Were you inspired by last week’s blog introducing Daniel Mills’s concept of the Four Pillars of Empowering People?
These pillars, namely employee relations, change and transition management, people and career development, and policy, legal and compliance, are essential components that contribute to the overall empowerment of individuals and teams. They are foundational to learning and development and play a vital role in creating an environment that fosters growth and success within organisations.
In last week’s blog, we delved into employee relations, the first pillar, which is crucial for establishing psychological safety within the workplace.
This week, we’ll explore the second pillar, change and transition management, which has become increasingly complex in the post-COVID era.
Priorities for HR leaders
Research collected by Gartner highlighted the Top five Priorities for HR Leaders in 2024. The top five included leader and manager development, change management, career management, and internal mobility.
Before COVID, these priorities were already important agenda points at the board table, but post-COVID, the paradigm of how these areas are managed and achieved has vastly changed.
The office landscape has downsised considerably. Our workforce has adopted (and now expects) a hybrid working environment, and the pressure to recruit and retain talent remains a challenge at both local and national levels.
Organisations continue to transform and evolve, displacing or removing swathes of people as necessary to continue trading. This situation has resulted in a lack of job security and a slight rise in the UK unemployment rate in recent months.
What approach can L&D adopt here to make a difference?
Firstly, it’s essential to understand skills. What skills (technical, behavioural, or knowledge-based) do your teams have now? This information and data can be very useful when identifying opportunities for career management and internal mobility.
Next, what skills do your people need to remain current in their roles? LinkedIn recently published stats indicating that 39%—44% of employees’ skills would need to change before 2025 just to stay current!
What skills do you anticipate your organisation will need in future, and what is the evidence of this need? For example, what data points (internal and external sources) do you have to confirm and validate your assumptions?
Formulating a strategy with skills development in mind forms a solid foundation for performance management and talent-based conversations.
Pillar 3 – Development
Our next blog will explore Pillar 3—Development. Knowing where to start making decisions about learning opportunities can be difficult, as so many options are available. Daniel shares the questions he recommends organisations ask to drive success.
In the meantime, for further insight and to learn more about how the Empowering People Group can simplify employee experiences and empower people to drive success, explore how we can help here.
