The construction industry is facing a seismic shift in the workforce, and it’s high time we adapt. Gone are the days of the static, hierarchical structures that used to define our sector. Today, we’re navigating a rapidly evolving landscape, where technological advancements, the rise of remote work, and changing employee expectations are rewriting the rules of the game.
As a general contractor, I’ve seen firsthand how these trends are transforming the way we attract, retain, and engage our talent. It’s no longer enough to simply fill positions – we need to cultivate a future-ready workforce that can thrive amidst the constant flux. And that, my friends, is where strategic talent management comes into play.
Embracing the New Normal: Flexibility and Adaptability
Let’s start with the big picture. The work landscape is undergoing a profound transformation, and we can’t afford to stick our heads in the sand. Technological advancements are reshaping the way we operate, remote work is becoming the norm, and employees are demanding more flexibility and purpose-driven work.
To navigate this evolving terrain, we need to develop talent management strategies that are as agile and adaptable as the world around us. Prioritizing flexibility, fostering an adaptive culture, and investing in tools and training that empower our people to thrive in a rapidly changing environment – these are the keys to success.
Think about it this way: imagine you’re building a new project, and the blueprints keep shifting on you. You can’t just stubbornly stick to the original plan and expect everything to work out. No, you need to be nimble, responsive, and willing to adjust on the fly. The same principle applies to our talent management approach.
Cultivating a Culture of Continuous Learning
At the heart of organizational growth lies talent development. We need to empower our employees to navigate the complexities of an ever-evolving business environment, and that means cultivating a culture of continuous learning and adaptability.
Nestlé, for example, has made a concerted effort to shift from a “know-it-all” to a “learn-it-all” mindset. They’ve incorporated open learning days, informal social learning opportunities, and new platforms to keep their workforce agile and innovative. And you know what? It’s working wonders for their business.
As for us construction folks, we can take a page out of Nestlé’s playbook. Initiatives like mentorship programs, professional development courses, and leadership training can be game-changers in fostering a culture where our people are constantly learning, growing, and adapting to the changing tides.
Just think about the last time you had a seasoned veteran take a green-as-grass rookie under their wing. The magic that can happen when experienced pros share their hard-won wisdom is simply unparalleled. And when we pair that with targeted training and development opportunities, we’re laying the groundwork for a workforce that’s ready to take on whatever the future throws our way.
Preparing for the Future: Succession Planning
Effective succession planning is another critical piece of the talent management puzzle, especially in today’s dynamic business environment. This strategy ensures business continuity in the face of leadership transitions and prepares the organization to meet future challenges with confidence.
VonKohn Search Group hits the nail on the head when they say, “Succession planning involves identifying and developing high-potential employees for key roles, ensuring that your organization’s future leaders are ready and able.”
By focusing on succession planning as part of our retention strategy, we not only secure our organization’s future leadership but also signal to our employees that there are clear paths for growth and advancement. This not only helps us hang onto our best and brightest, but it also builds a resilient and forward-thinking organization that’s poised to tackle whatever challenges come our way.
Aligning Talent with Business Goals
Now, let’s talk about the nitty-gritty of strategic talent management. Organizations that can reallocate talent in step with their strategic plans are more than twice as likely to outperform their peers. That means we need to get laser-focused on getting the right people into the most important, value-driving roles.
Gone are the days when critical roles and talent were interchangeable and based solely on hierarchy. Today, it’s all about identifying where the organization truly creates value and ensuring that our top talent is contributing to those high-impact areas.
Take a look at companies like Tesla and Apple – their cultural priorities, like fast-moving innovation and obsessive focus on user experience, are at the core of their value agendas. And the roles needed to turn those priorities into tangible value? They’re often filled with talented, creative people working in R&D and other cutting-edge domains.
As HR professionals, we need to step up and manage our talent with a ruthless rigor. That means building robust analytics capabilities to mine data, hire the best employees, and develop and retain them. It’s all about leveraging data-driven insights to support talent-driven transformation and ensure high returns on our human capital investments.
Crafting the Ultimate Employee Experience
Let’s face it, a better employee experience means a better bottom line. Successful organizations understand that they need to work hand-in-hand with their people to create personalized, authentic, and motivating experiences that tap into their purpose and strengthen individual, team, and company performance.
And where does HR come into play in all of this? We’re the driving force behind crafting that employee experience. In fact, McKinsey’s research has shown that organizations in which HR facilitates a positive employee experience are a whopping 13 times more likely to report organizational outperformance.
Just look at Airbnb – they’ve even rebranded the CHRO role as the “global head of employee experience.” Over at PayPal, they’ve focused on strengthening HR’s capability and processes to create a better experience for their employees, including coaching HR professionals on measuring and understanding that experience and using technology more effectively.
When we, as HR leaders, evolve and become the architects of the employee experience, the sky’s the limit. We can help our organizations build engaged, motivated, and high-performing teams that are ready to tackle any challenge that comes their way.
Driving Cultural Transformation
Culture is the foundation upon which exceptional financial performance is built. Companies with top-quartile cultures, as measured by McKinsey’s Organizational Health Index, post a return to shareholders that’s 60% higher than median companies and 200% higher than those in the bottom quartive.
