The world has changed. The value of work is no longer tied to a body sitting in a chair, but to the contributions, skills, and commitment of experts working from anywhere. It’s time to reframe the way the world sees employment.
Traditional hiring models are outdated for the way companies work today. Internal hiring, freelance platforms, and consulting firms are difficult to manage and time consuming. The market is ripe for companies to embrace an employment environment that supports flexibility and optionality.
Technology plays a big part in this changing landscape. Revenue and IT teams have to be more intertwined in order to compete. That’s why Delegate and our team of expert system administrators are helping customers overcome this hurdle so they can embark on a digital transformation, leverage the best technology, find talent faster, and feel confident with their business systems.
Today, we’re relaunching the Delegate blog to discuss the issues that are shaping how businesses operate in our modern world. Issues like how to bridge the revenue and technology gap, what a reimagined workplace will look like, and how leaders can be both effective and empathetic.
It’s not just theoretical. We’ll share real life stories about how our customers are evolving the way they hire, digitally transforming their industries, and improving their go-to-market strategies. You’ll also hear from people and organizations that are leading the charge in reframing how we work.
Revenue, technology, and speed
Today, all business is technology business. Every department uses systems and applications to get their job done and the number of applications that companies need has skyrocketed. In 2015, organizations used 8 SaaS apps on average. In 2021, they used 110 apps.
Three major changes are in motion. First, sales and marketing departments are increasingly becoming product and technology organizations. Traditional industries must undergo a digital transformation to stay competitive. In order to generate revenue, the entire business needs effective systems and a strong partnership with IT. Delegate is helping these revenue teams build a top down sales model that lets everyone leverage business systems better.
Second, technology ownership has changed. SaaS has democratized systems by allowing teams and functions to take ownership of ready to use applications that require no setup or enablement. Instead of centralized ownership of systems and infrastructure, companies are taking a decentralized approach. These systems still need strong processes and skill sets to run. We’ll examine how we got to our current approach to technology, and how we’ll get to the next stage.
Third, businesses need powerful and complete data analytics to drive revenue so their operations teams can manage systems in line with revenue goals. Instead of IT leading all data management initiatives and systems, marketing leaders need to start reinventing how data can be accessed and used, allowing sales teams to pivot quickly when new data surfaces about their customers, marketing, product, and competitors.
Reframing how we do work
A new generation of workers make up the candidate pool and their expectations around hiring, trust, and remote work are very different from past generations. While older workers have focused more on job stability and knowing that their employer has a strong place in the market, younger workers expect much more.
Top millennial talent values healthy, happy work cultures built on trust. They were hired to do a job, and they want the flexibility to get their work done without rigid rules around office attendance and “being seen.” Flexibility is often more important than salary or benefits for these workers.
According to Deloitte’s Global Millennial survey, 67% of Millennials feel that flexible remote working enables a better work-life balance. But companies are not listening and return-to-office policies are negatively impacting employee experience scores.
Work-related stress and anxiety scores are at their worst yet, dropping 28%, while work-life balance dropped 17% quarter over quarter. Knowledge workers with little to no ability to set their own work hours are 2.6x as likely to start looking for a new job, compared to those with schedule flexibility. It’s worth asking: how did employment come to be this way? Why is there so much resistance to allowing a dispersed, flexible work environment?
Upskilling leadership skills
To adapt to and keep up with this changing paradigm of work, leaders have to take feedback on equity, technology, and empathy seriously. Traditional employers who expect employees to all work the same way, in the office, and to follow rigid rules, are going to see their best talent walking out the door.
Empathy is the leadership skill most strongly and consistently linked to performance. When it comes to diversity, equity, and inclusion, leaders must treat this as a mandatory business function, not a nice-to-have that has nothing to do with their day to day work. When done right, it drives better business results and serves as a competitive advantage. Changing the approach to empathy and management isn’t going to be easy for everyone. But it’s possible for leaders to be more compassionate and thrive individually as well as drive results for your business.
If you, as a leader, think that you’re already open to hearing feedback and that you increased your empathy for employees over the Pandemic, you might be disappointed to hear that many employees say they aren’t seeing it. Referred to as the leadership compassion gap, nearly 7 in 10 leaders believe they’ve been managing the Pandemic in a compassionate manner, while the majority of employees disagree.
But we get it, management is really hard. Today’s leaders must set expectations for their board and executive teams, hit revenue targets, and plan out their own career journey up the ladder. It’s important to combine human first performance management practices for your employees with strategic leadership training.
So instead of following rigid rules and hierarchical practices, focus on getting shit done through speed and efficiency instead of set-in-stone processes. Assume that your employees are trustworthy, and can handle flexible remote work, until they prove otherwise.
Pioneers riding the new wave
Trailblazers are embracing a new way to work–and we’re spotlighting how they’re building their careers and thriving in a changing work landscape. Collaboration across deep talent pools and between companies can help individuals thrive by working on what they love, while also delivering top value to their customers.
Pioneering companies are also embracing the new world of work. Through customer, vendor, and personal stories, we’ll show how flexible and efficient processes and practices can help facilitate successful working relationships between employees and employers. By breaking out of traditional work models, these businesses are getting the most out of their talent pool.
Let’s get started
Technology, distributed workforces, and new hiring models are fueling big changes in the way people and businesses approach the idea of work. Leaders will need to learn new management skills so they can deliver on their revenue promises, while also creating a workplace where employees can prosper.
If you’d like to learn more about how Delegate can help your business, please reach out to us. We’re publishing new articles every month, so subscribe to our blog and newsletter below to stay up to date on the evolution of work.