“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.”

He may have achieved fame as a country music singer in the 1960’s, but Jimmy Dean’s observation could easily have been about the current state of organizational change.

The winds of change have been howling through the working world; the disruptive forces of new technologies, generative AI, the broadening scope of diversity, equity, and inclusion and the assimilation of hybrid and remote working have created a HR hurricane.

These changes are all potentially positive for business, but they are happening at a pace that has been exponentially accelerated by the pandemic. What would have been a gradual integration of the hybrid working format became a sudden and forced shift to remote working which companies either had to adapt to or be left behind.

And yet, although lockdown posed a situation where employers were forced to adjust their sails, the changes that we are seeing now can be best navigated not just by responding to the direction of the wind – but also by anticipating its patterns so to be one step ahead of it.

Here lies the big question: is your organization ready for change?

A recent report from Gartner discovered that 82% of HR leaders believe their managers are not equipped to lead change – and this is exacerbated by the fact that 77% of employees are suffering from change fatigue.

Change fatigue occurs when the volume and pace of change becomes overwhelming for employees. This can have detrimental affects on employee wellbeing and productivity, but despite this only 8% of workers feel confident in their plan to manage their fatigue.

The pace of change in the working world is not predicted to slow, so for those organizations looking to keep in stride – and get ahead of – this new pace, they need to be building change fatigue prevention strategies into their equation for organizational transformation success.

Currently, most employers will integrate change through clear communication paired with good training. But as we watch the corporate world evolve, so do our approaches to how change is implemented. Weaving change fatigue management into this equation ensures that managers are better equipped to coach their teams on how to effectively identify fatigue drivers, fix any that arise, and start to look at how they can be prevented altogether (this looks like normalizing rest, microbreaks, employee involvement, creating a psychologically safe space, etc.).

What is critical to these prevention strategies being successful is understanding that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to mitigating change fatigue. Different types of employees are going to need different wellbeing support – and if employers are able to look at wellbeing needs through an intersectional lens, then they will be able to efficiently support their people through the intensity of these changes.

An example of this is midlife workers; many of our established wellbeing programs are centred around younger workers (parental leave, childcare support, etc.) whereas older workers will have entirely different needs to this (menopause support, working carers support, etc.). Bridging the wellbeing gap will strengthen your efforts when managing change fatigue and ensure that the other 92% of employees feel confident in their ability to manage their change fatigue as they will have the right support in place.

This will see your business set sail on the high seas of profit, productivity, and employee satisfaction.

If you would like to discuss how we can help implement strategies around wellbeing and change fatigue, please get in touch with me at david@orgshakers.com

David Fairhurst is the Founder of OrgShakers. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading HR practitioners and is a respected thought leader, business communicator, and government advisor.

The evolution of AI and technology is more than just a trend – it is now driving a fundamental shift in the business landscape. Organizations aiming to stay competitive must embrace this transformation – starting with their People.

To begin with, organizations need to be redesigning their structures and processes – and working with someone who has expertise in this field is crucial for smooth and successful implementation.

This is where OrgShakers come in. We can help employers build a foundation to adapt and thrive in a tech-driven future by combining our expertise in leadership optimization, people strategy, and human capital risk management.

Focusing on strategic HR management in this way will see humans align harmoniously with the technology to unlock the full potential of this new opportunity. Our approach encompasses everything from talent acquisition to leadership development and is designed to foster a culture of innovation and adaptability.

And fostering this culture is not just about adopting new tools; it’s about strategic cultural and organizational transformation. This requires an approach which ensures that changes in structure and strategy are deeply rooted in the organization’s culture and values so to ignite a ripple effect that touches every corner of the company.

Embedding AI and new technologies requires a focus on learning and development opportunities surrounding this, as this training will mitigate any feelings of doubt or change fatigue that employees may be feeling when getting to grips with these new additions.

In 2024, staying ahead means embracing the evolution of AI and technology, with a focus on people and processes. Partnering with us offers organizations the expertise and support to navigate this transformative journey. By aligning HR strategies with technological advancements, companies can foster a resilient, innovative, and competitive workforce ready to excel in our hi-tech future.

