Future-proofing must begin today

While work from home has become standard, this week’s awaited development of being able to have a 100 percent workforce in the office is a welcome one.  A development to be reckoned with is how digital technology has altered and transformed how work gets done and the number of people needed for the task.

An example often cited is that of companies selling consumer products. Traditionally, hundreds of people are needed to monitor purchases and inventory to ensure that the products are there where and when needed. Technology and predictive analytics have changed all that, reducing the number of employees needed to oversee those tasks and changing skills needed for staff who could do these while working remotely from the office.

Technology was already a game-changer even before the pandemic, with the many innovations it offered. But as businesses rebuild and learn to live with the uncertainties of the times, it behooves them to “future-proof” their companies and workforce to survive.

The term “future-proof” comes from an interesting and timely article “Future-Proofing Your Organization” by Michael Mankins, Eric Garton and Dan Schwartz from the Harvard Business Review, September-October 2021 issue. The research involved more than 300 companies worldwide engaged in manufacturing, retail, health care, technology. Half of those companies have headquarters in North America, Western Europe, South America, Asia Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

How did these companies rebuild as they assembled and managed their work teams? Six practices were seen as common to them.

• Think ahead when defining business-critical roles. It is time for companies to rethink what specific skills will be required for a tech-dominated future and how to develop these in the current workforce or actively recruit for such skills.

The example cited is that of Woodside Energy, an Australian natural gas producer. As early as 2011, the company realized that it needed to enhance its “conventional technologies with data-driven breakthroughs.” Seasoned engineers had been relied on for its operations, developing their own mitigation plans based on personal experience and data collected from production sites. But they discovered that with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)-enabled tools, along with decade-long years of production experience, these engineers were making better and faster decisions.

Today, the company recruits data scientists from the best Australian and international universities to work with the seasoned work team.

• Redefine what great looks like. A mobile phone operator saw the need to shift their retail operating model from pushing sales of equipment to prioritizing customer intimacy and service. Employees needed to be trained by professional coaches towards new mindsets and attitudes. It also developed an interactive recruiting tool to screen the 10,000+ job applicants a month sans any human intervention. The online program had the applicants respond to a series of scenarios they’d likely encounter. This has reduced the time store managers spend supervising staff, allowing them to service customers on the floor. Such an initiative has reduced operating cost for the company and earned positive customer feedback.

• Don’t cut back on management development. The best companies turn to management development with the support of technology for reskilling current workforce. The article advocates reskilling as their study has shown that 60 percent of a company’s future staffing needs can be filled by current employees.  “Reskilling is also cheaper than the ‘fire and hire’ model for filling new roles.” The severance costs linked to workforce reductions are high and there is the morale of remaining team members to reckon with. Recruiting new talent can be costly, particularly for high-demand sectors such as data science, digital marketing and software engineering.

• Tech up the HR function. It is observed that from an HR perspective, “a model that relies too heavily on frequent human interaction will not be cost-effective.”  Rather, as companies acquire more data on their employees – regarding each person’s skills, performance, potential and ability to learn new skills and assume new roles – people analytics will be employed in HR technology. The startling discovery: “We know of no company that is fully exploiting the workforce information it has. Most organizations have barely scratched the surface.”

• Get people to engage with tech. As more companies and workers engage and transact in the virtual world, few companies do so in a coordinated way. Thus, employees turn suspicious of it and technology is not fully utilized. USAA, described as a leading provider of financial products and services to members of the military and their families, is a good example. Its insurance operations handle more than 5 million claims yearly. Delivering the best customer service means making the claims processing faster and more efficient. Machine-learning algorithms use AI for a more accurate estimate of extent of property or vehicle damage. The company’s technology team works with the company’s service representatives to “train” the AI model to act and think like an experienced company representative.

With machines assuming lower-value tasks such as fraud detection and prevention, the claims team are given more time to focus on directly assisting USAA members making the claims.

• Figure out what tomorrow’s stars want from you. It is foreseen that by 2030, millennials will make up 75 percent of the US workforce, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure should not depart radically from the Philippine scene. And it is the same generation characterized as wanting it all, sounding so familiar to today’s managers: “flexible schedules, diversity in the workplace, engagement, autonomy and a meaningful connection with their employers.”

But truth to tell, the lockdown has taught all of us the value and importance of the essential: meaningful jobs, supportive colleagues, flexible employers.

Considering how long it takes to develop a talent pool in employee ranks, future-proofing has to begin today.

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Write Things specials for March: Young Writers’ Hangout via Zoom on March 12 & 26, 2-3 pm., with Rhandee Garlitos and Natasha Vizcarra.

The 2022 Adult series begins on March 19 with UST professor and author John Jack G. Wigley on Writing Humor.

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