As the world settles into new ways of working in the post-pandemic era, organizations are faced with new opportunities and challenges.
How can they meet talent needs during a global talent shortage? How do they address stakeholder concerns while remaining competitive? And what does it mean to remain resilient in an unstable world?
The recent Mercer Global Talent Trends report for 2022-2023 sees a trend among high-performing organizations poised to take advantage of opportunities and drive long-term success: relatability. “Relatable organizations are focused on five key areas,” according to Mercer. “[R]esetting for stakeholder relevance, building adaptive capability in their people and processes, figuring out how to work in partnership and tackle inequalities, driving outcomes on employee health and total well-being, incentivizing employability, and harnessing energy for the collective good.”
Leaders, managers, and employees all want to feel like they are contributing to something important—that their work has purpose. The Mercer survey found that “feeling valued for my contributions,” “work that fulfills me,” and “organizational purpose I am proud of” were three of the top ten factors in helping employees thrive.
Leaders who can effectively engage customers, tie stakeholder concerns to strategy, and connect employee contributions and efforts to the overall purpose of the organization will remain relatable in the global economy.
Of course, to remain relevant and relatable in a global market, businesses need to continue to deliver financial results as well as people results. The pandemic era revealed to many companies that agility and resilience requires diffused decision-making and empowered employees. While the Mercer survey found that 78% of employees feel empowered to work with minimal oversight, it also found that only 30% of executives feel that their company can make important decisions at a local level.
In the flattened organizations of the present and future, decision-making and problem-solving will become even more essential for leaders at all levels. To develop a relatable organization, leaders need to be dependable and focus on results while maintaining the highest standards of personal integrity.
Perhaps the most important way for organizations to become more relatable is by approaching the talent shortage in new and innovative ways. While one of the biggest barriers to developing employees across the organization has always been a belief that employees would leave the company, the Mercer survey shows that belief fading. In fact, the percentage of HR leaders concerned that skill-building would make employees more attractive to competitors fell from 58% in 2020 to 36% in 2022.
Relatable organizations embrace a circular talent economy—in other words, a talent pool where skills are developed continuously and companies pursue innovative ways to keep employees in the workforce longer, even if they move around between organizations. Leaders listen to their team members and help them grow and develop according to their goals. Perhaps most importantly, relatable organizations look at the whole employee experience and value the well-being of their employees—not just because employees will stay longer, but because they are human and have human needs.
One particular challenge for organizations around the world is the ongoing disruptive environment they face. While the COVID-19 pandemic has faded to a less immediate concern, disruptions still reverberate. Employees increasingly demand remote or hybrid work options, and as leaders look at how to meet staffing needs, they increasingly look to global markets and freelance workers. The Mercer survey found that nearly half of employees want hybrid or remote work options.
In this volatile environment, organizations need leaders who can meet challenges with innovative ideas and present new options to their teams in a way that inspires commitment and buy-in. Change management can require nuanced ways of communicating and strong organizational savvy, and leaders who can navigate change with emotional intelligence will help build a relatable organization.
The Stewart Leadership LEAD NOW! Model provides a framework for developing leaders who can help create a relatable organization—one that is prepared to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow while delivering business results and people results. To learn more about the LEAD NOW! Model and our other programs, contact us.
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