As per my last blog change is constant and one must embrace every change they encounter in their career head on to continue to succeed. Today I would like to write about how companies need to adapt and ensure the company culture is evolving as we enter deeper into digital disruption. One of the key step in culture evolution is through recruitment of right talent that aligns to your long term goal.
There is a lot of media coverage about next Industrial revolution initiated by everything going digital supported by automation and Internet of Things. Jobs are being made redundant as human and machines go through another disruption. To co-exist and evolve companies will need to apply some radical ways of operating to help its talent better adapt through new jobs and working styles that didn’t exist in the last decade. As new innovative technologies and new talent hit the organization there should be culture that supports the co-existence of this changes and transit into the new era.
Over the weekend I read ‘Global recruiting Trends’ report published by Linkedin based on their interview of Industry experts. It was a very interesting and insightful read about how different companies are evolving in their recruitment patterns to adapt with digital disruption. The report talks about how traditionally recruitment has been transnational and how the new era is making it more gratifying the human part. Understanding the market trends and having a plan to evolve company culture will help companies have an edge over competition and in better position to attract and retain the best talent.
There were four key hot trends to watch out in 2018 but if I were to re-classify the key trends in the article they would fall under two categories
· Machine Trend: Data and AI
· Human Trend: Diversity and New interview techniques
The Machine Trend:
The article focused on data collection and later moving into AI. It highlighted having access to the right quality of data for decision-making and having AI assistance to screen through the resumes. How robots and chat bots can automate some of the screening based on advanced algorithms and reduces time to reach to the right candidate from pool of 1000s. It basically empowers the recruiter and improves user experience. It takes away the boring part of the job to short list the right candidates out of thousands of application for interview in person.
Coming from a technological background I fully understand the value of good quality data and how Big Data is going to drive some key decisions of future company success. Automation and AI is having a major impact on majority of back end processes but have the HR department connected with these trends? There are some examples provided how companies have been able to leverage this benefits but I still feel (don’t have data to support) that industry is yet to be ready to fully achieve the benefits of this trend. This trend will definitely empower the HR team and bring in operational efficiencies.
The Human Trend:
I enjoyed reading about the diversity trend as its one of the area I have observed evolving over the years since I first got my casual job in Australia. You will hear a lot about in media about gender equality, racial, ethnicity and cultural mix and supporting people with disability or different sexual orientation but if you look around your work place or places where some of your network of friends might be working, each company has a different cultural mix and some may still be far away from a diversity inclusion perspective. The article suggested on having ‘inclusion policy’ which basically suggests lead by action and promote a ‘cultural add’ instead of a ‘cultural fit’ policy so it promotes diversity belonging. Melbourne as a multi-cultural city is a prime example on how to create this sense of belonging to the new migrants which supports them to embrace the city as their own.
The next trend was soft skills i.e. judging the character and personality. I have interviewed hundreds of candidates in my career focusing on behavioral questions and soft skills. It was interesting to read about how companies were using different formal and informal methods to better evaluate the character. Every person at a minimum will have two personalities, the one known by work colleague and the other known by family and friends. The success lies in getting to know the other personality. Innovative ideas like having an informal dinner or test problem solving skills through virtual reality to evaluate problem-solving skills are some of the creative way adopted by different companies to get a 360-degree view of the applicants.
Company Culture Disruption:
So how does recruitment link with your company culture? Today’s grads are tomorrow’s leaders and even though people you may recruit may not stay with your company forever they will have a significant impact to your company culture. They will either blend in to ensure the culture you are promoting stays intact or they will bring in some fresh air and add to the flavor. Companies need to be aware of the changes impacting their industry and have a clear roadmap on what culture they want to promote as they move into the new era. Internal training and external recruitment should align to this strategy.
The two trends highlighted above could be mapped to two ways companies will tackle this problems
The Business Mind:
In the first an organizational leadership comes from traditional MBA background he/ she would love to rely on data and facts for decision-making as it assumes rationality and objectivity. So they will support the machine trend as long as the facts added up and they could translate it into some sort of analytical report or powerpoint presentations to hire teams or drive organization change management. This approach will continue hiring people of the ‘same cultural fit’ and you will have ease in decision-making 80% of the time. If you believe the digital disruption will have no impact to your company and you will continue to live in a stable world then this is the approach to take however it may not be the best fit in the long term.
The Creative Mind:
In the second scenario the organizational leadership comes from the creative background then he/ she would focus more on emotions and feelings i.e. the behavioural and soft skills. Emotions and desire will get hire priority than logic or reason. So they will be more driven towards the human trend while hiring or driving organizational change management. You can follow this approach if you believe there are uncertain times ahead and you want to bring radical changes that will be innovative, creative and take you to levels never thought of earlier than this is the approach to take. However you will have to follow iterative approach to test out your new model and it will take time to establish a long-term strategy, which can impact the cultural balance of the company.
Both approaches have their advantages as well as disadvantages. But what if you could have best of both worlds. Since we will like to keep human at the center instead of machine the best way to tackle this is through is following a ‘Design Thinking’ approach.
Design Thinking:
Stanford Design School (the D School) which originally came up with this concept defines it as “an iterative process in which we seek to understand the user, challenge assumptions we might have, and redefine problems in an attempt to identify alternative strategies and solutions that might not be instantly apparent with our initial level of understanding.” Speaking in laymen terms Design Thinking combines traditional order and control based management thinking to more innovative and creative approach applied by designers.
The ideal way to evolve company culture during digital disruption would be by having the right mix of business and creative thinking. Traditional management will often get stuck into talks whereas designers will lead with action. Design thinking will keep the human factor alive and make your company culture rich and continue to evolve in the cognitive era and never be replaced by AI. Following questions can be used as a guide to come up with a strategy to implement a company cultural change.
· What is? – Explore the current company culture. Speak to your employees impacted by digital disruption. Think of journey mapping, value chain analysis and mind mapping
· What if? – Envision a new company culture being creative focused. Ignore constraints and pursue all possibilities. Focus on brain storming and concept development
· What vows? – Make some creative choices through analytical thinking. Based on current knowledge evaluate what will be the long-term return on investment if new concept was applied. This is when you test your assumptions through rapid prototype testing
· What works? – Test out the approach and get real. This will test out early failures. You should follow the customer co-creation approach, which means get more of your teams engaged. If the approach is well received then you will be moving into learning to launch company wide into phases by constantly designing on the ramp persuading more of your team to come along the journey
Before closing I would like to highlight this will not be an easy journey especially if you work in large companies where there is lot of bureaucracy. Be prepared for all kinds of obstacles to be thrown your way. But if you can get the right stakeholder engagement and top leadership support with the right level of planning and execution this can have ever lasting impacting on the company’s success.
– MP’s Personal Blog