Reinventing the future of work

My first 100(ish) days as Global co-leader for PwC’s People and Organisation practice

Authored by: Pete Brown

Taking over a leadership role in the midst of a global pandemic presented many challenges, but I have also been amazed to see the resilience and adaptability of our people. It makes me very proud to lead and work alongside such a talented and committed team of people across our network. 

This has also been reflected in our clients. The speed and ease at which organisations have adapted to new ways of working has shown how agile and productive people can be. Clients are using this time to clean up areas that they’ve perhaps neglected in the past and are putting in place structures and strategies that will stand them in good stead to emerge from the pandemic even stronger. Here’s what I’ve been seeing. 

How we work has changed, but productivity has held up

The COVID-19 pandemic has inadvertently been one of the biggest catalysts for workplace change in recent years, creating a mass ‘experiment’ in remote working for an incredible number of workers. The scramble to ensure business continuity was a top priority and employees had to quickly adapt to working remotely alongside balancing the demands of caring, kids, and pets. 

But despite these challenges, productivity has held up during this time. PwC’s CFO Pulse survey found that in April, nearly half (45 percent) of businesses were worried about losing productivity but by June, this had dropped to only 26 percent. This is showing how people can be productive, engaged and happy working from home.  

As the work continues to change and businesses reshape activities, there’s never been a greater need to be able to draw insights from a strong set of workforce data, whether it’s where your people are located, what skills they have, or how they are performing. Companies that are continuing to invest in human resources, technology, and data are those who are breaking away from the pack. 

Don’t sound the death knell of the office just yet

But while it’s been shown people can work from home and be productive, it’s not beneficial for everyone; or towns, and city centres, and many organisations are locked into long lease property contracts. Humans are by nature social animals and even video conferences can’t replace the benefits of face-to-face interactions. You only have to see the increase in people working from coffee shops, cafes and even pubs to realise that the office isn’t quite dead yet. 

Having a specific plan in place to encourage people back into the office, as and when it is possible, is vital. At PwC UK, we’ve done videos on how the office has adapted to enable safe working, and to show people’s personal experience of coming back, as well as offering flexible working so people can avoid commuting at peak times. Feedback shows people feel prepared, happy and safe when returning to the office. 

Is it time to expand and accelerate upskilling your workforce?  

PwC’s Talent Trends 2020 survey showed that 74 percent of CEOs were concerned about the availability of key skills even before COVID-19. And the pandemic has served to highlight the skills mismatches between companies and their workforce even more. But it has also provided an opportunity for CEOs to further develop strategies to build the workforce they need for the future. The transferable skills that organisations need - creativity, problem solving, digital acumen, and leadership - are those that help their people think, act and thrive in a more unpredictable and rapidly digitising world. 

Now may be the time to expand and accelerate training programmes to elevate your workers’ digital skills; robotic automated processes and Artificial Intelligence applications require human skills to be effective. It’s this type of upskilling investment that PwC’s professionals see making firms more resilient and competitive.

Companies can now also access skills from a much wider talent pool, as remote working has meant organisations aren’t as restricted by physical location. Organisations are looking at time-zone centred recruitment. For example, if you look at Europe-based companies, they have access to talent from all of Africa and the Middle East because the time zone shift isn’t that different.

Making working lives safer, easier and healthier is the key to becoming a valued employer 

The lines between personal and professional lives are more blurred than ever before as more of us work remotely. Coupled with the concerns around health implications associated with COVID-19, rising unemployment figures and economic uncertainty, it is an incredibly worrying time. Understanding these fears and putting structures in place to mitigate stress has never been more vital. 

Organisations should scrutinise their current employee experience programmes and carefully consider how they should reconstruct them from the bottom up. Any new approach must be much more personalised to the individual. Companies have been introducing benefits that make people’s working lives easier, safer, and healthier over the long term, and those are the ones that are truly valued during such an uncertain time.

The key to a resilient workforce is understanding your employees 

True resilience in the face of any crisis can be cultivated only if organisations understand their employees’ needs so they can live and work well.

None of this is fully new. What this pandemic has shown me is that organisations can adapt quickly when they need to. Many have done in a few weeks what would have previously taken much longer. Companies are way more agile and better prepared in the event of any future lockdowns or crises that arise. It will be interesting to see what the next six months bring.

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