Posted on

The Hybrid Workforce: How to Master and Manage the Future of Work

Remote workers are predicted to make up 32% of the global workforce by 2024 as hybrid workplaces continue to rise. In the session, The Future of Work: How to Master the Vision and Execution of a Hybrid Workforce, we spoke with multi-hyphenate thought leader Ira S. Wolfe, to uncover his insights on hybrid work, the best practices to attract and retain talent, the skills needed to excel in a hybrid workplace, and more. 

 
Ira S. Wolfe is a Top 5 Global Thought Leader in the Future of Work and HR, Workplace Futurist, TEDx Speaker, and best-selling author. He is also known to his peers as the Certified Prophet of Workplace Trends.
 

The Never Normal Environment 

Terms such as the new normal, the next normal, and future normal were used to describe the post-pandemic workplace. Wolfe says those terms imply returning to the status quo, to how things were prior to March 2020. He speaks about the never normal concept instead, which was introduced by his colleague and friend, Greg Verdino.  

“In the U.S., he started talking about this never normal. It resonated with everybody living in the summer of 2022. Expectations that life would go back to being peaceful and predictable were not going to happen.” He adds that the perception of normal is false because what is deemed normal differs from individual to individual. “Our perception of normal is a self-perception. It’s an addiction to the status quo. We just don’t want to change.”  

Wolfe himself has been working remotely since 2004 and his office followed suit three years later.  

“I moved away from my office so I couldn’t stop by on a regular basis. My full-time assistant and office manager moved to another state, and I haven’t seen her in almost 13 years. The world caught up to us and I was excited about that.” 

However, the feasibility of hybrid work is dictated by industry and geography. According to Wolfe, around 30% of the U.S. population didn’t change the way they worked. 100 million people were still going to work normally, especially those working in healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation. 

“When we talk about hybrid work, we’re talking about a segment of the population and not its entirety.” 

 

The Hybrid Workplace is a Giant Experiment 

The 2022 Everywhere Workplace Report by Ivanti found that 87% of employees do not want to return to the office full-time, with 42% preferring a hybrid work model and 30% favoring working from home. “There are millions of variations in between remote work and going back to the office. Hybrid is all the variations we’re still working out,” Wolfe says.  

He cites Dropbox as a company that has succeeded in evolving where and how it worked. In late 2020, Dropbox allowed all employees to work remotely permanently, as 90% of them said they were more productive working from home. Dropbox rebranded itself as a virtual-first company with remote work as the default for all employees. The company also converted existing offices into Dropbox Studios, flexible co-working spaces that employees can utilize for team building and collaboration.   

When it comes to hybrid work, Wolfe says it’s a giant experiment with different ingredients and perspectives. “Everybody’s going to make mistakes because the concept of hybrid is relatively new and will change once technologies evolve. What we think is a great model today may not work as well tomorrow.” 

Does hybrid work make us better? 

Yes and no. Wolfe says not having to commute to work allows for more family time, and “that’s certainly made us better.” On the other hand, Wolfe adds there are also remote workers who work around the clock and are never disconnected from their jobs.  

 

Will Blue-Collar Jobs Ever Become Remote? 

Going remote or hybrid is easy for individuals who do professional, creative, managerial, and administrative work. Although it may be hard to believe, remote blue-collar jobs are not completely impossible, especially with developments in autonomous technology, robotics, and 5G. However, it may be many years until the technologies are scalable and accessible enough to turn all blue-collar jobs remote. Wolfe adds, “Until we have a ton of autonomous vehicles, I don’t know how we can transport all the goods and services that we’re buying and manufacturing.” 

He adds that the blue-collar jobs in construction and trade will be more prepared if a pandemic like COVID-19 occurs in the next 10 to 20 years. “With the new technologies that are available, it’s certainly going to impact many occupations in those industries positively. But it’s not going to happen overnight. There’s still going to be a skill shortage because people are needed to maintain the technology. White-collar jobs will continue to evolve as more people will go hybrid or remote. For blue-collar jobs, it’s going to be a much slower curve.” 

 

When Does the Hybrid Workplace Fail?

“The objection CEOs always bring up is that employees working remotely are not productive.” 

Wolfe also refers to Elon Musk’s return-to-office announcement where employees have to be at the office 40 hours a week or consider themselves resigned. What are some of the other challenges or concerns leaders face when trying to implement the hybrid work model? 

Measuring employee performance 

“People don’t quit companies, they quit managers,” Wolfe says. One of the challenges managers have is measuring employee performance remotely. Studies show that 78% of employers are using monitoring software despite strong resistance from employees due to ethical and privacy concerns. Wolfe says employee performance should not be measured by attendance alone but by the utilization of technology as well. When it comes to productivity, the responsibility does not wholly fall on the employee. “Some of that productivity may be linked to a leader’s ability to manage a remote or hybrid workplace,” he adds.  

Managing employee stress levels  

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report, stress levels of employees worldwide have reached an all-time high. Whether they are working remotely or at the office, stress is present. “People who spent the last two years working remotely reported a 35% increase in stress levels. After people started returning to the office, their stress levels increased by anywhere between a third and a half. There’s a 50% increase in stress levels for those who never left the workplace,” Wolfe says. 

Therefore, it is imperative that leaders prioritize employee well-being no matter where they are located. This is because overall well-being influences life at work and vice versa. In addition, Gallup found that 49% of workers who are stressed are not thriving or engaged at work. “If your stress levels are increasing, you’re not going to be productive,” Wolfe emphasizes.  

Lack of technology and communication 

Sometimes, creating a hybrid workplace fails due to a lack of skilled employees, demand, and technology. The hybrid and remote work models are not universal. Wolfe advises leaders to ask themselves two important questions: What jobs can be remote? and What jobs should be remote?   

Involving employees in the hybrid work transition and listening to their needs is also imperative. “By having that conversation with the employees and not just having a dictum that comes down from the top that says no, maybe a win-win solution for hybrid work can be found,” Wolfe adds. 

 

Skills to Maximize Hybrid Work on an Individual and Organizational Level 

Wolfe relies on a model called ACE – abilities, character, and environment. In addition, Wolfe also cites an important finding from McKinsey – adaptability is the top distinct element of talent (DELTA) that is linked to a higher chance of employment.

He also identified five key skills to succeed in a hybrid workplace:

  • Growth mindset – the willingness to make mistakes and learn from them 
  • Grit – the strength to move forward and bounce back 
  • Resilience – having the right tools in place to tackle unprecedented challenges  
  • Unlearning – to be comfortable unlearning old ways and to be more agile  
  • Mental flexibility – the ability to sift through the misinformation in a VUCA world 
 

What is a Conducive Environment for Hybrid Work? 

To create an agile environment for hybrid work, Wolfe says that company support, team support, and colleague support are essential.  “Company support is the simple answer. Do the employees feel that the company is doing enough?” 

Without a supportive environment, employees are less likely to express their challenges and emotions or raise important concerns regarding their work. “You can hire the right people but if you don’t have an agile environment that allows them to make mistakes and challenge your norms, it’s going to be a problem,” Wolfe adds.  

According to Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace 2022 Report, the U.S. and Canada ranked the best in terms of employee engagement, job opportunities, and employee well-being. On the other hand, only 11% of employees in Asia are thriving in the workplace and have the lowest well-being in the world. Wolfe says there is a lot of work to be done, and if the U.S. and Canada are benchmarks for workplace environment, “employers are in trouble.” 

“Employees, companies, schools, and parents need to take responsibility for becoming more adaptable. We have to create an environment that allows change to happen.” 

 

Can Hybrid Work Reverse Zero Employment? 

There is an abundance of positions in the tech and IT industries and not enough people to fill them. Jobs such as database administrator, software developer, information analyst, and security analyst are high in demand.  

