Dive Brief:
- The CEO is the most influential person when it comes to driving a workplace transformation plan, displacing the CHRO’s role in such planning, according to nearly half of respondents to Infosys Knowledge Institute survey findings released in March. Three percent of CHROs were influencing decisions behind the transformation, and only 19% contributed to roadmapping.
- CTOs or CIOs are not far behind the CEO; 31% of senior leaders surveyed said their tech leaders are the most influential regarding transformation. To that end, technology is considered a large part of workplace transformation. The impact of digital tools ranks higher than the impact of physical changes, such as office shifts, and cultural changes, including upskilling.
- Movement has been slow on such strategies, however. While 71% of U.S. executives have a workplace transformation strategy, 42% don’t think it will be executed upon for another two years.
Dive Insight:
While technology may be the most obvious herald of a workplace transformation, culture and upskilling still concern experts and execs in the space. In late 2019, Glassdoor said 2020 would mark the start of a "culture-first decade" in recruiting, particularly regarding diversity and inclusion. However, a study released in early March 2020 by Accenture found that culture is not a top strategic priority for company leaders; instead, financial performance and brand recognition took the top spots.
"Given that this is primarily a people initiative," the Infosys study said, "we hope to see more CHRO involvement in the near future."
The Glassdoor study did say technology — particularly the adoption of mobile devices — would be a major concern for companies in the new decade. Employee experience with technology may be a pain point; in an index created and released by Nexthink, large companies scored lowest on four of the five categories measured. Categories included collaboration platforms, productivity tools, workplace devices and business services and applications. Employers have good reason to focus on employee experience with tech, according to various studies. Those that focus on the human experience tend to have better employee performance across the board, Deloitte said in a study released in August 2019.
While left behind in the Infosys study, upskilling may be a prime concern for the longevity of a workplace transformation, a January Randstad study noted, especially because the talent shortage remains a top worry for CEOs. While a majority of HR respondents (91%) said they believe it's their organization's responsibility to reskill workers, only 22% are training or reskilling their workforce to address shortages or digital transformation.