in for innovations in learning.

With resilience becoming a core value to all businesses, how does the “Power Skills” economy factor in when empowering a resilient and futureready workforce? How does Degreed support growing enterprises in building up these “Power Skills”?

Power skills are known by this name because they are relevant to many different roles, departments,

and business needs. They are truly powerful skills to cultivate in your organisation as it makes people a lot more deployable to different areas. That builds resilience. With uncertainty on the horizon for every organisation, having a strong collection of different power skills can make your workforce more adaptable as needs change.

Which leaves the question, why aren’t more organisations building power skills? It’s because they cannot be easily taught in a traditional way; you cannot learn them easily in a classroom. They also can’t be assessed as easily as a hard skill like coding. Degreed helps organisations build power skills through several means, including enabling L&D to curate the best learning resources available to teach a power skill in different ways. Whether through an online pathway, videos,

podcasts, or peer learning. Then a learner can stretch their skill by practising it on real-world applications like stretch assignments or projects. It allows someone to develop the skill in the best way that suits them and the skill being learned.

Indeed, it’s the practice that really embeds a skill (any skill, but particularly power skills). Degreed can offer learners opportunities like stretch assignments or mentoring, in their learner homepage, based on the skills they’re currently learning. Not only does that make the skill more memorable, but it also provides tangible proof that someone is able to do ‘communication’ or ‘change management’.

With the world of people and work changing in unprecedented ways, what new challenges to designing and implementing L&D

programmes should leaders be mindful of? What are some best practices you would recommend to overcome them?

A key focus for L&D going into 2023 should be business alignment. For a while L&D leaders have been speaking about becoming more strategic and having more impact in the boardroom. Now is the time to put that into action. Why? Because more business leaders are grappling with challenges, like skills gaps and retention, that learning has a direct impact on.

layoffs happening simultaneously, talent retention becomes an urgent priority. How can learning solutions today support businesses in designing the right EX and driving employee engagement for better talent retention?

Business leaders face an interesting time, with layoffs and quiet quitting impacting productivity, morale, and other outcomes. Simultaneously, you cannot ignore the state of the global market. That gives learning leaders an unparalleled opportunity to show how learning isn’t

Uncertainty is the only certainty these days and learning is at the forefront of this, one of the first to be impacted, because as a business suddenly changes, so too do the skills that employees need

To achieve this, focusing on business outcomes when designing L&D programmes and reporting on success, will help senior stakeholders see how learning is linked to the business. Instead of simply stating the number of courses completed or the learning hours logged, L&D needs to look at onboarding savings, time to productivity, workforce agility (to be able to switch to new roles easily), and so forth.

With quiet quitting and

a nice-to-have but essential for resilience, growth, and performance. Retention is a key part of this, and learning can impact this by having a focus on career longevity for each employee.

If someone feels like their organisation is invested in their long-term future and that they’re “going somewhere” in the company, they will be less inclined to leave.

Likewise, offering personalised learning opportunities that are tailored to someone’s interests and

goals will make the overall experience more engaging. We’ve become used to having content served up seamlessly through Netflix, Spotify, Facebook and others. It’s time for company technology to do the same.

Finally, what would be some words of advice you would like to share with our community on designing L&D programmes ‘Built for Disruption’?

It’s important to note that the days of having a rigid three to five-year strategy are gone. Learning leaders, above all, need to be comfortable with change and their strategy needs to be able to pivot as needed. Uncertainty is the only certainty these days and learning is at the forefront of this, one of the first to be impacted, because as a business suddenly changes, so too do the skills that employees need.

To achieve this, having processes and technology that can easily adapt is a must. So too is the ability to understand the market, changing needs, and new trends. Gathering skill data from your various HR and learning systems will help you understand the internal environment for your employees. Simultaneously, gather market data to understand how skills are evolving and where your business needs to be next, in order to thrive.

One way to turn the tide of employee retention

There's a surprising link between skill development opportunities and job satisfaction. Here are some ways of boosting skilling and thereby talent retention

Organisations across the globe are facing the challenge of skilled labour shortages. Hiring new employees can be a significant financial and administrative investment that takes time, so prioritising the retention of existing staff has become a high priority. Reducing staff turnover not only saves money but also helps foster a positive company culture and develops future-focused thinking.

However, according to PwC’s 2022 Workforce Hopes & Fears Survey, four in ten employees in Asia Pacific are not satisfied with their job and one in five intend to switch to a new employer in the next 12 months.

Less than half of APAC companies are investing in upskilling workers

A key area of effective employee retention centres around upskilling (developing existing skills to optimise performance) and re-skilling (teaching new skills for a different role). By focusing on both sides of the skills coin businesses can foster new capabilities, stay competitive, show

commitment to its people and ensure employees are ready for the demands of the future.

While the benefits are undeniable, less than half (45%) of APAC companies are upskilling workers, and 42% are worried their employer will not teach them the technology skills they need. These findings suggest a significant disparity between what employees want, and what they are getting.

The challenges of virtual training

Only 10% of APAC employees expect to be back in the office full-

time in the next 12 months while 90% plan to work remotely or in a hybrid capacity. This shift towards non location-specific or remote work arrangements means companies need to create training programs that can work well anywhere. A big challenge for employers is the ability to coordinate and balance virtual and in-person training, ensuring both types of training are invested in appropriately and deliver the same quality outcomes. Companies need to be careful not to overlook those who work fully remotely.

While there are some training activities, such as behaviourbased learning, interpersonal skills, or real-time feedback, that need to be conducted in person, there are many activities that can be replicated virtually. Often these are more tactical in nature or require employees to improve their technical skills.

For companies offering virtual training options, there are a few things to consider:

• Provide content in modules or easy to handle chunks –research suggests that Gen Z and millennial employees prefer to receive information in short, sharp sound bites which helps to capture and retain their attention

• Offer self-paced training with the option to go through the materials in their own time • Develop training that is relevant and timely to your employees; i.e. it applies to them and they can use it right now

Making in-person and group training meaningful

In-person time has become increasingly valuable due to the pandemic, especially with employees located across various locations.

Organisations need to think about purpose. Why are you getting employees together? What do you intend to achieve? It’s important to be intentional and mindful, making those in-person opportunities more about the people's needs than the business.

At Cyara, we found we were able to manage the business quite well virtually during the pandemic. As a result, we now

Organisations need to think about purpose. Why are you getting employees together? What do you intend to achieve?

conduct nearly all business meetings – that used to be in-person or required travel – virtually and have shifted in-person meetings to focus on strategic planning and/ or team-building. A number of our in-person sessions are done in the form of “regional” gatherings where we bring employees together a few times a year for team building, training and other team-based development activities.

Be disciplined about which development activities are in-person and which can be done remotely.

Leverage remote programmes as much as possible and be willing to invest in the things you can't effectively replicate virtually.

Future-proofing an entire workforce

Many successful organisations plan ahead and develop longterm training strategies for their employees. However, future-proofing a workforce is a two-pronged approach.

Firstly, providing ongoing, broad-based skills and training to every employee in the organisation is essential. This is important to help foster basic business acumen and managerial skills across the workforce. It’s essential to equip employees with what they need to do their jobs, as well as assisting them to lead and manage staff and projects effectively.

Secondly, identify individuals you believe are capable of taking on more responsibility and filling critical positions within the

company. Create targeted development plans for them and provide different opportunities to accelerate their readiness to take on bigger roles. Always make sure to get the employee’s buy-in on this and work closely with them.

Defining the success profiles of a business’ most critical roles and developing existing individual(s) within the context of those profiles should be part of every organisation’s succession plan, which is imperative to the longevity of business.

Upskilling and reskilling is a win:win for both employers and employees - when it’s done right.

It holds the potential to uncover and unlock talent that already exists within a business and provides employees with renewed passion and a career ladder to climb. And, with the cost of hiring a new employee now topping AU $23,000 according to the Australian Human Resources Institute, working hard to retain your top talent has become a very smart investment.

Elon Musk Buys Twitter

People around the world have lived and worked through a non-stop string of disruptions this year. It's natural that the most agile and adaptable organisations – and individuals have shifted their focus away from the drama and escalation itself, to strategies and approaches for riding out the disruption with the least negative impact. This month, we look at some important takeaways for moving forward in the world of work.

Evolving APAC Talent Acquisition Trends: What’s in Store for 2023?

It’s been a long, tumultuous three years. As the world of work changed and adapted to pandemic and economic headwinds, so too did the talent acquisition landscape. Here’s a look back at the twists and turns since 2020, and some predictions for what 2023 will bring Kumar Bhaya and Doug Terry

of us. The pandemic caused tremendous economic and social disruption, highlighting various points, including the fact that many jobs can be done remotely.

And now, there is no going back. Hybrid and remote work have become a neces-

sity for most candidates in today’s workplace.

The last three years have been a turbulent time for talent acquisition teams. And today, it is critical to review the transformations in the way we work and what candidates are look-

ing for as compared to the pre-COVID times.

Here’s a look at how changes took place within the talent acquisition industry from 2019 to 2022, and how the industry could look like as we enter 2023.

2019: Pre-COVID Outlook

2019 witnessed an increased competition for talent on the back of strong growth in industries, particularly in consumer and retail, life sciences, manufacturing, and technology. Besides talent acquisition, it was also the year where talent acquisition technology and employer brand were the top areas of investment for companies’ HR departments.

2020: COVID

The following year was dominated by COVID-19 the world over, with many organisations laying off workers and freezing hiring.

Talent acquisition teams were also downsized, and most talent acquisition investments were either cut, or held back.

The pandemic transformed HR functions as not only did they have to help companies transition to remote working environments but also enhance their focus on employee engagement.

Besides physical well-being, organisations looked at financial and emotional well-being with stress levels

rising. Employee well-being became the number one priority, with mental health coming to the fore, as the world and companies grappled with workforce stress levels, burnout, and work-life balance.

2021 - mid-2022: Recovery

As the world slowly adapted and recovered from the aftermath of the pandemic, there was a record number of job openings due to pent up demand. The hiring market was back in motion again, along with wage inflation. It was a candidate market, with employers needing to offer higher salaries and better benefits and welfare packages due to inflation and the focus on mental health, which became a necessity.

This period also experienced what is termed as The Great Resignation - where people left their jobs in

droves. Employees left their jobs due to salary freezes, worsening work-life balance and toxic work cultures. They also feared being laid off or were asked to take a temporary leave of absence. The reduction in employee welfare and benefits were cited as reasons for leaving too.

Talent acquisition teams were stretched to the limits, as companies were unprepared for the sudden high demand for hiring talents. They rushed to rebuild, and those that were understaffed engaged recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) partners and staffing agencies. To better retain and attract talent, there was also a surge in global companies refreshing their employee value propositions and employee policies - such as offering better welfare and benefits packages.