If you would like to discuss our services in relation to AI and technology in more detail, please get in touch with me at sayid@orgshakers.com  

It was recently discovered that a whopping 70% of UK staff are planning to find a new job in 2024, and over half (58%) of US employees were intending to make a major job change this year…so if you thought the war for talent was coming to a lull, this may prove you wrong.

Since the pandemic the working world has been in a state of flux – our practices are constantly evolving in response to the rise of the carpe diem mentality that COVID created, and the subsequent shifting needs of the workforce that came with it. With a constant flow of employees in and out of organizations, businesses have been keenly focused on strategies to attract, embed, and retain top talent.

And in 2024, this may mean looking beyond the pool of traditionally qualified workers. The 4-year degree as a job requirement is starting to be challenged in corporate America, and this is in part due to the precedent set by big name companies like IBM, Accenture, Bank of America, and Google doing away with a bachelor’s degree as a requirement for being hired. Now, recent data suggests that nearly half of US organizations intend to eliminate the need for a bachelor’s degree in 2024. And this trend is not just exclusive to the US – LinkedIn data discovered a 90% increase in the share of UK job postings that did not require a university degree.

With the current talent squeeze we are seeing, it’s no wonder that companies are starting to change their tune towards those who take a more untraditional path into the world of work. After all, fewer than 40% of Americans actually hold a bachelor’s degree, which leaves 70 million workers who do not have one being overlooked by so many employers.

But if degree inflation is finally starting to fall, what should employers be doing to ensure they are attracting the best talent?

The answer to this breaks down into two key factors – what the characteristics are for a desirable candidate, and what training pathways employers can offer to their employees. For the former, this will see hiring managers and HR professionals moving away from looking at traditional qualifications and instead measuring the aptitude of a potential hire based on their attitude, their acquired skills, and whether they can enhance the culture of the company. There are so many employees who are eager to learn and develop but for one reason or another have not gone down the 4-year degree education path. Companies that are moving away from the traditional stance of needing a degree are going to gain access to a larger and more diverse pool of talent.

The success of your new hires is then dependent on the training programs that companies have in place for them. One offering that is growing in popularity in the US is apprenticeships, which have seen a 64% rise over the last decade. Apprenticeships have proven to be a great tool for getting fresh talent into roles; for example, in Switzerland 70% of teenagers participate in apprenticeships after finishing high school due to their effectiveness for businesses and their biproduct of creating social mobility opportunities. They can therefore be a fantastic strategic tool for attracting talent, but also lend a hand in increasing retention rates, too, as they foster a sense of loyalty from the onset.

Similarly, employers can create in-house training programs that are specifically tailored to upskill individuals to their working practices, and enrol new hires in certain Bootcamps and external certifications to gain qualifications whilst learning on the job (we are seeing this begin to particularly grow in popularity in the tech world).

And much like Swiss employers, companies who are looking to move away from the degree requirement and create apprenticeship and training programs are going to be furthering their social agenda for their Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies, as they will be helping to create more social mobility opportunities.

So, if you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can help you with navigating this expansion of your hiring process and assist you in accessing wider pools of unexplored talent, please get in touch with me at randy.ynegas@orgshakers.com or contact us through our website.

PeopleScout partnered with skills-based workforce management platform provider Spotted Zebra to survey over 100 senior HR and talent acquisition leaders globally, plus over 2,000 employees worldwide, to compare perspectives. Our new research report, The Skills Crisis Countdown, maps the skills landscape and diagnoses the disconnects between employers and their workforce.

According to a study by PwC, 40% of global CEOs believe their business will be economically unviable in 10 years unless they reinvent for the future. Our study revealed that nine out of 10 HR leaders believe that up to 50% of their workforce will require new skills to effectively perform their job in the next five years. Yet, when asked if they are currently undergoing or planning a workforce transformation initiative in the next three years, nearly half (45%) of HR leaders admit to having no plans to undertake one.

So, in other words, half of employees will soon be underprepared for the future, but most companies have no strategy in place to address the issue.

Read the full report here: https://www.peoplescout.com/insights/countdown-to-skills-crisis/

With the new year now in full swing, new research from HiBob uncovers a miserable state of employee mental wellness, as one fifth (20%) of Brits feel burned out at work and more than a quarter (29%) are stressed. Shockingly, only one in seven (16%) would describe their mental state at work as supported.

