We began this series in Part 1 of “The Adventures of Reboarding” by exploring the hybrid landscape and the importance of leaders becoming empathy strategists to bring together a fractured workforce. In Part 2, we discussed the leader behaviors that are most likely to inspire trust, empower teams through reboarding and hybrid management, and help leaders navigate the ongoing health concerns related to the global pandemic. In this concluding installment, we focus on the role of technology and big data in supporting leadership decisions and organizational success in the modern age.
If you think of your favorite dystopian science fiction film or Middle Earth fantasy novel, there is often a consistent theme: the vigilant eye of powerful forces is always watching. Given the range of important legal, ethical and privacy concerns related to how HR data is used, it is no wonder we are leery of how and why our digital footprints are collected and used at work. Further, HR has lagged behind in leveraging people data to develop business-relevant solutions. In the new hybrid world of work, executives must rely on data more than ever to understand how their people are feeling, managing their work lives, and engaging in the business. People’s individual needs and stressors have also become dizzyingly divergent during the pandemic. This has left executives with a challenging conundrum: How do you address the needs of individuals while also guiding the collective workforce to achieve in a rapidly evolving marketplace? Understanding this question—and finding workable solutions—are the start of successfully reboarding people and integrating them into a hybrid enterprise.
Reboarding and then Resigning: So Many Ways to Get This Moment Wrong
Failing to make hybrid work and maintaining flexibility through reboarding could prove disastrous for culture, morale and collaboration – all of which can negatively impact retention on top of recent spikes in resignation trends. Consider this: according to a recent poll, 66% of HR professionals see even greater demands for talent as the economy recovers post-pandemic. This is contributing to a solid trend of power shifting in favor of talent, and organizations are playing catch-up to fill their teams and retain key performers. Given this, executives would be wise to avoid issuing reboarding ultimatums they cannot back up, given their desperate needs to retain top talent. Now more than ever before in the industrialized era, the true power in organizations lies squarely in the hands of the collective workforce.
