How SA’s biggest companies plan to tackle the problem of robots coming for your job
Deloitte has released its Human Capital Trends report for 2017 – detailing how South African businesses think and feel about human workers.
The survey looks at how companies plan to address the incoming threat of artificial intelligence, automation, and how they generally plan to improve the workplace.
It interviewed over 10,400 executives from 140 countries in the global survey this year, including 295 South African business and HR leaders.
“Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), mobile platforms, sensors, and social collaboration systems have revolutionised the way we live, work, and communicate; and the pace is only accelerating,” Deloitte said.
“This creates increased workplace stress for individuals as well as society as a whole. Research shows that employees and organisations are more overwhelmed than ever before.”
However, the report noted that the current unease felt by people with regard to the pace of technological change is not new.
“The 1980s for instance, saw a rapid rise in computing power that resulted in higher levels of automation, online systems, and the IT industry’s rapid growth,” it said.
“The world however adapted well as people gained additional skills and new jobs and became familiar with different workplace technologies.”
What SA companies are doing
The five most important trends according to South African businesses are:
1. Building the ‘organisation of the future’
2. Focusing on the entire employee experience
3. Acquiring the right talents
4. Reshaping career models and training
5. Ensuring diversity and inclusion
Broadly speaking these are in line with international trends, except the order is slightly reversed with “Careers and Learning” featuring second on the global report.
1. Organisation of the future
According to the report, companies are now focused on redesigning the business organisation itself.
The global results show that nearly half of our respondents are actively studying and developing new organisational models. Globally many organisations are not only imagining new organisations, they are actively building them.
This picture is very different in South Africa, with only 6% of respondents rating their organisations as flexible or agile.
Only 11% responded that they are actively building the organisation of the future, compared to 19% globally.
The way high-performing organisations operate today is radically different from how they operated ten years ago, noted the report.
“Despite the need for change, many organisations continue to operate according to industrial-age models, weighed down by legacy structures, practices, systems, and behaviours that must be confronted and discarded before true change can take hold”.
In South Africa, this traditional method of organising may be more entrenched in different sectors of the economy and across different industries. The ability of an organisation to shift to building organisational ecosystems and networks may be influenced by the nature of the industry sector.
Due to these dynamics, different models will certainly be required in different sectors to achieve the same result of unlocking organisational flexibility for the future world of work.
2. Employee Experience
Rather than focus narrowly on employee engagement and culture, organisations are developing an integrated focus on the entire employee experience.
This means bringing together all the workplace, HR, and management practices that impact people on the job.
A new marketplace of pulse feedback tools, wellness and fitness apps; and integrated employee self-service tools is helping HR departments understand and improve this experience.
“Engagement encompasses meaningful work and jobs, management practices and behaviours, the work environment, opportunities for development and growth, trust in leadership and flexible mobile working,” said the report.
“Poor engagement results in high turnover, low performance, and low levels of innovation and customer service.”
Like changing their organisation structure, very few South African companies are actually prepared to improve their employee experience, noted the report.
30% of South African respondents stated that they do not have an integrated employee strategy in place. 51% of South African respondents stated that they have components of a strategy in place and only 11% are concerned about updating its engagement strategy.
3. Talent Acquisition
Technologies and innovations – including cognitive and artificial intelligence, social collaboration, crowds, and the sharing economy – are reshaping the workforce.
Attracting skilled resources is no longer simply the responsibility of the HR professional. It now stands as a top concern of business leaders, ranking third globally in our survey this year, said the report.
“Once the sole domain of HR, talent acquisition now involves multiple teams across the organisation. Adding to the complexity, the accelerating pace of technology offers a dizzying array of new solutions, even as the nature and sources of talent markets continue to shift.”
“Current platforms struggle to adapt because many are too old to integrate emerging technologies, capabilities, and needs”.
Talent has been a concern for South African executives since Deloitte’s first report in 2013, which showed at that time that 56% rated this trend as highly relevant.
4. Careers and Learning
According to Deloitte, the concept of a career is “being shaken to its core”.
Employees now face the prospect of 60-year careers. Simultaneously, the half-life of skills is falling rapidly.
These new realities are forcing companies to rethink the way they manage careers and deliver “always-on” learning and development (L&D) opportunities.
27% of South African respondents state that they are restructuring their career models, 30% of South African respondents stated that while they do not have clear paths in their organisations, while 16% use short term assignments as part of career development.
5. Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion has become a CEO-level issue around the world, according to the report.
“The era of diversity as a “check the box” initiative owned by HR is over. CEOs must take ownership and drive accountability among leaders at all levels to close the gap between what is said and actual impact.”
46% of South Africans rate the CEO as the primary sponsor of the diversity and inclusion programme within their organisation.
While 25% feel that compensation is tied to diversity, 37% see diversity as a compliance issue within their organisation and only 40% rate diversity and inclusion as a competitive advantage.
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