As a result, the majority of UK workers (70%) are planning on finding a new job in 2024; with over a quarter (28%) planning on finding one in the next six months. Given workers’ current feelings, driving this new wave of resignations is a desire to level out work life balance (17%).

Read the full piece here: https://www.hrgrapevine.com/content/article/2024-01-22-70-of-uk-staff-looking-for-a-new-job-in-2024

What is the office actually for?

What was once seen as a logical and efficient way of working has now been brought into question by the sudden and mass shift to remote and hybrid work.

So, to work out where we’re going – we first need to rewind.

The ‘office’ has always been in a shifting state, all the way back to its conception in the 15^th century, where medieval monks created ‘scriptoriums’ to copy manuscripts. From that point onwards these proto-offices slowly evolved as the introduction of artificial light, telephones, typewriters, elevators, and computers eventually spawned sky-scraping office buildings which defined the urban landscape.  

Then BOOM! Lockdown. And everything changed.

What had been a slow and gradual evolution was jolted in a radically different direction. Those that could, worked from home. And for many of these individuals, working life became more productive, and more rewarding, to the point where today nine in ten jobseekers say hybrid work is now as important as financial benefits.

These new expectations mean that employers now need to be considering how they can most effectively use their office space to optimize the productivity of their people when they are in work – while also meeting their wellbeing needs when they are working remotely.

The best way to do this? By focusing on policy, place, and purposeful leaders:

Policy – Clarity is key when it comes to creating policies for hybrid and remote work, and so is the consideration of time. Your policies will outline when you expect people to be in, and when they are permitted the freedom to choose whether they use the office or work from home.

How flexible are your working hours? Are there core working hours that everyone needs to be available for? Being clear about what your policies are and why you have chosen them is important when it comes to building trust and loyalty with your staff, as well as lending to your attractiveness as a company.

Place – Different people are going to want/need to use the office for different reasons. For some, they may want to be in everyday as they cannot find a quiet space to focus at home. For others, they may only want to come in once a week, as they can do their individual work from home but enjoy face-to-face contact for more collaborative tasks. The point of this is that you have to be able to offer a place that can accommodate for both.

Will you have a Superdesk in one area to encourage collaboration and cubicle spaces for those who need to concentrate? Or will you try and adopt a more creative approach, with nap pods and sofas scattered about?

There is no ‘best way’ to do it – a recent study found that actively trying to make creative office spaces could be stifling creativity, whilst another discovered that changing from cubicles to open-plan saw a 70% drop in face-to-face interactions.

It all depends on your people’s needs; let them guide how your office space takes shape, and this way, it will ensure the optimization of their productivity.

Purposeful Leaders – Your leaders will play a huge role in bringing these policies to life –  as well as ensuring that the office space you have is delivering a return on your real estate investment.

If you decide that you want all employees to come in once a week, then it falls to team leaders and line-managers to highlight why people should adhere to this. If you force your staff to come in only for them to do the quiet, concentrated, individual work they can, and would most likely prefer to, do from home, then you are not optimizing the space around you. These days should be dedicated to collaborative tasks, to nourishing the company culture and strengthening the relationships between colleagues. If this is done correctly, people will stop viewing coming into the office as a chore and actually start wanting to be there, but your policies can only be as good as your managerial facilitation.

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Employers need to accept that hybrid and remote work is, for the majority of workers, desirable and beneficial, and begin leveraging this opportunity to optimize productivity rather than seeing it as an obstacle standing in the way of ‘the old way of work’.

The purpose of the office is changing, so now it’s a matter of leading this change rather than being led by it. And this is where we can help – we can assist in optimizing your organizational effectiveness when it comes to hybrid work, helping to craft policies and coach leaders to ensure that your company’s individual needs are met, and simultaneously align with the needs of your workforce.

To continue this conversation, you can either head over to our contact page, or reach out to me directly at andy@orgshakers.com

If you ever find yourself feeling anxious, sad, and/or stressed out as your Sunday comes to a close, you may be experiencing the Sunday scaries.

