Culture & Tech: How Tech Can Accelerate Culture Change In A Hybrid Workplace

This article might be the first one I think I've written since school, and I'm not even sure I managed to complete one then! So here it is and what a first to talk about, after a crazy year of ups and downs, furlough, redundancy and office closures, I found myself back in work with ECOM Manchester.

I had an idea for a Virtual Meet Up after a number of conversations with my mother, Helen Wilson, who has the lived experience of a being part of Microsoft’s Cultural Transformation Journey for the past 6 years. Our aim was to make sure that it was both topical and cultural. We landed on how technology accelerates Cultural Transformation and operating in a Hybrid Workplace. The timing was perfect and the attendee list just carried on growing.

So for the ones who couldn't make it, let me share with you my key takeaways along with a link to “Creating a Blueprint for UK Competitiveness”  devised by Dr Chris Brauer at Goldsmiths, University of London in partnership with Microsoft.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/business/uk-recovery/

Helen has referenced the report which two main things jumped out for me.

Hollow growth approach:

·       Labour is viewed as expendable.

·       Technology is not fully exploited to optimise individual functions and services.

·       Future readiness is often overlooked, in favour of short-term gains.

Meanwhile Sustainable Growth:

·       Leaders are inspirational, decisive and empathetic

·       Staff are supported by a dynamic culture in which they can work flexibly and learn new skills

·       Digital solutions are transitioned to quickly and systemically

·      There is a mindset of resilience and agility that allows the organisation to respond to new challenges and opportunities when they arise

The report found that 46% of UK organisations demonstrate strong Hollow Growth characteristics and a falling turnover, from 5% to 15% decline.

Helen shared these workplace trends and insights with us and I hope you can see how the Sustainable Growth approach can benefit the UK economy:

“We used to talk about talent shortage, but today the narrative is around skills needed and matching skills within the workforce, and they think of this as the Skills Economy.

62% of executives believe they need to retrain or replace more than a quarter of their workforce by 2023. We’ll need to map the global skills needed for new jobs, upskill and reskill the workforce to enable an efficient marketplace.

We already see that AI making us more productive. 67% of executives say that AI will help humans and machines work together to be stronger using both artificial and human intelligence.

We need to keep the focus on diversity, 80% say inclusion is an important factor in choosing an employer, 72% would leave an organization for a more inclusive one.

Additionally, organizations with an inclusive culture are 8X more likely to achieve better business outcomes.

 Digital is empowering collaboration and the rise of remote teams—irrespective of location.

This transformation has enabled more flexibility and employees want that, more and more employees are looking to align their personal values and purpose with their company’s values and purpose.

88% of Millennials believe employers should play a vital role in addressing issues such as income inequality, hunger and the environment, and across all these evolving trends... the differentiator for companies is the ability to learn rapidly and change quickly in response to market forces.

Only the LEARNERS will survive, constantly reskilling and upskilling to match the skills in high demand

Culture is top of mind for many organizations, actively changing culture is hard work, and it’s something we’ve been working on for several years and we consider ourselves on a journey, not in search of a destination”

I hope that you have enjoyed my first article. These are tough times therefore we should all empathise with your fellow employees and clients. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you want to talk further about this, or anything else. Thank you for reading.