But culture change isn’t something that happens overnight. It needs to be business-led, with clear and highly visible leadership from the top, and execution needs to be rigorous and consistent. After all, companies are more than five times more likely to have a successful transformation when their leaders have role-modeled the behavior changes they’re asking their employees to make.
As HR professionals, we need to play a crucial role in strengthening our organization’s identity. That means asking tough questions, like:
- What is our core purpose, and how can we have a unique, positive impact on society?
- Are we living up to our values and embedding them into our daily behaviors and decision-making?
- Are we attracting, developing, and retaining the right people who embody our cultural DNA?
By taking a deep dive into these critical areas, we can help our organizations build a culture that’s not just strong, but one that’s actively driving growth, innovation, and long-term success.
Embracing Organizational Agility
Organizational agility improves both company performance and employee satisfaction. And as HR leaders, we have a pivotal role to play in shifting our organizations from traditional hierarchies to more agile, responsive “marketplaces” that provide talent and resources to a collection of empowered, mission-driven teams.
Take the example of a large European bank that underwent a multi-year agile transformation. They worked to establish an in-house agile academy, led jointly by coaches and the HR function, to drive capability-building for the transformation. By developing core elements of the people-management process, including new career paths for agile teams, revamped performance management, and capability-building, they were able to create an iterative, adaptive approach that touched every facet of the organization.
But we can’t just talk the talk – we need to walk the walk, too. That means leading by example and shifting our own HR function to agile “flow to work” pools, where individuals are staffed to prioritized tasks rather than siloed into rigid roles.
Reskilling for the Future
The accelerating pace of technological change is widening skill gaps, making them more common and quicker to develop. To survive and deliver on their strategic objectives, all organizations will need to reskill and upskill significant portions of their workforce over the next ten years.
According to a recent McKinsey survey, more than a third of global executives said their organizations were unprepared to address the skill gaps exacerbated by automation and digitization. The shift to digitization has only accelerated during the pandemic, with an 85% increase in the pace of companies’ digitization efforts, including a 48% rise in the digitization of customer channels.
As HR leaders, we need to be strategic partners for the business in this regard, ensuring that the right talent is in place to deliver on core company objectives. That means driving workforce planning, reviewing how disruptive trends affect our employees, identifying future core capabilities, and assessing how supply and demand apply to future skills gaps.
But it’s not just about traditional full-time-equivalent positions anymore. We need to get creative with innovative sourcing, tapping into the gig economy, automation, and a mix of temporary workers and contractors. After all, about 70% of global executives expect to use more of these alternative staffing models in the next two years.
Powering Up Decision-Making
Companies that make decisions at the right organizational level and have fewer reporting layers are more likely to deliver consistently on quality, velocity, and performance outcomes, and thus outperform their industry peers. And the pandemic has only amplified the importance of fast decision-making, as many organizations have had to move dramatically faster than they ever anticipated.
As HR leaders, we can help with strong decision-making by empowering our employees to take risks in a culture that rewards them for doing so. After all, McKinsey’s research has revealed that employees who are empowered to make decisions and receive sufficient coaching from leaders are three times more likely to say their companies’ delegated decisions are both high-quality and speedy.
But it’s not just about empowering our people – it’s also about revamping our performance management systems. We need to focus on practices like managers’ coaching, linking employee goals to business priorities, and differentiated compensation to increase the chances that our performance management systems will positively affect employee performance.
Embracing the HR Transformation
Talent is consistently ranked as a top three priority for CEOs, yet many lack confidence in HR’s ability to deliver. The HR function is often overburdened with transactional work and not well-equipped to create value for the enterprise. But the organizations of the future are looking at business problems from the perspective of how talent creates value, and HR is well-positioned to bring data-driven insights to talent decisions.
That means arming ourselves with data-driven insights and people analytics to support talent-driven transformation. Our HR business partners can then consistently make talent decisions based on data, ensuring that we’re making the most of our human capital investments.
But the transformation doesn’t stop there. We also need to collaborate on and leverage the landscape of HR tech solutions across the employee life cycle – from learning and talent acquisition to performance management and workforce productivity. By building an effective HR ecosystem, we can drive lasting success and position our organizations for the future.
The Path Forward
As the organization of the future takes shape, HR will be the driving force behind many of the key initiatives. From mapping talent to value and making the workforce more flexible to prioritizing strategic workforce planning, performance management, and reskilling, we’ll be at the forefront of it all.
And for other initiatives, like establishing and radiating purpose, improving employee experience, driving leadership and culture, and simplifying the organization, we can help C-suite leaders push forward, bringing our unique perspective and expertise to the table.
The magnitude of the task ahead is undoubtedly daunting, but the potential rewards are astronomical. By prioritizing agility, identity, and scalability, we can transform our organizations and propel them into the future, empowering our people to thrive in the ever-evolving landscape of the construction industry.
So, my fellow HR champions, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work. The fate of our organizations – and the future of our industry – rests squarely on our shoulders. Are you ready to join me on this journey to build a workforce that’s not just ready for tomorrow, but one that’s actively shaping it? Let’s create something truly remarkable, together.
Reading General Contractor is here to support you every step of the way. Contact us today, and let’s start building a future-ready workforce that will take your business to new heights.