Takeaways

2022: Present

For the rest of 2022, businesses have been cautious, slowing down in hiring talent amidst predictions of a looming economic recession. To date, technology companies such as Microsoft, Twitter, Meta and Amazon have laid off thousands of workers. Within the Asia Pacific region, Cielo found that 70% of employees were thinking of moving to a new job next year, and 81% of Gen Z employees are thinking of resigning from their current jobs. 65% of employees would rather sacrifice a better salary for a workplace with better culture and benefits.

Gaps in employer and candidate expectations have also become glaringly apparent. Cielo found that candidates in the APAC region prioritised three requirements before deciding to join a company: leader-

ship, company culture and values, and having a sense of purpose. On the other hand, employers thought that salary, career progression and employer branding, or reputation, were the critical components in attracting talent.

2023: What’s Next

In the coming year, a state of equilibrium is expected - with growth continuing in pockets. Talent acquisition services are expected to be customised and tailored to the needs of their organisations, even provided as modular point solutions that address specific talent acquisition challenges. This could take the form of talent market intelligence, localising an EVP to the region or even country, integrating technology - whether it is through data or tools, into the hiring process to enhance the

candidate experience. A host of other such talent acquisition services and talent attraction strategies would also need to centre around employer reputation and an organisation’s sense of purpose, not just as a narrative, but in action.

Employers should consider adapting, listening, and striking a balance between what candidates and employees want, with their business needs. They should also collaborate with their HR teams to review their internal employee value propositions, work culture, welfare, and benefits package. Only then, would companies be able to move forward and navigate the changed talent acquisition landscape effectively.

Eight HR trends that we saw throughout 2022

As companies manage their workforces in a dynamic era, HR departments have continually adapted and adjusted, and never more than this year as digital acceleration and workplace evolutions came together

HR's work is everevolving. With the advent of technology and digitalisation in HR, we witnessed how rapid changes developed into cutting-edge trends. When the pandemic drove an overhaul of the workplace, we saw once-niche practices blossom into a sweeping new normal.

Being proactive and understanding these shifts is critical. Their impact is not just today, as even now they are not fully integrated into the world of work. We will continue to see changes, challenges, friction, and opportunities in the upcoming year and beyond, as organisations come to grips with these trends and incorporate them into the workplace and working culture.

Here, we highlight eight significant trends that have shaped HR's work throughout 2022 and will continue to do so in the coming year.

course of 2022, a successful balance emerged between working from home and returning to the office. Leaders and managers grew to understand the value of a flexible working model, whether in terms of time and location; employees began to accept the benefits of being in the office every so often.

And HR departments, of course, became more wellversed in the creation and implementation of hybrid strategies that could meet the needs of all employees, including potential hires. From the purely adminis-

trative details, to awareness of the legal and regulatory requirements, and most importantly the culture that would enable a productive and engaging working model.

2. DEI as a top priority Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is becoming increasingly significant for organisational executives as a strategic economic gain and an organising element of workplace culture. The way organisations view DEI has become increasingly sophisticated, growing from token gestures to involve

1.

The hybrid model of working

Most bosses hated it at first, and wanted everyone back in the office. But over the

every aspect of work: education of the workforce on diversity, implementation of equitable hiring, restructuring of compensation and benefits, changes to organisational policies to incentivise inclusiveness, active adjustments of workplace culture.

Today, almost every organisation makes an effort to at least formally recognise the importance of DEI, whether through something as simple as a mention on their careers page, or by publicly reporting their initiatives to boost diversity and encourage a more inclusive workplace.

In terms of recruitment, candidate experience took on renewed importance, with the recruitment process pushed to become more candidate-friendly: simplifying communications, improving candidate touchpoints, even training hiring managers to present a more engaging image. This trend has persisted even through the swelling number of tech layoffs in the latter half of the year.

4. Gig culture

Moonlighting made the headlines not too long ago, with some companies outright firing employ-

easier scalability of their own workforce. However, this trend is nascent, and the corporate response to it may not take a solid shape until well into 2023 at least.

5. The rise of data-driven culture

More and more companies are realising that the data they have about their workforce is extremely valuable. This data-driven culture is directly tied to the rise of automation in HR: the digitalisation of documentation and processes that has allowed HR practitioners to manage data more effectively than ever.

WE WILL CoNtINuE to SEE CHANGES, CHALLENGES, fRICtIoN, AND oPPoRtuNItIES IN tHE uPCoMING yEAR AND BEyoND, AS oRGANISAtIoNS CoME to GRIPS WItH tHESE tRENDS

3. Employee and candidate experience

The Great Resignation phenomenon pushed many employers to look more closely at how they are engaging current and potential talent. This played into the popularisation of the hybrid working model, and also put the spotlight on identifying and implementing approaches to employee engagement that could go beyond the superficial. Often, this moved into the area of analytics and hyperpersonalisation.

ees who were caught moonlighting and others openly encouraging employees to do it as long as their work for their primary employer was not affected.

With economic recession looming, the original justification for moonlighting – that the pandemic had threatened sources of income and pushed workers to find backups and alternatives – is regaining traction. Companies are slowly realising that gig culture and moonlighting benefits them as well, by enabling

In particular, the great remote working experiment of 2020 and 2021 generated reams of workforce data on performance, productivity, team culture, team and individual behaviour, and more. Some of this data is so detailed and granular that organisations are able to even measure the optimal time employees spend at various desk-bound tasks, something once confined to the manufacturing industry. Throughout 2022, organisations have been leaning in on leveraging this data, with HR teams upskilling to become more proficient in data science and data analytics.

6. Ongoing popularity of cloud-based HR software

The last few years saw a boom in the digital industries, and cloud-based HR

software is no exce ption. It's hardly a new thing, but it has certain major advantages over on-premise systems, most notably speed and scalability at a low cost – something which proved extremely valuable during the pandemic, when some organisations shed huge numbers of jobs in very short times and others, particularly in the tech industry, expanded just as quickly.

In the second half of this year, as multiple tech companies quickly reversed their expansion, scalable systems continued to be the best way of handling the significant changes in staffing. Some irony can perhaps be seen in the fact that technology has been the solution to its own problems.

7. Virtual reality in recruiting and training

Virtual reality has been growing in popularity in a variety of industries over the past few years, and lately it has entered the HR arena, where it can be used for several applications. For example, it can be used to host virtual job fairs, interviews, employee onboarding, and much more. Some organisations have already experimented with conducting interviews or meetings in a virtual office environment.

For now, though, one of the most effective applications of VR has been to host virtual training sessions for employ-

VIRtuAL REALIty HAS BEEN GRoWING IN PoPuLARIty IN A VARIEty of INDuStRIES oVER tHE PASt fEW yEARS, AND LAtELy It HAS ENtERED tHE HR ARENA, WHERE It CAN BE uSED foR SEVERAL APPLICAtIoNS

ees, especially in fields that require highly specific on-site training such as aerospace and other technical, engineering-related work where workers have to be completely familiarised with their physical surroundings.

8. AI-powered HR analytics

Data-driven culture was just the beginning. 2022 saw a boom in the applications of artificial intelligence for HR use, particularly in recruitment and retention. The early stages of adoption that many companies entered during the pandemic have matured into more comprehensive and integrated usage.

This particular trend has

fuelled, or at least contributed to, many of the others. AI has supported diversity in hiring, for example, by reducing bias. It has enabled better use of people analytics. It is increasingly embedded in HR platforms and software, and is used to automate some of the most time-consuming parts of HR processes – such as the shortlisting and assessment segments of recruitment.

And AI in particular will only continue to grow over the coming year. IBM research predicts that the adoption of AI integration will increase from 40% to 80% over the next three years, with applications across almost every HR process.

Lessons in leadership: Managing a global hybrid team

What takeaways can we draw from the pandemic?

Fatima Koning, Chief Commercial Officer at IWG, shares what the last five years have taught her about managing a global sales team across 120 markets in the hybrid model by Fatima Koning

learned that leadership in a hybrid world is different to traditional people management. Hybrid leadership is a skill to be honed – and one that can boost employees’ job performance, as well as their happiness at home.

I realised that when a child is learning to read, you don’t worry about what they can do today – you think forward to what they’ll be able to do tomorrow, next week, next year, if you support them now.

Two and a half years on from the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, it’s clear there’s been a profound, permanent change in how people want to work. This period has proved that companies can adopt hybrid working policies without affecting their productivity – and this model is now the preferred option for millions of people and businesses around the world.

As Chief Commercial Officer at IWG, I see the difference that hybrid working makes to companies and their employees and, as a mother, I experience these same benefits every day.

As head of a global sales team across 120 markets, I’ve

Consider human relations, not ‘human resources’ People brought more of themselves to work than ever during the pandemic. Living through national lockdowns and long periods of forced remote working inspired a new level of honesty about our physical, mental and emotional health, and this kind of authenticity is powerful. It allows for the building of strong, nurturing relationships between leaders and their teams.

Leadership is about looking for what I can bring out in someone and becoming a mother undoubtedly helped shape my perspective.

Our teams are based in a huge variety of locations, so I’m acutely aware of how different cultures and norms affect attitudes to work. As a leader, I’ve had to cultivate an appreciation for the different cultures of the individuals I’m working with that extends beyond recognising an array of different time zones. It’s the difference between simply translating our training materials and policies into lots of different languages and shifting them as necessary to suit the markets we’re working in. This is the kind of situational, peoplecentred leadership that’s needed in a hybrid world.

A leadership style that’s fundamentally open, that’s built around kindness, honesty and encouragement, is also a shield against the phenomenon of ‘quiet quitting’ that’s been hitting headlines lately. By valuing people’s contributions and investing in them, you keep them motivated and

engaged. Businesses keen to build strong, committed teams need to think about their people not as ‘resources’, but as individuals they have to get to know, value and appreciate.

Encourage a healthy worklife balance

There’s been a fundamental shift in attitudes to worklife balance in the wake of Covid-19. People’s focus on well-being has tightened, and they want to fit work around life – not the other way around.

Business leaders who don’t focus on the well-being of their employees do so at their peril. They should realise it really is a case of enlightened self-interest. A better work-life balance makes for happier, more engaged and productive employees who will stay with a company for longer and perform at much higher levels.

IWG’s latest research shows that 88% of employees regard hybrid working as a key benefit they’d expect in a new job role, while more than 50% wouldn’t even consider applying for a position that didn’t offer it.

Building a hybrid working policy that enables people to draw clear lines between their home and professional lives is now vital. Combining opportunities for home working with access to local, flexible workspace is key, as is a continued emphasis on regular ‘face time’ at the company HQ.

In my own life, everything from co-parenting my daughter to eating well and exercising regularly is made easier by the hybrid model. It also allows me to do the job I love at a level of seniority that – without the flexibility hybrid offers – would be impossible.

Our team is happier and healthier working in the hybrid model, and so are those in many other companies. Research from Accenture shows 63% of high growth firms have embraced ‘productivity anywhere’ models of working, underlining the relationship between employees’ wellbeing and commercial success.

