Change

By Keith Keating

Forty percent of our workforce is worried about the future of their jobs as a result of automation and robotics, according to research by PWC. Forty percent! It’s no wonder there is worry with the way Hollywood and the media are depicting a bleak future where robots replace humans.

And of course the internet helps to fuel the fear by planting seeds that make us wonder “will robots take our children’s jobs?” Or assertions that “robots may steal as many as 800 million jobs in the next 13 years” without providing reputable data to back up the claim. My favorite proclamation, by far, is the warning that “you will lose your job to a robot – and sooner than you think.” These headlines work as intended; they are scary. It’s no wonder our workforce is worried.

When we think about the workforce of the future, one of the first challenges is that people don’t know what opportunities will be available to them. They don’t know what else they can be because they don’t know what roles will exist or what type of skills are required in the age of automation and robotics. As HR and learning and development leaders, it is our responsibility to ensure that we identify the skills needed in the future and begin creating opportunities to bridge the gap. We can’t expect our employees to develop the skills completely on their own – this is where we need to architect and create opportunities for skill development experiences. The following are three strategies to consider using for skill development:

1. Stretch Assignments

Stretch assignments are projects or tasks beyond current skill sets or knowledge, intending to create a developmental “stretch” opportunity to learn and grow outside of the comfort zone. It’s an opportunity that will challenge but not push far enough to burn out from stress. It’s not part of a merit system and we should not judge. In many ways, it’s an opportunity to fail fast and learn from the experience in a safe environment.

The following are three examples of stretch assignments:

• Managing an intern or volunteer
• Organizing and leading an event or meeting
• Lead a new initiative not within the comfort zone

2. Digital Skills Exchange Platform 

When skill development opportunities are created within the organization, they should be housed in a centralized location for our workforce to access. Another approach to architecting developmental opportunities could be to create an infrastructure that houses stretch assignments or skill development opportunities like a Digital Skills Exchange Platform. The platform does not need to be technologically complicated. It could be a SharePoint site, an internal social media site, or an intranet page. That platform consists of four components:

• Database of all possible professions or occupations within the organization or broader within the industry
• A course calendar showing when, where, and how the skills needed are delivered
• An index of the employability associated with each occupation
• The skills required to work in the profession

The platform not only provides visibility into where opportunities exist within the organization but can also serve as a mechanism to uncover where skills already exist. An example of this platform in practice is the Intel Development Opportunity Tool (DOT) – a platform where managers can post short-term development opportunities that any employee can access.

The overall value of this type of platform is it:

• Creates two-way skill visibility between managers and employees
• Offers best-fit development by illuminating opportunities in unexpected places that meet their specific development needs
• Makes manager benefit more clear by illustrating the skills the team can expand on as part of the experience and also by identifying non-traditional candidates to consider that the manager may not have otherwise had access to

3. External Developmental Opportunities
   

When we identify skill gaps within our organization, our normal response is to hire someone with those skills. What if, instead of hiring someone new, we gave our current talent the opportunity to develop the skills and bring them back to the organization?  We could partner with trade organizations to create internship programs for our workforce. We could create opportunities with partner organization and create “job swap” opportunities. For example, Proctor & Gamble and Google created an external development partnership by creating a digital marketing talent exchange for a month-long job swap to upskill employees on new skills within a new organization. While it may take a little longer to develop our current talent than it would to hire new talent, the overall cost benefit to the organization may be lower by upskilling our talent with their depth and breadth of experience within our organization.

Second-Skilling

While the term “workforce of the future” might insinuate the changes we need to make can start tomorrow, the reality is we need to take action today to help prepare our workforce. We don’t want to wait until our employees are made redundant, on the path to redundancy, or too frozen in fear about their future that they are no longer open to learning.

Whether through strategies like stretch assignments, digital skills exchange platform, or external partnerships, we want to be creating opportunities for our employees to practice second-skilling. Second-skilling is developing new skills while in the current job.

Our workforce should not be living in fear for the future of their job. There is work for people today and there will be work for people tomorrow, even in a future with automation. Let’s change the discussion from being fear-based to being action-oriented. Join me on Feb. 19 for a webinar where I discuss additional strategies HR and L&D leaders should consider to enable our future workforce for success.

