By Allison Ebner
“Innovation is the ability to see change as an opportunity and not as a threat.”
Steve Jobs
As organizational leaders and HR professionals, we are going to continue to be challenged in the new year and beyond with a roller coaster of issues as we try to match our workforces to the complex needs of our organizations and the demands of our clients and consumers. It will take an incredible amount of innovation for us to remain competitive not only within our industry landscape but also our employee engagement strategies. Nearly every industry will be experiencing significant labor force challenges with pending retirements from the Boomers and Gen X’ers, and we’re also facing a transformational time in work experience and career expectations from our Millennial and Gen Z employees. So as an organizational leader today, how should you best prepare for the coming disruptions? Here are three strategies to consider as we turn the corner into 2025:
- Prioritize investments in continuous learning and development for your staff
Why? Business, technology and talent trends are moving at the speed of light! By creating a continuous learning model for your staff, you are empowering them to be resilient thinkers who can make better decisions for themselves, your organization and your customers. How do you approach this? Conduct an optimization assessment of each role or department in your organization. What competencies would help a team member perform at their peak? Keep it simple with a list of technical skills, power skills (formerly called soft skills) and future skills. Once you identify the list, create a learning pathway that helps you ‘skill build’ in each area.
- Focus on building leaders with HIGH levels of emotional intelligence
Why? Because this will make or break you. Period. Full stop. It’s hard to describe just how much this matters in our work eco systems today but I’ll try to do just that. If you can create people leaders with this competency – even to a high degree, not perfection – you will SLAY your competition and CRUSH your employee retention goals. We no longer have a workforce that will tolerate moderately decent managers. They have to be better! They need to instill a sense of urgency to get the job done right, combined with empathy, accountability AND the ability to teach resilience practices. This is KEY because our world is going to continuously evolve and change. We need to build teams – led by EQ professionals – that can inspire and motivate our future workforce through change and chaos and turn these uncertainties into opportunities!
- Strengthening the bonds between technology and your people
Why? The 5th industrial revolution has arrived and it’s the evolution of people and ‘machines’ working together to build our organizations and move us forward. Whatever industry that you’re in, you can use technology to propel innovation and create a workplace the optimizes technology while enhancing the human experience. It’s also all about CX – Your ‘customer’ experience. If we want to win the battle for market share, grant funding, venture capital…whatever it is that makes you ‘tick’, you’ll need to have a strategy that includes providing your talent with the best tech tools to give you an advantage. How do you know what’s out there? Follow your industry news, trade associations and leading SME’s to learn more.
By embracing a mindset of continuous learning, combined with leveling up your people leaders and blending technology in your current work practices, leading organizations can pivot from a traditional model aimed at scalable efficiency that grew out of our industrial past to one that is far more suited to a world in which speed, agility, and innovation rule the day, and in which people expect more meaning, choice, growth, and autonomy at work.
Our team here at EANE is ready to assist you in these vital tasks! We are continuing to evolve our programming, training and services so that we can support your organizational growth and the upskilling of your employees. Give me a call to learn more!
Allison