Build trust, but keep employees accountable

Hybrid working requires a huge amount of trust. There’s arguably a re-balancing of responsibility, which means individuals are more accountable for their job performance than they might have been five or ten years ago. Great leadership in this new world of work is about loosening the reins while still finding ways to make sure targets are met and the business performs.

In my team, this has meant establishing clear KPIs and finding new ways to stay connected. When it comes to training and coaching sessions, we now operate a ‘little and often’ approach, as opposed to holding long workshops a couple of times per quarter.

Yet trust cuts both ways. To be a great hybrid leader, you have to inspire trust as well as offer it. I’m very committed to what I call ‘active listening’: giving people my undivided attention when they need it, looking for feedback from all levels of the

business and always following up on those ‘grass-roots’ insights, wherever and whoever they come from.

Foster a culture of learning

There are hundreds of flavours of hybrid working – and it takes time, as well as learning from mistakes, to define the model that works best for you and your team. IWG has been a hybrid organisation for decades, but we’re still adapting and evolving.

One major adjustment we’ve made is in how we train our staff. We’ve created a new induction programme that combines the best of face-to-face and virtual interactions. Likewise, the six-step sales process we used for years has been overhauled so that it’s now a three-step process – a change that was shaped by input from employees around the world.

Keep bringing people together

While remote working has many benefits and disparate teams can do brilliant work, it’s vital to keep bringing people together. Regular, quality interactions are invigorating for teams: they fire creativity, strengthen bonds and inspire people to learn from one another.

With so many people working in so many markets, it isn’t always possible for me to bring my teams together physically –but when people are able to spend time face-to-face, we make sure those moments really count.

We hold curated meetings and workshops, get together in local flexspaces and hold regional and global sales conferences.

In a hybrid world, offering clear incentives for great work is another key way to maintain your teams’

momentum. I make sure that monthly and annual awards, as well as prizes such as dinners out and team-building days, celebrate success. We also offer what we call ‘WOW!’ prizes for truly outstanding work, such as trips to Château de Berne in France.

Lead by example

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it’s become clear to me over the past five years that leaders have to be at the centre of whatever cultural shift their business is trying to achieve.

You can’t expect middle managers and the people who report to them to master driving performance in a hybrid environment if you, as a senior leader, are not lighting the way.

Becoming a great hybrid leader isn’t an optional extra for those at the top of business – increasingly, it’s now an essential skill that must be mastered if you want to achieve success. More than this, it's an incredible opportunity to rehumanise the workplace, moving away from presenteeism and micro-management into a modern era where employees’ productivity, professional development and personal happiness are paramount.

Four lessons about hybrid work from 2022

Hybrid work has been quite the bone of contention since the pandemic subsided and offices began to reopen. As 2022 comes to an end, we highlight four key takeaways about hybrid work that we need to bear in mind for the coming year

Hybrid work has been at the bottom of the biggest debates about work this year. We've seen months of back-and-forth over whether or not workers should return to the office, complemented by reams of research studies that consistently find hybrid or remote work is a non-negotiable for large numbers of employees and candidates.

As 2022 winds down, many leaders have come to grips with their own biases, and agreed to compromise on hybrid work. Some are still experimenting; it's a work in progress for them.

Others are not even trying to experiment, and continue to reject any notion of change to the traditional 9-5 model. And of course, the most progressive – some of whom had embraced hybrid work even before the pandemic – are heading into the new year with their working model long since polished to its best shape. So what have we learned about the hybrid working model this year?

Not that many people actually want 100% remote or 100% in-office work

For all the hype around younger workers demand-

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ing remote work, the truth is that after two years of lockdowns, people do want to go back to the office every now and then. They want to be able to socialise with their co-workers, engage in collaborative discussions of work in person, and generally have human contact with people who are working in the same space as them.

As Anmarie Forrester, APAC Regional Human Resources Director at Experian, told us earlier this month: “Being with colleagues not only inspires collaboration and innovation, but helps people learn from one another and build relationships which are key for career development.”

Surveys have also generally shown that the number of employees wanting fully remote work has dipped since 2021, most likely because the downsides of being fully remote have emerged: isolation and disconnection, not being able to collaborate effectively with team members, and even coming out on the wrong side of proximity bias so that career advancement suffers.

That said, even fewer people want to go back to the office full-time – and those who do are overwhelmingly the bosses.

There's more to hybrid work than WFH

Today, we most frequently think about hybrid work as a mix of working from home and working from the office, or flexibility of location. But there's also flexibility of time, which dates back to well before the pandemic.

Open-minded companies have always allowed employees some leeway in when they started and ended work – taking half an hour in the morning to bring children to school, perhaps, and making up for it by staying half an hour late, or skipping lunch break in order to leave early for a personal appointment.

And demands for hybrid work may in fact be grounded in flexibility of time rather than in flexibility of location – we're just not seeing it because flexibility of location often automatically allows flexibility of time.

“While most conversations about workplace flexibility have centred on location—where people

work—the question of when people work may be even more significant,” says Brian Elliott, the executive leader of Slack's Future Forum. Discussing the need to redesign work with us earlier this year, he pointed out: “Schedule flexibility is highly correlated with positive employee sentiment, satisfaction, and performance, and leaders have an opportunity to gain a competitive edge by providing schedule flexibility more broadly.”

Focus on the work that's being done, not the activities outside it

When leaders and managers oppose hybrid work, it

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often stems from a deep-rooted suspicion that employees won't work without a boss watching them. And various surveys over the course of 2022 suggest that it's not entirely unfounded: remote workers do spend varying amounts of time on non-work-related activities during work hours. However, surveys carried out before the pandemic also suggest that in-office workers spend just as much time – anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours –on non-work activities.

The lesson here seems to be that non-work activities will happen whether or not people are in the office, and leaders and managers should put their focus on the work that is actually being done. Are employees available when they are needed? Are they completing the work they have been assigned, and completing it on time? Are they meeting their individual targets and contributing to the team's targets?

“The new way of working means performance strategy is not about clocking in/out times,” remarked Alstom's Vice President of HR for Asia Pacific, Eo-Kyung Moon, in a conversation with us earlier this year. “It involves finding ways to measure remote work...The traditional meanings of 'productivity' and 'performance' are still valid. Both are directly related to satisfying customer expectations – it

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is all about prompt and efficient delivery of what has been promised.”

Perhaps the most important takeaway from 2022's experience of hybrid work is simply this: People can be, and are, productive even when they aren't physically in the office. Research over the last three years has repeatedly shown that productivity does not fall when a worker moves from in-office to remote, or to hybrid work. In the majority of cases, it increases; and where it does not, it is typically because the person's work requires a greater degree of collab-

oration than remote work can provide. Leaders are increasingly acknowledging this – even Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella weighed in on the question, making headlines by calling the mistrust of hybrid work 'productivity paranoia' in a September comment. “All of the data we have shows 80% plus of individuals feel they’re very productive – except their management thinks that they’re not productive,” he said. “That means there is a real disconnect.”

What will it take to close that disconnect? Only time, perhaps, and the insistence of employees who consider flexibility a make-or-break factor in staying with their jobs.

Yes, people continue to be highly productive in the hybrid model!

The Great Reconnection: A paradigmatic moment for employers and employees

This year has not been a good one for employee retention. The Great Resignation, originally thought to be a US phenomenon, has emerged in Asia now. But is there a way to turn it into the Great Reconnection?

Stress, burnout, churn, disengagement: these are the widely recog nised issues that continue to plague the world of work. In our latest Cigna 360 Glob al Well-Being Survey, we found a major challenge for employers: high numbers of workers expressed dissatis faction with their current job and/or are actively look ing for a new one, with 30% of 4,000 Asia Pacific (APAC) respondents (in mainland China, Hong Kong, India, and Singapore) having moved to a new job in the last year and close to four in 10 (37%) looking to change in the next twelve months. The region’s highest resignation rate was seen in India (43%).

However, the long-term picture is more hopeful than a first glance might suggest, as the survey findings also point the way to achievable approaches and solutions that can address employee needs and build harmonious work cultures in 2023 and beyond. Here are a few of

the key insights for employers which emerged from our study.

Recognise stress and exhaustion

Stress levels in APAC remain significantly higher than the (already high) global average, mainly due to the cost-of-living crisis and uncertainty about the future. Close to nine in 10 (87%) APAC respondents are stressed, with 13% struggling to cope. The younger generation are bearing the brunt, with an astonishing

94% of respondents from Gen Z (aged 18-24) saying they are stressed. This age group is also the most emotionally impacted by stress –with half (50%) saying they could not concentrate, 47% feeling depressed, and 45% reporting that stress is making them more emotional.

As well as impacting mental health, prolonged stress can also cause and escalate life-long chronic conditions such as heart disease, high blood pressure, weight gain, or weight loss. Such conditions, coupled with knock-on

effects such as poor concentration, can lead to productivity loss, significantly impacting our quality of life and, in turn, the lives of family and colleagues.

It is therefore vital that employers are attentive to not just the physical, but also the mental and emotional well-being of their workforce. Connecting with employees directly to listen to their concerns undoubtedly helps to provide grounding, reassurance, and motivation and offers opportunities to uncover symptoms of stress and burnout in people early on. Unfortunately, only 19% of our respondents in the region said they had a weekly check-in meeting with their manager.

With stress and mental health challenges now a widespread health crisis, organisations need to allocate more time and resources to address the issue. For example, our own senior leadership team has recently taken a “5% Pledge” to

dedicate 5% of their annual work hours to listen, craft strategies, and implement tangible change to support mental health within the organisation, and we are encouraging other companies to join the campaign.

Engage your workforce

The youngest (aged 18-24) and oldest (aged 50-64) cohorts of employees reported feeling most dissatisfied at work, but even among the relatively more contented Millennial generation (aged 25-34), only 39% feel they have real choices at work and are trusted to make decisions. Less than half of employees (47%) are happy with their salary and benefits, but perhaps the more significant feedback is that employees are placing an increasing value on other factors.

In APAC, almost half (49%) of respondents said

they would be happy to take a less well-paid job if they could have more time for themselves. This sentiment also affects retirement age, with 46% of APAC respondents saying they would be happy to step down earlier than planned and enjoy a longer, if less affluent, retirement. The high rate of job-changing, a flood of early retirements, and the ever-increasing demand for work-life balance means that companies now need to make sure their employees feel both comfortable and valued. In addition to offering good salaries, many employers are now proactively involving their staff in a more community-like work atmosphere in order to retain their engagement.

Meanwhile, hybrid work appears to be an enduring legacy of the pandemic, with both positive and negative impacts for employ-

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ees. While there are many obvious benefits to the new hybrid work pattern (flexible hours and movement, less commuting, more availability for family, etc.), for many employees work-fromhome arrangements can also bring a sense of alienation. Almost half of our respondents in APAC (49%) found that their work had become more transactional since the pandemic, and that bonding with colleagues was more difficult – this feeling was most common among Millennials (54%). It also seems that some younger employees feel their opportunities have been limited by the lack of assimilated learning and social interaction which the office setting usually allows. These findings reflect the clear need for employers to enhance the work experience while continuing to support flexibility.

