CHIEF PEOPLE OFFICERS SET TO BECOME BOTH GUARDIANS OF CHANGE AND CULTURE AS WELL DATA SCIENTISTS

The duality of new skills and roles required of CPOs

Understanding data and people analytics has emerged as a crucial competency for people management executives, with 90% of respondents saying that this is an important skill over the next five years. However, when executives imagined the future in twenty years instead of five, they put a higher priority on human skills. There was a 5.4% increase in the number of executives who agreed that creativity is very or extremely important, and a 6.2% decrease in the number of executives who agreed that understanding data and people analytics is very or extremely important.

This demonstrates a shift away from a more traditional “people manager” role to one that involves a duality, with a focus on tech and data on the one hand, and fundamentally human aspects, such as leading people through change and maintaining a positive company culture, on the other.

The importance of emotions at work

For decades, emotions were considered a factor that interferes with work accomplishment, but the study showed that emotions matter for improved productivity especially through the pandemic. The role of the CPO is changing to focus more on people and socialemotional competencies.

The study revealed that many companies neglect to measure emotions and their effects, and companies use strategies to try and improve emotions surprisingly rarely, given their importance.

Unpacking myths about returnships

At a time of unprecedented turnover and labour shortages, less than one-third of executives believe that programs that reintegrate caregivers back into the workforce benefit the returner.

The survey finds that while 41% of executives see that returnship schemes – programmes that offer support to those returning to work - have a great deal of positive societal impact, less than 37% said that returnships have many benefits for the organisation, while only 30% said that returnships benefit the actual returner.

This comes as the world continues to grapple with the gender inequalities compounded by the pandemic, with millions of women around the world leaving the workforce. 69% of executives in the survey said that their company offered programs to help integrate mothers back into the workforce, but only 40.1% (a 28.8% drop) said that they offer similar support to workers returning after caring for adult dependents or other. This demonstrates a need to unpack some myths about returnships: namely that they promote societal good, but do not end up benefitting the job seeker or the company that hosts the program.

Gordan Landen, CHRO, The Adecco Group, said: “The pandemic has made the human challenges that lie ahead in the world of work even more urgent to tackle. With the impetus to reflect on and plan for these challenges comes a powerful opportunity to reshape the world of work to one that is more human-oriented, resilient, and inclusive in the decades ahead. As world leaders think about strategies for creating a positive new normal, people management executives must play a crucial role in creating a better world of work for companies and their most important resource – their people.”

Professor Dr. Jochen Menges, Chair of Human Resource Management and Leadership and Director of the Center for Leadership in the Future of Work, University of Zurich, said: “The survey shows that executives recognize how important employees ‘emotions are for productivity, performance, and innovation. Yet it also indicates that executives lack solutions for shaping the emotions that pervade their business in a way that lifts employees up to be, do, and feel their best at work. We need more research to fuel HR innovation, develop such solutions and shape the future of work in a way that elevates people.”