The rise of digitisation in the workplace is driving a need to make work more human-centric. It sounds counterintuitive, but that was the consensus coming out of a panel discussion facilitated by Remchannel Managing Director Lindiwe Sebesho at the 2024 Old Mutual Thought Leaders Forum.
The session began with a presentation by Samad Masood, Associate Vice President of the Infosys Knowledge Institute, who unpacked the findings of The Future of Work 2023 Report.
Masood said that over the first 20 years of the 21st century, most businesses were merely establishing their digital tools. ‘The pandemic forced us to virtualise the workplace, invest in laptops, Zoom, Teams, Office 365, all the things that enable us to do things virtually and to work remotely,’ he explained. ‘Now we’re in a post-remote and -hybrid working wave. We need to bring it back a bit and make these things more human.’
Focus on wellbeing
A focus on employee wellbeing lies at the heart of this. Thandeka Zondi, Deputy Chair of the Old Mutual SuperFund outlined this, saying: ‘What retirement fund members are looking for is, “Do you know what it is I’m going through? Can you meet my needs of today while helping me understand what tomorrow might look like?”’
Dr Roze Phillips, CEO of Abundance At Work, took it a step further, emphasising the importance of wellness programmes – especially for older employees. ‘We do not understand how important wellbeing is in a country and on a continent where our people are young,’ she said. ‘You cannot be a productive workforce, even if you have all the skills in the world, if you are not healthy.’
That notion of wellness extends into financial wellbeing, which is enabled by financial literacy. Sebesho noted the emerging trend of employees opting out of retirement funds and other long-term savings structures.
‘How do we do this in a manner that prioritises the right outcomes and makes this the responsibility of both parties?’ she said, referring to the employee and the employer. ‘You can’t say that employees must be responsible without empowering them. That’s why we’re talking about financial education, so that where there are options, people are enabled and empowered to make the right decisions for today and tomorrow.’
Remote working redefined
Remote working also came under the microscope, with Masood pointing out that, ‘Most people are already flexible in some way’. Almost 60% of Infosys’ survey respondents said they are already working flexibly or remotely. This follows an earlier Infosys survey of the banking industry which found that, the more senior the respondents were, the less likely they were to be in the office. ‘That’s not because they were at home,’ Masood explained, ‘because they were going to meet a client or a stakeholder. The fact is, being in the office is just not really what most people do.’
As he broke down the numbers, Masood said about 38% of survey respondents worked from home partly or were in the field (salespeople, field staff, customer support staff, etc.). ‘But then if you break it down even further, 15% are in a specialist facility, which might be a factory or warehouse, laboratory, hospital, care home… These are not offices. A further 25% are working in branches – and depending on your industry, most branches don't resemble a typical office either. So you could argue that only 21% of people are actually based in a proper office.’
Remote working for skills retention
According to Infosys’ findings, the primary reason for companies providing a remote working environment is not to cut costs, but to attract and retain good staff.
Celiwe Ross, Director for Group Strategy, Sustainability, People, and Public Affairs at Old Mutual Group, expressed her concern about developing the skills of young people who are coming into the #WFH space. ‘I have this pit in my stomach that we’ll look up in five or ten years’ time and say: “What can these people do?” There’s a lot that you can provide and enable, but there’s so much that happens in the workplace via osmosis, by a sense of watching who’s good at what, who does what, how does one person do something better than another.’
Phillips supported that, asking why organisations want to retain top skills in the first place. ‘It’s because we want productivity,’ she said. ‘But you are not going to get productivity from retention. There’s an element missing. To get productivity, you need engagement. It doesn’t help you that the tide lifts all boats if everybody is going to punch holes in the boat or row backwards. It’s about engagement. Engagement is a gift that your employees give you, and when you earn it, it gives you productivity.’