Take a Whole-Health approach

The widespread re-evaluation of priorities is likely the single most important takeaway for employers to consider in terms of their HR strategy and corporate culture going forward. In the aftermath of Covid and the “Great Resignation”, employers will need to talk with their staff more often and more seriously about work processes and life priorities. Forward-thinking organisations will see this as an opportunity to reconnect with their people and establish a new equilibrium of what work should look like. Effective communication can help to achieve a flexible balance of remote and onsite working, involved teamwork, healthy lifestyles, and mental well-being for the good of the whole organisation.

The divergent responses to our survey also make it clear that a one-size-fits-all approach is no longer effective – employer attentiveness has to encompass a diversity of needs. For example, most employers already recognise the importance of paying special attention to nurturing young talent, who represent the future of their company or organisation. But this age group faces a different set of circumstances and challenges from other employees, with almost half (46%) of our Gen Z respondents in the region reporting being stressed due to uncertainty about the future. Employers will increasingly need to develop initiatives specifically designed to support their younger staff through difficulties and concerns particular to their generation. These findings, although concerning at first glance, also show us the path forward. Employers need to support what we at Cigna term the “Whole Health” of employees, including their financial, physical, social, and emotional well-being. Amid a shifting work landscape, employers are obliged to understand their people as never before – their needs, their motivations, and their aspirations – in order to benefit from the full potential of human talent.

Workplace buzzwords of 2022 with a deeper meaning

Behind every term that goes viral on social media is a deeper implication for how the world of work has changed and is changing. We delve into a few phrases that became popularised this year by

2022 saw a boom in workplace-related terms that went viral. From quiet quitting to productivity paranoia, there was a catchphrase for every kind of workplace phenomenon or behaviour. But underlying the social media back and forth were deeper implications and commentaries on work culture and expectations. Here, we highlight some phrases that were heavily debated during the year, and pierce the veil to shed some light on their real significance.

Quiet Quitting

Possibly the most talked about phenomenon of the year, this phrase became the centrepoint for a storm of debate. It surfaced concerns about generation gaps, recriminations about health and well-being, and lengthy conversations about productivity, performance, flexibility, and more.

What it really means It's not about quitting, in fact; it's about doing no more than what is expected of the job role. It means fulfilling mandated responsibilities,

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but not taking on anything additional unless there is a genuine incentive; meeting the minimum requirements, but not going above and beyond at one's own expense. And although the term is new, the behaviour itself is in fact well entrenched in every workplace. The majority of employees do no more than what's expected of them, and see nothing exceptional about this.

The implications

For this term to have resonated so much suggests that,

throughout this entire year and likely long before, the majority of employees have felt overstretched. Some may have felt that their goodwill is being taken advantage of by employers who enjoy getting extra work out of them without having to pay additional compensation. Most certainly would like to wind down the pace of their work enough to rest and recuperate. The takeaway? A lot of people have been stressed and overworked this year, and desire more focus on their well-being.

Proximity Bias

An under-discussed concern, this phenomenon is the flip side of flexible and hybrid work. It refers to the conscious or unconscious bias or favouritism shown by people in positions of authority towards those employees who are in a closer physical proximity.

What it really means

In practice, proximity bias means a massive disadvantage for those who work flexibly. An employee working from home may find their work rated less favourably than that of someone working from the office, even though the quality and quantity of both employees' output is identical. This is particularly problematic when we consider that employees working flexibly or remotely are disproportionately more likely to be women, parents, those with disabilities, or those facing challenges with on-site work – in other words, those who are already disadvantaged in some manner.

The implications

The fact that proximity bias is a problem suggests that a great many managers still do not have a strong grasp of performance management. They may not even be aware of their own blind spots with regard to the visibility of employees'

work. Without a proper understanding of what performance or productivity actually means in the context of their teams' work, these managers and their teams will inevitably face additional challenges in workplace fundamentals such as the allocation, evaluation, recognition, and reward of work. The takeaway? Where proximity bias exists, it is a sign that more training is needed for managers.

Productivity Paranoia

Similar to proximity bias, productivity paranoia refers to managers' fears that employees will not be productive if they are not in the official workplace, but where proximity bias manifests as passive or even unconscious detriment to remote work-

ers, productivity paranoia involves deliberate actions.

What it really means

This term was coined by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who used it to criticise employers' practice of monitoring remote workers. Figures from Gartner and other research houses suggest that at least 60% and up to 80% of employers in Europe and the US may have been using monitoring software this year, in comparison to less than 20% when the pandemic started. Given the estimated number of remote workers in either region over the last few years, this in turn means that at least half the workers in Europe and the US have been monitored while working in their own homes at some point.

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The implications

Just as clinical paranoia is several steps up from regular fear, productivity paranoia implies that employers are resorting to extreme and irrational behaviour to enforce employee productivity. Monitoring software skirts legality in jurisdictions with more stringent privacy laws, and presents a significant reputational risk if companies are caught 'spying' on employees in their own homes. For employers to use such software, especially with remote workers, means the level of trust with employees is so low that they consider the employee's normal behaviour to be a greater risk than legal or reputational damage. The takeaway? Nadella was probably right when he said that companies have to get a grip on themselves before they damage the employeremployee relationship irreparably.

Psychological Safety

Not entirely a new concept, psychological safety is the natural complement to empathy and vulnerability, which emerged during the pandemic as a key trait both employers and employees want to see in leaders and managers. Now, employees are looking to find psychological safety in the workplace, and leaders are striving to provide it.

What it really means

Psychological safety is about a sense of security – where people feel safe to participate, without fearing that they will be be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. Research by Google identified it as the foundational metric impacting team performance, and subsequent work by the International Institute for Management Development

highlighted it as the basis for improving DE&I in the workplace.

The implications

Employers pursue the creation of psychological safety because they want people to speak up – about their wellbeing, about the challenges they face, about the ways that the workplace can be improved. And employees desire psychological safety because they want to be able to bring their whole selves to work – because they want to speak out, be heard, and make a difference for the better. This shift toward openness holds less of a takeaway than the other phenomena described above; it is primarily an indicator of how workplaces around the world are changing today, with power distances being closed and more value being placed on employee input.

On change and change management

The best way to end the year, especially such a disrupted one as 2022, is by laying the groundwork for the year to come. Michelle yong, Head of Resourcing at Shell, offers some insights on change management to bring us forward into 2023

The year is coming to an end, and it's time to look ahead and prepare 2023 plans. But most plans involve some degree of change, especially in disrupted times like these. What can we do to better manage and direct upcoming changes for organisations and people?

People Matters asked talent acquisition expert Michelle Yong, Head of Resourcing at Shell, to share some thoughts and tips on change management. Here's her advice in advance of 2023.

For some context, what kinds of change might leaders find themselves facing?

To broadly categorise the types of changes an organisation might go through: firstly, there are planned changes, such as changing the business model, or mergers and acquisitions, or implementing new technology. What triggers the change may be disruptive, but the organisation ultimately controls the decision to change and how to plan and implement it.

The other type of change is disruptive change. That

might be political, like the war in Ukraine, or COVID-19. It might even be an indirect impact, such as China's zero-COVID policy impacting the supply chain and creating a shortage in items like semiconductors that are central to a business model.

When it comes to disruptive or unplanned change, is there a point where leaders need to step in and actively manage the change, rather than letting it resolve itself?

There are three points to consider. One, if it affects

the well-being and the performance of our employees. If employees' well-being is not taken care of, they will not perform well, they may disengage, there may be a high attrition rate.

Two, if it influences or has an impact on the organisation's business sustainability. That includes ESG, which I believe is an area that requires intensive attention, or reputation, because if your reputation is affected, your customer base changes.

Three, if it affects the bottom line. Any change that affects the business bottom line definitely needs attention. And this actually encompasses the other two points, because at the end of the day, anything and everything affects the bottom line.

Does change management call for a particular strategy or framework?

We do tend to over-engineer change if it is major, but that is because it's important to have a structured approach to manage change, whether planned or unplanned. Such a structured approach allows an organisation to be a little bit more agile and adaptive – to be more ready to face and handle change. It could be a simple framework like a business continuity plan or something more extensive.

In the same way, having some form of change

expertise in an organisation is important. That might involve hard skills for the technical implementation, or soft skills for the people management.

Either way, the question we need to answer is: do we have the right skills in place or the right framework in place for when change happens? Can we ensure that critical operations remain sustainable at a certain capacity? For example, if a flood happens, we will activate a business continuity plan. How do we mobilise or operationalise that from today's operating model – do we move our operating centre to another location, do we temporarily outsource it to a third party, or is there yet another approach? These are very simple examples, but they show how business continuity plans and risk management cadences

involve change management.

Ultimately I think the core most important thing about change management is how to make sure the people who are impacted by the change are also motivated to embrace it. It's not just about being ready, it's also about being sufficiently inspired and motivated to not just adapt to change, but also bring change.

The motivation aspect sounds particularly tricky. Any tips on driving motivation for those who need it?

The first step is to understand the kind of culture we want to establish in an organisation. It's not just being resilient to change, but also being in the forefront of change, creating change. I am personally a strong advocate of a psychology

concept called adaptive performance. Put into practice, this concept means that 50-60% of your strategy or approach is planned, and the rest can be adjusted on the go to meet the needs that emerge along the way.

In the workplace context, adaptive performance is about creating rules in your work, where you allow employees to train their muscles for creating things, resolving things, troubleshooting, executing processes – but without becoming so rigid with those rules that you restrict their ability to perform. In innovation-focused companies like Google or startups, ideation or creativity becomes a core value and those are a form of adaptive performance.

In terms of culture, this is about creating an environment where anyone can give suggestions or make changes, as long as it means an improvement for the organisation. The moment you create a way for people to share their ideas and opinions more frequently, that is when they will begin to adjust to change. This environment does have its weaknesses – it can be exhausting, and dealing with it can require training – but creating it can be very simple, involving behavioural conditioning to make people respond in a more open-minded manner to positive change.

Leadership capability seems to play a very large role here – how can leaders be prepared for taking up such a responsibility?

We first want to understand the role of leadership. It's about being able to provide a balanced expression of ability and authenticity, admitting that we do not know exactly how to achieve our endgame and some trial and error may be required – saying that “I do not know what I do not know”. That gives confidence to others to say the same thing.

Another aspect is commitment and conviction, and being able to say “I believe that we'll be able to learn what it takes to move towards that direction”. That's powerful.

And then there is the need to unlearn the things that may not help us today. As the saying goes, what gets me here today won't get me there tomorrow. A lot of leadership capability is less of knowing fixed information, and more of having a vision and then experimenting with the team to get the solution.

