Unlocking Employee Potential: A Framework for Success
Companies can support workers’ well-being by focusing on six principles, positioning themselves for a stronger future.
and resiliency of employees has long FOSTERING THE WELL-BEING been an important element of the best business models. Now, in part due to the devastating effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, it has become even more of a necessity. Encouragingly, business leaders are catching on. While they are redesigning their organizations based on learnings from the last year, responsible workforce strategies and caring more for worker well-being have emerged as central themes for both Canadian and global organizations.
This is a significant shift. Prior to the pandemic, 48 per cent of the Canadian C-suite executives we spoke to felt ‘highly responsible’ for supporting their workers’ holistic needs. Just six months later, in the midst of COVID-19, that number rose to 55 per cent. Similarly, at a global level, responsibility sentiment increased among C-suites from 35 per cent to 50 per cent over the same period. These findings suggest a movement in the right direction — and an opportunity for businesses to embrace a fundamental mission: To improve the way in which we care for our workforce.
This mission can also support business recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. It turns out that taking better care of workers results not only in improving their health and wellness, but also the financial health and success of the business. Our research shows that the more leaders attend to their workers’ needs, the more workers support the business’s needs — to an extent that can substantially and positively impact an organization’s bottom line.
To understand how organizations can capture this opportunity, we engaged 273 senior executives and 1,018 workers across Canada. This was part of a broader, global study of 3,200 senior executives and 15,600+ workers spanning 15 industries and 10 countries. Our research uncovered a powerful finding: By meeting six fundamental human needs, companies can unlock significant workforce potential. We call this framework Net Better Off, and it consists of six categories of needs:
Feeling positive emotions and maintaining
EMOTIONAL & MENTAL. mental wellness.
Feeling a strong sense of belonging and inclusion; RELATIONAL. having many strong personal relationships.
Being in good physical health with minimal or no stress. PHYSICAL.
Being financially secure, without undue economic FINANCIAL. stress or worry, and having equitable opportunity for future economic stability and advancement.
Feeling that one makes a positive difference to the PURPOSEFUL. world and that life has meaning and a greater sense of purpose beyond oneself.
Having marketable, in-demand capabilities and EMPLOYABLE. skills to obtain good jobs and equitable career advancement opportunities.
Specifically, 64 per cent of a person’s potential — defined as unlocking their ability to use their skills and strengths at work — is influenced by whether they feel supported across these six dimensions. Conversely, less than nine per cent can be explained by factors such as education, tenure, level, industry and company size.
That said, it’s more than a person’s potential that is unlocked by these six dimensions — it is also business potential. As employers boost these dimensions and create meaningful and trusting relationships with employees, they see an increase in business performance. Examining five specific practices, we found that even in a weak GDP environment, organizations can gain approximately five per cent change in revenue growth by unlocking human potential (compared to the estimated decline in growth of -4.75 per cent for the 100 largest Canadian companies in 2020).
Feeling accountable for your people doesn’t mean that decisions related to your workforce won’t be difficult. We know, for instance, that since the beginning of the pandemic, Statistics Canada reported four in 10 businesses experienced staff reductions. Yet tough decisions about the workforce aren’t mutually exclusive from pursuing the Net Better Off model. In fact, the six dimensions of this framework become even more important during such periods.
The greatest challenge lies in understanding how — and how much — to focus on each dimension. Here, our research indicates that executives face a considerable learning curve.
Based on our pre-pandemic research, the Emotional & Mental, Relational and Purposeful dimensions are the strongest drivers of positive employee behaviour that benefit an organization. However, at the time, most leaders were investing only in the Employable and Financial dimensions. This alone will not unlock people’s longer-term potential.
As organizations seek to establish trust and more responsible leadership, meeting workers’ emotional, relational — and now also physical — needs is paramount, whether you’re in crisis mode or not.
It may come as a surprise that workers and senior leaders differ in their views about who is responsible for ensuring that people become ‘net better off’. We collected data from both groups before and during the COVID-19 crisis. Before the pandemic began, two-thirds (66%) of Canadian workers in our study strongly believed that their employer should be responsible for helping them become net better off, compared with less than half (48%) of C-suite executives. Interestingly, Canadian executives were significantly ahead of their global peers, of whom only 35 per cent felt responsible.
During the crisis, Canadian executives’ sentiment about their responsibility strengthened, increasing to 55 per cent. This was mirrored by global leaders, of whom 50 per cent felt responsible for the holistic needs of their people. The data suggests that this crisis has helped to increase alignment between C-suite priorities and worker perspectives.
Sweet-spot Practices
Despite Canadian executives feeling a heightened sense of responsibility, our study showed that only 67 per cent of workers in non-manager positions felt that their potential was being fully realized at work. This signals that organizations still have room to improve the way in which they are engaging and inspiring their people.
Leveraging our Net Better Off model, we used statistical testing to sort through 20+ employer practices to determine
The more corporate leaders attend to their workers’ needs, the more workers support the business’s needs.
which supported improvements in both revenue and human potential. Our analysis revealed that some practices skew too much towards the benefit of people at the expense of business performance, while other practices increased business performance at the expense of people.
Five practices emerged that, taken together, form a ‘sweet spot’ for investing your resources — paying dividends for both individuals and the organization. Strikingly, prior to COVID-19, only 15 to 20 per cent of the executives surveyed felt that their organization was a leader in any one of these practices, despite their significant benefits.