In addition, the cybersecurity sector has reached zero unemployment and is on its way to negative employment. “There are currently 600,000 open-source cybersecurity jobs, that number is estimated to be 3.5 million by 2025,” Wolfe says.  A labor shortage is inevitable and is going to continue because “people who have the desired talents, skills, attitudes, and mindsets are going to have choices.”  

Wolfe stresses, “This is where remote and hybrid fits in. There’s talent but they may not be in your region, state, or country.” With a remote or hybrid work model, companies can hire potential employees regardless of their location. 

 

How to Attract and Retain Talent in a Hybrid Workplace   

According to Wolfe, many employees leave for better career opportunities, work-life balance, compensation, and benefits. Leaders should not take resignations personally, but help former employees find opportunities elsewhere. “It doesn’t mean they’re disloyal. They may not be on your payroll anymore, but they have an opportunity to learn new skills or recommend other talents. And there’s a chance of them returning to the company in the future,” Wolfe adds.  

Other than that, leaders should focus on retaining existing employees by improving work-life balance, recognizing their work, and treating them with respect and dignity. Wolfe emphasizes the need for strong employee-manager relationships.  

“People are leaving the workforce for compensation, fairness, and opportunity. But they stay because of respect, dignity, and recognition from managers.”  

Posted on

Günther Ghijsels: How Randstad Adapted to the Hybrid Work Environment

Going from fully office-based to fully remote and now a hybrid work model, organizations and employees alike are faced with a lot of change in such a short period of time. We speak to Günther Ghijsels, Chief Digital and Information Officer at Randstad Group Belgium, on the evolution of work culture, effective leadership in a hybrid environment, and the importance of adaptive change management.  

 

What do you think effective leadership looks like in a hybrid work environment?

I think as a leader, there’s a huge shift that you also need to make in this new world. What I see happening now is that it’s becoming much more difficult to get everybody aligned and keep working on the same vision, and realizing the strategies that you have been setting out. So, you need to try to really connect the people to what you’re doing. Whilst in the past, you’re connecting physically with people – you’re having a chat, or you’re having a presentation – it’s much harder to get into the real connection with people virtually. It’s a question of how you organize the connection between you and the people that you’re leading. 

Building the connection with what you’re doing as a company, that you know what’s on the mind of the people so that you still can have the connection as you had before. It’s having kind of the same thing that we did unconsciously in the past. You need to do it now consciously in the hybrid world. 

You need to adapt as a leader. You need to serve them in the way they want to be served because you’re in a world of a scarcity of talent. We are in a world where people need to be completely comfortable in what they’re doing. You need to be there for them one way or the other. It’s not them that need to adapt, it’s you that need to adapt as a leader. 

 

How would a leader balance that with some people preferring to work from home and some preferring to work in the office?

That’s exactly the hybrid model. We have clear rules on how much time you can spend at home and how much time you’re supposed to be in the office, but everybody’s free to come when they want to come to the office. So, you don’t have the whole team at the same time in the office anymore and that’s, from my point of view, the most difficult thing.  

Make sure that you involve everybody in the discussion, that you involve everybody in the meetings, gets his moment of taking part in the discussion that you’re having. You need to facilitate this kind of stuff.  

 

How do you think the pandemic has redefined work culture and what should organizations focus on?

From my point of view, the culture is you need to trust people. Even before, you needed to trust people, but today it’s even more. You need to trust people because you don’t see people anymore. You don’t know what they’re doing, if they’re working, when they’re working. So, you need to build a lot of trust with people. It always comes down to having clear expectations, to having open conversations about what you expect from people.  

Also, you need to really make sure that you create a good feeling with the people that are working for you, and that they know why they are working for you. You need to spend much more time to really keep people connected to what you’re doing. Because if it is all virtual and there’s no connection to the company, why shouldn’t they work for another company in a totally other country or city? So, culture is becoming much more important to connect people to you. So how can you make sure that the values that you have as a company are also transferred to them in the virtual way.  

Trust is one thing. It’s also transparency, it’s keeping the feedback open. And I really believe that there shouldn’t be a difference between the virtual world and the physical world on how you work together. 

 

What are the challenges that organizations face with change management during the digital transformation process?

I think it’s discussing the why. And if you are clear on the why, then you get people along with you on the journey that you’re in. I’m always struck by the fact that people in their personal lives, things are changing very fast. They have their own clear expectations of what is going on, and what they are doing. But when you’re changing something about the way of working in the company, that’s always a huge change to people. You need to give them the same kind of eagerness for the change as you do in your personal life.  

You will not get everybody along. That’s also something that you need to be aware of. It’s not that you have everyone looking for a change. I think you need to try to really make clear what’s in it for them and use the same arguments as they would use within their personal life on the change that you’re doing in their professional life.  

 

What about some other challenges leaders face when trying to figure out change management during the digital transformation?

You need to adapt the way you’re doing things to the new environments that we are in. The change management practices need to change, in that sense. How you do it practically, how you support these kinds of things, you also need to change them, and you need to try to align it with the way that you’re working at the moment. For the people that are doing and bringing the change, it’s also a new way of working that you need to bring in place. As a leader, you need to facilitate this. Why are we doing things in another way? It’s not just because it’s different or it’s better. No, it’s aligned with the expectation of the people. 

 
Keep up with the latest digital trends in the 90Minutes Insights webinar series. View the full schedule here here.
 

How can organizations use digital tools to spearhead change management efforts or strategies?

There are a lot of digital means now that you can use to really track and trace what you’re doing, and how far you’re going.  

If you’re introducing some new things in your organization, don’t forget from the start to also include the whole project measurements, to make sure that you measure the change and not only the business idea that you’re realizing. Because we tend to measure the results of things, but we also should try to measure the change rates that we are achieving. So how far are we in the change? There are always a number of KPIs that you can try to find out how far are you in the change. How do you measure that? If it’s about an application, for example, that you newly tried to introduce, how do you measure that people are really using all the functionalities that you have been introducing, and are they using it well? And if they are not using it well, how do you make sure that people who are using it try to influence other people? Do you see the connection between the people that are using it very well and people who are not using it?   

There’s a lot of social information available that you also need to use within your change environment. And that’s kind of new to us as a company as well. So how can we really try to use this kind of information to really steer learning? The aim is to get people comfortable with what they are doing and how can you facilitate this.  

By giving these kinds of small learning snacks to people, it’s also less overwhelming than before when people were just stuck in a meeting room or in a training for half a day. Now you can measure what people are doing and you can see where they have problems and where they don’t have problems. There’s a lot of information. Use data to also facilitate the whole change that you need to go through. 

 

How has Randstad’s approach to change management evolved in the last few years?

Yeah, it certainly has evolved. I just gave a number of examples that we are dealing with. We are trying to use data. That’s really the biggest step that we have been taking which we really need to dig into. People need to trust the data because the data tells you a lot of things, but people are kind of a little bit afraid of just using the data that we have and relying on all the data that we have. You need to build up the trust, you need to build up the process, and you need to become better and better at what you’re doing. And you need to become better and better at defining what are the right KPIs that you need to measure to change the behavior of the people because that’s what you’re doing within change management. 

 

You mentioned earlier that knowing what to do with the data and being able to use it properly are two different things, right? So how do you go about figuring that out?

It’s by experimenting. We tried to adapt to a very agile approach. Because you might draw a number of conclusions out of the data and define a number of actions, but you also need to measure the effect of those kinds of actions. You need to accept as a leader that some things don’t work, and you need to say, “Okay, this doesn’t work. Let’s try something else.”  

We had everybody working from home and at one moment in time, we came into a hybrid situation. The things that we were doing during the full lockdown and full working from home period didn’t work anymore in the hybrid world. You also need to adapt and really make sure that you measure all the things that you’re doing, and adapt the way you’re trying to implement change in your organization.  