And today, there is a lot of emphasis on purpose. If you want to inspire, you first start off with purpose. The pandemic has also accelerated the need for us to really care for our people, to demonstrate empathy, and to be relatable. That style of leadership has taken the

place of the good old Jack Welch model.

So, what can HR do to help?

The first thing is to acknowledge that there's no one set rule of how it can be done, because every organisation is at a different level of maturity. You can't expect the same approach to work for a startup and a Fortune 500 heavyweight.

But what HR can do is to review your core values and your leadership framework to incorporate the growth mindset and the adaptive performance concept. That core culture needs to be there as a baseline fundamental. And then the leadership pillar needs to include setting minimum standards, changing conversations, maybe even helping them to develop a leadership conversation script, training them to break down the barriers. Sometimes putting them on the other side of the table is helpful. Have them listen to conversations and look at speeches, and ask: if you were the staff member receiving this, how would you like to hear it? What would you like to believe? How would you like to be led? What will it take to bring you to that tipping point where you decide to follow this leadership? That's how HR can prepare the leaders.

What digital leaders can learn from football

As the Qatar World Cup played out over the last two months the year, some interesting cues from the matches have emerged as serious takeaways for business enterprises

What’s core to the game seems to be a new trend for the corporate world as they get digitalised and see an increase in the speed of operations and rapid changes in the environment. Some interesting cues from football have become serious takeaways for the business enterprises, which spent the end of the year keenly watching the Qatar games from the ground level –where the action happened!

World Cup fever was ablaze in the last two months. Running from 20 November to 18 December, it was the biggest sporting showdown after the Olympics. Once branded as the hooligans’ game, football has risen in stature and size to take the centre stage in the sporting world. In terms of fan following, innovative formats of play, and adoption of technology that enhances viewers’ experi-

ence and players’ training, soccer has been pushing boundaries and exploring new vistas consistently. No wonder it is addictively entertaining: a post-match brawl or celebration often makes headlines in global media. The game is highpaced, energetic, unpredictable and a phenomenal show of skill, stamina, and athleticism.

Quite tacitly, football has been offering some invaluable insights into the future of work and workplaces.

Here are some lessons football can offer to better understand the dynamics of work and the workplace in the future.

What the captain’s role really is

One may think that the captain is the leader, strategic thinker, motivator, and go-to person. All this is true but only till the game begins. Once the game starts, the captain is just another player! Pause, think and reflect – does this apply to the corporate world? Can the top management’s role

t

be like any other employee’s? Sounds strange and iffy?

The speed of the game makes the captain also do the chores on the ground, and step down to the level of other team members. In football, unlike in most other sports that are not as fastpaced, the captain has no time to lead and direct. On the other hand, players are motivated, know their roles, and are focused on achieving a common ‘goal’.

In the corporate world, as organisations are digitally transformed and their speed of operation increases, the distance between the thinker and doer reduces – a flatter organisational structure enables the organisation to be more agile and

responsive. This makes strategy and operations intermingle to deal with frequent and unpredictable changes in the external environment. Hence, business leaders need to get operationally involved too, like they already do in startups. It is all about speed, and speed of change is something that football truly exemplifies!

Who is the leader of the team?

Different kinds of leadership exist – leaders by position and authority (Captain); leaders by skill and capabilities (Marquee player); by experience and qualifications (Senior Player), etc. In football, besides the captain, the senior and

marquee player can also be leaders who would be thinking about strategies, working out plans for execution, suggesting improvements, etc. But all this happens before the game starts. When the game begins, who is the leader?

The leader is the person in possession of the ball! Whatever he decides to do is binding on all the team members. He is not waiting for instructions or approvals. As the game progresses, new leaders emerge. Leaders are transient and leadership is democratised – every player is a skilled leader – the experienced and the novice, the professional and the amateur are leaders who wait for their opportunities to show their leadership talents

In the corporate world, such a phenomenon is seen in start-up organisations and in those where the culture supports empowering employees to take decisions independently.

No longer are people at the bottom of the rung compliantly looking up to the people at the top for guidance and approval. Likewise, people at the top, who are wise and experienced, also know that they may not have solutions for all the problems the enterprise faces. They, therefore, act as members of a task force where everyone is a leader.

Transience in leadership

In this game no player has ever said, “This is not my role”

is happening for multiple reasons. Two of them can be directly identified as the need to digitally transform and the inclusion of young people in the workforce.

Digitalisation increases the speed of business, which enforces systems and people to be agile and responsive to all kinds of changes. Employees are therefore empowered to take decisions and leadership skill is embedded into every job description.

The young workforce at the workplace – the ‘chilledout’ breed – wants minimal supervision, loathes bureaucracy, and is extremely excited to challenge status quo, including rules and regulations. They are curious, aware, motivated and empower themselves to experiment with new methods, ideas, and innovations without much regard for fear of failure. They seek their space to try, fail and try again. They find answers to their problems within their networks, which are unstructured, non-hierar-

chical, and social – involving people from outside the organisation’s structure. Everyone in the network is a leader. In the network, leadership emerges – there are no pre-defined persons identified as leaders!

Football’s egalitarian world and corporate’s hierarchical structure, roles, and responsibilities Sports per se looks at players through a lens of equality. Football provides an interesting perspective on this.

Football has its structure and positions – A 4-3-3-1 or 3-4-3-1 or 2-4-4 –1, as seen from the centre position to the goalkeeper, are structures that teams adopt, basis on their analysis of the game, opposition, etc. Players take up positions for which they are skilled, like, Forwards, Centre-Forwards,

Defenders, and Goalkeeper. The last one is a specialist’s role. Besides, there are the left and right flanks of attackers and defenders, who are skilled to strike better from a specific direction. Every player is aware of other players’ skills as well as of his own.

The dynamic situation of the game quickly disrupts the initial structure and repositions skills. The defenders may be striking into the opposite team’s goal while a left flanker finds himself shooting from the right flank. There are freak occasions when the goalkeeper deserts his position to strike a goal at the far end.

Football also has the concept of substitution. Suddenly a player who was on field is replaced by a fellow mate. Further, there are times when a player has played the whole game with-

In essence, the world’s favourite game has been telling the corporate world to adjust, alter, amend, adapt and respect speed

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out getting the ball to strike. Such quirks make one wonder if Football is anarchy. Who is responsible for what isn’t clear at all?

Football’s structure keeps changing and evolving with the game. Even though players constantly change their locations, they are never out of position in terms of knowledge of what they need to do. That’s why in this game no player has ever said, “this is not my role”! Everybody’s role is replaceable, by anybody, because everyone is trained to do the job it takes.

Despite having a planned and predefined structure, roles, skills and responsibilities, players’ roles are completely fungible. This happens on account of the speed of the game. When

Thus, football glorifies adaptability, agility, teamwork, equality, and purpose.

As organisations witness changes in their speed of operations, employees need to have ‘psychological safety’ for experimenting with ideas and outcomes. Experiments are not always successful, hence psychological safety gives employees the courage and conviction to try better and harder.

As roles and responsibilities become fungible, employees also need to become more adaptable. “I wasn’t hired for this role” or “my expertise and interests are elsewhere” will not help employees sustain

themselves in the emerging digital world. In effect, corporates will start treating their employees like ‘athletes’ – expecting them to be adroit, agile, adaptable, and accountable.

As organisations move towards dealing with and solving unprecedented and unforeseen challenges, it is the HR function that will be besieged with finding solutions, involving multidisciplinary knowledge, the complexity of options, and unpredictability in outcomes. The more ‘welldefined’ roles that managed predictable and routine challenges, will be done by technology and mechanisation.

As organisations witness changes in their speed of operations, employees need to have ‘psychological safety’ for experimenting with ideas and outcomes

Compensation and earning ability

Once again, football provides a fascinating insight into earning ability. Consider these three top players: Kylian Mbappe (age 23) earns more than Messi (age 37) who earns more than Ronaldo (age 37). The ability to earn is distinct from compensation which may be in the form of a match fee. Players earn beyond the ‘match fee’ on their current form and ability to positively impact the game. Their earnings have high variability and their earning ability almost always declines with increasing age.

In football and most other sports, players earn through endorsements and branding, which is a function of their ‘impact’ factor. The impact is a perception, and therefore it fluctuates.

In the corporate world, senior roles have an impact factored into their compensation. It wouldn’t surprise anyone if through analytics and perception via social media, the impact is factored into everyone’s compensation in the future. This is much easier in the context of gig employees – which is already happening in fact – where they earn based on client feedback, peer ratings, etc. which are on a digital platform. In essence, the world’s favourite game has been telling the corporate world to adjust, alter, amend,

of a well-oiled and well-integrated process

clearly defined

adapt and respect speed –the faster it gets the more radical the changes will be. The workplace of the future requires different thinking in employee-employer engagement and with its ecosystems. Making structures brittle, roles fungible, democratising leadership skills, and making compensation nonlinear may become the blueprint for corporate sustenance.

Business leaders already know that the future is largely unpredictable and mostly incomprehensible and therefore, past experiences alone may not lead to better anticipation and answers to emerging challenges. Hence, they need to allow experimentation with the psychological safety provided to the employees. In the future, success will not be a function of a well-oiled and wellintegrated process with clearly defined outcomes, it will emerge through trials, repeated attempts, and not being stopped by failures.

Employees also need to understand and respect the fact that the game changes fast. Like the players who

perform out in the open, whose performances are closely analysed, who are severely criticized for failures and praised to the skies for successes, by the ecosystem, employees must realise that their performances will also become visible to others (in their ecosystems), who would rate and evaluate them, which can impact her/his future. Further, changes in the environment can make existing knowledge and skill go obsolete without notice. That’s why, like a true athlete, they need to train regularly (upskilling), stay fit (mentally agile), avoid injuries (positive attitude) and practice relentlessly (persevering). These may well become the basic and necessary attributes for a professional career along with optimism, grit, and resilience in character, like that of a competitive athlete, who, from a string of failures can spring back to become a champion first and then a legend!

In the future, success will not be a function

with

outcomes, it will emerge through trials, repeated attempts, and not being stopped by failures

Technology, at its best, amplifies what exists in the real world

A common misconception people have is that technology dehumanises the workplace but, when used the right way, it can actually help to make the employee experience more personal and strengthen human connections by Mamta Sharma

atic approach to choose the right HR tech solution for a company.

What are the aspects of work where technology can improve or add value for people?

Technology has the ability to enhance, not decrease, value to almost every aspect of an employee’s role. When leveraged appropriately, it increases their effectiveness and creates space for them to focus on creative problem solving.

In an interaction with People Matters, Sunil Setlur, Chief People Officer of Gojek, talks about the significant challenges that might come up as the HR function becomes more digitised in the hybrid milieu, how can they be addressed efficiently and shares a structured and system-

For people and culture teams, the use of automated solutionsfrom applicant tracking systems to internal talent management solutions - has many benefits. In particular, it enables HR professionals and people managers to focus on being more ‘employeecentric’ and think of new ways to elevate the employee experience, in essence, solving for experience instead of procedural and administrative tasks.