For more information attend our webinar: “The Future of Work: Preparing Today’s Workforce for Tomorrow” presented by Keith Keating.

The only thing constant in life is change – and in the workplace, things can change constantly. New procedures are created, projects are assigned, employees leave, and acquisitions take place. Being able to cope with change is essential if you want to succeed in the business world.

To thrive in an environment filled with constant change, it’s important to understand how to harness people’s adaptability to move through disruption and regain resilience with change training. If you can get ahead of change, the result is an organizational culture that embraces change fueled by empowered leadership and employees who feel valued and secure. Leaders should help individuals and teams to recognize the predictable path of transitioning through change can foster innovation and improve business agility.

Change is an ongoing process rather than just one event, and there is a progressive sequence of change behaviors that needs to be experienced and mastered in order to be effective in handling change.

Negative behaviors like denial, apprehension, anger, and resistance are normal and part of the change process, but the progression through the “phases of change” represents an opportunity for growth.

The Four Change Phases

There are four main phases of change. Change moves through the “Change Curve.” Employees should be aware of this curve and work on moving through it more effectively. Sometimes a person may get stuck on one phase, or repeat other ones. The phases are:

• Phase 1 – Denial. When people heart about the change they may be in denial that it is happening and avoid addressing it.
• Phase 2 – Resistance. People may resist the change at first because it is an unknown and they would prefer things to stay the same.
• Phase 3 – Exploration. Exploration happens when they acknowledge their feelings and accept that the change is in fact important.
• Phase 4 – Commitment. Once the person accepts the change, they then commit to it.

At the end of the change phases the employee should be more comfortable with the change. They have had time to accept and get on board with the change, and they are ready to move forward.

Learning More

To learn how to tackle change at work, join subject matter expert and author Dr. Cynthia Scott for an informative webinar called “How to Thrive Through Change” on Jan. 2 at 2 p.m. EDT. This webinar will help you to understand what happens to individuals, teams, and organizations when a change occurs. You will also learn how to lead in a way that minimizes disruption and increases resilience. Register here: https://www.hrdqu.com/webinars/how-to-thrive-through-change-2020-01-02/.

This webinar is sponsored is based on research from Mastering the Change Curve, which is an easy and effective change management assessment guide for bringing issues to the surface, providing a framework for healthy growth, and empowering individuals to shift their focus from the past to the future. Learn more here: https://www.hrdqstore.com/mastering-the-change-curve.

The only thing constant in life is change. This common phrase is really true. In the workplace especially, things can change constantly. New procedures are developed, projects tend to vary, employees come and go, acquisitions happen. But the difference between an organization that fails at change and one that succeeds is its leaders and how they led the change.

To thrive in an environment filled with constant change, it’s important to lead employees through it. But the responsibility for leading change is no longer just for the C-suite. For a change effort to have the greatest chance of success, it needs to be championed by a lot of people at many levels throughout an organization. Change efforts gather momentum from thousands of single actions by many people working together toward a shared vision.

Dimensions of Leading Change

Leaders need to handle and delegate the change effectively in order for it to be successful and adapted by the entire organization. There are five dimensions of leading change that should be followed:

• Modeling the Change. To lead change, you must be able to show others what it means to change. You need to adapt the change first, and encourage others to follow.
• Communicating about the Change. Communication and transparency are key. If the change is not communicated effectively with the team, they will be less likely to want to adapt to the change.
• Involving Others in the Change. Because participation builds commitment, change leaders may need to involve others in the process. This requires a mindset that change is something everyone helps create, rather than change being something they have no control over and have to just deal with.
• Helping Others Break From the Past. Leaders need to help others understand why the change is a good thing and encourage them to look to the future with an open mind. The goal is to generate innovative ideas for achieving the change.
• Creating a Supportive Learning Environment. Leaders should create a supportive environment as the change happens. As the team practices new behaviors, mistakes may occur. There will be a period of trial, error, adjustment, and retrial. It’s important to be understanding during this time.

Learning More

To learn how to lead change at work, watch HRDQ’s webinar “Change Training: Leading Organizational Change Efforts”.  You will learn why change initiatives fail and how to ensure their success, how to implement a framework to actively lead change efforts, ways to plan for the success of future change through close evaluation of the current initiative, and how to apply techniques for increasing and gaining commitment to the change. Click here to watch.