A process to help facilitate discussion and align business responsibilities with future workforce planning.
“Over the past 25 years, 1 in 10 men who lost their job due to big technological shifts never worked again. Today 4 out of 10 unskilled men don’t participate in the workforce.” Economist Andrew Charlton
This statistic is an unintended consequence of many Australian businesses following the American Capitalism model that evolved after the 1970’s recession in the USA. That is the only important consideration is the short-term gains of the shareholders.
As Australia sits on the precipice of the next technological revolution this model is being challenged. Some, executives, investors and board members believe for their business to be successful, they have a responsibility to other stakeholders including their employees and society; not just shareholders. Meeting their responsibilities may, in fact, result in more rewards for the shareholder.
Clarifying business responsibility is strategic conversation boards and executives need to discuss and agree on before they decide how to plan for their future workforce. The responsibility mapping process is a useful tool to help facilitate discussion.
The outcome of the actions to be taken on workforce planning depends on the answers to the following four questions:
One Does business believe it is their (the organisations) responsibility to help employees transition into new jobs?
Two Are there any external influences that will affect their approach to responsibility?
Three Where do they want to sit on the responsibility map?
Four What resources, if any, are they going to allocate for workforce planning?
Exploring these questions can help gain clarity, reduce delays, false starts and false promises.
What is the responsibility mapping process?
Overview
- Explanation of the model by giving examples of companies taking different approaches.
- Clarifying where their business sits on the Responsibility Map.
- Exploring influencing forces which may affect decisions over time.
- Committing to strategy, actions and gaining knowledge.
Explanation
High responsibility Low displacement.
These organisations are often in maturing high growth profitable industries. They:
- are less likely to have a workforce without the required skills.
- invest in developing employees and attract talent.
- invest in resources to help others and as a consequence build their brand.
Examples
Microsoft Australia
- Launched a National Skills Program in Australia in 2018 to develop digital skills. They focus on people already in the workforce and disadvantaged groups most in danger of falling behind.
Google Europe
- Provides digital literacy training and online courses for specific groups across the world. Including digital literacy courses for women in India; in Europe, alone Google has trained over 3 million people.
eBay America
- Partners with American cities – Akron and Warren, to help train people and provide resources for managing small businesses. This 12-month program, Retail Revival, helps the populations of these cities already severely influenced by the downturn in manufacturing.
High responsibility High displacement.
These organisations are often mature businesses who may or may not have evolved into high growth profitable industries.
- Technology is likely to replace many skills of current workers.
- They actively invest in transitioning worker’s skills.
Examples
ABB Group Headquarters in Europe
- ABB— an engineering company—had to re-invent itself as a result of technology and the changes which accompanied it. ABB continues to be an industry leader under the leadership of Ulrich Spiesshofer.
- This executive realised many employees did not have the required skills and ABB took their responsibility in redeploying and retraining their staff very seriously.
- They believed people could be reskilled and employees were retrained in advance of requiring those skills. By looking ahead ABB trained machinists to be app developers.
- The company paid for training; in exchange, workers committed to learning new skills in and outside work hours. The average investment is 6 months retraining.
AT&T America
- It is the second largest provider of mobile telephone services and the largest provider of fixed telephone services in the United States.
- In 2013 with 240,000 employees, AT&T committed to retraining 100,000 workers by 2020. In 2018 it has 280,000 employees and has invested a Billion dollars.
Low responsibility High displacement
Companies economic model is based on robots and AI replacing humans.
Example
Amazon warehouses
- The strategic intention is to have people free warehouses.
- Many low skilled workers are being displaced with technology as and when it is economically viable.
Low responsibility Low displacement.
- Companies business model is to engage people who work for themselves.
- They do not have (or take) direct responsibility for employees.
Examples
- Platform companies like Uber.
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Clarifying
The group participates in a facilitated discussion, clarifying where they want to position themselves on the responsibility map.
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Exploring Influencing forces.
Before locking in any decisions, successful managers identify outside influences which currently, or in the near future, may influence their position on the responsibility map.
Influencers can include investors, societal expectations and global and national legislative changes.
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Strategy actions and gaining knowledge.
The approach to transitioning workers will be based on the position the organization places itself on the responsibility map.
The key is whatever the decision is made there is transparency alignment and appropriate resources deployed to act on the decisions.
Investors
Some Investors already demand companies be socially and financially responsible.
Larry Fink is the Chairman and CEO of BlackRock. It is the world’s largest asset manager with $5.7 trillion in assets under management.
In January 2018 Fisk wrote a letter to the companies his company invests in and asked them to demonstrate how they would drive their own investment returns and the prosperity and security of their fellow citizens at their reviews.
New legislation
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled the U.S. ride-hailing app Uber is a transportation firm and not a digital company. The verdict is expected to have major implications for how Uber is regulated throughout Europe. This may include European workplace laws and change their position on the responsibility map; this may also have global implications.
Society
Movements like Occupy Wall Street, Get Up and other such global social media campaigns cannot be underestimated.
At the 2018 World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos, global leaders discussed the importance of successfully transitioning the global workforce and what actions needed to be taken to ensure its successful transition. Global think tanks have been created.
After a facilitated discussion, executives lock-in where they are and want to be on the responsibility map and commit to required action.
Strategy actions and gaining knowledge.
The technological revolution is, in many ways, unchartered waters. There are no perfect answers. However, those “smart” companies who are daring to chart them are investing in gaining the knowledge, understanding the trends and learning and collaborating with others.
Significant actions are more likely to be taken by those companies who believe they have a greater degree of responsibility.
The responsibility mapping process helps facilitate a strategic conversation about workforce planning. It provides knowledge on what other companies are doing and where collaboration can save time.
Most importantly it ensures the company is aligned, appropriate resources are allocated and reduce the incidence of false starts which can impact on the workforce, company image and the bottom line.
Footnote.
Effectively transitioning the workforce has to be a priority when we are considering the future of work.
To really engage in what that means, business leaders have to decide what responsibility they will take in transitioning the workforce.
Responsibility is such a powerful and important word. It can’t be underestimated.
Please use the concept if you find it useful. If you want any further information, please contact me through my website.