PRACTICE 1: ENABLE CONTINUOUS LEARNING
Organizations that lead in this practice use data analysis to anticipate future skills needs. They deconstruct and reconstruct roles, determining which tasks are best suited for machines and which require uniquely human skills. They also use technology and innovative methods to make people’s learning experiences more effective and accessible.
PRACTICE 2: LISTEN TO WHAT PEOPLE NEED ON THE FRONT LINES Organizations that lead in this practice use technology to anticipate, predict and quickly respond to their people’s needs. They use two-way applications that flag trends while giving individuals a voice. This allows them to build trust by applying insights in a way that provides clear benefits to individuals, not just to the business.
PRACTICE 3: USE TECHNOLOGY TO ENABLE FLEXIBLE WORK
Many businesses apply intelligent technologies to automate tasks and improve productivity, but those who lead in this practice do more: They select and apply technologies that enable them to reimagine work and processes through greater human-machine collaboration. They also use technology to accelerate flexible work, freeing their people to engage in more fulfilling and innovative tasks.
PRACTICE 4: CHAMPION WORKFORCE WELL-BEING AND EQUALITY Organizations that lead in this practice continually support and refine their well-being initiatives to reflect people’s changing needs. For instance, during the pandemic, organizations have had to be nimble to redesign and create initiatives to safeguard the physical and psychological well-being of their workers. Similarly, many are mobilizing to become more inclusive places to work and nurturing a culture that elevates a sense of belonging and accelerates equality for all.
PRACTICE 5: SET AND SHARE PEOPLE METRICS
According to our research, the most equal and diverse cultures experience 11 times the innovation mindset of the least equal and diverse. Organizations that lead in this practice showcase their commitment by ensuring people metrics are in place. There should be accountability and transparency with regards to these metrics and, ideally, targets and results should be shared publicly to strengthen accountability.
Exhibit A: Championing Equality at Manulife
One company that has set the bar high in terms of embracing Practice 4 — championing workforce well-being and equality — is Manulife. How are they doing it? Leadership commitment is clear, but other key factors for success include using people analytics, continuous learning and technology to create an inclusive workplace culture.
Over the last three years, Manulife has embarked on a journey to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive future. This past year, for instance, the company announced its intent to increase Black, Indigenous and People of Colour (BIPOC) representation across its North American leadership roles by 30 per cent and to hiring at least 25 per cent BIPOC talent in its North American graduate programs. Publicly announcing these metrics reinforces leadership’s commitment to and accountability for such efforts.
Manulife also recently pledged $3.5 million over the next two years to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace and in communities it serves. One initiative to come out of this has been a comprehensive Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Learning Strategy, developed in partnership with Accenture. The purpose of the program is to empower 5,000+ leaders
across the globe with tools to lead more inclusively and foster a culture of belonging for their teams. Through a set of immersive experiences, leaders at all levels identify their DEI learning ambitions and personal commitments to adopt behaviours that will sustain DEI.
Personalized DEI learning paths are then supported through Accenture’s tech-enabled ‘All Against Racism’ and ‘Inclusive Leadership’ platforms. These platforms also leverage technology to provide leaders with 30-day challenges in which daily micro-challenges support the process of changing behaviours and mindsets.
Reviving Employee Trust
The Net Better Off model and sweet spot practices contribute to a strengthened social contract between employers and their workers — something that is arguably more important now than ever.
In times of crisis, trust between employers and their workforce is often challenged. During this pandemic, for instance, many workers have questioned their job security and their employer’s ability to protect their health in the workplace. In a global longitudinal study that we ran from March to July 2020, we found that workers felt that their employer protected their health less over time. Additionally, concern over personal job security re
The most equal and diverse cultures experience 11 times the innovation mindset of the least equal and diverse.
mained nearly constant (between 62 and 65 per cent). This kind of breakdown in the social contract results in a breakdown of commitment: Our research reveals that 41 per cent of Canadian workers are contemplating career changes and one- third are exploring new sources of income.
Leaders who seek to elevate trust and demonstrate commitment to employees can reverse such trends. For instance, another Accenture study recently showed that 79 per cent of workers who felt a high level of trust with their employer had intentions to work at the organization for the long term, compared to 44 per cent of workers with low levels of trust. Strengthening commitment to worker well-being and reinvigorating the employee social contract is critical for businesses at this juncture. And this can be enabled, in large part, by embracing the insights presented herein.
In closing
By supporting our workers’ future and well-being through the six dimensions of the Net Better Off framework, companies will position themselves for a stronger future — in both good times and bad. Our research shows that people’s potential can actually be increased when they feel sufficiently supported. And where workers choose to unleash that potential will be determined, in part, by how employers respond during difficult periods.
Thankfully, the future looks much brighter, with vaccines poised to mitigate the COVID-19 crisis. But it is important to follow through on what we have learned during this crisis. By doing so, not only will companies improve work in general, they will also create a ripple effect, as the positive benefits of their efforts are felt in workers’ homes, in their communities and beyond. We urge executives everywhere to seize this moment.
Janet Krstevski is Managing Director and Talent & Organization/human Potential Lead, Canada at Accenture. Sonia Mathur is Managing Director, Talent & Organization/ Human Potential at Accenture. Sarah Berger is North American Research Lead for Talent & Organization/ Human Potential at Accenture.