These feelings can be brought on for a number of reasons, whether that be stress from the week of work one has ahead of them, sadness about having to say goodbye to the fun, relaxing weekend, or angst from personal problems that have to be shelved as the working week begins again.

This phenomenon is more common than employer might think; one LinkedIn survey found that 75% of working Americans say they experience the Sunday scaries. This is an alarming amount of people who are starting off their work week on a bad note, and this can translate into productivity and engagement levels.

Setting the right tone for the week ahead can make all the difference with keeping a team engaged. After all, studies show that happy employees are noticeably more productive, and so employers should be considering what they can do to change that feeling of dread Monday brings into a feeling of excitement.

This is where the Monday Mantra comes in; employers should start considering creating their own unique mantra’s that they can use to bring the team together and ensure that the working week is starting off on a positive, stress-free note. This can take shape in a number of different and creative ways:

• Do a quick team meeting to start the day – this would see the team leader start Monday off by bringing everyone together and having an open discussion. Set goals for the week, ask what anyone in the team might need assistance with and where, and top this off with a fun and inspiring mantra that is rooted in the company’s mission. This can really help to recalibrate employees as they wean off the weekend and ease them into the week ahead, while also making it seem significantly less daunting.  
• Check-in with 1:1s – it’s very likely that a company will have a system where they set up one-to-ones, and these are a great opportunity to discuss in a more private and confidential setting about any feelings of angst or stress someone may be having. It can sometimes be difficult for someone to switch out of their personal life persona and switch into their professional persona, especially those who have other responsibilities beyond the workplace, such as childcare or caring for a family member. If team leaders are able to discuss these needs openly and sensitively, they will be able to better offer support where they can.
• Be clear about the support available – make sure that staff are aware of the mental wellbeing support that is available to them, whether that be an employee assistance program, externally outsourced support, or wellbeing apps such as Calm or Headspace to help manage anxiety.
• Introduce ‘No Meetings Monday’ – a more creative approach to warding off the Sunday scaries could be the introduction of a ‘no meetings Monday’, as this has been seen to help improve productivity and ease employees back into work mode.
• Have a ‘desk yoga’ session – Yoga is well-known to be an effective destressing tool for the body and the mind, so why not try and incorporate it into a Monday Mantra? Desk yoga is a fun new exercise which has been designed for someone to be able to do at their desk, making it perfect for setting the tone on a Monday morning!
• Plan ahead to Monday – team leaders can also be coaching their employees to plan their Monday’s before they leave work on Friday. Part of the angst can come from the element of feeling a sudden flood of responsibility after a weekend away, and so if employees are planning out what their Monday will entail, this will likely make it much more approachable as a task.

In some instances, employees who are frequently feeling the Sunday scaries may be a symptom of a deeper problem. This can either be an issue rooted in the company culture that is making them not want to come to work, or it could be a lack of motivation for the work they do. In both instances, we can help by conducting a cultural audit to identify where the issue may be and create strategies to tackle this. As well as coaching leaders to consider new ways of innovating the workday, such as creating ‘squiggle room’ with job crafting to breathe new life into a role.

If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me at victoria.sprenger@orgshakers.com

As we counted down to the new year in December, we adopted the theme of looking forwards. What are the essential topics of focus for employers to be considering in 2024?

Well, in case you missed any of them, here’s a summary of our essentials:

• The Disability Pay Gap – an analysis from the Trades Union Congress discovered that disabled workers effectively work for free for the last 47 days of the year due to the sizable pay gap between disabled and non-disabled workers. With 17.8% of England’s population being disabled, working towards closing this gap should be a priority for organizations so to attract new, diverse talent and to plug talent shortages that continue to effect employers – read the full piece here.
• Decision Intelligence – for our monthly reading recommendation, we recommended a book that all employers should get their hands on: Decision Intelligence by Thorsten Heilig and Ilhan Scheer. It acts as a practical and comprehensible guide for professionals who are navigating the decision-making and AI landscape by exploring the intersection of behavioral science, data science, and technological innovation. Check out our full summary here!
• Weaving AI into Learning and Development – Access Partnership’s survey found that 93% of employers expect to be using generative AI in the workplace in the next five years. It has therefore become an essential point of focus for employers to be weaving AI-centric learning and development (L&D) opportunities into their L&D strategies – read the full piece here.
• Leadership Legacy – with the average turnover rate for leadership roles at an unprecedented 18%, now is the best time for leaders to take a step back from thinking about where they are going next and, instead, take a moment to consider what it is they will be leaving in their wake. The impression that they leave, and the legacy of their practices, can make a big difference to the health of a company – so how do they want to be remembered? Read the full piece here.
• The HR Fundamentals – Our Founder David Fairhurst identified four key areas of focus that he believes are essential for HR and employers to be preparing for in order to ensure organization sustainability:
  • The Workforce Cliff – the first is the Workforce Cliff, which predicted that around this time, we would start to have more jobs than we had people to fill them. To avoid the cliff’s looming edge, employers must be expanding their search and tapping into all pools of talent…read the full piece here.
  • Humans and Technology – The second point of focus will be the relationship between humans and technology. As organizations begin to introduce generative AI into their workplaces, HR will play a pivotal role in supporting these new technological co-worker relationships in order to successfully optimize its capabilities. Read more here!
  • Redefining Place and Time – With the mass adoption of remote and hybrid working styles, we are seeing the previous boundaries of time differences and geographical distances evaporate, opening companies up to a new, global pool of talent…and to embracing the concept of asynchronous work. Read on for the full piece.
  • The End of Jobs – in order to successfully respond to the rapid increase in the pace of organizational change, employers will begin to recognize that a more flexible and responsive methodology is needed to keep up. This will take shape in the form of adopting a skills-based approach to managing work and workers – read the full piece here.

If you would like to discuss the services we offer in regards to these essentials – or wider areas of HR – please get in touch with us.

After discussing the world of HR consulting with Sarah Hamilton-Gill on her podcast, Leap Into HR Consulting, we moved onto looking at the four fundamental shifts that I predict we will be seeing in the near future that HR professionals need to be preparing themselves for.

We discussed the looming edge of the Workforce Cliff, the importance that employers need to be applying to the relationship between humans and technology, and the redefinition of Place and Time in the workplace. The final shift I believe businesses and HR professionals need to be preparing for is the end of jobs altogether.

The ‘job’ – defined as a set of responsibilities assigned to an individual employee – has been the fundamental building block of organizations for millennia. As the requirements of businesses have changed over the years, employers have tweaked and amended the job descriptions of their employees to adapt to these changes.

However, we have seen that the pace of this organizational change has been rapidly accelerated by the influx of new technologies paired with the evaporation of the boundaries of time and geography. Now, employers are beginning to recognize that a more flexible and responsive methodology is needed in order to keep up with this new pace of change, and so I believe we are going to see companies increasingly adopting a skills-based approach to managing work and workers. Deloitte’s 2023 Global Human Capital Trends report supports this notion, as it was discovered that 93% employers believe that moving away from the job construct is important or very important to their organization’s success.

And yet, the research also identified a readiness gap, as only 20% of these employers felt they were very ready to address the movement away from the ‘job’.

This is where HR will play a vital role, as they will be the key to bridging this gap and educating organizations around this new approach to work. And a large part of this will be challenging legacy mindsets and traditional practices that are holding employers back from skills-based work – which Deloitte reported was the main obstacle for 46% of companies.

HR will therefore have to pioneer a shift in the traditional mindset of allocating work to individuals in defined jobs to one where the work is deconstructed and assigned by:

1. Making the starting point for resource allocation the actual work that needs to be done, broken down into the individual tasks which need to be completed to achieve the required outcomes.
2. Identifying the optimal combination of human skill, AI, and technology/automation to achieve the required outcomes.
3. Identifying the optimal contractual engagement model for work that requires human skill, e.g.: employment, freelance, alliances, etc.
4. Allowing human skill to ‘flow’ to the work instead of being constrained by traditional fixed hierarchies and organizational structures.

Rather than viewing workers as ‘job holders’ performing predefined tasks, it is important to recognize them as individuals with unique skill sets. This will enable employers to match each worker with tasks that align with their specific skills. This work can be performed by a single person, a team, or a group of rotating resources, each contributing their appropriate skills while improving their current ones and developing new ones. This approach will enable workers to maximize their potential and contribute to their personal growth. It will also create a more equitable and human-centric work experience.