 

How has the talent pool and talent requirement changed in recent years?

It’s changed a lot because you’re now in an environment where everybody’s fighting for talents. Everybody’s talking about the war for talent, but there is no war. The talent has won the war.  

So how do you create an environment where people are willing to work for you? That’s different for all kinds of people. You might be attracted by having a very nice work environment and having the latest tools available. For some other people, it’s about more of the purpose. So, what’s your unique selling proposition to the talent? You need to sell your company. It’s not the talent that sells himself to the company. It’s the company selling itself to the talent, and I think that’s a huge shift that we have been making over the last years.  

What I see is that with the younger people that are entering into our environment now, they have totally other needs than the older people that are in our company. So how do you, as a company, organize yourself to work with the different generations that have different needs? And how do you make sure that you have the connection between all those people? Because there are different mindsets, different ways of working, different ways of thinking. How do you make sure that you built those into one environment? Because the fast change that all the young people are used to is not always the fast change that the other people want in the organization. So, you need to balance between both, and you need to try to create an understanding between both worlds.  

*The answers have been edited for length and clarity.    

Posted on

How Does Good Employee Engagement Guarantee Organizational Success?

With the “Great Resignation” taking root as employees feel more dissatisfied with poor work-life balance, uninspiring jobs, and difficult managers, organizations are compelled to pay attention.  

Globally, employee engagement has been low for the past 20 years, with employees’ intent to stay in their jobs hovering just above 30% according to Gartner’s Global Talent Monitor. Worse still, discretionary effort – going above and beyond the call of duty at work – has been on a steady decline, registering just 15% in 2019.  

Unsurprisingly, employee engagement has taken a front seat in the strategic considerations of talent management leaders. However, even though about 90% of executives understand how important this is to an organization’s success, less than 50% know how to properly address the challenge. Especially in today’s technologically saturated workplace, ensuring employees are engaged can be a difficult and complex task.  

 
Attend our upcoming webinars: Be the first to know about the latest HR trends in the 90Minutes HR Insights webinar series. View the schedule here.
 

What is Employee Engagement?

 

In order to address employee engagement, HR leaders must understand how it differs from employee satisfaction. The latter deals with the happiness of employees in their jobs which may have nothing to do with their sense of motivation, involvement, or emotional commitment to the organization. 

The engagement metric takes a deeper look at employees, specifically their level of involvement and enthusiasm for work and at the workplace, says Gallup. This is a measure of how actively employees are involved with their work or if they are simply going through the motions of daily tasks.  

Similarly, Gartner defines employee engagement as the measure of individual employee alignment with the organization and their willingness to go above and beyond the call of duty to achieve organizational goals.  

 

The Impact of a Highly Engaged Workforce

 

Employee engagement is a key driver of performance, making it a crucial piece of the puzzle to organizational success.  

Notably, People Element’s 2022 Engagement Report highlighted that companies with highly engaged employees show 81% less absenteeism and 43% lower turnover rates. Additionally, those companies also saw a 14% improvement in productivity, 18% increase in sales, and 23% increase in profits. The factor most affected was employee well-being which show a 66% improvement when employees are highly engaged. 

Gallup’s State of the American Workplace report further reconfirms the data, showing that low employee engagement can cost companies up to $550 billion each year in the US. Additionally, the impact is seen on the business side as Gallup reported that higher engagement led to a 10% increase in customer loyalty as well as a 64% decrease in safety incidents. 

 

Employee Engagement Markers 

 

With that in mind, CHROs who are seeking to measure the level of engagement in their teams are facing the challenge of gauging human behaviors and perceptions which are incredibly complex.  

CHROs and human resource leaders must consider a myriad of factors that contribute to an overall view of each person’s engagement levels within an organization. Generally, this is measured via an employee survey that is done regularly at all levels of an organization.  

Existing measurement frameworks for employee engagement – such as by Gartner, Gallup, and People Elements – suggest several important markers that should be considered.  

The first of these has to do with an employee’s understanding of their job as well as whether they receive adequate training, tools, and resources to perform their work well. Another relevant factor is whether employees feel that their work is important and connected to the organization’s overall mission. Employees that feel supported and valued tend to perform better.  

Next, engagement increases if employees feel that they have a good relationship with their managers, they feel they are supported, and that management is invested in their professional growth and development.  

Another core marker for engagement is an individual’s perception of senior leadership. Specifically, whether they believe the senior leaders are moving the organization towards a better future. Following that, it is also important to know if an individual feels that their own values align with those of the company. Employees who feel this alignment tend to perform better in their jobs.  

As Chief People Officer at Anyfin, Amanda Pusa Edwall notes: “I have found both personally, but also from my job with HR that one of the most difficult things is when a candidate’s core values don’t align with the company. I think when that happens, it’s almost impossible to do a good job.” 

Work conditions are another important driver of employee engagement. Particularly, it is crucial to find out if employees feel there is an effective feedback loop with their team managers, that everyone else on the team is equally committed, and that they receive adequate compensation and benefits. Also important is that employees feel that they have a work-life balance. 

While Gartner suggests annual or biannual surveys to measure employee engagement, they note that many in HR feel that more frequent insights may be necessary and will utilize real-time analytics for this.  

 

Analyzing HR and Business Metrics Together 

 

Correlating employee engagement with other HR metrics such as performance ratings, attrition, turnover rates, and more will give organizations a better view of how engaged their workforce is. Leaders can then take proactive measures to address any issues or underlying causes of low engagement on a granular level.  

Additionally, the measure of workforce engagement serves as part of a larger framework for measuring organizational performance. When tracked regularly, the data can help managers and business leaders make better decisions overall to improve their business metrics. 

A clear example of this at work is when American retailer Best Buy calculated that an increase in employee engagement of just 0.01% is worth US$100,000, according to a Harvard Business Review study. This underlines how important it is for organizations to have effective strategies in place to create a better work culture that matches their employees’ expectations, thus improving employee engagement. 

High employee engagement has been shown to reduce turnover, increase productivity, create better work and customer relationships, and ultimately have a positive impact on the company’s bottom line. It is up to HR leaders to come up with a strategy for employee engagement that best suits the needs of their organization and teams. What is your approach? 

Posted on

Get your employees on board: The most important conditions for realising an innovative mindset.

Gjis van Zon, Innovation Consultant at Freshheads.

We all know change is necessary to remain relevant in a constantly changing world. And in the ideal situation, everyone within your organisation takes part in this important journey. But innovating requires a lot of your people. After all, it is pretty scary to deviate from the familiar path to do something you don’t yet know (very well). How do you get your employees and your organisation as a whole into the right mindset? And what is the best approach: to innovate in a fixed team or organisation-wide? With this article innovation consultant Gijs van Zon helps you to find your own way.

 

An underpinned foundation

“A misconception I encounter quite often is that companies think they have to innovate. Our competition is doing it, so we need to do it too – that sort of idea. This may be true, but innovating as an organisation is not a goal in and of itself. It is a trajectory that emerges in a logical line from the purpose for which your organisation was created.

If you innovate in this way, it’s easier to get your people on board. After all, you’re building on a story they already know, and that makes it less scary or strange. So, my advice is: start from the vision and ambition of your organisation and translate this into strategic goals and frameworks. What developments do we envisage in the market, what is our role in this, where do we see ourselves in three, five, or ten years? And who or what do we need to achieve that?

Share these frameworks in your organisation, so that everyone feels included and your employees feel part of the journey. What can I do or contribute to make this ambition a reality? What is my place in this vision? These are questions to which your employees are looking for answers. After all, everyone wants to do something that has value, and this is how you help them find that value (again). An added benefit: in this way, opportunities – regardless of the level or department of your organisation in which they arise – are also recognised and developed more quickly.”

