Talent Tectonics Navigating Global Workforce Shifts, Building Resilient Organizations and Reimagining the Employee Experience

How to attract, retain, develop, and engage people for a changing world of work

Shifting demographics combined with the digitalization of all aspects of life are transforming the nature of work. This is forcing companies to rethink how they design jobs and recruit, develop, and engage employees.

In Talent Tectonics: Navigating Global Workforce Shifts, Building Resilient Organizations, and Reimagining the Employee Experience, Dr. Steven Hunt explains how technology is changing the purpose of work and why creating effective employee experiences is critical to building organizations that can thrive in a world of accelerating change and growing skill shortages.

In the book, you’ll find insights from the perspective of a person who has worked with thousands of companies around the globe using technology to build effective workforces. The book explores how business strategy, organizational psychology, and work technology interact to create nimble companies. The book discusses the future, but its focus is on the present, identifying things companies can do now to attract critical talent and create resilient organizations including:

• How to manage different types of employee experiences to create engaged and adaptable workforces
• How technology can enable large organizations to act more like small, agile, entrepreneurial companies.
• Rethinking employee recruitment, development, and engagement to create supportive, inclusive, and resilient organizational cultures

Perfect for human resources professionals, employee experience managers, and business leaders responsible for building effective workforces, Talent Tectonics belongs in the libraries of every leader, employee, and professional invested in ensuring that their organization can attract, retain, and develop the talent needed to achieve its strategic goals.

STEVEN T. HUNT, PHD, is the Chief Expert of Work & Technology at SAP. His work focuses on the design and use of technology-enabled processes to improve workforce agility, productivity, experience, engagement, and well-being. He is an internationally renowned industrial-organizational psychologist.

Acknowledgments 7

Foreword 9

Introduction: How We Managed People in the Past Will Not Work in the Future 11

Content Overview 14

The Vocabulary Used in This Book 20

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live and Work In 22

Chapter 1: Talent Tectonics: Forces Reshaping Work and Workforces 23

The Impacts of Digitalization 26

The Impacts of Demographics 33

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 41

Chapter 2: Employee Experience and Workforce Adaptability 42

People: A Constant Resource in a Changing World 44

Employee Experience and Workforce Adaptability 47

Creating Effective Employee Experiences 49

Employee Experience Management and Business Performance 51

Understanding and Improving Employee Experiences 52

Addressing the Subjective Nature of Employee Experience 55

Employee Experience and Organizational Stakeholders 57

Applying the Concepts in This Chapter to Your Organization and Work Environment 60

Chapter 3: Work Technology and Organizational Agility 62

What It Means to Act like a Small, Agile Entrepreneurial Company 65

What Needs to Be Automated and Augmented to Create More Agile Organizations 68

How Work Technology Is Transforming Workforce Management 72

Workforce Orchestration Technology Solutions 75

Workforce Collaboration Technology Solutions 78

General Workforce Technology Applications 80

Linking Work Technology to Business Operations Technology 84

Adaptability, Technology, and Culture 86

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 88

Chapter 4: Designing Organizations to Provide Positive Employee Experiences 90

Why People Join Organizations 93

How Job Design Affects Employee Experience 95

How the Design of Groups, Teams, and Departments Affects Employee Experience 102

How Management and Leadership Structures Affect Employee Experience 105

Managing Restructurings and Downsizings with Experience in Mind 108

How Work Technology Is Influencing the Design of Organizations 111

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 113

Chapter 5: Filling Positions and the Experience of Moving into New Roles 114

How Job Design Affects Staffing 117

Selecting Candidates and Getting the Right Fit 125

Transitioning, Welcoming, and Departing 126

Dynamic and Temporary Staffing 129

How Work Technology Is Changing the Ways Organizations Fill Positions 131

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 133

Chapter 6: Developing Capabilities and the Employee Experience of Learning 135

Context: Designing Jobs That Motivate and Enable People to Develop 138

Capabilities: Helping Employees Define Development Goals 142

Content: Giving Employees Access to Resources to Build New Capabilities 148

Culture: Creating an Organizational Environment That Supports Development 150

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 152

Chapter 7: Creating Engagement and Employee Experiences That Inspire Successful Performance 153

The Performance Management Dilemma 156

Aligning Performance Expectations 159

Increasing Awareness of Performance 161

Managing Differences in Performance 166

Compensation and Performance 173

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 179

Chapter 8: Increasing Efficiency, Ensuring Compliance and Security, and Building Culture 181

What It Means for an Organization to Value Something 183

Increasing Efficiency: Valuing Employees’ Time 185

Managing Risks: Valuing Employees’ Security, Legal Rights, and Safety 188

Employee Experience and Organizational Safety Climate 192

Employee Experience and Corporate Ethics 193

Building Socially Responsible Cultures: Valuing the Wellbeing of Employees and Their Communities 193

Applying These Concepts to the World You Live In 200

Chapter 9: Using Employee Data to Guide Business Decisions 202

Understanding the Value of Employee Data 204

Having Useful Employee Data 206

Being Aware of Employee Data 208

Knowing How to Interpret Employee Data 211

Managing Employee Data Risks 214

Linking Employee Data to Business Results 216

Applying Concepts in This Chapter to the World You Live In 217

Chapter 10: Changing Employee Experience 220

Knowing What to Change 222

Expertise and Influence 225

Understanding Available Technology 228

Gaining Support and Cooperation 231

Applying Concepts in This Chapter to the World You Live In 235

Chapter 11: Employee Experience and the External Environment 237

Blending Education and Work 240

Maximizing Labor Force Potential 244

Technological Accessibility 247

Corporate Social Advocacy 248

Applying Concepts in This Chapter to the World You Live In 249

Chapter 12: Where Do We Go from Here? Shaping the Future of Employee Experience 251

Applying Concepts in This Chapter to the World You Live In 254

Appendix: The Peloton Model of Team Performance 259

References 263

About the Author 8

Index

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