Before the COVID-19 pandemic, only 22% of global organizations were prepared for mass remote work, the World Economic Forum reports. Now, companies are unprepared for an even more daunting new challenge—empowering their modern workforce to succeed.

 

Workers have a new set of requirements to be met before they can do their jobs well. This includes purpose-built digital tools that drive better business outcomes; but also, a more inclusive, humanistic, and people-focused work environment that does the same.

 

Business leaders must ask themselves: Are we doing enough in terms of culture, training, and investments to accommodate these critical factors for business success? In this article, we take an in-depth look at five key elements that are critical to empowering today’s workers:

 

.  Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
.  Workplace Flexibility
.  Digital Agility & Empowerment
.  Training, Upskilling, & Reskilling
.  Transformative Corporate Leadership

 

How Has Workforce Enablement Changed?

 

Modern workers have new requirements for satisfaction and productivity, and that means leaders face changing requirements for business success. In one sense, new workplace models are contributing to that goal. 63% of employees are more productive when working remotely, Enterprise Talk reports, and many companies are realizing additional value by implementing flexible scheduling. IT leaders are increasingly shifting to a frictionless, self-service approach to digital enablement that supports these models as well.

 

Leaders, Take Notice

 

Still, operational changes like these are only part of the puzzle. Business leaders who don’t take into account workers’ new cultural, strategic, and preparedness needs will be unprepared for successful hiring, let alone enablement. Many of the operational changes touted as helpful may obfuscate worsening skills gaps, closeness among teams, and even workers’ personal wellbeing.

 

Consider this: Harvard Business Review research has shown that only 95% of employees—nearly all of them—were either unaware or didn’t fully understand their company’s core strategy. How have business leaders taken proactive steps to change this predicament, even before pandemic-related challenges came about? Leaders must also ask themselves how well employees understand corporate approach towards diversity, sustainability, and governance as well—essential components of corporate strategy today.

 

Five Focus Areas for Workforce and Cultural Success

 

Business leaders must do more to ensure employs understand the importance of their roles and have the means they need to drive business value. They must accommodate employees with an environment that is flexible, supportive, and both inclusive and moral as well. Consider how the following critical factors apply to your own organization as you look to take on future business challenges.

 

1. Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion (DE&I)

 

DE&I is an essential moral and strategic consideration that impacts all aspects of business. Workers require a culture where they feel respected and heard just as they need the right tools to perform their daily tasks. Unfortunately, most companies have not taken a both proactive and holistic approach to DE&I that impacts both employee satisfaction and business results.

 

For example, 20% of LGBTQ+ employees never disclose their identify as an LGBTQ+ individual in the workplace, SHRM reports: “There is as fear among some that disclosure poses a potential risk to their careers, and that was the top reason cited for not coming out at work.”

 

Before all other considerations, business leaders must create a culture where workers are trusted and empowered to tell the truth, whether they choose to do so or not. They can begin by establishing and clearly communicating inclusive policies, as well as make resources available to employees via human resources channels.

 

Investing in people in this way is not only the right thing to do—it yields real business results. “Programs that encourage diversity, inclusion, equality and equity will result in tangible benefits for any organization,” says Forbes. “it’s just as mission-critical as any priority task or project.”

 

2. Workplace Flexibility

 

According to Forrester, only 5% of knowledge workers prioritized working at home before 2020. Starting in March 2020, nearly half of workers (47%) claimed their employees transitioned at least half of their workforce to remote work. Now, employees have discovered newfound levels of flexibility and control that many wish to retain, even as companies transition workers back to in-office settings.

 

The question is, are employers taking a proactive approach to maintaining that workplace flexibility? For business leaders, this means more than technology support—it means adjusting how worker productivity is evaluated.

 

Specifically, managers and business leaders must adopt more holistic methods for measuring performance, focusing on tangible goals and results rather than hours worked and attendance. Instead, companies can implement digital collaboration and self-service tools that connect and empower workers, even if they choose to work at different times and locations.

 

3. Digital Agility & Empowerment

 

More than ever, digital tools impact worker productivity. This includes their ability to complete specific tasks, but also their ability to drive critical initiatives with team members. Unfortunately, since the start of COVID-19, there has been a 35% increase in daily IT incident tickets, Forbes reports. CIOs and other executives must consider whether or not IT is supporting the technological evolution of their companies.

 

Ultimately, digital tools are about interacting and getting work done. But IT leaders must take a focused approach to technology investment, prioritizing tools that accommodate existing workflows rather than impose upon workers by adding complexity. They must be mindful of software creep as well, where too many tools can overwhelm workers.

 

Finally, they must revisit their security protocols, which must evolve alongside employees’ new ways of working. IT teams can automate key aspects of security such as “threat prevention, detection, response, and data encryption… allowing them to focus energy on adapting to new challenges caused by remote work,” as Forrester describes.

 

4. Training, Upskilling, & Reskilling

 

New workforce challenges present new opportunities for training, upskilling, and reskilling employees, especially as digital tools designed for training and knowledge retention become more sophisticated. A 2021 LinkedIn Learning report found that nearly 60% of global learning and development professionals consider upskilling and reskilling their top priority.

 

Modern training best practices align with more than role-based tasks; they focusing on diversity, equity, and inclusivity in the workplace as well. Training in these areas is essential when implementing a successful DE&I approach.

 

Fortunately, employers seem to be taking on this new opportunity in a proactive way. Already, 52% of U.S. employers are providing upskilling training so employees can perform entirely new jobs, SHRM reports; 73% are offering initial skills training to help workers with their current responsibilities as well.

 

5. Transformative Corporate Leadership

 

All these types of real change require a top-down, executive-driven approach, albeit with different elements than traditional rules-based policy adjustments. Rather than impose requirements, executives must make flexibility and inclusivity a part of their culture, and rally employees around business initiatives and results.

 

Leadership must be inspirational, it should be supportive, and it should feature a “people-first” agenda. Leaders can continue tracking productivity metrics without them becoming the main focus of productivity reviews. They may realize those metrics improve with this new agenda as well.

 

Let Your People Take Action

 

Why is a people-first approach fit for today’s everchanging business environment? People are our best resource when it comes to cultural adaptation, proactive changes, learning, and mutual support. Even as business leaders identify and secure the right technologies for business success, it’s workers who will use those tools to meet the unforeseeable challenges of the future.

 

Learn More About Workforce Enablement with Uvation

 

Uvation can help you transform your workforce enablement strategy for future success. Visit our Workforce Enablement service page to learn more, or start a conversation with one of our experts today.