 

Start small and communicate

“Change is not something you do overnight. Start with one specific goal and with a select group of people in your organisation. Choose low-hanging fruit; opportunities that are up for grabs in your organisation and that produce returns relatively quickly. Share your experiences, ask for input and allow other colleagues to contribute ideas to make it relevant to them. For example, provide demos of the experiments you’re rolling out and what you’ve accomplished with them. Show what was successful, but also certainly where the experiment showed that the idea had failed. Often, this is where the most interesting lessons are to be found.

I can hear you thinking: “But we want to see fast results everywhere!” You achieve that precisely by starting small. Believe me: small steps forward are the key to change in any organisation. Especially when you’re aiming for good and lasting results. Realise that this is necessary to bring about structural change in your organisation. You will see that this leads to more and more people in your organisation becoming enthusiastic about your new way of working. So, keep communicating. Take the people with you. Until it becomes commonplace for everyone.”

 

Choose what suits your business

“If you ask me, it works best to use your own people to make changes in your organisation. In fact, it ensures that you have and retain much-needed knowledge in-house. But where to start? Because yes, change is and remains scary!

Bringing in an outside party can be a great idea to kickstart your innovations. They have specific knowledge that may be missing from your own organisation at the beginning. But preferably choose a mixed form, so that you always keep track of how certain steps come about. At Freshheads, we do just that. For our clients, for example, we do interviews with the end users of potential digital services to find out their needs. Those conversations always include someone from our client. At a certain point, things change around. They do the interviews and we just help with the preparation. In this way, the client acquires indispensable knowledge directly and will be able to understand how results are produced and how they can be translated into the next experiment or prototype. Being fully in control as an organisation is the result. The next step? Carry on with the changes that have been initiated, with or without outside help – but above all with your own people.”

 

Gijs van Zon is an innovation consultant at Freshheads. Together with the client, he looks at whether everything is in place for innovation projects to succeed: the right people with the right expertise, the ability to scale up if it’s a success or to pull the plug in time if the project fails.

Posted on

ECSO’s Luigi Rebuffi: Bridging the Gap In Trust and Talents Within Cybersecurity

The impact that COVID-19 has had on cybersecurity has shown how much work businesses still need to do when dealing with cyber threats. From attacks such as the SolarWinds hack, there is a need for CISOs to build awareness, prevention, and security practices into their organization’s culture.

As the Secretary-General and Founder of the European Cyber Security Organisation (ECSO), Luigi Rebuffi shares with us his insights on the role of Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) in digital security, the challenges that come with it, and how organizations are bridging the talent gap within cybersecurity.

 

Understanding The Role of Public-Private Partnerships in Digital Security

Private-Public Partnerships (PPP) in cybersecurity continue to be a necessity for both the government and the private sector to overcome the increase in cyber threats. While PPPs can serve as a foundation for effective critical infrastructure security and resilience strategies, there is still a need for clarity from both sides.

Rebuffi highlights how cooperation will be key in setting up an effective relationship between the government and businesses to effectively use PPP in cybersecurity.

 

How can PPP be used effectively for both the private and public sectors to overcome digital threats?

 

When looking at a public-private partnership, the traditional relationship in the private sector gives information to the public sector, which will then assess the situation and give guidance on how to solve the crisis.

However, a more dynamic cooperation must be continuously built up in order to be ready and react rapidly in an efficient partnership in case of a crisis. That is what we’re trying to set up with ECSO, since 2016, where there is full cooperation in different elements of the cybersecurity ecosystem.

Cooperation with the public for policy and legislation to give certain advice and standards, certifications, investments, discussion on the cyber threats, and what are the cyber threats that the private sector is facing every day, not only during the crisis periods.

And the cooperation should not only be about overcoming the crisis but also about how you support the companies, including SMEs and startups through education training in the development of certain innovative technologies and services.

It is a full spectrum of cooperation. Not just a quick fix in the case of a crisis, like the SolarWind attack. And we need to change that, to have that full public-private cooperation across different ecosystems. It is a bilateral relationship, not just a transfer of information.

 

Establishing Trust and Overcoming the Challenges In Public-Private Partnerships

The creation of the PPP was meant to improve the collaboration between private stakeholders and the public agency for Information Sharing. However, establishing trust has always been the biggest barrier for many businesses to engage in PPP.

Rebuffi reiterates the point that the key foundation in building a solid bridge between the private and the public sector will be on CISOs to build trust while overcoming the challenges that come with incorporating PPP within their organization.

 

What can organizations do to foster trust and improve the relationship between the public and private sector and bridge the gap in PPP?

 

Trust is not easy to build, especially in this period characterized by COVID-19. Establishing trust via remote connection is not an easy task, especially when you are working on sensitive matters such as cyber security. You need a kind of bottom-up approach where you first build up trust in your sector.

For example, if you are in the private sector, it is easier to build up trust with the people that you know, the people who are around you, in your region, in your country, and your sector. So you build trust from the bottom up.

The problem then is to see how you can link with other sectors or from other countries.

 

What challenges does the CISO face in establishing and nurturing PPP within their organization?

 

CISOs are still struggling because they are still trying to convince their management of the importance of cybersecurity, IT systems, and the investments needed. It is something that I imagine will be exacerbated by the acceleration of the digital transformation due to COVID-19.

The challenge will be more pushed towards getting the system working to have better control of data so that when we talk about digital sovereignty, we can think about better control of data. Looking ahead to cybersecurity trends in 2024, CISOs will likely encounter evolving challenges in managing these aspects, necessitating even more robust and forward-thinking strategies. They will need to stay abreast of the latest developments and adapt to the rapidly changing cyber landscape. And CISOs who are dealing with security, sensitive applications, and services, would need trusted and reliable supply chains.

So, on one end, they have to overcome the skepticism within their organization while finding resources to “feed” their systems correctly and find trust in reliable solutions. Of course, there’s also the problem of educating employees, as the human factor is also non-negligible.

 

Fostering Talent to Bridge The Cybersecurity Skill Gap

With cybersecurity becoming an integral part of an organization’s business strategy, the demand for talent has grown significantly as well. However, the number of skilled and qualified workers is still well below the demand, with gender balance still being a major issue.

Rebuffi continues to advocate for more gender balance in cybersecurity through the Women4Cyber Foundation and highlights how CISO and IT leaders can still help nurture an environment for building talents in cybersecurity.

 

How can IT leaders and CISOs attract, retain, or build cybersecurity talents within their organization?

 

CISOs, IT leaders, and I would also say human resources, have to show to the talents that they have the opportunity in this cybersecurity domain for a structured and well-paid career.

Some people are interested in working in cybersecurity as it is a career that is evolving continuously. You keep learn and you face challenges in a very dynamic environment while somehow contributing to the growth of the society or organization. But talents want to be properly compensated and want to see a path in their career.

And of course, IT leaders and CISOs have to show their employees that they can give adequate education and training to those who want and are looking to transition from a traditional job to one that is more linked to the digital sector due to the digital transformation.

 

How have initiatives such as Women4Cyber helped in fostering cybersecurity talents?

 

We are at the beginning stages with Women4Cyber, which is growing like a strong wave, and now we see the creation of national chapters across Europe. We are starting to see that people want to cooperate with different activities, support inclusion, and increase the participation of women in cybersecurity.

And this is important to us because we cannot exclude 50% of the population from the talent pool simply because they are women, and businesses are slowly learning that and trying to be better.

I will say that we are seeing smaller companies, like IT startups, and larger companies awakening and looking for experts, as well as hiring more women. But as I said, the movement is a strong wave that will come up and businesses have to realize that we desperately need people and they need to support that.

