HR Learning: 20 Jan, 2023

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Transform India Inc's bott m line: Unlock $300 billion through Communication Fitness

As we embrace the future of work, organisations must invest heavily in improving their collective communication fitness levels to reduce cost & improve productivity. Communication fitness is critical to business growth and can cost billions of dollars when overlooked. After surveying 400 companies with 100,000 employees, David Grossman’s report (2016) titled ‘The Cost of Poor Communication’ points out the stark reality of how companies lose $62.4 million every year as a result of inadequate communication.  Employers, corporate executives and educators also agree to this business cost. In a report pioneered by Salesforce, 86% of the workforce in these job roles believe that ineffective communication is the underlying cause of workplace failures. In addition, a study by Economic Intelligence Unit found that poor communication fitness, as we call it, is the reason behind 44% of failed projects, 31% of low employee morale, 25% of missed performance goals and 18% of lost sales at the workplace.  Communication fitness is vital to enhance collaboration and productivity amongst a diversified workforce while scaling up rapidly in a highly unpredictable business environment. Moreover, communication is a life skill that is urgent in rising corporations with a multi-geographic presence. This is only one of the many reasons why communication fitness has become a critical area of investment.  Business enterprises are increasingly facing the following six hurdles due to the lack of adequate L&D investment in communication fitness: Efficiency Loss, Weak Workforce Collaboration, Stretched Management Bandwidth, Unclear Messaging on Brand Equity, Missed Opportunities for Growth, Gap in Global Business Strategy. Fast-growing companies with a multi-geographic presence will need to invest in communication fitness if they want to heighten efficiency and strengthen workforce collaboration and brand equity while empowering a solid leadership team. One of the greatest challenges in a disruptive business landscape is the missed opportunities for growth, which applies equally to your organisation and your people. With initiatives designed toward personalised coaching for communication fitness, organisations will truly unlock their growth potential as they operate in local and global markets with a mixed workforce and flexible working models. 

 

2.

Davos 2023: Immigration reform, reskilling, upskilling in green growth essential for future of work, say WEF leaders

The unrest in the global job market can only be ceased by sound reforms and by reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce, said leaders at World Economic Forum. Evolution is fundamental and it keeps pushing mankind to think about the future. While we work on making the most out of our present, we also continuously hustle for a brighter and smarter tomorrow. 

The future of work was the talking point of one of the panel discussions at the ongoing World Economic Forum happening in Davos, Switzerland. Leaders José María Álvarez-Pallete, Gilbert Fossoun Houngbo, Pamela Coke-Hamilton and Martin J Walsh highlighted factors vital to future-proof the workforce. We know the pandemic changed the way we work now and will ever work again. As rightly described by the Chief Executive Officer of Telefónica, Álvarez-Pallete, “things that were supposed to happen five years from now, happened in the middle of the pandemic.” This resulted in an altered labour market. We saw millions of job cuts globally and a complete evaporation of some positions.  Hence, the question arises, will we ever go back to the way the job market used to be? The Director General of the International Labour Organisation, Houngbo, believes yes we will. He said, “The world will go back in terms of work that we have lost. On the other hand, I don’t think we will ever go back in terms of the way we organised the industry, such as working remotely.”  The United States Secretary of Labour, Walsh, resonated with the Director General and emphasised the need for immigration reform and reskilling and upskilling the workforce. 

“While we are already fighting inflation, the next bigger threat can be, not having enough workers. In fact, forget the jobs being created; there are jobs available right now in the USA that we don't have enough people for. America has been a country that always depends on immigrants. That’s why the need of the hour is immigration reform and reskilling and upskilling of the existing workforce,” said Martin J Walsh.

 

3.

Skills will be the currency of the new workplace: Cornerstone CEO Himanshu Palsule

 

 

To stay competitive, organisations must strive to retain their top talent while empowering their employees to consistently develop new skills so they can respond and adapt to changing environments, says Himanshu Palsule, CEO, Cornerstone OnDemand. A regular turnover is not a very welcome development for companies but a contributing factor to the phenomenon is that employees don’t see opportunities to grow their skills and their careers at the current jobs within their present companies.

Amid today’s dynamic workforce landscape, it is clear that if organisations want to stay competitive, they must retain their top talent and empower their employees to consistently develop new skills so they can respond and adapt to changing environments.

Himanshu Palsule, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Cornerstone OnDemand, a specialist in adaptive cloud-based HR software solutions, says organisations need to align their purpose and goals with the personalised skills development of their employees.

“Upon joining Cornerstone, I went on a listening tour, visited six countries, and over 60 different customers. Since then, I have been to more countries around the world and spoken to hundreds of organisations about how to solve talent and learning issues. From these conversations, one thing is quite clear: skills have become the new workplace currency,” Palsule says.