David Kovacovich is an Engagement Strategist, Organizational Culturalist, and Behavioral Economist. He has been a member of the SHRM Annual Conference Social Media Team since 2013 and is a keynote speaker in the NCHRA lecture series.
David is on Twitter at @DavidKovacovich and blogs at Dave's Weekly Thought.
For 15 months I've been documenting the ever-evolving workforce experience via this blog (and others). We've been through a hundred different layers contrasting hope and uncertainty. There are those who have found positivity in solitude while others have been chomping at the bit to get back to seeing other humans IRL (in real life). The time of emergence (at least for now) is upon us.
It's been a while since there has been a topic that has lacked decision in a way the post-pandemic workplace continues to. Will we return to the office? How often? Will there be parameters for hybrid models? Each region, industry, and individual organization seems to have their caveats that are ping-ponging policy.
As we emerge from work-from-home solitude and head back into the office, the role of human resources has never been more critical. In a time when policy foreshadows strategy, all eyes are on HR. The workforce is crammed into the starting gate waiting for a bell to sound. Here are the big questions to ponder:
Vaccines are being administered and with Spring a month away there is (finally) reason to be optimistic that a return to normal is in sight.
What Will The Future Look Like?
Will we return to commutes, office clusters, airplanes and hotels? Will the benefits of the work-from-home experiment be adopted long term?
It's that time of year when reflection and planning meet to flip the calendar. This year, it seems more important than ever to put the past away. At this time last year I predicted that 2020 could be the best year ever. I had also written a blog preparing for work-from-home workforce transitions predicting a 12-week office shut down.
Boy, Was I Wrong!
We cannot package human oppression as a module. Our work moving forward will involve a far more complex approach to organizational change.
We are three weeks into a 12-week (?) isolation. Times are uncertain but words like transparency and candor are becoming commonplace. It's been refreshing. When you dig into what is genuinely important, the difference between partnership and product transaction starts to emerge. When we stop pretending to be on opposite sides of the table, trust gets us closer to genuine human development.
We are concluding day three of mandated social distancing here in Northern California but it seems like it's been three months. Its been made apparent that this new style of existence may last for three months.... thus feeling as though we've been in the bunker for 90 years (don't check my math on that).
Micro-Management is the single greatest deterrent to organizational progress in today's workforce. We all know that people don't leave companies, they leave bad bosses. Yet, workplace bullying at the expense of employee mental health continues to be an issue. There are a few avenues that require some intuition but could ultimately fix that which has a chokehold on progress.
2020 seems like an ominous number......
I'm sure there are movies of lore that have characterized the year forthcoming with jet packs and laser beams. Much has changed through technology and there are trends emerging that will have an impact on the way we work in 2020.
Coming out of the 2019 HR Technology Conference & Expo, there seem to be a thousand emerging technologies to improve the hiring process. Machines can organize databases, create a better user experience and track end-to-end processes. Once we've conquered those things it's up to the humans to refine the courting process.
The art of establishing Employee Engagement has been a Slow Train Coming.....
We've adopted buzzwords and put others to bed. We've seen technology impact frequency and pats on the back are now covered with a strategic glove. Things don't change with rapid pace but the more we investigate the more we tend to find one common denominator to organizational excellence:
COMMON SENSE