Posted on

Siemens Mobility’s Bernhard Karollus: Mobilizing Digital Change Towards Hybrid Work Culture

At the heart of hybrid work culture and digital transformation in IT, CIOs play a pivotal role in nurturing these initiatives to ensure their organizations maintain consistent business growth in a volatile market. From data and analytics to cyber security and more, the CIO will push the Digital Strategy of organizations to the next level. 

As the Head of Regional IT EMEA2 for Siemens Mobility Austria, Bernhard Karollus shares with us his insights on digital transformations, post-pandemic growth, and the key technologies for organizations making the shift towards new work environments.

 
Want more insights from Bernhard Karollus? Join him and many other industry leaders in Management Events’ 600Minutes Executive IT event in Austria.
 

The Transition Towards Digital Transformation

Digital transformation and change culture continue to be the main focus for IT leaders across industries. The pandemic has shown that organizations that are agile enough to incorporate digital strategies while prioritizing flexibility will be the ones that survive.

For Bernhard, however, identifying the challenges shouldn’t be the focus. Instead, keeping the organizations focused on the big picture while understanding what it means to embrace change culture should be the priority of CIOs.

 

What remains as major challenges for companies in achieving digital transformation? How do you, and Siemens Mobility, approach these challenges?

 

Defining remaining challenges would mean we know a target state. I perceive this approach as wrong. We are playing the infinite game, tackling the challenges of today, realizing there are new ones just around the corner.

As part of Siemens, we are concentrating on the platform economy and digital ecosystems when looking at the very broad picture.

 

Are organizations still resistant to change? What can those in IT leadership roles do to nurture the culture of change?

 

Tough cookie, because there is no general response to this question. There is a wide range of positions towards change even within single organizations. 

Avoiding the view and prejudices of one’s own IT bubble helps to understand the pace that a specific organization can take when going through massive change. As a permanent activity, I like the approach of small life hacks to nudge diverse parts of the organization and single employees to embrace change.

 

New Work Culture and Hybrid Environments 

With over 60% of companies allowing or incentivizing remote work, it’s clear that the home office is here to stay. While there are still challenges in complete remote working, the idea of hybrid working culture is an area in which IT leaders need to consider seriously.

However, the transition towards new work culture comes with its unique pitfalls, and Karollus outlines the challenges and how Siemens Mobility approached the idea of a hybrid workplace environment.

 

What are the pitfalls the CIOs should be aware of when transitioning into and implementing new work cultures?

 

When the pandemic started, the challenge for IT was to act quickly and provide technology solutions. Implementing new work cultures is a different corporate challenge with employees and a complex mix of stakeholders involved.

Technology is part of the solution but considering the digital dexterity of your workforce, resistance to change, and close attention to the interests of other stakeholders should be carefully considered.

 

What was Siemens Mobility’s approach toward a hybrid workplace environment?

 

We are using a holistic new normal approach with our HR, real estate, IT, and EHS departments joining forces to provide a wide variety of components building the hybrid work environment of the future. It all started with top management attention when our CEO announced 3 of 5 days working outside of the office wherever legally possible. 

What should I add? Tone from the top plus all relevant organizational units working together simply is a successful approach.

 

Incorporating Emerging Tech and Modern CIO Traits

The journey towards a hybrid working world will require IT leaders to work hard to build and maintain team dynamics. At the same time, investing in tools that will help further strengthen their business strategy can go a long in establishing a solid foundation for a successful new landscape of work

From initiating small-scale PoCs to encouraging the adoption of emerging technologies, Bernhard shares his insights on how Siemens Mobility faced these challenges and what other IT leaders need to be aware of in their journey towards a new working world.

 

What are the key investments in emerging technologies that companies need to focus on in the transition towards hybrid work culture?

 

Companies should derive their investment focus from their business strategy using tools like technology radars and core technology definitions. Gladly, many technologies can be tested in small-scale PoCs or garage projects when looking further down the horizon, while others looking at industry or topic leaders can provide guidance.

There is only a very limited technology scope that Siemens in general is not active in when it comes to digitalization. Siemens Mobility is part of the Siemens innovation ecosystem and has defined corporate core technologies. 

 

What are the strategies for IT leaders to encourage team growth and collaboration while maintaining talent wellbeing in a hybrid environment?

 

There was never something like a one-fits-all solution in the productivity/wellbeing equilibrium. Even less, when it comes to growth and collaboration. Especially as managers of managers, IT leaders, in my opinion, are well-advised to be members or partners to decisions that influence the large picture of the new work environment, actively shaping it.

At the same time coaching your direct reports openly and inclusively, while carefully optimizing team structure will shape teams that grow and collaborate in a good way. 

A word of warning: all the teams within one’s organization are different, there can be conflicts between different areas of responsibility due to the more and more individual approach of leaders. These need to be sensitively managed or avoided.

 

Finally, in the post-pandemic world, what are the traits that CIOs and IT leaders should possess to lead the workforce and the overall organization’ into the new working world?

 

Closeness to all business and support functions units is key for sure. Being open and having a team that is open to challenges from whatever topic field will not only allow to lead the workforce into the new working world but also one’s organization.

And finally, nothing told us as the pandemic did, that continuous learning is key to overcoming the challenges from permanent change.

Posted on

Danfoss eSteering Way: How Do We Work Without Managers?

Written by Vivek Menon, Senior Director and eSteering leader at Danfoss Power Solutions. 

 

One of the first questions I get asked when we talk about our self-managed journey is, how do we work without managers? And ironically, this question usually comes after the comment, “But no one tells us what we need to do, we are already self-managed.” 

My answer with a big smile usually is, well if that comment is true, then there shouldn’t be any problems. But what I have observed is that individuals are self-managed in their own tasks and accountabilities but not necessarily self-managed as teams. What I mean by that is, if there are differences of opinions on priorities, activities, directions, clashes of personalities or resources which are not resolved between two individuals, then there is usually an escalation to the manager or managers (if the two individuals belong to different line functions).

So, then the article’s headline question starts to form, and I see it as a question of how we handle these situations in a self-managed organization. When there is no manager or managers to escalate to how do we handle such issues which could be strategic, technical, commercial or people related? 

Answering this natural and pertinent question is part of going deeper into the “structure” from traditional hierarchy to self-managed. In the previous overview article Self-Managed teams – the Danfoss eSteering way, we spoke about how structure is one of the 3 elements besides “processes” and “mindsets” that need to be changed in this type of organization. 

 
Learn about digital culture in organizations: Join Vivek Menon’s panel discussion called Take the Risk, Fail Fast, and Learn: Enabling a True Digital Culture In Your Organisation at our exclusive event in Denmark, Digital Advantage.
 

To answer this question, I first go back to what key activities a traditional manager does. A manager usually must perform a mix of two key types of roles: 

  • Functional roles: This role usually covers strategic direction setting, goal setting, short-term prioritization, decision making, budgeting, functional conflict resolution, functional expertise or mentorship, KPI accountability, facilitating operational and governance decision meetings and keeper of time, history of decision and actions and follow up. 
  • People roles: This role usually covers people development, performance management, hiring and letting go, compensation, resource management, people conflict resolution, team well-being, reporting and administration activities. 

Now the first thing you need to understand is that whether you have managers or not, you still need all the above activities to be handled well for the success of a team. 

 

No manager does not mean, no management 

 

So, what we do in our self-managed organization is to split these key roles and activities into multiple roles and accountabilities. There are two key advantages of this approach a) Decentralization and empowerment into multiple roles and b) Breaks the myth of the manager as this all-knowing, all-capable person or individual. We all know it’s nearly impossible to find a person who is excellent in both the people management roles and the functional management roles equally or at the very least, can juggle both types of competencies effectively at all times. 

So, let’s break down the two types of roles and how we handle them in Danfoss eSteering. 