For example, at Gojek, a significant amount of time used to be spent on administrative and compliance reporting but the automation of several key reporting capabilities in our people and culture teams has given the team

more capacity and flexibility to work on other projects. I would like to believe that this has freed up our team and empowered them to look at the world a little bit differently.

This has resulted in our team rolling out several innovative initiatives to better engage employees - such as the recent introduction of VR technology to help employees experience what it is like to be a Gojek driver for a day. We’ve also seen an overall improvement in our Employee Engagement Survey and in questions about the quality of interaction with our HR team, which is proof of technology’s positive impact.

What do you think about leveraging digital tools to enhance employee engagement and recognition? How can leaders retain the human element in these functions?

Personally, I see technology as a tool that augments the human experience in the workplace.

Every new aspect of technology that has found its way to our daily work has served to connect and empower people. A common misconception people have is that technology dehumanises the workplace but, when used the right way, technology can actually help to make the employee experience more personal and strengthen human connections.

For instance, we recently redesigned the employee onboarding experience at Gojek leveraging technology. With more and more employees being onboarded virtually, we wanted to create an immersive onboarding experience that would help them experience Gojek firsthand and feel an exciting affinity for the community that makes Gojek possible.

An online game-like environment was the perfect tool for that internally. Called GoQuest, our refreshed onboarding experience enables new joiners to enter a 4-day long experience in the meta-space to learn and experience the Gojek business through

various challenges and modules. Feedback on the programme has been very encouraging so far, and shows us that technology and the human element are not mutually exclusive but rather, they work hand in hand.

As the HR function becomes more digitised in the hybrid milieu, what are the significant challenges that might come up, and how can they be addressed efficiently?

Every change presents opportunities to do things differently, and with digitising the processes in the people and culture space, having an incumbent team change its mindset to approaching work and equipping them with the skills to do things differently will be areas of conscious investment.

On mindset, to truly embrace digitisation and understand its full benefits, teams need to have a thorough understanding of what exactly digital tools can and cannot achieve. This is because while technology can improve processes

and enhance our understanding of certain trends, it cannot tell us what to do. HR teams must be ready to use the insights and data derived from technology to solve real problems.

On skillsets, technology is only useful when teams have the correct skills to deploy technology and use its output efficiently.

One way we’re doing this in Gojek’s HR team is by ensuring we have team members who can understand and apply statistical concepts. The use of technology has enabled us to efficiently conduct many types of employee surveys, giving us access to a wealth of useful data - but to use the results to its full advantage, we must be able to understand correlation and leverage those insights to come up with the right solutions. This is why we have structured our team such that it comprises people from diverse backgrounds - such as data analysts - bringing in different perspectives that help us to solve problems innovatively.

Could you share a checklist that could benefit leaders before deciding and implementing any HR technologies?

Technology, at its best, amplifies what exists in the real world and acts as a force multiplier. Being clear on what outcome you want to achieve is absolutely essential before deciding to implement HR technologies.

Let’s say a company is trying to change its culture - leaders need to have an end goal in mind, including what aspects of the company’s culture they want to change or keep and which areas they want to amplify, or create disincentives around.

Leaders also need to understand the impact of the changes they intend to make, because one seemingly small change can have an outsized impact on many other functions and processes in the company. It’s therefore important to work closely with other departments and leaders within the company to get their views on any proposed changes, and also have the ongoing channels in place for employees to share their thoughts and feedback.

Finally, having a comprehensive review system in place is crucial when making a decision on what technologies to implement. No one tool is perfect, so leaders must weigh the pros and cons and know what suits their teams best. For example, within Gojek, we take a “hybrid” approach to the use of HR technologies, which means that we use multiple solutions instead of a single HR solution end-to-end.

While our teams will need to

spend more time to familiarise themselves with the way the various solutions work, this approach is most appropriate for our needs as it enables us to use the best-inclass solutions in each area.

What advice would you share on empowering digitally-ready organisations as we embrace the future of work?

Adopting a consumer-product mindset for people processes is the key to utilising technology to its fullest potential.

In practice, this means that technological tools that are rolled out within an organisation should be easy to use, and implemented with a user-first perspective in mind. Ensuring that we are thoughtful in this change management process will ease the process of introducing new technologies and help get employees on board with the changes.

No one tool is perfect, so leaders must weigh the pros and cons and know what suits their teams best

Govern Pre-IPO Unicorns to Create Value; Not Valuation

Billion-dollar startups always make the headlines. But is there true value behind those eye-catching valuations? How can proper governance be implemented for these much-hyped companies?

Whether right, left or centre, Indians have a penchant for cherry-picking data to suit their narrative. In 2022 India scored a century of Unicorns, those privately held startups with a valuation of over a billion USD. Media and government boasted of beating China in the number of new unicorns added this year. But no one talked about the issue of value creation, and whether the IPOs depleted public wealth.

As one startup founder says, the venture capitalists (in his words,

vulture capitalists) push for high burn rate (some unicorns burn as much as Rs 750 to generate one rupee of revenue) to play up the valuation game and get their several X return by exiting via IPO within 3-4 years as against the earlier norm of 10+ years. They don’t hesitate to spend crores on media buzz to hype up public imagination, and transfer the burden of their profiteering!

The median post-money valuation (PMV) of a unicorn is USD 1.3B. According to Stanford research, PMV is almost always higher than fair market

value (by as much as 50%), which means startups with a USD 1B PMV in a private round would not be counted as unicorns if measured by fair market value. Together, the 100 Indian unicorns have raised over USD 90B at the combined PMV of USD 340B. The post-IPO performance of the few has not been great and they will take years to turn a profit.

Isn’t it time for the deep-pocketed investors to also insist on good governance systems to drive profitability instead of just valuation, discounting years of earnings down the line? Zomato, valued at USD 9B pre-IPO, has a market cap of USD 7B, with preIPO revenue of just under Rs 2000 Cr and over Rs 800 cr loss. And its founder has just stepped down! Byju’s, the highest valued Unicorn in India at USD 23B, has FY21 loss that is 10 times more than the cumulative losses of its previous 7 years. Globally too, there are enough examples from Lyft and Uber to DoorDash and WeWork. The tech revolution has driven the lightning growth of both valuation and publicity.

These fast-growing startups pose many challenges to leadership, society and stakeholders and their inexperience in governance can cost immensely if not tamed right. Recall the founder imbroglio at PhonePe and Zomato, and how many founders globally have been removed from CEO roles. Recall also the recent reports of accounting malpractices at Byju’s. The value of good governance may not be immediately apparent to the “Vulture Capitalists”, but not having one will

impact the interests of public investors adversely.

While lean startup, disruptive innovation, digitiaation, etc might benefit enterprises of all types; poor governance cannot be justified when valuations are so high. What’s more, unicorns are much bigger in valuation than many large enterprises, which are regulated by SEBI and the like – Byju’s is more valuable than NTPC, ONGC or Tata Motors. Why shouldn’t they be under scrutiny? That doesn’t mean a regulatory noose but nudging for better governance, fiduciary control and disciplined management.

The unicorn founders, VCs and even policymakers may question the need for proactive governance and scrutiny when they are starting up and successful in terms of employment generation, contribution to economic growth and so on. But the fact is, their failures can cause massive disruption in the society, economy and personal lives. Assess the impact of recent mass layoffs at Twitter and Meta on society and economy in different geographies.

Startups need not have fullstrength boards and the founders themselves could be the directors with rotational chair roles. It does not really matter who the

Isn’t it time for the deep-pocketed investors to also insist on good governance systems to drive profitability instead of just valuation?

designated chair is. Yes, these boards may not have much diversity, inclusion, or wider expertise in areas other than the uniform tech skills they share. Scaling up skills, governance, human capital, systems and processes and such will be largely absent. There will be fewer executive directors in startups-on-steroid in comparison to other established companies. Most startups also don’t have a clue on board committees. Clearly, regulatory dynamics, oversight and audit aren’t the priorities for such boards – Managing growth and scaling up are. Not surprisingly, a recent survey found board and governance at 49th in the top 100 things founders lose sleep on.

While deep-pocketed investors demand a board role in the startups, they are unable to invest enough time for governance. The misalignment between funders and founders needs governance.

Unicorn boards must evaluate a few things to steer the shift from valuation to value creation. Check how the equity and voting rights are vested, and how it affects the governance issues in

the growth phase. At what point should independent directors be invited in – too many internal directors create tunnel vision and external expertise may be needed at some point. Should the chair be the founder/CEO or should the roles be separated? Should the board size be increased at the growth stage itself or at the preIPO stage? With a billion dollar valuation, audit, compensation, and nomination committees must be constituted.

Investors will also have to think how to upskill the founders who may be young and/or have no experience with board roles, and decide how to balance this with their key expertise so needed for creating value. On their part, the founders must imbibe the value of driving purposeful growth and not take IPO as the be-all and end-all. Governance will involve a lot of paperwork for which few founders will have the stomach. Having certain control systems will help in growing professionally, and can attract the right kind of investors at different growth stages. Another critical governance issue is the discipline of distributing shares and options. Have a clearly articulated document on allocation that can help prompt investor decisions.

Creating the right governance for value creation will benefit both economic and social outcomes but doing it without killing innovation and entrepreneurship will be key to driving win-win all around.

Vi Sty BA n AJ i

A company of people, by people and for people

The corporate world continues to be authoritarian at its core. How can we unleash the power of true democracy within the firm?

At the time when the first chartered companies started gaining the privileges and monopolies that made at least some of them successful enough to conquer entire countries1, almost all parts of the civilised world were governed by one monarch or another. Later generations of the corporate form went on to extract even more significant freedoms and protections from society: Victorian England set the pace by permitting companies to oper-

ate without specific charters and, most importantly, sparing owners from bearing unlimited liability for the debts of their companies.2 By then, monarchies had either been dispensed with or severely disempowered in many nations. After another century and a couple of world wars, no advanced society was ruled by a monarch exercising traditional autocratic powers. Democracy became the aspirational model for managing the political activity of most of mankind. Of course, dictatorships exist,

as do nominal monarchies, but they all legitimise themselves (with greater or lesser hypocrisy) at the altar of democracy.

Strangely enough, one relatively recent way of organizing people has remained almost totally impervious to the wave of democratisation that has swept the globe. In this atavistic arena, a single ruler’s writ still runs supreme, and there is an almost religious sacralisation of the territory owner’s rights. Though vast numbers of people work hard to create wealth

t he road less travelled

t he road less travelled for the entity, each individual is no more than a pyramid-building labourer in ancient Egypt, who can be used and replaced when worn out. Even when individuals have not outlived their usefulness, they can be banished if they express views that run counter to those of the Mikado.3 Large numbers can be exiled, sold or given away as territories are sold or acquired, with no more thought for the affected individuals’ wishes than the views of Bombay’s residents when the islands were given as dowry to Charles II of England.

