Redistributing Your Workforce - Who Goes Where & What Else Changes

Recent headlines echo with highlights of the Covid-19 tsunami that has swept through the workforce. 
“United Airlines to Furlough 16,000 Employees”
“Accenture Layoffs - 25,000 Job Cuts Possible”
"US Employers Shed Nearly 30 million positions”
If you have survived, whatever business you are in has irrevocably changed. Your ability to adapt to those changes quickly and effectively will determine the future of your enterprise.
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There are three major changes:

1. Remote working - Covid 19 has compelled millions of workers to work remotely. After months of this enforced reshuffling of the workplace, a recent study reported that almost half of the remote workers were “struggling” with their jobs, jobs that they handled successfully before shifting to remote work. The tough reality is that one-third of the population cannot successfully work remotely. Another third will “struggle”. The remaining third feels that it is the best thing that could have happened in terms of getting their work done. This is not a result of apprehension about the pandemic, although that affects stress. It is not entirely because of children at home instead of at school, although that does not help. It is because of hard-wired personality traits that directly impact job behaviors. It is like taking marathon runners and entering them in a weight lifting competition. No amount of dedication, motivation, or incentives can compensate for a lack of muscle mass. One-third of the population is well organized; has strong time management; plans their day, and prioritizes what they need to do. One-third of the population is not organized; has loose time management; tends to react to what is happening rather than plan, and adjusts priorities as things come up. The first group can work effectively almost anywhere. The second group cannot. They rely on external factors within the office environment to provide some level of organization and time management. Without that, even their well-meant efforts lose focus. Distractions take them off course with priorities changing constantly, and time seems to slip away with little accomplished. There is a middle group that finds remote work difficult, but if they understand the cause of the problem, they can make some positive adjustments.

• One-third of the population consistently structures their work, with almost a habit of doing things. In a remote situation, they simply restructure these habits to fit the new situation. At the other end of the bell curve, one third treats every situation differently. For them, the office supplied the necessary structure that made this approach viable. Working remotely means a “new day” every day. Without the support of the office environment, some days are productive but most others are not. Good employees wired like this have trouble finding a process that works consistently for them.
  • There is a third factor that is not as critical as the first two, but it does affect job performance in a remote situation. One-third of the people in the world get energy from interacting with other people. The conversations and social interchanges are necessary elements of their lives. Forced to work remotely with minimal interaction other than telephones and video conferencing, they find a much lower level of interest and engagement with their job. One-third of the people in the world prefer to work alone. It costs them energy to interact with others. For them, remote working is a dream come true. 
  • Remote working in some form and at some level is here to stay. Whether or not that enables a workforce to survive or to prosper by the pandemic will depend upon how effectively and how accurately it can position its human resources across the new landscape of business. With DATA, this can easily be done. Without it, remote working can be a gamble.
  • Redefining jobs - The pandemic has forced businesses to move employees from offices to remote working from homes. It has forced business furlough thousands of employees, and it is uncertain when those employees will be able to return in the near future. People in one job have been forced to work new jobs or new versions of their old jobs. The crisis has forced employers to critically evaluate their workforce. Can they operate with fewer employees? Are there jobs that are now unnecessary? Can this job be combined with that one? Will every employee be returning to the old office? Will some be in an office and will others remain remote? These decisions will be forced on some companies. Other companies will embrace this opportunity to redefine roles and to redesign a better operating structure. DATA is vital to do this well, just as an MRI is vital to a surgeon when planning an operation. DATA can translate an employee's strengths in one job to what is needed in another job. DATA helps to lay out the most effective operating and communication plan for the future.

Even with all of the Covid-19 driven turmoil, there are four major opportunities available for dynamic companies: 

• Rethinking the workforce - Covid-19 has disrupted normal business operations and market conditions in virtually every type of industry. Many have not survived this. Some have prospered. For most, this was a matter of luck. Those that have weathered the storm now have a chance to rethink their business…to rethink what kind of workforce do they want going forward. Crises force critical thinking on what is vital and what is not. Triage thinking helps a company recognize the employees whose contributions to the enterprise are essential and those that are marginal. Some positions have become irrelevant with changes in the market. New ones have appeared. The landscape for most industries has changed. This is a fantastic opportunity to redesign and to fine-tune strategies and responsibilities to maximize the capabilities of the enterprise. Positions can be modified and talent redirected. New talent can be acquired. DATA is what makes this possible by giving the company an inventory of the strengths and abilities within their workforce that can be directly translated into the job behaviors need for the new plan.
  • Refocusing jobs - It is the nature of job descriptions and job responsibilities to grow, often well beyond the original scope of the job. In the interest of limiting headcount, multitasking becomes the standard plan of action. Unfortunately, true multitasking is a rare ability, demanding specific traits and abilities, and even then, it has limitations. As the business world moves on beyond the pandemic, it is clear that remote working at some level is here to stay. Offices can be downsized with more work becoming virtual. This will require many jobs to become more specialized and focused. The loss of the office’s environmental communication with which everyone is somewhat aware of what is happening will be replaced by more individualized communication. Remote management is easier when the positions being managed are clearly defined. Office roles will be somewhat broader. Accomplishing these changes in an optimal way requires the specific metrics of job behavior available with DATA.

 

• Recasting the team - As the many changes wrought by Covid-19 ripple through businesses, many questions arise. Who can work remotely? Who can manage remote workers? Who can sell virtual sales presentations? Who needs to be in the office? Answering these questions with DATA presents some interesting opportunities for matching the particular strengths of individuals with those that are needed for the new order of things post-Covid.

For example, a company had traditionally relied on face-to-face presentations by their sales team. With that option not available during the pandemic, they undertook to recast the sales team. The majority of the team was cast with the strengths and abilities needed for virtual presentations. At the same time, a stronger marketing team was created to supply leads to the virtual sales effort. There is an expectation that at some point the sales team will return to some level of face-to-face sales, but with the early success of the virtual efforts, it will be much smaller by design. Similar opportunities exist in countless other companies. DATA can help to discover these and craft new advantages from the challenges of the pandemic.

• Capturing talent - Millions of people have been furloughed or down-sized because of the pandemic. Another way of looking at this is that millions of talented people need new jobs. An incredible array of talent is now available, and that talent can be used to expand or upgrade your workforce. The challenge in doing that is recognizing the right talent for your company. For example, airlines have furloughed thousands of flight attendants. Your company does not need flight attendants. It may need warm and friendly people who consistently follow procedures, pay attention to details, react to unexpected events, handle stress, and manage difficult people. The job titles of most jobs do not clearly translate into jobs in other companies. The strengths and abilities do that with DATA. From a furloughed employee's point of view, DATA enables them to recognize other jobs that match their strengths and demonstrate that match to new employers. 

If there was ever a perfect storm to highlight the critical value of BestWork DATA to businesses, the Covid-19 pandemic is it. Without a doubt, it has brought destruction to many industries, and irrevocably changed others. Going forward businesses must look for practical and real ways to survive, maintain, or even prosper. BestWork DATA is a singular advantage in doing all of those things.