 

Functional Roles

 

For handling the accountabilities of a manager in his functional role, we took inspiration from Holocracy and Sociocracy 3.0. We split and decentralized the main functional accountabilities into 3 main roles: Lead Link, Facilitator, Secretary. We have taken the roles as described by the Holocracy and used them in our context as below. 

Lead Link

The lead link is the keeper of the purpose of the team and sets the future direction and priorities of the team/circle. He/she is also responsible for the KPIs or success metrics of the team and ensuring the right resources (people and money) are available for the team’s accountabilities. The distribution of roles within a circle is also the lead link’s accountability. Any non-delegated role or accountability also lies with the Lead link. 

Facilitator

It is basically the facilitator who is “running” the meeting and ensuring a non-hierarchical, consent-based decision-making process is followed in the circle. Here is a video describing how we run a consent-based decision-making process, inspired by Sociocracy 3.0. The facilitator proposes the short-term prioritizing of the topics, whether it be operational or governance meetings. It is critical to separate the role of lead link and facilitator between two different individuals as the facilitator is a counterbalance to the lead link role. This is especially true for teams that are starting from traditional hierarchies and a former manager is taking on the lead link role. 

Secretary

The secretary is the memory of the team. In this way the secretary is both responsible for capturing actions formed in the meetings, updating our roles and setting things straight when we do not recall what was decided or how a role or one of our policies should be understood. Anyone who has used the “power” of capturing meeting minutes as the main decision agreement knows the power of a secretary’s role. Where the facilitator drives the meetings, the secretary ensures that the frame for the meetings is optimal. That covers both frequencies, scheduling of meetings and selecting software for the team that ensures maximum collaboration. 

 
 

People Roles 

 

This is where we are creating our own replacement of the traditional manager accountabilities and are evolving them as we go along. Just because we don’t have a manager does not mean that we do not need people processes and activities. So, we have started to define roles that support replacing these accountabilities with new roles in the business. 

Sparring partner

People development is a very important topic for us. We believe every individual owns their own development path and goals. However, we see there is clearly a role needed to take the sparring with an individual and support in creating their development goals and the progress of these defined development goals.

However, what we saw as a limitation in the traditional way was that taking this discussion only took place with the manager and their employee. This we believe is limiting both the manager and employees. For example, cases where the desire for development for the individual is a new area or competency where the manager might not be able to guide in the right way.

A sparring partner is therefore a mentor/coach of your own choice, who is a facilitator of an individual’s development and who you feel comfortable discussing your own personal development. The sparring partner can also facilitate 360 feedback on the individual’s activities. We have cases where product-focused roles chose a mentor who can support them in developing into project managers. We have also seen that this is something that needs to be trained for both the sparring partner and the employee. 

New roles

Besides the sparring partner we have also developed new roles within eSteering team to handle the different people activities. One of the roles of a traditional manager is to hire people. For this very specific time-limited and outcome-based role, every team can appoint someone on a Hiring role for any new position that they want to fulfill in that team/circle. To add to it, we also have added the element of team hiring instead of individual hiring.

Another aspect of a manager’s role is to ensure the well-being of the team. Having a healthy workplace and a fun place to work is critical to employee engagement and happiness. For this, we have a Well-being role and they have taken the role further to form a team of CFO’s (Chief Fun Officers) and are organizing team events and activities.

Another key role that managers have is communication with various stakeholders. To cover this role, we have added multiple roles for communications internally and externally and we call them Bards. As we go along, we might have to define more such new roles based on the accountabilities.

Self/Circle

Besides the above-mentioned roles we have ensured that all other accountabilities of the former manager have to be covered by the circle and its purpose. Every individual is empowered to bring “tensions” to the circle they are members of. Tensions can be both an aspect of change for the better (what could be instead of what is) or concern like a conflict they are not able to resolve and get support from the team to move forward.

We have a Danfoss Behavior that we call – “Run the business as your own” and we live that spirit in eSteering. This means that everyone has an obligation to bring forward the tensions they observe and get support to solve them by following a consent-based decision process. Taking empowerment also means taking responsibility for problems and issues and managing them in a mature professional manner. This is especially true in cases of conflict between individuals.

These tensions are raised and solved in the meetings we have. We truly believe that when we can solve conflicts and solve issues in our personal lives, we should also be able to handle them in a good way at work too. We have also enabled our teams with extra support by providing soft skills training into conflict resolution, communication and facilitation and questioning techniques.

 

So, this is how we are currently working without a manager in eSteering

 

This requires team members to be able to consider topics beyond their own area of work and be open to helping each other based on their passions and interests. For all of this, transparency is the key so that people can support making the right decisions for the business. This doesn’t mean only easy or fun stuff, but also harder decisions when you need to re-prioritize activities or reduce budgets. Having said all this, we are still learning and evolving and probably need to work with more in specific areas to clarify further for e.g.: development paths. The good thing is that until we have defined it, we can still use existing processes for the same. 

And what about former managers? Well, for those who are passionate about the above specific roles, they are continuing to fulfill them as selected by the teams and those who prefer to avoid specific accountabilities or roles for whatever reasons can now take on new roles and accountabilities that are more suited for them. This splitting of people roles and functional roles is really something we believe is good for organizations and teams as not all current managers enjoy both sides of the roles and by splitting the roles, we enable breaking the myth of the all-knowing manager. 

 

 Continue reading Vivek Menon’s work on the Danfoss eSteering Way: 

Posted on

Amanda Pusa Edwall: A Positive Company Culture Holds an Organization Together

All companies, from start-ups to MNCs, have one thing in common: a unique company culture. It is the foundation for a company’s identity and plays a big part in employee satisfaction and productivity. After a year of unprecedented changes, the influence of company culture on corporate reputation and organizational growth is undeniable.  

We had an illuminating conversation with Amanda Pusa Edwall, Chief People Officer at Anyfin, on the importance of building a healthy workplace culture and the evolving priorities of HR leaders today.

 

Signs of a Healthy Organizational Culture 

 

Toxic workplace culture has been cited as one of the main reasons behind The Great Resignation of 2021. According to Microsoft’s Work Trend Index, 40% of the respondents are looking to switch jobs this year. In order to retain the best employees, organizations have the responsibility of making them feel valued, respected, connected, supported, and productive. 

Edwall lists the following as indicators of positive company culture:  

  • Employer and employee have matching values: “I have found both personally, but also from my job with HR that one of the most difficult things is when a candidate’s core values don’t align with the company. I think when that happens, it’s almost impossible to do a good job.” 
  • A positive and encouraging environment: When people feel insecure or afraid to speak their minds, it signals an unhealthy workplace culture. Organizations need to work towards providing “a welcoming and positive culture where employees are encouraged to be the best versions of themselves.” 
  • Money is not the main motivator: “People don’t work for a company because it makes the coolest product or pays the highest salary.” Companies with a positive workplace culture have “people who truly want to walk the extra mile and do something more. They genuinely care about their team, manager and company.” 
 

Company Culture in a Hybrid Work Environment 

 

When asked about building a company culture in a remote work setting, Edwall says “it’s very difficult, and the ones who say that it’s not difficult are lying.” She mentions challenges can be found in the following areas:  

  • Onboarding: How do you onboard people when there is no face-to-face interaction? Edwall says that employees need to know that they are part of a team and part of something bigger. A weak onboarding process may leave new employees feeling lost. “If you’re completely new to the company, you don’t even know who to reach out to for the right information.” Therefore, employees must take the initiative to ask questions instead of leaving things up to chance. 
  • Information sharing: Edwall says that this needs to be done “in a very thoughtful way.” Communication challenges in a virtual workplace make it hard to know whether employees have digested and understood the information given. Managers must create a safe space for employees to ask questions and seek guidance if needed.  
  • Working in silos: This is more likely to happen when employees are working remotely. According to Edwall, “people perceive themselves to being extremely efficient but does not know what everyone else is doing. Are you doing what’s most important and in alignment with everyone else? Or do we have three people in the company doing the same thing?” Managers have to identify and eradicate silos in the workplace as they can negatively impact employee collaboration.  