What I have described is, of course, not a medi-

eval monarch’s court but a modern business corporation. It is indeed baffling that most people who would never tolerate living in a nation-state bereft of democracy, "… work in organisations where they can exercise little influence over their work – let alone over larger issues involving the managers who hierarchically control them, or relating to their organisation’s strategy. Modern enterprises tend not to be very democratic, being heavily biased toward hierarchical control and owner (shareholder) dominance. These authoritarian organisations dominate the business

world, applying a commandand-control system that results in mechanistic structures and low-trust environments."4 Bob Black puts it even more savagely. "… [W] e all have rights and live in a democracy. Other unfortunates who aren’t free like we are have to live in police states. These victims obey orders or-else, no matter how arbitrary. The authorities keep them under regular surveillance… [D] issent and disobedience are punished. Informers report regularly to the authorities. All this is supposed to be a very bad thing. And so it is, although it is nothing but a description of the modern workplace."5

Divinity, fear, or just laziness?

There are three significant belief boulders preventing corporates from progressing along the path to democratisation already traversed by nation-states. We need to be conscious of these if we are to circumvent them.

One book that goes to the heart of the reluctance to democratise was written in the 17th century and titled 'Patriarcha, or The Natural Power of Kings Against the Unnatural Liberty of the People'. Though it was intended, by Robert Filmer, for kingly guidance, it contains the core (if not openly admit-

It is not easy for managers to move away from these centuries-old methods of ordering, checking and rechecking work. To do so, we first need to review the core benefits of bringing democracy to corporates

ted) beliefs of most business leaders about their right to decide with minimal checks on their authority. Which CEO disagrees, deep inside, with: "To majesty or sovereignty belongeth an absolute power…" or "In a well-ordered state, the sovereign power must remain in one only…"?6 The fact that less exalted employees find CEOs exercising the Divine Right Of Lacklustre Leadership DROLL, does not detract from the deep imprinting it receives in the executive mind the higher it climbs up the hierarchy. In India, our predilection for 'Sultanism', inclines us to accept these airs from seniors even more readily than is the case in more individualistic cultures.7

Almost as large a blockrock is created by the fear of losing control. The foundation of this rock is laid by the spirits of managers past who have firmly believed that, unless they had the unquestioned right to command and control, they would lose the ability to supervise. This axiom arises because "[m]odern industrial organization has been based roughly on the antiquated system of the military… [though today] even the military is moving away from the oversimplified and questionable assumptions on which its organization was originally based".8 Yet more shady

progenitors of corporate structure and management practice (especially for our bean-counting brethren) are the slave plantations of the Americas. "West Indian plantations … present a brutal preview of the modern multidivisional organization…"9

The modern predilection for assuring employees that they benefit with the shareholders also had a pernicious precedent. "The master should make it his business to show his slaves, that the advancement of his individual interest, is at the same time an advancement of theirs. Once they feel this it will require but little

compulsion to make them act as it becomes them."10

Lastly, we have to contend with the near-ubiquitous desire for 'ease of doing managing'. Bertrand Russell did not realize he was describing a fundamental principle of managerial behaviour when he wrote: "There is a law of cosmic laziness called the 'principle of least action', which states that when a body moves from one place to another it will choose the route involving least work."11 Instructions and checking may not get the most out of people but it is the simplest and least strenuous way for the person giving the orders.

t he road less travelled

Far more conducive to raising corporate performance as well as happiness metrics are the New-age environments, which have participative leaders and give employees a say in designing and scheduling their work

It is not easy for managers to move away from these centuries-old methods of ordering, checking and rechecking work. To do so, we first need to review the core benefits of bringing democracy to corporates.

Y2D – the organisational ecology for tomorrow

Douglas McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y have been cornerstones of the HR temple for sixty years now.12

By and large, the base structure has held up well enough13 but the time has come, I believe, to provide it with some reinforcement so that it can take the load that modern organisations will place on it.

McGregor posited that

all supervisors have a (frequently implicit) theory of motivation. At one extreme are 'Theory X' managers, who think people are innately lazy and have to be constantly instructed, monitored and given carrots at one end and sticks at the other, to work. 'Theory Y' subscribers, on the other hand, believe people are intrinsically motivated and, under the right conditions, not only work hard and take initiative but contribute innovative ideas to the activity. McGregor "argued that a manager’s cosmology (i.e., assumptions about people at work) was potentially a self-fulfilling prophecy."14

Traditional (let’s call them T-type) environments, with

authoritarian leadership, large volumes of prescribed and unchangeable routine and people who have been conditioned against taking initiative are comfortable with Theory X leaders.15

The fact that XT organizations can be profitable and proliferate says nothing about their ability to get the best out of their people talent. As soon as we look at them through an artificiality-filtering polariser, their happiness-stripped, innovation-starved, barely-adequate-quality-producing and arthritically-moving people are quickly revealed.16

Far more conducive to raising corporate performance as well as the happiness metrics this column has been advocating17 are the New-age (N types in our nomenclature) environments, which have participative leaders and give employees a say in designing and scheduling their work. Millennials love these work

It would be hard to claim to be a Y2D organisation without some form of employee validation or approbation of leadership choices

environments and Theory Y advocates fit right in here. Are these YN organizations the end of the evolutionary road for businesses? Calling it quits at this stage would be as advisable as joining Fukuyama in announcing the end of history once the cold war was over.18

Since the time Homo Sapiens won out over Neanderthals, owing (some say) to our greater capacity for social organisation, effectiveness in teams has played an inestimable part in human evolutionary success. Theory Y, I believe, doesn’t pay sufficient attention to this social part of our humanness and, therefore, needs to be extended (not contradicted). While retaining what Y assumes about the individual, to unleash the maximum innovation, working pleasure and sustainable results out of a group, they have to be synergised as a team responsible for its own leadership and playing a role in the leadership of the organisation.

Since we are holding on to Theory Y while broadening its remit in the social dimension, it would be fitting to call it Theory Y2, in recognition of its potential to power us to the next motivational plane. Even the N-type environment would be inadequate to mesh with the demands of Theory Y2, especially in the vertical dimension. This is where

the need for the Democratic (or D-type) environment emerges. What would it take to build the Y2D organisation? A full description of a functioning corporate democracy and managing the transition to it would take far more than a column. In the next section, therefore, I shall only touch upon the leadership, ownership and internal checks that are essential for a truly democratic corporation.

just one year and, worse still, they are chosen by election (albeit from a limited choice set).

A recipe for total chaos and disaster, right? No right-thinking CEO would accept a job on such terms. What I have described, rather briefly and with some disguise, is the governance structure of the Roman Republic and it served them very well for almost five hundred years.19 I won’t

Key markers of corporate democracy

Imagine a company with not one but two leaders having equal power. Further, important decisions need to be ratified by a large collegial group, many of whom wield authority coming from having discharged the same leadership role in the past. As if a co-leader and a ratifying group aren’t a sufficient drag on the freedom of each leader, there is a group of hawk-eyed auditors whose sole task is to check each decision and who have the power to countermand it. To confound the confusion, these leaders hold office for

repeat the shock experiment with the political structure of the Athenian Republic which operated a direct democracy and chose its leaders by lot. Athens too went on to rule its own empire and effloresce a crop of thinkers and wise men (though it did execute the wisest of them), proportionately unequalled in the history of the world.20 Both instances are intended to get us out of our strongman-with-absolute-powerfor-indefinite-time mindsets and open our eyes to what democratic leaders can achieve.

While these models are not suggested for corporate

he road less travelled

How can employees be fired by a purpose they have had no say in fashioning or feel ownership for an organisation that fires them in the interest of shareholder value?

t he road less travelled

adoption – not to start with, anyway – it would be hard to claim to be a Y2D organisation without some form of employee validation or approbation of leadership choices even if these are for a limited type (say CXOs) of position and from a limited choice set (no, that doesn’t mean just the promoter’s family!). Y2D leaders would also not take decisions unilaterally. "Either directly or indirectly, employees have

cooperation, productivity, patience, loyalty, flexibility and risk-taking would go up in Employee Owned Companies (EOCs) is borne out by several "case studies that demonstrate the positive economic impact of employee ownership."22 More equitable pay differentials and gain-sharing that have been highlighted as serious pain points in previous columns23 would find their quickest resolution

constitution, checked by a fearless judiciary and kept in view through transparent sharing of information. There is every reason to imagine similar parallels for each of these curatives in a Y2D organisation. An illustrative, corresponding list would be a Fair Organisation Code, total freedom of accessing any but the most competitively damaging information in a timely and user-friendly fashion and an ombudsman or very independent Nomination and Remuneration Committee of the Board.

to be involved in operational and strategic decision-making processes."21 The gains in unbottling innovation and providing a sense of ownership would be incalculable.

Ownership would also need to be literally shared with employees since much of what is proposed for Y2D organisations cannot work with the current patterns of equity ownership. The expectation that

under EOCs without having to resort to exhortation and appeals to conscience that seems to work as well as importuning by Angada to Ravana for the release of Sita.

Untrammelled democracy, even on the national scale, brings severe problems in its wake (e.g. a majoritarian over-riding of minority rights) unless it is channelled through a

Both for those whose appetite has been whetted by these glimpses and, even more so, for the ones who remain sceptical about the possibility of running successful commercial organisations on these principles, my response is the same. Please take the time to study real-life successes like the Dutch Breman Group in Holland24 and the Mondragon Cooperatives in Spain25. Their stories are remarkably inspiring and, though both have faced challenges, they and others like them are more than sufficient to point us to the future of the corporation.

A transition that can’t be refused

The transition to Corporate Democracy – the Y2D organisational form – will not be easy even for the most progressive of our existing

companies. It will certainly not be total for years to come. XT and YN organizations will proliferate for a long time even as the former continue paying the price of sacrificing a large part of their people potential. The time may come, however, when society itself refuses to underwrite the externalities of anachronistic commercio-monarchical forms that business organisations use. Should society threaten to withdraw limited liability, unlimited duration of existence, the multiplicity of purpose and other concessions (that it granted in the past few centuries) to organisations that choose to stay rooted

Notes:

1. John Keay, The Honourable Company, Harper, 2011.

2. John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge, The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea, Modern Library, 2003.

3. Visty Banaji, Off With His Head - Is Due Process Past its Due Date?, People Matters, 17 July 2018.

4. A Van Witteloostuijn and G de Jong, Organizational democracy, in: S R Clegg and J R Bailey (eds.), International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, Volume 3, pp. 1039-1042, Sage Publishers, 2007.

