Building Sustainable People Systems

DEI (Diversity, Equity & inclusion) and Sustainability are seldom seen as profitability drivers in a business. These concepts are often labelled as industry buzzwords with very little research to how they impact the intellectual capital of the business, which in turn drives profitability.

The optimal outcome of employing a diverse workforce is creating an open forum or a psychological safe space for people from different backgrounds to problem solve for a singular business outcome.?

Diverse teams are agile, most A-players and will inculcate a culture of building a team of A-players and will not settle for less. This results in building a self sustaining performance led culture that impacts the profitability of an organisation for the long term.

Operationalizing a Sustainable People System:

While there are a plethora of theories on DEI & Sustainability, there are very few documented applications in modern businesses.

Defining a ‘Sustainable System’

• A sustainable system is designed to operate for the long term with minimal re-structuring input, which translates to the business equivalent of minimal operational expenses (Op-ex).
• Sustainable systems balance economic viability, resource efficiency and long term objectives.
• A few concepts to draw parallels from, would be Circular economies, Renewable energy systems, Sustainable sourcing, Green manufacturing etc.

Defining ‘People Systems’

• People Systems refer to the structured processes, practices, and technologies that organisations use to manage and develop their people.?
• These systems encompass the full gamut of functions related to human resources, talent management, employee engagement, and organisational development.

The infographic below showcases the siloed blocks of People Systems that exist in most organisations.

Designing a Sustainable People System

The traditional approach of building HR Systems prioritises designing these for administrative use rather than being looked at as a productised service for their customer a.k.a Employees.?

The design of a ‘Sustainable’ People System moves ahead of the traditional administrative usage of HR systems, to being a productised service where an Employee’s journey should be mapped by drawing parallels from the Customer/User Journey process.

This cultivates the right foundational blocks in the HR System that is unique to your organisation, whilst staying relevant to your people. This approach further reduces the operational costs of revamping these systems on a routine basis.

The use of a simple process improvement canvas (depicted below), will help identify bottlenecks for every people management system within the organisation. The goal here is to picture employees as ‘users’ and look at existing procedures to measure user retainment.

How does it affect Profitability?

An organisation with optimal people management systems, coupled with a team from diverse backgrounds creates a psychological safe space for people to problem solve for a singular business outcome.?

An apt case study is Intel, where employees devised a new chemistry process that reduced chemical waste by 900,000 gallons, saving $45 million annually. Another team developed a plan to reuse and optimise networking systems in offices, which cut energy costs by $22 million.?

The foundational blocks that fueled these advances were attributed to successful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) initiatives supported by the framework of sustainable people systems at Intel.

Final Thoughts

With top talent in short supply in many industries, employee attitudes about sustainable business practices are compelling more companies to take this issue seriously, yielding better business results for those that take action. Articulating a "nobler mission" for a company is a big motivator for employees and a powerful asset for attracting the right talent pool.

#DEI #Inclusivity #humanresourcemanagement #organisationaldesign