A digitalized HR function has the potential to mitigate these challenges.  According to our trend report, CHRO Investments 2021, there is a significant rise in technologies to increase remote employee collaboration and productivity. Surveyed HR professionals have invested in employee management software (22%) and project management and collaboration tools (20%) respectively.  

 

Characteristics of a Start-up Culture

 

Most start-ups are associated with small tight-knit teams, young and energetic employees, flat hierarchy and flexibility. “I think in a start-up like Anyfin, it’s quite fast moving, and responsibilities can shift quite a lot from day to day,” Edwall says.  

The flat hierarchy structure of start-ups can result in leadership capabilities that are not fixed. According to Edwall, “managers are highly focused on getting results and are extremely engaged.” She adds that HR personnel and managers need to make sure that people take time off and that they need to reset. 

However, she notes that priorities are slowly shifting. “Ten years ago, the focus was on having a career and getting a lot of equity. But now, I think more people care about the softer part of work as well.” It is also important to celebrate success and not rush to chase the next big thing. “There is pressure for perfection in many start-ups and to always aim higher because the work is not good enough. This can be very poisonous for young, motivated people. When can you ever feel proud of all the things you have accomplished if nothing is ever good enough?” 

If company culture is left on the back burner, it could result in a toxic workplace that leads to a high turnover rate. Management teams must create a clear picture of their vision, mission and core values, and communicate them effectively to employees. 

 

Shifting Priorities for Today’s HR Leader

 

Edwall says the HR leader role has evolved in the past 18 months. The biggest priority for CHROs now is to build a robust hybrid or remote working model. “I think for many start-ups, from a technical perspective, this has been a natural thing as the infrastructure is already in place.” 

In addition, Edwall shares the following observations: 

HR brings C-suites together  

“HR has moved from being in the backseat to constantly reminding leadership peers on the company’s direction.” They ensure the top management are united in terms of planning and executing organizational goals. “I think HR is becoming more of the glue in the organization.” 

The mental health of employees 

Work-life balance and mental health need to be investigated more closely. “What do we need to do for employees’ mental resilience? We need to give them the tools to be able to do that themselves.” 

According to Gartner, 68% of organizations have already introduced at least one new wellness benefit to help improve their employees’ mental health. Companies are also taking actionable steps to increase mental health awareness by offering employees mental health leave and shutting down operations for a “collective mental health day.” 

Upskilling and retraining 

“I had to remold my employee base to work on things outside their job scope.” Edwall and her team worked on identifying their strengths and assigned them new tasks accordingly. For example, she encouraged talent acquisition staff to try out lead generation, market research and customer support, among others. This aligns with the findings in our report, HR Key Focus Areas in 2021, where HR leaders fostered a learning mentality and influenced employees to stay interested and open to learning. 

 

Employee Investment is Key  

 

The biggest takeaway from our conversation with Edwall is the urgency for organizations to invest with their employees.  

“Anyfin today will be very different from Anyfin in three years. How do we truly invest in the people we hired today to make sure that they fit the organization a few years from now?” 

Leaders need to rethink their organization’s culture and values, not just on-the-surface perks they can offer. Although it is nice having ping pong tables and fika breaks, Edwall says they are just elements of “shallow employee engagement.” Healthy workplace culture starts with leaders walking the talk and getting to know their employees in depth to identify their motivation for working.  

Posted on

Rune Todnem By: How You Can Provide EPICally MAD Leadership

During these uncertain times, organizational leaders are under pressure to perform their best as the world moves into a more digitalized and sustainable direction. The development of technological literacy has become increasingly important, in addition to soft skills such as adaptability, agility and empathy.  

What challenges lie ahead of leaders today? What aspects of current leadership practices need to change? Rune Todnem By, Professor of Leadership at the University of Stavanger provides illuminating answers to these questions and more.  

 

The Greatest Leadership Challenge Moving Forward 

 

By argues that the main challenge lies in the very core of how we understand and practice leadership.  

“The greatest challenge is not globalization, COVID-19, digitalization or any other current event, but rather that we currently have a very narrow and limiting understanding of leadership.” He refers to the tripod understanding which consists of the relationship between leader and follower, and the delivery of shared goals. This concept, being the basis for almost every single leadership theory and practice results in behaviors that are traditional, conservative, and limiting.  

“It also leads to monopolizing the doing of leadership to a small group of individuals – who are in fact no more capable or ‘special’ than anyone else. Often, they just happen to be white, middle-aged men with privileged backgrounds. We are quite simply not as equal nor diverse which we so often like to think we are.” 

“We are tied up in an outdated understanding of what is leadership. This does not bode well as it prevents us from finding the best solutions to the challenges ahead.” 

Professor By dissects the tripod understanding of leadership further by explaining why ‘follower’ is not a positive word. He suggests it implies that “most of us do not have a mind of our own, cannot contribute independently, and require someone – a ‘leader’ – to push the start button for us to wake up in the morning.” 

Additionally, he argues that shared goals are often not shared at all. “These goals are decided by someone else in an organization for reasons of short-term profit-making and efficiency gains. Organizational members do not have any shared ownership of these goals because they were never discussed with them.”  

Therefore, it becomes very difficult to contribute to the delivery of such ‘shared’ goals as most employees can simply ask “Why should I contribute to something I don’t understand I was involved with or agreed to?” 

Addressing this challenge 

When By gets invited by an executive group to give a talk, he will first ask them for a definition of ”leadership.” 

“They end up not defining ‘leadership’ but ‘leaders’, in terms of their skills and characteristics,” he says.  

The solution to this challenge starts by understanding that leaders and leadership are not one and the same. Many leaders do not provide leadership, and many who do provide leadership do not perceive themselves as leaders. By says that people get surprised about this difference because “we were brought up in a society where it is suggested that leadership is something only leaders do.” 

Changing the language used to understand leadership is essential. By mentions that “there are alternatives out there” and recommends a 2008 study by Drath et al. on the DAC ontology which stands for Direction, Alignment and Commitment. To shed light on the DAC alternative, By has further developed the model in his recent 2021 article, Leadership in pursuit of purpose, calling it the Purpose, Alignment and Commitment (PAC) model. 

“Purpose is much bigger than just direction. Direction is something that can be changed in order to deliver on purpose,” he says. When leaders ask themselves “Why do we exist as an organization?,” it should encourage them to pursue purpose beyond profit, with proof suggesting such an approach will better support sustainable profits. More importantly, this can be aligned with individual purpose which is becoming increasingly important both in recruitment and retention. By suggests that organizations need to start focusing on providing people with a purpose rather than a bonus.  

 

What It Means to be EPICally MAD

 

A highlight of Professor By’s work is the concept of EPICally MAD as presented at TEDxStavanger:  

E for Energy:  

By likens human beings to a fully charged battery after a good night’s sleep. “Our batteries should be fully charged, and it’s up to us how we want to spend this energy,” he says. He reminisced about being a founding member of the Public Leadership Foundation (PLF), where responsibilities were allocated based on what provided members with energy. “For example, I’m not good with numbers but it energizes other people! So, they took that responsibility. The way we work, support and challenge one another should be done in an energizing way.” 