If you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can help guide and support you on this journey, please get in touch with me at david@orgshakers.com or reach out through our website here.

David Fairhurst is the Founder of OrgShakers. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading HR practitioners and is a respected thought leader, business communicator, and government advisor.

After discussing the world of HR consulting with Sarah Hamilton-Gill on her podcast, Leap Into HR Consulting, we moved onto looking at the four fundamental shifts that I predict we will be seeing in the near future that HR professionals need to be preparing themselves for.

The first shift was the Workforce Cliff, and the second is the relationship between humans and technology.

There has been a lot of scaremongering in the media about the effects that AI integration will have on jobs – the most notable statistic being that 300 million jobs are predicted to be lost in American and European markets, according to a report from Goldman Sachs.

However, if you dig a little deeper into this report, you discover that the authors predict that just 7% of current US employment will be fully substituted by AI, with 30% being unaffected, and 68% being complimented by its introduction.

If we take a stroll back through history, there have been many instances where workplace automation has actually resulted in either the creation of new roles or the technology becoming ‘co-workers’ with us.

A great example of technology as ‘co-workers’ is the introduction of the ATM (automated teller machines) in the US in the late 1960s. While the initial objective was to replace bank tellers and reduce the real estate needed for bank branches, the graph below highlights how, in fact, the opposite happened:

As the number of ATMs increased, so did the number of branches being opened, and the number of bank tellers. The key to this relationship being successful was employees understanding how to work with this new technology in order to deliver greater efficiency and better customer service (e.g.: the ATMs handled the basic transactions freeing up the bank tellers to deliver higher-value customer services).

As organizations introduce AI into the workplace, HR will play a pivotal role supporting these new co-worker relationships. As Melissa Swift describes in her book Work Here Now, HR will be ‘couples counsellors’ for humans and technology, coaching employees on how to successfully interact with newly integrated tech in order to optimize its (and their) abilities.

As AI has the potential to become a disruptive force within organizations – changing their structures, workflows, and processes – HR will be responsible for ensuring these changes are implemented in a way which maintains employee morale and productivity, and which secures a pipeline of future talent through enhancing a company’s reputation.

By acting as a pillar of this newly found co-existence with expanding technology, HR professionals will demonstrate how AI tools can help employees become their best selves. This will happen through nudging them to learn new behaviors, correct old habits, enhance key skills, and free up their time for more meaningful work as it can perform the more admin-based tasks.

As we continue to watch AI integration in the workplace take shape, it is important for HR to get ahead of this curve and be proactive when it comes to managing the impacts of this new technological age. If you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can help you do this, please get in touch with me at david@orgshakers.com

David Fairhurst is the Founder of OrgShakers. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading HR practitioners and is a respected thought leader, business communicator, and government advisor.

I recently had the pleasure of being invited onto Sarah Hamilton-Gill’s HR podcast, Leap Into HR Consulting, where the two of us discussed some of the fundamental shifts that HR professionals should expect to see in the near future.

The first of these shifts is what I call the Workforce Cliff. Flashback to almost a decade ago, when my team and I first examined data that compared the growth rate of jobs in comparison to the growth rate of economically active people. The results we published predicted that at around about now – 2023/4 – there would be more jobs in the UK than people to fill them.

Put simply, not enough babies were being born, so demand would eventually outstrip supply.

Fast forward to the present day and – as predicted – businesses are struggling to fill key roles. This is because as the economy restabilises after the effects of the pandemic, we have been set back on a path that edges us closer and closer to the Workforce Cliff.

The most recent data highlights that the growth rate for jobs is 0.94%, whereas the population growth rate for economically active people is only 0.37%. This is broadly in line with pre-pandemic rates and will create an ever-tightening labour market.

According to the Future of Jobs 2023 Report, companies have identified the availability of talent and a shortage of key skills the as two of the major issues that will negatively impact business performance over the next five years. For example, one recent study has found that only one in ten UK workers possess digital skills – which is an alarming statistic as the integration of AI begins to happen all around us.

One solution for filling these gaps lies in migration – a recent survey found that over half (52%) of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs) are in favour of opening the UK’s doors to overseas workers to plug vacancies.

