Discover how work design and role design can help HR leaders overcome challenges presented by organisational shifts in 2023, empowering businesses to adapt and thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape.
In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, HR leaders face an array of challenges brought about by organisational shifts.
In 2023, these challenges become even more complex, with the need for innovative solutions more pressing than ever. Work design emerges as a powerful approach to help HR leaders address these concerns, allowing organisations to adapt and thrive amidst change.
In this blog post, we’ll explore how work design and role design can help HR leaders tackle the challenges presented by the trends outlined in a recent McKinsey article. By delving into these strategies, we’ll uncover how HR leaders can leverage work design to navigate the organisational shifts of 2023 and beyond, empowering businesses to stay ahead of the curve.
The McKinsey article highlights several key trends that are expected to shape the organisational landscape in 2023.
These trends include:
The organisational shifts outlined present HR leaders with several significant challenges. As organisations evolve and adapt to these trends, HR must work to:
These challenges, while complex, can be addressed through the strategic implementation of work design principles, empowering HR leaders to create a workforce that is adaptive, engaged, and primed for success.
Work design is the process of optimising the way work is structured and executed within an organisation. It encompasses aspects such as job crafting, role design, and team collaboration, ensuring that tasks, responsibilities, and goals are aligned with both the organisation’s objectives and employees’ strengths and preferences.
Here’s how work design can help HR leaders tackle the challenges arising from the organisational shifts in 2023:
Work design enables HR leaders to create roles and responsibilities that align with the organisation’s purpose and values, fostering a sense of meaning and engagement among employees.
By optimising work processes and communication channels, work design helps HR leaders create effective remote and hybrid work models that enable employees to collaborate seamlessly across different locations.
Through thoughtful role design, HR leaders can promote diversity and inclusion by crafting positions that accommodate different skill sets, backgrounds, and work preferences, ensuring equal opportunities for all employees.
Work design can support ongoing reskilling and upskilling by identifying skill gaps and designing roles that provide opportunities for employee growth and development.
By promoting a culture of collaboration and adaptability, work design encourages the development of empathetic, emotionally intelligent leaders who can navigate the evolving organisational landscape.
Role design is a critical aspect of work design, as it focuses on creating clear, well-defined job roles that align with organisational goals and employee strengths. By crafting roles that provide employees with a sense of purpose, autonomy, and ownership, HR leaders can foster higher levels of engagement, satisfaction, and productivity, ultimately supporting the organisation’s ability to adapt and thrive amidst ongoing shifts.
To create roles that align with both organisational objectives and individual employee strengths, HR leaders should:
Job crafting allows employees to tailor their roles to better suit their strengths, interests, and goals. HR leaders can support job crafting by:
Work design can help HR leaders build high-performing teams by:
To optimise remote and hybrid work models, HR leaders should:
Work design can help HR leaders boost employee engagement and satisfaction by:
Work design can play a significant role in advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within organisations. To leverage work design for DEI efforts, HR leaders should:
Work design can play a crucial role in facilitating continuous learning and development among employees. To promote ongoing reskilling and upskilling, HR leaders should:
By implementing these work design strategies, HR leaders can effectively address the challenges presented by the organisational shifts of 2023, creating a workforce that is adaptive, engaged, and primed for success in a rapidly changing business landscape.
These strategies not only help organisations navigate the challenges at hand but also ensure long-term success by fostering a strong, resilient, and inclusive workforce.
Datacom collaborated with Beamible and Q5 to create flexible work guidelines that catered to the needs of their employees while maintaining productivity. The Beamible platform helped Datacom identify and address the sources of excessive workloads, leading to significant time and cost savings**.**
Beamible helped a B Lab employee reduce her weekly hours from 60 to 38 without impacting outcomes. The platform enabled the organisation to focus on the right priorities and ensure that work was distributed effectively among team members, resulting in a more sustainable workload for employees**.**
By implementing Beamible’s TeamFlex framework, General Mills removed concerns about returning to the office and achieved the highest engagement on record. The platform allowed the company to design roles and work schedules that catered to employees’ needs while maintaining a focus on business priorities**.**
Beamible is a work design platform that helps organisations optimise their workforce by aligning employee strengths with job requirements, promoting job crafting, and fostering effective collaboration. It offers powerful analytics and reporting features that enable HR leaders to make data-driven decisions and measure the impact of their work design initiatives.
Trello is a project management tool that can be used to facilitate work design by helping teams collaborate effectively, manage tasks, and monitor progress. Its intuitive interface and customisable boards make it easy for employees to visualise their work and track the progress of their projects.
Slack is a communication platform that can support work design by enabling seamless communication and collaboration among remote or hybrid teams. Its channels, direct messaging, and integrations with other tools help teams stay connected and work efficiently, regardless of location.
LinkedIn Learning offers a vast library of online courses, including several that focus on work design principles and best practices. By providing employees with access to these resources, HR leaders can support continuous learning and skill development, fostering a culture of growth and adaptability.
Australian Human Resources Institute (AHRI)
AHRI is Australia’s leading professional association for human resources practitioners, offering a wide range of resources, including training programs, workshops, webinars, and networking events, to help HR professionals stay informed about the latest work design trends and best practices.
AHRI also provides accreditation and certification programs to enhance the skills and credibility of HR professionals. By leveraging AHRI’s resources, HR leaders can gain valuable insights and practical guidance on work design implementation and other HR challenges, fostering a culture of growth and adaptability within their organisations.
Local workshops and seminars
Many universities and professional organisations offer workshops and seminars on work design, job crafting, and related topics. By encouraging employees to attend these events, HR leaders can provide hands-on training and support for their work design initiatives.
The organisational shifts of 2023 present HR leaders with numerous challenges, ranging from remote and hybrid work models to the need for continuous learning and adaptability. By leveraging work design principles and strategies, HR leaders can address these challenges head-on, creating an adaptive and resilient workforce that is well-equipped to navigate the ever-changing business landscape.
Through aligning roles with organisational goals and employee strengths, encouraging job crafting and role customisation, fostering effective team collaboration, supporting remote and hybrid work arrangements, enhancing employee engagement and satisfaction, promoting DEI initiatives, and facilitating continuous learning and development, HR leaders can create a work environment that is both supportive and dynamic.
By taking a proactive approach to work design, HR leaders can not only help their organisations thrive in the face of ongoing change but also set the stage for long-term success by building a workforce that is engaged, diverse, and committed to continuous growth and improvement. In this way, work design serves as a powerful tool for HR leaders to navigate the complexities of the modern workplace and drive meaningful, lasting change within their organisations.
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