P for Purpose:  

“We all have a purpose in life. We just need to discover it – and the same goes for organizations.” By says that there is nothing wrong with making a profit. In fact, it is a necessity for organizations in the private sector. “We should acknowledge and adopt the power of profit AND purpose. Having a purpose beyond profit is a strength, not a weakness.” He adds that organizations can base recruitment, advancement and bonuses on such a purpose, a purpose which should “last for a minimum of 100 years and which is bigger than any new CEO.” Tables have been turned in the job interview setting, where candidates are now the ones asking hard-hitting questions on purpose. “They ask, ‘Why do we exist?’, ‘What are we doing to improve the environment?’, ‘What are we doing to improve diversity? Why should I work with you?’” 

I for Identity:  

By says that a lot of business schools take an approach of “being factories churning out people that are leaders who look and think the same”. “I don’t think it’s our place in business schools or in HR to tell people how to dress or which skills and characteristics we need to copy from some ‘great’ leader or another.” Instead, HR departments should facilitate people to become the best versions of themselves. Professor By suggests we forget about “transformational and transactional – yes, even servant leadership,” and focus on the production of Purpose, Alignment, and Commitment. 

C for Courage:   

“This is about the courage to be yourself and stand for your purpose and core values,” By says. He provides an example of a meeting when the topic of XYZ was being discussed. “You find yourself not knowing what is being discussed but everyone else – including those you later found out were as bewildered as yourself – are nodding along, nobody daring to ask questions because they’re scared of looking stupid.” It takes courage to ask, and it takes courage to support the first one asking if it isn’t you. 

Ally is a glue word and is about working together with others towards delivering on a common purpose. “We don’t have to be like-minded or come from the same background, but we’re allied in the belief of purpose.”  

Professor By hopes that the idea of everyone being EPICally MAD can be adapted into HR leadership development programs or employee induction programs in the future.  

 

Leadership is a Collaborative Effort

 

The University of Stavanger and the Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU) were recently successful in their application for the UNESCO Chair on Leadership, Innovation and Anticipation. 

“We are integrating the concept of future literacy in the chair under Anticipation. It’s about anticipating different futures knowing it is not set and that we all have a responsibility making it what it will be.” 

In partnership with UNESCO, Professor By and the University of Stavanger, and NIFU hope this Chair can be used as a vehicle to work with a range of organizations in true partnership developing both leadership and leader development programs fit-for-purpose moving forward. The next stage of the project is to identify partners to design, run and test new leadership and leader development programs with. This project will also integrate the PAC model to help employees see the link between themselves and their organizations.  

When asked about the biggest lesson from the pandemic, By says that we all play a role in our organizations and society. “Performing leadership isn’t going to be successful if we continue to perceive it as a task only for ‘special’ individuals. We must expand our horizon and acknowledge leadership as a collective process where we can only achieve our full potential as individuals, organizations and society together.” 

Posted on

Kathleen O. Mathisen, CHRO of Grieg Seafood: Anchoring Diversity & Inclusion in the Workplace

Diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives may have been paused due to the pandemic as companies went into survival mode. However, it is time for organizations to restart D&I efforts to reap benefits of a diverse and inclusive workforce. According to McKinsey & Company, the likelihood of diverse companies out-earning their competitors have only grown in the past five years. 

Grieg Seafood, a multinational salmon farming company headquartered in Norway, has been a strong advocate for human rights and diversity in the workplace, in addition to sustainable fish farming practices. We speak with Kathleen O. Mathisen, CHRO and Internal Communication of Grieg Seafood, about the importance of D&I, closing the gender gap and what it means to be a HR leader today.  

 

Diversity as a Core Focus Area

 

According to the Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO), fish catching is male dominated in most regions around the world. Offshore and deep fishing in ocean-going boats is delegated to male crews, while women work onshore carrying out skilled and time-consuming tasks such as processing and marketing catches.  

Mathisen says more women are found in the support function in the seafood industry. “Many women didn’t want to go into [the seafood] industry years ago because it was hard work,” she says. However, advances in automation and technology have drawn more women to the industry. Laborious tasks are now automated and simplified at Grieg Seafood with technologically advanced control rooms.  

Machine learning and AI has enabled remote feeding of fish which increases fish welfare and reduces fish waste. Digital farmers are now able to remotely feed seven million fish living in 12 farms, all from Grieg Seafood’s land-based operational center in Rogaland.  

“The key here is to balance and minimize the gender gap without losing the core competence that you have,“ Mathisen says.  

 

D&I as a Top-down Approach 

 

Once a culture of inclusion is fostered at the level of an organization’s decision makers, it will eventually trickle down to the management team and the rest of the employees. Mathisen stresses that “it’s about making those long-term plans, it’s about being strategic, it’s about anchoring the decision to minimize the gender gap at the top.’‘  

To start this process, Mathisen advises C-levels initiate a change of mindset and behavior. Management teams should look inward and analyze communication practices with their peers.  

“Are we different? Or are do we always agree? If we always agree, that should be a big question mark!” With that said, leaders should not be afraid of addressing shortcomings in the diversity department. It’s a matter of being bold and transparent in sharing information with their peers and employees. This will instill trust and confidence that C-levels will follow through with D&I initiatives.  

However, Mathisen is concerned that these initiatives are still at the drawing board and not fully implemented. ”It’s sad that we need to have those discussions – that gender balance is important, that diversity matters, because of course it matters!” 

 

A Competence-based Hiring Policy 

 

Grieg Seafood has a goal of increasing the percentage of female employees at Grieg Seafood to 40% by 2026. According to her, the 50/50 ratio of male to female employees should not be in the end goal, and is neither right nor wrong.  

Additionally, Grieg Seafood has a gender-based hiring policy in place where the organization tries its utmost to have a man and a woman as the two final candidates for a position. However, Mathisen says that that’s not always the case. Shortlisted candidates may be two women or two men. This is because at the end of the day, Mathisen stands behind a competence-based hiring process.  

”You shouldn’t be asking where people come from or [look at their] gender. You should look at competence, and that should be the final measurement when you’re recruiting people.” 

Occasionally, Mathisen comes across a disruptive candidate that challenges the status quo of the role’s requirements, pushing the organization to remove their biases and ultimately revise the job criteria to be more inclusive. There is a number of benefits when it comes to hiring based on competence such as consistency in the hiring process, accurate predictions of future performance and lower turnover rate. 

 

Creating a Culture for Sustainable Employability  

 

As sustainability is one of Grieg Seafood’s main focus areas, it’s no surprise that it extends to the company culture as well. Mathisen says that having sustainable habits at the workplace stems from the employees themselves. 

”It’s not a corporate initiative that starts at the top [that forces] people to [work and think in a sustainable way]. It comes from the people, and that has a totally different dynamic.” 

In an employability context, sustainability carries a different meaning. The right conditions need to be in place to ensure employees are happy, healthy and motivated. Capable employees who are motivated and passionate about their jobs stay at their company three times longer, generating long-term ROI for an organization. 

Mathisen reveals some of the ways Grieg Seafood creates an environment for sustainable employability: 

  • Listen to your employees: Pulse surveys are used to collect feedback from employees on how the company is doing and what can be improved. 
  • Provide training and development programs: Employees have access to a wide range of e-learning programs. Another pilot project has been taken on to provide more programs to employees so they can educate themselves.  
  • Instill trust and flexibility: Employees are treated fairly according to their needs. A working culture that is rooted in trust and flexibility is key to unlock employee engagement and productivity.  
  • Implement proper hybrid work policies and regulations: It is important to have planned meeting points, face-to-face onboarding sessions and revised insurance packages in the future. 

“If you have a good culture, you don’t have to [spend] a lot of money on branding,” Mathisen says. She adds that companies with a “walk the talk” mentality will attract and retain the right talent.  

“Young talent comes in all shapes and sizes. [People] will look for companies that have values they can identify themselves with.” 

Mathisen says that the CHRO role has become broader in the post-pandemic era. Today’s HR leaders must focus on the future of work for their companies — finding new solutions, pushing innovative strategies and ensuring team members feel connected in a hybrid work environment.