However, there are many untapped pools of talent on our own doorsteps that are being completely overlooked. For one thing, 20.8% of the working age UK population are considered economically inactive, and the largest proportion of this group are those aged between 50-64. The pandemic resulted in many midlife workers taking early retirement or being made redundant, and so there is a substantial pool of experienced and skilled workers who companies are not targeting with their attraction strategies.

The same can be said for younger workers too; many young people are now starting their careers later, so employers need to be considering what they can do to make their job offerings more attractive to this group.

Employee benefits that are on offer are a great way of accessing a specific talent pool, as each generation of workers tend to have different wants, and so these benefits packages can be made more unique to specific needs.

For instance, younger workers value work-life balance and mental health support. Midlife workers, on the other hand, value flexibility and the ability to work remotely.

The point is, if employers are being more purposeful with their attraction strategies, they will be able to move away from the Workforce Cliff’s edge. This means considering talent in all corners of the market, and ensuring that their business is an attractive one for a diverse set of people; whether they be older, younger, have an accessibility need, or be in a minority group.

Pair this with an added focus on learning and development (92% of job candidates use L&D opportunities as a deciding factor when considering job offers) and companies will have fewer issues being able to fill their skills gaps.  

If you would like to discuss how OrgShakers can help perfect your talent attraction plan and strengthen your learning and development strategies, please get in touch with me at david@orgshakers.com

David Fairhurst is the Founder of OrgShakers. He is widely considered to be one of the world’s leading HR practitioners and is a respected thought leader, business communicator, and government advisor.

This month, we have got our hands on a copy of Stephen Frost’s latest book, The Key to Inclusion. With input from authors who are experts in their field of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), Stephen has put together and edited this practical guide with strong strategies, examples, and case studies demonstrating how to cultivate and embed an inclusive culture in your workplace.

The book is divided up into four parts which address the key topics surrounding DEI, as well as identifying and examining the drivers of inclusion:

Part One: Unlocking You

In the first part of his book, Stephen takes the reader through the concept of ‘cognitive load’ – which is the amount of information the working memory can hold at one time – and identifies this as a barrier to inclusion. For DEI to succeed in a workplace, leaders must recognize and adapt to their employees’ cognitive load and find ways of reducing it.

He then goes on to outline the formation of a ‘growth mindset’ and highlights how this is a key ingredient of an inclusive company, as well as how leaders can begin to develop cultural intelligence to foster an inclusive working environment.

Part Two: Unlocking Your Team

In the second part, Stephen zooms in on the ideal management practices that leaders can adopt to foster an inclusive environment, and he does this by looking at two key areas: the structure that leaders adopt for their teams and how the fourth industrial revolution – the introduction and assimilation of artificial intelligence and new technologies – influences these structures.

Part Three: Unlocking Your Organization

In the penultimate part, the focus is centred around rethinking strategy so that inclusion can be repositioned into the strategic fabric of the organization. This process is broken down into phases:

• Diversity 101 (foundations) – incorporating the minimum legislative approach to diversity.
• Diversity 2.0 (appearance) – ‘Taking a stand’, which is manifested in corporate messaging.
• Inclusion 3.0 (interior structures) – Practicing diversity throughout all behaviors and layers of the organization.
• Inclusion 4.0 – Overhauling the entire system and not simply incorporating an inclusion element.

The chapter then goes on to examine the key drivers of inclusion and how to interact with each of them, and these are data and measurement, governance, leadership, and system and processes, in addition to strategy from the previous part.

Part Four: Unlocking the Future

In the final part of Stephen’s book, he advises employers how they can look ahead to embed inclusion at the centre of technological, leadership, and problem-solving skills. This begins with finding the best way to measure your inclusion impact, and harnessing this data to create a roadmap for your inclusion initiatives.

He then goes on to contextualize this by industry, including tech, TV and film, and financial services.

The book takes the reader on a journey of inclusion, from understanding it at its foundations to making it a staple part of the foundations of an entire company. By doing so, employers can begin to unlock its power – and this book is the first step to finding that key.

If you would like to purchase a copy of Stephen’s book head over here for the UK and over here for the US.

If you would like to discuss how we can help implement a DEI and inclusion strategy, please get in touch with us.