5. Bob Black, The Abolition of Work and Other Essays, Loom Panics Unlimited, 1992.

6. Peter Laslett (ed.), Patriarcha and Other Political Works of Sir Robert Filmer, Oxford, 1949.

7. Visty Banaji, Music and management, People Matters, 5 February 2020.

8. Philip Slater and Warren Bennis, Democracy Is Inevitable, Harvard Business Review, SeptemberOctober 1990.

9. Caitlin Rosenthal, Accounting for Slavery –Masters and Management, Harvard University Press; 2019.

10. Kenneth M Stampp, Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South, Knopf, 1956.

11. Bertrand Russell, Stephen Mumford (Editor), Russell on Metaphysics: Selections from the Writings

in the past, the democratic transition will, of course, be forced far more speedily. Richard Wolff26 and Yanis Varoufakis27 provide different and radical but very convincing justifications for (and even the inevitability of) society forcing the pace of change.

The argument that may carry far more weight with business leaders is the one from survival in a competitive environment. In explaining why post-revolutionary French armies (guided by the genius of Napoleon) swept from victory to victory throughout Europe, Margaret MacMillan emphasizes the national spirit that drove

of Bertrand Russell, Routledge, 2003.

12. Douglas McGregor The Human Side of Enterprise, Annotated Edition, McGraw Hill Education, 2006.

13. L Lawter, R E Kopelman and D J Prottas, McGregor's theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis, Journal of Managerial Issues, 27(1-4), 84-101, 2015.

14. L Lawter, R E Kopelman and D J Prottas, McGregor's theory X/Y and job performance: A multilevel, multi-source analysis, Journal of Managerial Issues, 27(1-4), 84-101, 2015.

15. Michael P. Bobic and William Eric Davis, A Kind Word for Theory X: Or Why So Many Newfangled Management Techniques Quickly Fail, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 239-264, 2003.

16. Kenneth Cloke and Joan Goldsmith, The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy, (J-B Warren Bennis Series), JosseyBass, 2002.

17. Visty Banaji, HR’s business should be happiness raising, People Matters, 24 September 2019.

18. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, The Free Press, 1992.

19. Henrik Mouritsen, Politics in the Roman Republic, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

20. Brook Manville and Josiah Ober, A Company of Citizens: What the World's First Democracy

the soldiers of France once they had a say and stake in the way their nation was run.28 In corporates we use purpose and feeling of ownership rather lightly. How can employees be fired (figuratively) by a purpose they have had no say in fashioning or feel ownership for an organisation that (literally) fires them in the interest of shareholder value?

The performance difference between Y2D organisations and the rest will become obvious over a period of time and, particularly in industries that demand high degrees of innovation, complex coordination and a sense of citizenship, only corporate democracies will survive.

Teaches Leaders About Creating Great Organizations, Harvard Business Review Press, 2002.

21. Gjalt de Jong and Arjen van Witteloostuijn, Organizational Democracy, in S R Clegg and J R Bailey, International Encyclopedia of Organization Studies, Volume 3, 1039-1042, Sage Publishers, 2007.

22. William I Sauser Jr., Sustaining Employee Owned Companies: Seven Recommendations, Journal of Business Ethics, 84:151-164, 2009.

23. Visty Banaji, But who will guard the guardians?, People Matters, 14 March 2018.

24. Gjalt de Jong and Arjen van Witteloostuijn, Successful corporate democracy: Sustainable cooperation of capital and labour in the Dutch Breman Group, Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 18, No. 3, 2004.

25. Carl Davidson, The Mondragon Cooperatives and 21st Century Socialism: A Review of Five Books with Radical Critiques and New Ideas, Perspectives on Global Development and Technology, Volume 11, January 2012.

26. Richard D Wolff, Democracy at Work: A Cure for Capitalism, Haymarket Books, 2012.

27. Yanis Varoufakis, Another Now: Dispatches from an Alternative Present, Bodley Head – Penguin Random House, 2020.

28. Margaret MacMillan, War: How Conflict Shaped Us, Profile Books, 2021.

The transition to Corporate Democracy – the Y2D organisational form – will not be easy even for the most progressive of our existing companies

Past Month's events

Online Programme: DEI: Implementing Unbiased Strategies in the New World of Work

People Matters

BeNext 31 October – 02 December 2022

This programme is for leaders invested in creating lasting mindset shifts and developing a more inclusive employee experience through the implementation of impactful DE&I initiatives and strategies. Develop a more diverse, inclusive and equitable workplace through practices and strategies that uncover and overcome biases.

Online Programme: Reframing Your C&B Strategy: Agility, Equity and Sustainability

People Matters BeNext 07 November – 09 December 2022

This programme is designed for organisations with existing rewards programs interested in reframing their compensation and benefits strategy to create a more agile, equitable and sustainable strategy that drives business-wide change. This programme would also be suitable for startups looking to move beyond the founding stage and gain a better understanding of how to craft a comprehensive rewards program.

Online Programme: HR Business Partner in the New World of Work

People Matters BeNext 21 November – 23 December 2022

This programme is for leaders and practitioners interested in how the HRBP drives cultural shifts that align with the changing needs of teams and organisations. Learn how the HRBP can create greater impact and value with a people-based approach to leading the transition to the new world of work.

Upcoming events

People Matters Talent Acquisition Conference 2023

Thursday, 09 February 2023

LocAtion: Ritz Carlton, Bengaluru

Winning in 2023 will require companies to take a radically different approach toward talent management, built on the foundations of operational flexibility. It is time to come together and forge a new path for the future of work.

CHROs, HR Heads, Head of Culture, Recruitment, TA Leaders, Engagement, C&B, Reward and Employee Experience leaders are welcome to join us this coming February to gain insights, deliberate unconventional strategies and explore robust solutions that will help you welcome times of volatility with courage and let you make some bold strategic choices. The time is now. Get your A-Game on!

People Matters L&D Conference 2023 Singapore Edition

Thursday, 13 April 2023

LocAtion: Fairmont, Singapore

With People Matters L&D Conference 2023, we help you discover how you can re-architect your learning strategy and ecosystem to deliver right-fit solutions, keep pace with disruptions, and help your workforce solve today’s most critical performance challenges while also developing the knowledge and skills employees will need to be successful in the future. We invite CHROs, CLOs, Senior HRs, L&D CEOs, L&D Functional Leaders, L&D Professionals, Learning Leaders, and more to join us in Leading Off - Built for Disruption, where we explore how capability building will — and should — help the organisation be built for disruption.

Find out more: https://sea.lndconference.com

People

Matters TechHR 2023

04-05 August 2023

LocAtion: Watch this space for details

Unconventional times call for unconventional ways of thinking. Three years into a global pandemic and, now, facing a war, an unstable economy, social unrest, supply chain breakdowns, and mounting climate change, we see how old patterns of doing business no longer cut through the grain and deliver impact. One thing is certain. The pressures of our times call for leaders who can rebuild their resilience and vitality in a VUCA world. People Matters TechHR 2023 sets the foundation of an inclusive space for us to learn from our community, break away from outdated ways of thinking, and venture boldly into business, technology and leadership.

Blogosphere

How digital transformation can power the Great Reset

Technology has the potential to serve as the key enabler of change between digitalising administrative tasks and fostering human connections

programmes. These are all digital conveniences that help keep the HR department efficient, employees serviced, and the business competitive.

Digital transformation is a key human resource (HR) imperative today, and it goes beyond just consolidating functions and views on a single platform. With digital maturity, we see potential in making the human resource function more strategic, such as the use of data analytics and artificial intelligence to glean better insights across functions, initiatives, and

The insurance industry’s HR function is no exception. For a highly competitive industry, insurance has been impacted by the talent crunch. Insurers need an efficient and effective digital HR system to improve recruitment and retention. The catch, however, is not to make HR automated and clinical, but to use advanced technology to elevate the user experience, identify gaps and monitor solutions. In short, to go digital so that HR can be more people-centric.

Humanising human capital in insurance

I did not follow the typical route of an HR professional. Armed with a Computer Science degree, I started as a programmer in a large manufacturing firm, writing bits and pieces of codes to fit bigger applications on demand.

There was little creativity to speak of, and the routine became a daily grind.

Later, I had the opportunity to join a recruitment agency to see what this vocation had to offer. To my surprise, I enjoyed the change. I realised my passion is to deal with people and I love the opportunities to interact with humans in this role. Since I consider myself a peoples’ person, I found my calling in HR.

After a few years in recruitment, I joined Etiqa Insurance Malaysia as the Head of Recruitment and was subsequently transferred to Etiqa Insurance Singapore in 2014 to set up the Singapore office. I was fortunate to have received immense support from colleagues at both local and group offices of Maybank and Etiqa in the first two years.

At Etiqa Insurance, our founding principle is to humanise insurance, which applies to Human Capital as well. Many people often ask me what makes Etiqa Insurance Singapore’s HR strategy successful. I have told them that there is no magic formula, just authenticity and sincerity to meet employees’ needs, such as through hybrid work practices, so that they still have face-to-face engagement while given personal time.

As the Head of Human Capital, I believe in being genuine to the employees. To get through to them and earn trust, I must first lead by example, by treating them as individuals that are running alongside with me, not merely a subordinate. We can have fun together, and when the

time comes to deliver on tasks, we deliver them together. Only then can we work in unison to achieve successful business outcomes. As an organisation, we are 240 employees strong and have built human capital management into our DNA. Beyond camaraderie, we aim to equip them with leadership programmes to help them be more strategic thinkers, with opportunities to work across different roles to maximise their potential, and experience a more agile way of doing things in a safe environment, apart from the usual skills-based learning programmes.

Bridging people and technology

When I first took up this position, my goal was to solve administrative headaches, typical of an HR function. I wanted to minimise human intervention in routine work and governance because, in this aspect, automation of processes can make things more efficient.

HR

Technology is key to simplification, which will not only help my department but all employees we serve. I was grateful for the opportunity to merge both my expertise and passion through ConnecTiQa, an award-winning platform that I architected from scratch and now manage entirely in-house, thanks to the great support of Etiqa’s management for the foresight to invest in innovation to become future ready.

The platform includes employee intranet functions from managing hybrid work arrangements such as booking seats in the office, payment requisitions, employees knowledge library, and

performance management, even building a check-in system that captures the health of employees. Should there be a Covid case in the office, the system would trigger an automatic notification to the relevant staff to self-observe and work from home for safety. Much of employee management is now undertaken by ConnectiQa today, which is used across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, and the Philippines.

Digitalisation made human

Because this system is developed in-house, we are not reliant on external vendor support. It is also customised to our internal processes, internal governance, and so on, so every function is suitable for our needs.

HR digitalisation is indeed a way to help companies and employees, by cutting costs, minimising errors, and ensuring paperless transactions in a 24/7 environment. Our internal system is a prime example of our departments working together to humanise insurance.

Technology has the potential to serve as the key enabler of change between digitalising administrative tasks and fostering human connections. HR teams are continually expected to do more, so technology can help bridge any potential talent gaps, leaving HR professionals time to employ effective talent management strategies in the age of the Great Reset.

teams are continually expected to do more, so technology can help bridge any potential talent gaps, leaving HR professionals time to employ effective talent management strategies in the age of the Great Reset

People Matters'